Let's Talk... Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

After the rather disappointing Assassin’s Creed 3, it’s hard not to approach AC 4 with a natural sense of both caution and intrigue. Fortunately, AC 3’s painfully slow start has been replaced with an intro that throws you straight into the game, the protagonist has been replaced by someone much more qualified to fill the role, and the core gameplay you've come to expect is all still intact. A decent show-piece of next-gen hardware, AC 4 is certainly visually striking and fortunately the look of the game is not an exception to the rest of the game’s quality.

Even though the story does a decent job of explaining itself, if Black Flag is your first AC game then you’re going to be a little confused. Who are the Assassins? Who are the Templars? And what in god’s name is an Animus? If you want background information then you might just want to play the previous games (but make sure to skip AC 3) However, if you don’t really care all you need to know is that the Templars are bad, the Assassins are good and the game is set in the past but not really. Straight off the bat the new protagonist Edward Kenway (supposedly related to Connor in some way?) is an infinitely more likable protagonist than AC 3’s dull and mopey Connor, his happy-go-lucky attitude makes him feel a lot more like Ezio, the star of the previous games.

So many guns!

Without spoiling it, the way that the game implements the whole real-life animus part of the game is pretty great and it’s quite hilarious that Ubisoft actually handle it this way considering how the last couple of games went. Personally I much prefer this whole set-up to how previous games handle it, and I never really liked the Desmond part of those games anyway. It’s a very weird and very “meta” way of handling it but it certainly makes a nice change. It feels like a great excuse for Ubisoft to just take the Assassin’s Creed formula and apply it to whatever time periods they want without narrative constraints restricting when and where they could take it.

The combat has a nice flow to it, and feels a lot more dramatic and cinematic than in previous titles without feeling downright ridiculous. Although it still has a very automatic feel to it, you’re not quite able to chain a counter into a dozen kills like you could in Brotherhood or Revelations, which actually makes the combat refreshingly difficult for an AC game. Some the kill animations offer a satisfying brutality, with Edward kicking guards of off rooftops and slicing-and-dicing with his dual scimitars. Of course, one of the newer additions to the combat is Edward’s barrage of four pistols that can be used to chain a ridiculous, but rather awesome, number of kills together. Although Black Flag clearly isn't a stealth game it still continues to offer stealth as a quicker, more convenient option to combat, and the game throws a lot of chest-high bushes and shrubs to sneak through which actually makes stealth a legitimate possibility.  

Tense ship battles play heavily into some of the game's crafting and upgrading systems, as well as just being downright epic

Black Flag does a great job of creating a huge, sprawling and beautiful world, but a lot of the side content feels somewhat recycled. Although there are a lot of things to do, if you’re a veteran of the series then some of the tired mechanics it still uses will quickly wear on you. Quests like “tail this guy without being seen” or “eavesdrop on this conversation by blending into a crowd” become quickly tiresome, especially when the mechanic is something that was a drag even when it was first introduced to the series. However, sailing the open seas in search of land, loot, and rival navy patrols is something that never gets old and offers an excellent reprieve from the typical AC trap of unfortunate repetition. Black Flag is still an AC game in every sense of the word, but the change of scenery really benefits the series whilst some of the new quests offer enough variation to keep the game getting as stale as Revelations did.

Of course, sailing makes a valiant return in Black Flag as not just one of the game's core mechanics but also one of the best mechanics. Sailing takes centre stage as the crux of the story and your ability to navigate the vast and open world. The ships still feel weighty and have a strong pull to them but control well with the varying toggled speeds. Naval battles are tense and exciting and have a very epic feel. Sailing really does feel seamless without a loading screen in sight, and once you're on the open seas you’re free to hop in and out of your ship as you please. You can even dive into the briny depths in search of ship wrecks and buried loot once you've acquired a diving bell.

Black Flag keeps the standard busy town environments but adds tons of vast and beautiful Mediterranean scenery

A crafting system very reminiscent of the one in Far Cry 3 makes an appearance in Black Flag. Hunting and skinning animals will provide you with the materials to create things like health upgrades and increased pistol capacity that allows Edward to hold up to four pistols. Hunting usually just involves killing an animal in any way and then skinning them, but sharks? Well, sharks are a special case, so special that they've earned themselves their own harpooning mini-game. Overall, it’s a nice way to implement the hunting mechanic that makes it feel both necessary and beneficial, but not forced. Upgrades to your ship and weapons can be either bought with goods seized from captured or destroyed ships, which makes blowing up ships fun as hell but also really rewarding. And if you want to take on some of much, much bigger ships then you're really going to need some of the better upgrades.

It goes without saying that Black Flag looks fantastic; environments look great with some excellent lighting effects, the water looks especially incredible, and the game looks significantly brighter and more vibrant than previous AC titles. However, as with all AC games, character faces and character models have a weird look to them that makes them look oddly dirty and ape-like. As well as looking fantastic the game also far better optimized than previous AC games, something that was a major issue for AC 3 in particular on PC. The sound design is also top notch, with some excellent voice acting and some occasionally sharp writing to match.

Sharks!

The core gameplay that makes Assassin’s Creed such a strong franchise is well intact. A shiny new setting, a much stronger lead protagonist, and some new features and gameplay tweaks offer some much needed variation to a formula that was certainly growing stale. Black Flag has a lot to offer, whether you’re new to Assassin’s Creed or a veteran of the series. A quality PC port makes a nice change following AC 3, and the game looks really great on next-gen consoles running at a solid 60 fps at a now up-res’d 1080p. If you've never played an AC game then Black Flag offers a really great starting point, the series' typical gameplay is refined and fun as ever and the Desmond storyline appears to be fully tied up, at least for now.