I could talk about Unity and its faults for days, but here's a quick synopsis.
The story is plain and generic, being done time and time again in previous AC games. I mean really, is it that hard to think up a different storyline other then boy meets girl, boy gets convicted, girl does, boy avenges her?
Combat is designed poorly. You have enough health to take out everything, but the weapon do such piss poor damage it's impractical. It's
Clunky, unimagined, and generally bad.
Stealth is awkward, pressing a to hide behind objects pisses you off more then it helps, and the detection system makes absolutely no sense.
Movement is terrible, taking away the one button you'd think is essential, the ability to shove people out of your way. For a game that out so much emphasis on the crowds they could generate, they made them more of an inconvenience. And wall climbing? Hah, have fun trying to get through that window.
I understand where you are coming from with what you stated but I do believe the combat is a bit refreshing and the reason for low damage is to make upgrading your weapons mean something. Theres a big differents to the damage of the top weapons and bottom weapons in the weapons list. I just upgraded my beginner sword to the 26000 £ sword and it cuts through enemys like butter.
Climbing can be broken at times but I really enjoy the new parkour up and down system. It really helps me to put arno where I want him to be better then the games before but it does have its bad moments like when for some strange reason you can't climb to the next ledge but after taking your finger off the stick and trying again it works.