Right, I completed the game a few hours ago after doing everything except collecting flags, killing templars and completing a few Xbox Achievements (which are stupid anyway).
I must say that I really liked the game, I loved the story (which I will not go into since I will try to not spoil anything for anyone) and I think a follow-up has a huge potential. The drunks and beggars were there for a reason, you're supposed to deal with them. Anyhow, I did get annoyed with the fact that the drunks only picked a fight with me, and no one else in the city.
The controls were great although the game did not really make a good job explaining them by itself, they were quite easy to learn anyhow.
One thing that got annoying after a while was that the investigation game play was a tad too repetitive, after a few assassinations; climbing towers and murdering guards became somewhat dull, the unique and huge streets diminished the feeling of doing the same thing over and over again, though, and since pickpocketing, interrogation and eavesdropping added new story elements they never really got dull, for me at least.
Another thing that annoyed me was the area called "The Kingdom". It was too big and too pointless if you do not care about collecting every flag and every templar. They could have added some quests or perhaps even a target to that area which was pretty well designed.
The AI was a bit too stupid, if you break line of sight and then hide, fine, they lose you. I can buy that even if it was a bit silly some times, but if you then reveal yourself and basically walk forward to pat them on the shoulder before they are gone again, they do not have the slightest problem with that, they sort of have a goldfish memory.
The graphics and animations were impressive, sometimes you found a glitch with objects being partially ethereal but that is to be expected of any game with detailed animations really.
In conclusion this is probably the best game I have played this year, I would recommend it to everyone. It has it's flaws like most games but I have more or less enjoyed the 25 - 30 hours I spent in "The Animus".