When Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was first announced earlier this year I had two gut reactions. My first reaction was; “Yes – Assassin’s Creed set in the Caribbean with ship combat and open world pirate gameplay – I want this“. My second reaction was doubt; “Another numbered sequel already, after a semi-lukewarm reaction of Assassin’s Creed III?” This left me incredibly interested and anxious to get my hands on Black Flag.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag ditches Desmond Miles’ story line as his narrative concluded with Assassin’s Creed III and Ubisoft did not introduce a new ‘real world‘ protagonist who battles the Templar operated Abstergo Industries which was sort of disappointing to me on first thought but Ubi did well to keep some of this theme alive. Black Flag sets the player as a silent protagonist in first person view as he joins Abstergo Entertainment, the entertainment studio spin-off of Abstergo. Abstergo Entertainment’s primary product is a gaming console version of the Animus, known as Animus Omega, which is sold on a worldwide scale. Yes, Ubisoft is sort of poking fun of itself here and it is great.
However, if you don’t want to spend time in Abstergo and dig into the Easter egg filled backstory of the real world portion of the game, you don’t have to. Black Flag does a good job of separating the two universes and make the real world portions optional. When Assassin’s Creed IV starts, players are thrown right into the action which centers around Edward Kenway who his father to Haytham Kenway of the Templar Order in Assassin’s Creed III. Edward is a privateer turned pirate who slips into the Assassin’s Brotherhood but is a master of playing sides. Assassin’s Creed IV is not quite as black and white as some of the previous games as the story unfolds.
Black Flag is set in the beautiful lush environments of the Caribbean Islands that resemble Nassau, Jamaica, Havana and the south of Florida among many more explorable locations which makes it a very nice change of pace for the series. Speaking of pace, Black Flag gets players right into the action and opens up the massive map to players within the first hour or so. Edward can sail across the ocean and see his ship, the upgradeable Jack Daw, sail off into the horizon as his crew sings pirate themed songs, which are also well represented in the taverns across the world. Assassin’s Creed IV’s presentation is pretty special. The game is a technical feat on the current generation consoles filled with detail on a large scale.I was truly impressed how much performance Ubisoft was able to squeeze out of the PS3 and Xbox 360 hardware (We will review the PS4 version at release).
Edward Kenway is a bit of a jerk and in it for the money, the power and the early retirement as opposed to the honor and integrity of the Assassins. This is fine by me to be honest. I enjoyed being able to simply be a pirate and captain of the Jack Daw, doing piratey things. Yarrr. The reason for that is simple, this is the best part of the game. Assassin’s Creed IV takes of the shackles of games past and employs a free form attitude that does the game good. Black Flag allows the game to flow and the narrative isn’t driven home as much as previous games and can be explored at the players leisure.
While Edward Kenway is the main protagonist and surrounded by equally great pirates like Black Beard, the other main character in the game his the famous ship of his, the Jack Daw. Edward can upgrade this ship and take it across the vast seas while admiring and taking advantage of the modifications made to the ship which allow for taking more damage and so on. The same way the ship can be upgraded, so can the crew along with being able to recruit new members to his crew and fleet. Black Flag is truly a pirate game with the Assassin’s narrative sprinkled throughout.
The naval combat is an evolution from Assassin’s Creed III and an improvement on top of that. The battles on the ocean feel fantastic and are easily one of the best parts of the game and the flagship of the experience – pun intended. Edward can chose to completely annihilate other ships or wear them down with the ultimate goal to board and take them over to gather resources. Since you spend a lot of time on the sea in this loading free open world pirate adventure, it is quite nice to have enjoyable naval battle, albeit the fact that they can become somewhat repetitive in the later parts of the game, since you are doing it so much.
Apart from hanging out with grimy pirates on rat infested Nassau or lush Kingston, Edward will still spend quite a bit of time free running, taking over outpost in the form of forts to unlock new locations on the map, stabbing, stealing and assassinating many a times over. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag takes just about all of the best parts of the series and throws them into the mix with the latest entry into the series. There is a lot to do in Black Flag. Edward can hunt and upgrade his abilities in the style of Far Cry 3, explore Mayan temples or search for treasure. Did I mention you can kill sharks and hunt whales? If this review sounds a bit gloaty and excited, that’s because I am.
I loved spending time in the world of Black Flag, exploring with the Jack Daw and my crew. Assassin’s Creed IV is the result of many lessons learned but of course it also keeps some of the old tropes intact. The stealth gameplay is still something we would rather avoid since it isn’t quite as fun as the rest of the game. Running from bush to bush and crowd to crowd to listen in on a conversation still isn’t what we want to do in an Assassin’s Creed game but it’s gotten better with tagging enemies via eagle vision for instance. But the stealth sailing sequences I could have done without.
The excellent Assassin’s Creed multiplayer makes a return in Black Flag and shows new additions and improvements to the experience that is mainly focused on catching the ‘real humanplayers’ in a world filled with AI. It seems to me this form of online multiplayer is still somewhat underappreciated.
Even though Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag suffers from some of the old gameplay features in the stealth department, it does so much right, that it cannot be ignored as the best game since Brotherhood. Black Flag is an impressive open world game filled with characters, expiration and feeling of an epic pirate tale. Right from the beginning Assassin’s Creed IV pulls you into the experience, only to remove the shackles and players to live in the world as they see fit with freedom that is almost unusual for the series. Whether you are an Assassin’s Creed buff or a newcomer to the series, Black Flag must be experienced.
Score: 9 / 10
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was developed and published by Ubisoft for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and WiiU on October 29th. A copy of the game was provided to us by Ubisoft for reviewing purposes.
