Are there towers?
There are sync point(s) in each city, which principally act as fast travel points.
Are the weapons meaningless?
There are certain weapon affixes that'll you'll find you like much better than others. That said, I like most of the different KINDS of weapons, including 2 or 3 different kinds of bows and most of the different styles of melee weapon. The leveling system in this game is such that (goofy as it is from a story perspective) a stealth neckstab, especially on a same or higher-level enemy, is NOT necessarily an instant kill.
Is the story better?
It's not amazing, but Bayek is genuinely likable, which helps a lot. It's a neat setting, too.
Have they shaken up the core gameplay?
It's a lot more about traversal now, as per the increased focus on open world and traveling back and forth between areas. That and assailing enemy camps of varying sizes to merc their commanders and steal their loot to search for new weapons and armor. Combat is also arguably more of a focus, which is generally good since I feel like they did a good job with the combat in this one.
Are the side-quests interesting?
They come in a lot more flavors and sizes. Everything from the random "clear out this alligator den" you might find when crossing a tributary to the more fully-fleshed "help this person and gain some insight into this area and maybe the boss you're after also" style of mission you're alluding to. I think a decent number of the side quests do a good job enhancing the characters and setting, and most are fun to play. Even the bad ones aren't too tedious.
Hope this helps. I haven't gone back in for the DLC yet (despite owning it), but I'd say the game gets somewhere around an 8 to 8.5 from me. I enjoyed it more than I expected to, given a not entirely dissimilar history to yours with the AC series. It's not entirely transformative, but it makes a lot of smart changes and dispenses with a lot of the crappier trappings the series has held on to since the days of Desmond Miles.
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