Nah, jumping is very easy, at least I suppose it'll be like AC 1 in that respect. Basically you just hold one button and the toon will do all kind of cinematic jumps and swings on your screen.
During fights you do need a bit of timing - the best way to kill people in the first game was to counter their strikes. Usually that would yield a parry and a finishing blow.
If you want to you can have a test-drive next time you're over. You have to try out AoC as well, anyway.
One of the main attractions for me is that they have this knack of picking historical places/times that interest me. First the crusades, now medieval/renaissance Italy.