The Assassin’s Creed series has seen its fair share of handheld and mobile spin-offs, including several DS and PSP games as well as Assassin’s Creed: Pirates. However, the franchise enter new territory this month — or rather, it takes on a new identity: an action-RPG.
The iOS game, Assassin’s Creed Identity, actually isn’t technically a brand-new release. It had a “soft launch” almost a year and a half ago in Australia and New Zealand, and was originally planned for a broader release last year. Curiously, the video accompanying Ubisoft’s news still bears the words “Announce Trailer.” It has all the hallmarks of a mobile game trailer, including a player walking through a tunnel, wearing an Assassin’s Creed hoodie as he plays the game on his phone.
“To complete their mission, players will have to navigate through various cities of the Italian Renaissance — and some of the most famous landmarks — with a variety of control options, including touch-to-move, dual virtual sticks, or with a gamepad,” says Ubisoft’s Giancarlo Varanini.
A video from way back in September of 2014 shows the game in action, with the mentioned virtual thumsticks on-screen for both movement and camera control. Combat has been understandably streamlined for the limited control options, but they appear surprisingly intuitive. Simply tapping a skull icon — at least in this early build — assassinates a target, and you alternate between tapping and holding your finger against the screen to engage in open combat.
This is the second recent Ubisoft game to skip traditional consoles and PC in favor of mobile devices. Rayman Adventures, obstensibly a follow-up to the console game Rayman Legends, released on mobile devices and Apple TV. While Assassin’s Creed Identity seems to be a good fit for the Apple TV, the announcement does not indicate that it will ever come to the device.
Assassin’s Creed Identity arrives on iOS on February 25. It requires at least an iPhone 5 or iPad 3, as well as iOS 7.
