I contacted Already21 to see if he wanted people to review. I got this ID at a discounted price during the Boob Luge promo but I will be reviewing it as though I bought it full price for instate use. Keep in mind that this is a highly critical review and I will be pointing out even minuscule flaws.

Communication: [10/10]

Responded in less than 24 hours every time, can’t ask for much more. Was pretty helpful too, although there weren’t many issues I needed help with.

Cost: [7/10]

I believe this ID [https://already21.com/product/illinois-id/] is normally $100 which is a great deal if you’re using it OOS because flaws will be hard to recognize, but instate this is much more difficult to pass. You’ll probably only be able to use this at liquor stores and chill bars until Already21 fixes the major issues.

Shipping: [10/10]

From payment to mailbox it took 12 days, less than the advertised 14. I’m really impressed with his turnaround considering this order was during the promo.

Stealth: [7/10]

Minimal domestic stealth, will get past people that don’t open it. Will not get past parents if they check your mail.

Template: [6/10]

I won’t be going over much of what is right, just assume that anything I don’t point out here is correct.

-The seal

The Illinois state seal is in the middle of the O21 ID and is probably the hardest part of the template to master. Neither A21 nor Idhurry have been able to do the eagle with proper detail. The eagle’s wings have a strange circular line pattern on them and the shield and scrolls it is supposed to be holding are hard to make out. It almost looks like there’s just an outline of the eagle and the objects it’s holding that was filled in by a bunch of lines.

-The circle design

This is referring to the blue circle design surrounding the seal. The design looks a bit messier than my real and the lines look a bit blurrier. The general idea looks right but the outermost part with cornstalk like shapes doesn’t look exactly correct. In many places where there is supposed to be extreme detail, it just comes out as a bunch of lines with no apparent pattern.

-The red ribbon

Surrounding the circle design is a red ribbon pattern with microtext inside. I can make out what the microtext says on my U21 with my naked eye, but on the fake it is harder to read even with a magnifying glass. The ribbon is more faint on the fake and should be a little crisper and darker.

-Filler lines

On parts of the ID where there is no design, the space is filled with repeating blue lines. These lines are very easy to make out on my U21 and are pretty good on the fake, but they could be a little more blue and a little cleaner. I’d also like to mention in this section that ILLINOIS at the top and DRIVER’S LICENSE should be a darker shade of red.

-Microtext on photo

On my U21 there is microtext and lines covering my entire photo. On the real ID this is not the case. Instead, the micro stops at the photo in some parts and covers it partially in others. You can see on the pictures that it lacks any actual text on top of my face.

-Lincoln

Lincoln lacks a lot of detail on the fake. It looks like his entire body was covered with repeating lines and parts of his suit were neglected. You can’t see his collar very well or his shirt underneath his jacket. His face looks good except his eyes are a little blurry. Another thing is that he cuts off the circle design with this weird white aura he has to his left. There is a small amount of white outline on the U21 but not as much as what the fake shows.

-The backside/barcodes

Both the 1D and 2D barcodes look chunkier than they should. The lines are more blocky and less detailed (see photos) than they should be on the 1D and the 2D looks a bit too chunky as well. The bottom portion that depicts the capitol building looks really good and the ribbon is perfect up until it gets close to the edges of the ID. The ribbon just kind of awkwardly cuts off on the left side, yet fades properly on the right. The fact that it is asymmetrical just makes the ID look wrong overall. I’d be happier with it cutting off on both sides than having only one side fade out.

Other than that, the text on the back should all be bolded except for the first two lines in the upper left. Already21 has some text bolded while other text isnt. He does have the “www.CYBERDRIVEILLINOIS.com” part right though.

-Overall feel of the ID

The feel of the laminates is definitely too matte. On a scale of 1-10, 1 being gloss and 10 being completely matte, this ID falls around a 6-7 when an IL should be like a 4-5. I’ve attached an audio file of me running my fingernail over the ID, and as you can tell the fake produces a more distinct scraping sound (about halfway through is the fake). For reference, Uber’s MO falls around a 7-8 on this scale. Hopefully A21 can switch his laminates as I know neither Already21 nor IDH have found the right IL lams.

One last minor thing I found was that there should be a dash in between the feet and inches on the height. All other text on the ID Already21has correct, which is nice to see because I feel like that can be a dead giveaway.

Photoshop: [8/10]

Ear shadows look good but could be darker and should extend farther down my face. Even though they are not big enough, they look very natural. The background is still a little bit off I know that Already21 changed the background in this batch. Should be more of a sea blue. Not a huge deal though, you could argue that this varies from DMV to DMV.

Holograms/OVI: [7/10]

The OVI is a definite flaw on this ID. I had trouble seeing the OVI in the parts where it is over a more white background and there are parts of the OVI design that are incorrect. The font that says ILLINOIS is too small and possibly the wrong font altogether. Also, it might just be me but some of the buildings in the skyline look a little too skinny. The reason I’m giving this a 7 is because of the problems with visibility, it just doesn’t have that gleam to it like the real OVI does.

The perfs on the ID are slightly too small and some holes let more light in than others. Overall placement of perfs in the shape of the state is close enough to real. I am not including pictures of the OVI because it is too difficult to capture. You’ll be able to see the left portion of the OVI in the scans above.

UV: [7/10]

UV on the front of the nIL ID is very difficult, but Already21 really nailed that part. The top hat on Lincoln is correctly placed (I know A21 had problems with this in the past). UV on the back is wrong in a couple areas. On the back the outline of my head is hardly visible, let alone my facial features. There are also no ear shadows on the photo printed in UV when there should be. Additionally, the birthdate numbers are filled in (for example a 0 just looks like a solid UV oval). Also, I don’t think the full year should be written out, rather just the last two digits. The reason this is a 7 and not lower is that on my real ID the UV of my face is kind of hard to make out, so part of it might just be my UV light.

Scanning: [10/10]

Yep.

Signature: [3/10]

Definitely the weak point of the ID. Already21 has had problems in the past with small signatures and was supposed to have fixed them in this promo batch, but my signature turned out very small. Not only that, my signature actually turned out noticeably gray. I’ve never seen a signature on an ID that was anything other than stark black so this could really hurt the IDs performance. This might even be reprint worthy but I doubt it.

Conclusion: [7/10]

Overall, the ID is actually pretty solid. I was very critical in pointing out the flaws in this ID aside from the signature, so don’t get the impression that this template is trash, you can tell A21 spent a lot of time perfecting the prominent parts of the ID. Hopefully he can get the signature issue fixed soon because it really hurts the ID. I’m not sure how comfortable I feel using this because of the signature and overall feel but I’m sure it’ll do just fine for beer runs. I’d like to thank A21 for giving me a chance to do my first real review. Let me know if there are any pictures you’d like me to add.