Assassins Creed is easily Ubisoft’s biggest franchise that they have right now. Black Flag is the sixth game in the main series (not counting spin offs) and as well as being on current generation consoles it was also a launch title for Xbox One and Playstation 4.
Story & Presentation
After the death of Desmond Miles, Abstergo Industries took sample from his body which let them dive back into his blood line. This time we get to play as Edward Kenway who was a pirate in the 18th century. Playing as Edward you need to try and unravel a conspiracy that sees the Templars (the bad guys of the Assassins Creed series) trying to manipulate people in order to find the Sage. The Sage is a special observatory that lets you see through eyes of a person. Well there is way more to it than that, but we will not spoil it for you guys. The story here may not be one that sticks with you forever, but it is very well written and the voice acting is just amazing.
Presentation wise this is by a mile the best looking game in the series. The locations both on land and at sea are just amazing. In the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 the graphics of this game have to be pushing the consoles to the very limits of what they are capable of doing. And as far as the Playstation 4 and Xbox One goes the game is just more polished and has better draw distance and loads more little details scattered around the environments. The sections of the game where you are on the high seas in particular do a great job in showing off how powerful the Playstation 4 and Xbox One are.
The sound design in the game sounds like something that should be in a Hollywood movie. That is how good the sound is. The score is great, but it’s the sound effects that just do such a wonderful job in bringing this 18th century world to life.
Gameplay
Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag has a pretty interesting combat system. Edward can dish out some real serious damage and doing so is a great deal of fun. The problem is that Edward does not have the diversity that past characters in the Assassins Creed series have had. He has a limited amount of melee weapons, but the different kill animations that he can do I will say do make up for it. In all the combat is really solid. It may seem a little simplistic, but that is actually to the games advantage as in this simplicity there is a great deal of fun.
The game has a ton of story missions for you to do in order to expand the main story. These are fun to play and genuinely make you want to keep playing in order to see what happens next. As well as this game there are many side missions which will have you doing things like assassinations, fishing, and naval contracts as well. There really is a great deal of things to do in this game.
The ocean based combat is a huge selling point in this game. And if I am honest it is something I was not interested in, but it is just so well done. The ships control very well and they have some really cool attacks. My personal favorite is the chain shot which rips apart other ships sails. It is really cool when you spot a ship in the distance and you then start to stalk it with the intent on taking all the good stuff they have. I was blown away at how good these sections of the game were. I thought they would be quite limited, but there is just so much variety to the way you can take down an enemy ship.
Final Thoughts
Ubisoft did a great job in fixing a few of the “issues” that Assassins Creed II suffered from. This is a great entry for the series, but it is a game that really does require you to have played the previous games in the series to get the most out of it. There is a great deal of content here, and while you can blow through the story fairly quickly the side missions will keep you busy for a very long time.
AVAILABLE ON: PLAYSTATION 3, PLAYSTATION 4, XBOX 360, XBOX ONE NINTENDO WII U, PC
One of the best in the Assassin's Creed franchise!
A memorable protagonist, in an otherwise amazingly fantastical backdrop - with pirates!
