There are a lot of bad ideas shoved into ACR that could have been cut.
There was only one bad idea, and that was the Tower Defense. And it was only bad because it didn't fit, not because there was anything really fundamentally wrong with it.
Everything else just added to the gameplay, The hookblade made traversal quicker, which at this point is a huge bonus since we've been parkouring it up for a while now. Bombs added a new approach to eliminating, confusing, and disposing of enemies with a multitude of different ingredients.
See, this is what I absolute love about the AC series (at least with recent entrances): you are absolutely never pigeon-holed into approaching something a certain way. Sure, there's follow missions, and in order to get 100% sync you might have to do "x" or not do "y." But at the end of the day, the game gives you complete free will on how you will approach a situation, and gives you a vast arsenal on how to do it. People argue that it eliminates a lot of challenge to the game, and I'd argue back that AC games were never challenging to begin with (other than the occasional tomb timed crap). I always felt the series was more about the experience than the legitimate challenge, and the challenge being in the bonus stuff (100% sync, etc.).
There's too many games that introduce a new mechanic, then force it upon you with no choice but to use it, whether you like it or not. AC is all about introducing new weapons to your arsenal, and telling you "have fun." To me, that's the sheer brilliance of the series. And Revelations gameplay is the culmination of that.
Also, horses sucked, too. The more I play Revelations, the more I look down on Brotherhood. When I first played it, I'd probably put it in my top 20 games of all time.
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TheRock ~ Slow dramatic zoom-pan. Doesn't phase the hooded man.