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Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is an open-world treasure that you'd want to loot, packed with secrets and missions that will have you navigating through its compacted depiction of the Caribbean sea for hours!
Assassin's Creed IV was a crowning achievement for Ubisoft and remains one of the most rewarding experiences for fans of the saga. It was the Assassin's Creed that would reinvent the series in terms of gameplay and world design.
This was the first Assassin's Creed to bring naval combat to the fore, and also the first one to feature an open world in the most literal sense, whereas previous titles consisted merely of a series of smaller open areas that had to be unlocked as you progressed through the story.
Subsequent releases would largely be built upon Black Flag's novel formula, but those who played this game back in 2013 may remember how different this game was from the rest of Assassin's Creeds available at that time. Regardless, those spoiled by the technical aspects and features of most modern AC entries might feel a bit underwhelmed.
The game does show its age in the graphical department. After all, it's been almost 10 years and 2 entire generations since it first saw the light of day, so you shouldn't expect ray tracing or anything of that sort.
Aesthetically speaking, though, it's a sight to behold. Vast and lush tropical forests, turquoise waters, and iconic representations of colonial-era Havana, Nassau, and Kingston will surely draw your attention, especially if you're into pirate lore and exotic locations.
The game was, for all intents and purposes, a cross-generation game, as in, one that was developed with the next generation in mind, while not being fully next-gen. It genuinely pushed the boundaries of the PS3 and the Xbox 360, as these consoles struggled to deliver a consistent framerate and quality. For this reason, this game should be best experienced with next-generation hardware (PC and PS4/Xbox One or newer).
In terms of gameplay, Assassin's Creed IV focused heavily on exploration. While its predecessor would be the first to flesh out wilderness expeditions, Black Flag would take that to a whole new level.
The Frontier in ACIII, for all its virtues, got boring awfully quickly and you were pretty much stuck with completing the main missions for the most part. The map in Black Flag, on the other hand, was a huge leap from the previous title, offering lots of exploration options, activities, and treasures to discover across the islands. We'll expand upon this a bit more as we analyze the gameplay component in more detail below.
Lastly (and not surprisingly), ACIV likewise takes place in a specific historical timeframe, with the Animus immersing the player in XVIII century Central America this time around, in the midst of disputations between the British and Spanish empires over the area. Abstergo Industries, a present-day Templar corporation, would again play a central role in the plot, and Desmond Miles would also make a comeback, though in a "peculiar" way that we'll rather not disclose.
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If you've played the previous titles, you already know the drill.
You play as Edward, a renowned pirate and potential member of the Assassin Brotherhood who would be tasked with unraveling a conspiracy involving high-ranking templars in both Spanish and British factions, and you'll be parkouring your way to the evidence.
Stealth is also a crucial aspect of gameplay (moreso than in later Assassin's Creeds) and just as in Assassin's Creed III, you can climb tall trees and cliffs to look for specific locations from better vantage points. The spyglass is also a handy feature that enables you to examine distant ships and islands wherein you can perform animal and treasure hunting activities.
The melee combat retains the system of previous games in the saga, which mostly consists of counterattacks and pushing the right buttons at the right times. It would still take a while for the combat system to change to the one we see in current iterations of the franchise (namely, the system implemented in AC: Origins onwards).
One major inclusion, as was uncovered earlier, was naval exploration and combat as a central mechanic of the game instead of a sporadic one. This is both a good and a bad aspect of ACIV's gameplay. The naval combat is cool and all, but after the fifth or sixth showdown, you'll be wishing to remain stranded for the rest of the game (or "walk the plank" if you catch my drift!).
The Jackdaw, which is a Spanish brig you capture early on, will be used more times than not, and you'll be able to upgrade it by gathering different materials or by transacting with harbourmasters. Some upgrades would not be accessible until you get to specific points in the main story.
The recruit system of AC: Brotherhood also returns, which would give Edward the capability of hiring crew members for his ship. On the flip side, they'd not be as useful as they were in earlier entries, for Ubisoft figured this would make the game too easy.
As stated earlier, you'll have virtually the entire playable area available after a brief series of scripted missions, allowing you to make escapades to the farthest reaches of the map and to stray from the main course at will.
With a whopping 90.2 square miles serving as your playground (which is just decimals shorter than the vast Odyssey map), you won't be suffering from claustrophobia anytime soon. It's still a puzzle how Ubisoft was able to cram all that real estate into an old-gen game of this caliber.
To put things into perspective, ACIII barely gave you 1.53 square miles of playable area, so you can really see just how much of a big deal this game was in comparison. Within this gargantuan map, you'll be able to find a bunch of treasures and side-quests between naval contracts and assassinations. Admittedly, you will probably want to focus on the main story once you've completed a small number of these optional missions.
All-in-all, this game ultimately deserved the praises it garnered at the time of release and, in my view, it has not aged as badly as of this writing. However, you might feel disappointed if you played Valhalla, Odyssey, or Origins beforehand. Provided that you can withstand the technical limitations of this game in contrast to the newest AC titles we just mentioned, I would totally recommend that you check it out!
Also, feel free to hop aboard and leave a comment below with your thoughts about this gem and your piracy deeds.
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