Assassin's Creed Identity

Assassin's Creed Identity is a Free to Play mobile game released in 2015 for iOS. The best way I can describe it as "imagine the maps and gameplay of AC1 and 2 was scaled down to work on a touchscreen". That sounds very impressive and it technically it is. But Identity inherits many of the same problems as those games and along with a whole new set of problems, makes it a tough game to recommend despite its accomplishments. If you love the Italy and Gameplay of AC2 or 3D Action Games on mobile and are cool with occasionally playing small bite-sized missions of it on your phone, you may want to consider this game. Everyone else may want to pass on this

With introductions out of the way, let's get started.


The Controls:
Translating a Controller to a Touchscreen is a challenge even in the best of times. But Identity does a decent job. You can move by using a virtual stick or by tapping where you want to go. This works but the stick is a little inaccurate and tapping sometimes has your character take an odd path (for example, let's say I want to jump across a rooftop to another. I tap on the target rooftop and my guy runs to the side, drops down and then starts climbing up around the other building to get up). I recommend alternating between the 2.

You have a virtual button on the side for your movement options. Namely, walk and run. Walk lets you stealth more and run lets you parkour and climb. Simple enough but I wish fast walk from the main games was available because walk is too slow.

You have another button that brings up a wheel that uses an ability you can select like Eagle Vision, A powerful Sweep, throwing knives, throwing bombs, throwing coins, whistling etc. Abilities are restricted to specific classes and must be unlocked.

Finally, you have an "interact" button that comes up when you can interact with something in the environment. It lets you assassinate, talk to people, leap of faith, hide in a hiding spot, loot chests, attack in a fight etc.

I've heard a Gamepad addresses most problems but I haven't tested it out.

Now let's talk about the gameplay.

Stealth carries the same problems as AC1-2. Namely, movement is stiff and kinda unnatural. Unlike later games that added proper crouching and cover mechanics to make stealth intuitive, streamlined, fast and open more options you have to awkwardly walk past enemies you wish to sneak past and hope it works out. Enemies will spot you pretty easily and react quickly.

Hiding Spots return. And I feel their shallowness is more excusable here. You can't hire groups to follow you but monks have a path you can hide in and Courtesans can be sent to distract guards.

Combat is a chore and worse than AC1-2. You have strikes and your abilities and can instakill as you build up an adrenaline meter but blocking requires you hold the attack button. You can't exit a fight if you've exited previously with a certain timeframe.. There is no real counter, parry or dodge options. So if you get surrounded, you will have a bad time. On the plus side, at least it incentivizes Stealth better than AC1-2 ever did.

Progression:
Completing missions gives you money and equipment you can use to upgrade your character by equipping gear, buying abilities, making new gear etc. There is a forging system allowing you to combine pieces of gear to roll for a better piece. You can hire other players' assassins to help you out in a mission. Once you beat the campaign, you have to play contracts to unlock higher level of contracts.

Presentation:
The environments are taken straight from the main game, as is the music and sound effects. So the game looks really good, almost like an early PS3 title. Animations are less detailed versions of the main games but they still look really good and convincing. Easily this game is nice for showing off your device to others.

There are no voices. Which I'm fine with. The game's already more than 2GBs as is which is really big for mobile standards and voices can often double the number.


The Story:
Identity starts with a campaign in Italy consisting of 10 missions. You play as an Assassin working on the sidelines of the main events of AC2 and Brotherhood and helping the team out.

But the actual story isn't all that interesting. Mostly because it's mostly told in the loading screen of the mission you are undertaking and the codex entries once you complete the mission. Seriously, the game could completely repackage most of these missions as the contextless Contract Missions and little would change. There are some that are more substantial with multiple phases, and characters interacting (though the narrative behind it only gets shown in the codex).

Now, normally I'd be unconcerned for games like this that lack a full-on story. This is a F2P Mobile game that's meant to be replayed a lot in chunks, these aren't exactly the Witcher 3. But I feel there should have been more of an effort to add to the narrative here. You already have Contracts that are divorced from a story and are already trying to make one here. Having a good hook here would keep more players and make them more willing to buy future story packs and campaigns. At the very least it would make "one and done" playthroughs more interesting.


There is a 2nd campaign in Forli that's said to have 4 story missions and 2 side activities but I don't feel inclined to spent $2.75 for it.

There is no Modern Day Section (which is normal for Assassin's Creed Spinoffs). I never really enjoyed these segments in the main games but I can imagine Identiy having some optional minigames to contextualize decrypting stuff as its Modern Day. Could be a nice change of pace. In any case, it's not a huge loss, if at all.


-Missions
Anyway, In addition to the story mode, there is a contracts mode that as said earlier has contextless missions (I do wish they had more flavour text like the Brotherhood missions in the main games). The game offers you a choice of 3 missions at a time. My problems with the missions is that they are pretty much reskins. Most are pretty much go to a place and press the interact button. I know that sounds broad and can apply to any game but hear me out. one mission type is called "loot". Here you must navigate an area and find a chest and loot it by pressing the interact button. Another mission is "courier" where you must find an NPC wandering around and interact with them to give them a letter. Another is assassination where you must find an NPC wandering around and interact with them to kill them. You see the problem? of these mission types, the only differences are Loot doesn't have the target move. And Assassination lets you air kill the target. You are doing the same thing every mission. You go the target and press the interact button (other missions like tailing and escorting are as slow and dull as they sound). I wouldn't mind this as much but the game tries to present it as a choice. I feel there are ways to improve the variety through minimal changes.

Take the PS2 GTA Games. You have Taxi missions where you must pick up a single passenger and drop them off at a single destination as fast as possible. Ambulance Missions where there are lots of passengers all over the place and you can only carry 3 max at a time. You must plot the most efficient route as possible to pick up and drop patients to the Hospital under constraints. You have Pizza Delivery Missions where you must drive a scooter to a spot and throw a pizza through a hoop. You can only carry a finite amount of pizzas at a time so bad throws require you to eventually go back and restock.

You see my point? Even though fundamentally, you just drive from point A to Point B, the rules and conditions make it more interesting and make the separate missions feel distinct. I feel these could be applied to Identity. For example, the way it is currently is could offer the player an easy option (just find and interact with a target). But Players could choose a Moderate challenge where they are dropped in a city and need to race between checkpoints in the most efficient way possible and/or have to pick up flags and drop them off while planning the most efficient route. Another mission type could be you need to be hidden in crowds on the street and proceed to a point and you have 20 seconds of grace when not hidden so you need to determine when to break cover to climb over a rooftop or obstacles and if you can get back to cover in time.

A possible hard option could be they need to analyze the routes of 2 NPCs based on vague info and assassinate the right one. Or use cryptic info to tell which chest to loot. NPC animations and text files are already in the game so it should be possible without adding a lot of content. All these ideas would work nicely with the parkour gameplay of Identity.

-F2P-ness

Not too bad for just the story missions. There aren't many ads. You can buy some gear and missions with real money. But most of the contracts can be bought through grinding out contracts. Said "post-game" requires a ton of grinding to even get anything and only unlocks more stuff to grind. I just played it in short bursts while listening to podcasts and Youtube Videos (as an aside, I normally listen to topics related to the game I'm playing. Like the Silph Radio Podcast when playing Pokemon. WrestleSplania when playing Wrestling games etc. Most Assassin's Creed Youtubers and the like aren't the most ideal. They're almost always huge Ezio Fanboys and pretty huge assholes on Twitter to people who don't share their views. Not naming any names. I just ended up listening to general history podcasts instead) and I recommend you do the same. You'll get bored fast on long sessions.

-Conclusion

Identity is a fun time-waster when you want something sorta intense for a short while. It's technically amazing but unremarkable otherwise. Still, it translates the Assassin's Creed Experience to Mobile in a decent way which makes it unique amongst other open-world games on the platform. But I'd rank those games, like the 3D GTA games, as better purchases given their increased variety and narratives. Hardcore fans may get a kick out of the in-game codex that references events of AC2 and Brotherhood but most players are likely to stop caring soon. It's not my favourite AC game on Mobile (well technically it has to be now since Altair's Chronicles has been removed from the App Store) but it's fun. I'd love to see a major update or sequel to this game

If I had to rank this game among all Handheld AC games (including those on Switch), I'd go 3, Rogue. 4, Liberation, Altair's Chronicles, Bloodlines, Identity, Discovery, Pirates, Rebellion.

I may do a look at Altair's Chronicles and Discovery Next. I quite enjoyed AC and would love to see more games like them. I hear the Chronicles Spinoffs might be similar but I haven't played them.