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Friday Nov 08, 2013
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag - Review
Friday Nov 08, 2013
Friday Nov 08, 2013
Well everyone it is time for the next installment of the enjoyable Assassin’s Creed franchise. Time to trade in the tomahawks and tea parties as we are on the move to another era in history that you will be very familiar with if you have watched the Pirates of the Caribbean movies.
Black Flag however gives you a more realistic look at how a pirate’s life would be back in the 18th Century, where there were great struggles to try and make the Caribbean its own republic.
When you sit down and look at the map of AC4 for the first time you will realise that this is one of the most ambitious entries in the series, the world is enormous. You have various settlements, jungle islands, mysterious pirate bays and most importantly you have that big blue expanse in between that we have all been wanting to explore after we were given a taster in AC3.
In AC4 you take on the role of Edward Kenway, Father to AC3’s Haytham and Grandfather to Connor. With him you will get to experience what is commonly referred to as the Golden Age of Piracy, this however will not be your only thing to do, oh no no…Abstergo are once again involved and they are branching out into the games industry.
This provides us with a very intriguing story for the modern day aspect of the game, as you will be going around hacking into various colleagues’ computers and finding out that all at Abstergo is not what it seems. Yes this may not sound as fun as Captaining your own pirate ship but it provides an interesting twist to the way the story moves forward.
Another thing that adds to the story is that you are no longer Demond Miles entering the Animus, but yourself…yes you reading this. The same can be said for Edward Kenway, who is a very different style of character to his unloved grandson Connor. He has amazing historical figures to bounce off including the legendary Edward Teach aka. Blackbeard, who wouldn’t want Blackbeard as their pirate mentor?
The actual story will open your eyes if your knowledge of Pirates starts and stops with a certain Mr Johnny Depp. It is helped by the vast world mentioned earlier; this game is far from the restricted Assassin’s Creed titles of old. One minor thing is that you still require a loading screen to enter places such as Havana and Kingston. I am hoping that this is something that will be different once I get to try the Playstation 4 version of the game a bit more in depth than I did at Eurogamer in September.
These ports when compared to Renaissance period Italy that we all loved when playing as Ezio just do not compare, it is the getting out into the world that is where the game really shows off. The caves, jungles and under water environments are to die for even if they are a tad linear.
You do eventually unlock fast travel, which in my personal opinion is a waste. I know there will be impatient people, who just want to get on with things, but half the fun is just hopping on your ship and setting sail…you never know what you might find on your travels.
There have been a number of reviews complaining about the amount of time you have to spend on the water but to be honest; this is a BIG part of why people enjoyed AC3! And it is a BIG reason as to why gamers themselves have been enjoying AC4.
A welcome addition to the Assassin’s Creed series is the crafting system almost certainly inspired by Far-Cry 3, it allows you to use items you have got from hunting etc. to upgrade your ammo and replenish your supplies, such as the blow darts.
The missions are what you have come to expect from AC but they are still enjoyable bar a few bugs here and there. The single player story will no doubt let you spend upwards of 30-40 hours being the completionist you want to be.
And after all of that you have the multiplayer which is a bit of a mixed bag. A cool addition however is Gamelabs, which gives you the chance to make your own rules, meaning certain games can be balanced out and made to be more enjoyable. AC multiplayer won’t be able to compete with the major multiplayer games of Christmas (Call of Duty and Battlefield) but it is most definitely one of the better attempts at multiplayer by Ubisoft in recent years.
To round up, AC4 is not in any means perfect on the PS3, there are many things I’m looking forward to comparing with the PS4 version more in depth. But as always it has an interesting story, with great characters and better gameplay. Grab your belongings and get ready to ship out I say.
8.0/10
-Allan Price
Platforms available on: Xbox 360, PS3 (Tested), PC, Wii U, Xbox One, PS4 (Upcoming)
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Publisher: Ubisoft
Genre: Action/Adventure
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