Wow. I'd be really ticked off if I had paid full price for this. I actually had heard it's decent at what it is (think some of the negativeness was because it wasn't a real Assassin's Creed game but instead a ship battling game). Almost was going to bite at $1.99 but not after hearing this.
Ew. I actually enjoyed the ship battling in IB style combat and the rich visuals on this one. Well, i just hope they didnt tweak the balance at all, that way IAPs would affect it at all and will be more like a soft cheat. But if they lowered the old currency gathering and the increased the difficulty, that would be crappy.
Great game, I wasn't sure about getting it because of the IAPs but you don't need to get them. I'm half way through it and haven't needed to buy anything. Graphics are great and the game play is pretty cool, a little repetitive. Sort of like Assassins Creed but on the water and not in a city