Scaling down was not enough. In fact, the scaling done was not enough.
Yes, now we, technically, have one big main city, and it does have more details than previous 3 games, which makes it feel more alive, but there are still other places outside the city, that are less so. Let alone huge "wilderness" area with just desert. It makes sense that it's a desert, yes, but it is largely unnecessary. The side-quests and collectibles available are not that interesting and they do not affect gameplay that much (which is both good and bad, depending on how you look at it), so they could have just used similar approach from early games in the series (and the end of this one, in fact) to just "transfer" you places through loading screens or cutscenes.
It did get closer to the feel of the original game, but it's mostly through the overall aesthetics (due to the setting), the more human-like climbing and combat system which is more reliant on parrying than ever (in my opinion). While parkour was, definitely, a huge part of the 1st game's success, it was not the only thing that made it good, though. It also had a good story.
This one... I think it misses the mark, even though it had quite a few opportunities to be good. I could not help but compare Basim to Altair, since they start with kind of similar disposition, at least towards the Brotherhood and its importance in their lives. But big difference is that with Altair you saw, how every mission was changing his perception and was instilling doubts into him. With Basim we are told that he has doubts, but there is really very little ground for those except for when he reaches his last mark.
There is no believable progression for our protagonist, and no foreshadowing clues to suggest his importance. But while that could have been kind of a plot device (if handled slightly differently in the end), they way they depict his relationships with other characters is... Well, it's non-existent. At all. Again, there are some phrases here and there, that suggest that he has certain feelings towards various characters, that are based on their extensive interactions in the past, but those feelings are not seen. There are no little gestures or maybe jokes or anything like that. Ok, there are some but they fall flat because of how out of place, forced and not believable they are.
As such, definitely to buy this for a good story. For the gameplay... Maybe at a discount? Scaling down helped here a lot, missions can be quite interesting in terms of your approach, although I did feel like I had illusion of choice, rather than actual choice, but it was fine. Human-like climbing also is beneficial in my mind. It's not like it makes things that more difficult, but I did have moments, where I had to think a bit more, and I think it does help with level design in general, too.
