Obviously there's some story progression but I'm wondering if mechanically speaking there is ever anything other than puzzle solving in the Desmond levels.

Pretty sure its all First Person Block Spawner stuff. I personally don't mind it, but I did find the glyph puzzles in the previous games to be more interesting.

Yes all of them are just the block puzzles, its really more of a backdrop for the story elements that they tell you while you solve the puzzles.

Cool, thanks for the confirmation. I'm not really keen on spatial puzzle solving, and the story hasn't really been grabbing me

see if you can find video on you tube so you can concentrate on what he's saying instead of being frustrated getting warped back to the beginning of a map.

@137: I usually just stop and listen.

THe puzzles are neat but are very simple, just mashing out blocks repeatedly.

I thought the levels themselves were fucking awesome - it was like Mirror's Edge and Portal made sweet, sweet love.
 
The gameplay, not so much. The bridge-spawning stuff was awful, the camera controls felt... I don't really know how to put it, but it felt unresponsive, clumsy and outdated, if that makes any sense. There would be times where you'd have to look up to place a bridge, but you wouldn't be able to see where you were placing it.

Yeah, definitely a pretty disappointing addition to the game that didn't really add much both game play or story wise.