The Assassin’s Creed franchise stumbled a bit with Assassin’s Creed III and Revelations. Thankfully, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a return to form for the series. It is a swashbuckling, rum-drinking, sword-slashing good time that works on many levels. However, it’s also very scatterbrained in that half of the game works while the other half doesn’t. The water combat is great, while the undersea portions aren’t. Some story missions are really awesome, while some are tedium defined. And the plot itself is compelling, except when it isn’t. Yet, somehow, Ubisoft has managed to pull it all together to make a really enjoyable title.
Platforms: PC, PS3 (Version Played), PS4 (Version Played), Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Genre: Parkour Pirate Assassins With Some Kind of Creed
Release Date: October 29, 2014
ESRB Rating: Mature
The first thing you notice as you start to play is how quickly Black Flag throws you into the action. Learning from its predecessor, you will hit the pirate lifestyle almost instantly. Then, as soon as you’ve finished a fantastic introduction to the character of Edward Kenway, you are left to explore the huge open world of the Caribbean. Freedom is one thing AC4 gets right. Upon totally ignoring a glowing “!” of a main mission, the game just let you do what you want, just like a pirate would do.
Being ever the pessimist, I sometimes found the sheer amount of stuff that there is to do really overwhelming. On the one hand, none of it really feels wasted; every single side mission adds up to making you feel like a better and more equipped pirate as you’re no longer looking for randomly placed feathers. Collectible sea shanties give your crew something to sing on the waves. You can search every nook and cranny for Templar secrets and find buried treasure on desert islands. You can even go hunting for mythical sea creatures. If you want to do absolutely everything, including the story, you are looking at a 50-hour investment.
This type of freedom exists in the multiplayer mode too, which refines the rather different cat-and-mouse gameplay originally introduced in Brotherhood. Blending into your surroundings and trying to trick other players into thinking you’re an A.I. provides ample moments of tense and entertaining mayhem. Just like previous versions, it’s a welcome alternative to the standard deathmatch in most multiplayer games, but it’s not substantial enough to be the main reason to keep coming back to Black Flag.
The main thrust of AC4 is the story of loving husband-turned-pirate (and ancestor to Desmond Miles) Edward Kenway. In contrast to the sour faced Conner and the super serious Ezio, Edward is instantly likeable as a rogue scallywag. As a result, the game has a much lighter tone, as Edward spends a lot of time just making mischief while knocking around with other pirates. However, by the end of the campaign (which spans six years in Eddie’s life), he’s the only character to have any sort of arc. While they were heavily promoted, secondary characters like Blackbeard and Charles Vane, are just there, doing nothing for 15 hours only to swerve in one way or another so Edward can finish his arc. Which, to be honest, doesn’t even happen until very late in the game. So for much of the time you are just floating along waiting for a story beat.
The futuristic world outside of the Animus is also back in Black Flag. In these sections, you play as an unnamed, unvoiced, brand new employee of Abstergo Entertainment and are asked to jump into the Animus to research a new pirate-based video game co-developed by Ubisoft. Yep, they break the forth wall all over the place. You walk the halls in first person, being given guided tours by your boss, but working to hack the place for the mysterious IT man, alongside two other familiar faces. These sections work rather well and have a handful of teases that moves the modern day story onwards, but they are few and far between.
The gameplay is split between half land and half sea. The boating combat has been much improved from Assassin’s Creed III as your boat, the Jackdaw, is easier to steer and easier to engage in combat. Upon destroying an enemy ship you can then either sink it (which is no fun) or board it (which is). You can steer up the side of a sinking ship, zip up your main mast and then swing across the gap between the boats, air assassinating someone on the way down, finding the captain and the lookouts, killing them, and then claiming the boat and it’s cargo as you own. It’s exhilarating and makes you really feel like you just fell out of Pirates of the Caribbean.
The boats you take can the be used for repairs to the Jackdaw, or to send to your fleet (which replaces the Assassins sending missions from previous games) and you can take the cargo aboard, which you can then sell for cash or use to upgrade the Jackdaw from schooner to warship. It’s not just combat though. You can hunt down sharks, whales, and other sea life and sell their spoils. You can also buy a diving bell to explore lost underwater shipwrecks and reefs. However, you won’t want to as the swimming controls are hot garbage. It’s not that I don’t want to, it’s atmospheric and beautiful under the ocean waves, it’s just also impossible to swim in a steady direction.
On land is a different story. Freerunning and combat works fine, but they’re plagued by the same diseases the series has had for the past few iterations. However, just like with Conner in AC3, Eddie K seems to find himself randomly leaping off to the left or right or to nowhere in particular. Either that or he’ll randomly press sensually up against a wall or tree when running along the ground. On the other hand, sword fighting works great, again, just like it’s predecessors. This time around you have two single shot pistols that you can fire in quick succession. Sleeping darts and berserk darts also turn up, helping in both full-on assault and stealth tactics.
To continue with a running theme, Black Flag feels like any other Assassin’s Creed when in a town, apart from the fact that there are pirate looking dudes and wenches sauntering around. The jungles locations are impressive (and even better looking on PS4) and the draw distance is also pretty nice. There are a few issues with fogging if you begin to look too far in the difference and there are some small drops in framerate and some randomized pop-in but overall the game looks and runs great. If you can’t wait to play Black Flag on the next generation, you’ll do fine on current-gen consoles but there is a remarkable quality jump in the small details on next-gen consoles.
Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag is a progressive jump for the franchise, which moves slowly away from the super-serious Assassins Creed III. The story doesn’t quite fit together in a compelling way, and some of the gameplay retains the same problems (and successes) as previous titles in the series. However, its greatest accomplishment is making you feel like an authentic pirate. And that is awesome.
Review Disclosure: A review copy of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was provided by Ubisoft for the purposes of this review.
