Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (AC4) is an improvement over the series previous game, Assassin’s Creed III, with a more interesting overall story, better main and supporting cast and with a general feeling of fewer tacked on parts. In AC4 it seems that Ubisoft listened to the feedback regarding AC3 and acted upon it. As sailing, one of my personal favourite parts of AC3 returns with a vengeance in Assassin’s Creed IV.

Assassin’s Creed IV takes place in the 1700s in the Caribbean. In the game you play as Edward Kenway, the Grandfather of Connor, and the main protagonist of Assassin’s Creed III. Edward has sets sail for the Caribbean so that he can earn enough money and return to England a rich man so that he and his wife can live a good life. But the life of a pirate is too much for Edward as he gets hooked on piracy. But one day after the ship he sails on sinks he encounters an Assassin on an island he washes up on. This meeting sets Edward on a path which will lead him to fighting Templar, Assassin, Pirates and two empires in search of a lost location known as “The observatory”. Edward commands a powerful pirate ship, the Jackdaw which he uses to find the lost location, while also performing some piracy to help line his pockets.

On Edward’s journey you are introduced to some of the most well known pirates from the 1700s including: Blackbeard, Calico Jack and Benjamin Hornigold.

The game isn’t just based in the 1700s, just like the previous three main games, you explore the present day world. In AC4 the real world portions are left to a minimum as you play as a nameless and faceless employee of Abstergo Entertainment. Your job in the company is to search through Desmond’s ancestors memories to find some material which would be perfect for a video game. There is a plot in the present day and those wondering what happened at the end of Assassin’s Creed III will receive some answers. The present day also contains various minigames.

Combat on land is the weakest point of the game, with it still feeling the same as AC3. Combat feels boring and void of any challenge, just counter or break defence at the right time and defeat your enemy. Combat only becomes a challenge when the camera decides to go crazy when you fight near building, when this happened to me I had to nearly guess when an enemy would attack me or let me attack him.

Travel on land also has minor issues, the one notable issue is that when you run via the R1 button the character has a tendency to run up walls when you get to close to them, this issue makes tailing and chasing collectibles to become frustrating at times. Speaking of running up objects, the game likes to be rather specific which what you can grab. On several buildings there appeared to be areas where I could reach to help me scale a building, but the game refused to let me grab it, but on another building I could grab a similar looking area.

The issues with movement and combat on land are pretty much pet peeves and the overall experience with travelling and fighting on land wasn’t terrible, but from my point of view it felt dull.

Sailing in AC4 is a joy, as you travel the seas plundering ships and looking for islands, which hopefully contain treasure. Sailing was the best part of AC3, and AC4 really builds upon it by making it an essential part of the game. In AC4 you are shown a large map and told you can sail these seas to your heart content, you can attack both Spanish and British naval ships, and plunder their cargo by leaping aboard there ship after you cripple it. You can find a treasure map and sail to an abandoned island and find money and ship plans. Now since you are a pirate, people won’t take too kindly to you plundering and destroying their ships, that’s why there is a “wanted level” that rises every time you commit piracy. When the level increases pirate hunters attack, you can lower your level by bribing officials, but honestly pirate hunters aren’t that strong and they do offer some good loot.

Looting is an important part of the game as you need materials and money to upgrade your ship, and honestly upgrading is required, because if you don’t upgrade you are a sitting duck against some high level ships. With that said looting does become a rather tedious task with the same celebration animation and constant storming of ships. The only reason to do looting apart from wanting to feel like a pirate is for the above mentioned upgrade, and once you get all or enough upgrades looting ships becomes pointless.

Speaking of pointless, AC4 has a metric ton of side missions. These include: Kenway’s fleet, harpooning, killing and skinning animals, naval contracts, assassination contracts, chests, diving underwater for treasure, secrets and sea shanties. The majority of these side missions are there for those who like to explore, the only exception are the harpooning and animal skinning which are required for crafting equipment for Edward.

Before talking about Edward I want to also talk about “Kenway’s Fleet”, this is a small resource management mini-game where you send ships you have captured whiling committing piracy, on missions to sell supplies and make money. It is a rather small addition, but it opens a new way to make large amounts of money while you are away from the game. While I played AC4 there was an issue with the fleet system not loading, this was due to connection issues to Ubisoft’s Uplay.

Edward is an enjoyable character which does show emotion, which is something Connor failed to show in AC3. When playing as Connor you really get an insight into an internal struggle he is having. He tells himself and his crew if they get the observatory they will be rich for life. As the game progresses you can see him begin to realize that his obsession for money and power has changed him, but even though he realizes this he has his goal and he sticks to it. The defy title that Ubisoft gave Edward is used well because as I said at the start of the review as he will do anything and refuse nearly all help to get what he wants.

The supporting cast are just as memorable with Blackbeard being one of my favourites; I blame that on the fact that as a child he was the only pirate I would have really heard of. In AC4 he rather well fleshed out and the actions he takes do reflect on how he has evolved throughout the story.

For those wondering about multiplayer side of the game, it essentially more of the same, which isn’t a bad thing in Assassin’s Creed IVs case as the AC multiplayer has always being enjoyable. Ubisoft has added new content in the form of Game Lab which allows users to create and share their own game mode. Honestly I didn’t play that much multiplayer as I’m pretty terrible at it, but if you like the multiplayer from previous AC games I’m sure you will continue to enjoy it in AC4.

CONCLUSION

Assassin’s Creed IV is an enjoyable, but at times repetitive game. The split between land and naval aspects are handled well, but the constant need to loot for supplies begins to get old fast. However, the story and characters are interesting and gives a good idea of what it would be like to live in the time period.

SCORE: 80%

*This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 3*

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Information

• Developer: various Ubisoft studios
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Genre: Action Adventure
• Rating: 18+
• Platform: PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Wii U, PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One
• Release date: Now out on PS3 and Xbox 360. According to Ubisoft the PC, Wii U, PS4 and Xbox One versions will be released on November 22nd.
• Website: http://assassinscreed.ubi.com/

If you are interested in playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, I am currently giving away a free copy of the PS3 version of the game via the SG Gaming Info Facebook page.