Someone took a look at all the fun parkour and combat stuff in the first game and said "yes, what a sequel needs is a major focus on a branching narrative straight out of 2007 and all the fun stuff to be locked behind skill trees with not one, but two different currencies required to unlock them".

It does finally get back to the standard set by the original game but only in the final third of the game and honestly, I don't blame you if you sack this off many hours before you get anywhere near that. The juice just ain't worth the squeeze.