Great idea, bad implementation.

The graphics are beautiful and the interface is fairly easy to master without a game pad. The main adventure is short with more to come and fills in the time being as we wait for more content by running contract missions. The missions are interesting, but with few locations and few mission types and variations, becomes boring. There are two major issues in the game.

1. The game requires an internet connection to an overloaded server. Some would object to requiring a server connection, but it is far worse that it connects to an slow, overloaded server. The game will hang while it waits to connect after each “event”. Once you get a mission started it does not hang again until you complete the mission. So this is a saving grace, but can hang on recording your victory and issue your rewards. Most of the time if you just let it sit there and play spinning beachball, it will resolve itself. Sometimes after several minutes it is better to kill the app and restart everything. I also find that it has no effect on the hangs if my internet connection is fast or slow, since it appears to be on their side. It would be nice if it queued up server requests and allowed them to be resolved at a latter date and time.

2. The game crashes during game play. This is sometimes rare, (1 out of 20 missions) and other days frustrating (1 out of 4 missions). I have an iPad Air 1, so perhaps it is memory related and others get better mileage than me.

There are a few minor issues with the interface that makes races frustrating when your character decides to not do as intended. I suspect that a game pad might help this since sometimes the quirk is that my “controlling” or “viewing” finger slides off the edge of the screen or lands on top of an action button.

I really would love to love this game, but it is not there yet.

DrDoog about Assassin's Creed Identity