Platinuming this game made me remember how frustrating the base game was. Pros: the graphics and gameplay are a step up from AC2, there were mechanics in the gameplay that were new to the series that made the side content more engaging and plentiful, there were more gadgets to play with, the missions themselves were more varied, and full sync missions were a good idea on paper and ended up being implemented better later on in the series. Cons: the objectives were extremely restrictive, the full sync was far too demanding and restrictive for something that still had the awkward movement of the first two games, and the story ended up feeling like a filler arc between 2 and Revelations. Overall, I would've rated it 3.5 but the DaVinci Disappearance ended up being so much better than the main story that this game gets a 4 out of 5.