Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag Review

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is an amazing pirate adventure. No other game in mind--the mighty Sid Meier’s Pirates included--slides you so snugly into the boots of a brash buccaneer and demands that you collect booty with as much stylish aggression. As I steer salty hero Edward Kenway through rum soaked debauchery, hunting for treasure, and battling with drunken sailors at bars, I gently hum “What will we do with the drunken sailor” to myself, and feel a intense urge to refer to my colleagues as ‘wench’ or ‘matey’. That’s the strength of Black Flag’s incredible world. Ironically, it’s the actual ‘Assassin’s Creed’ elements--series legendry moments--that prove rough sailing in an otherwise enjoyable voyage.

Anyway, allow me to introduce Edward Kenway. Who is the father of Haytham Kenway and the grandfather of Connor –both are stars of Assassin’s Creed 3. There is a whiff of Han Solo to Edward, which makes him charming and attractive than the rest of his family. His self serving pirate personality is like a deep breath of fresh air, cutting through the furrowed brow of previous series.

However, with Black Flag the joy is in the journey, not in the destination; The Observatory that your virtual contemporaries bang on about feels bit more than a Macguffin. The game’s virtual Caribbean is huge, but very detailed. It dwarfs GTA 5’s play area and offers dynamic, colourful views from the every synchronisation point. And while it isn’t a next-generation game that offers a great visual upgrade from PS3 and Xbox 360, it’s a lovely place to explore. The sea in particular, looks dramatic; especially when fierce storms send huge swells to destroy your ship, the Jackdaw, and the spray lashes your men who busy themselves on the deck. On land, lush vegetation shuffles as you paddle through, and trees sway naturally in high winds. The next generation devil is in the great detail, rather than visual wow  moments.

The vibrancy of the world is a key to Black Flag’s appeal. There is so much to do here--the main story lasts around 20 hours, and side quests easily takes another 20--so, i think it’s  necessary  that you enjoy hopping between the game’s islands and browsing its cities. Each city area has a distinct feel--Havana is a maze of very Spanish, terracotta-roof-houses, while Nassau is a more randomly planned, crumbling pirate town. Kingston is typical colonial British era. They are all a welcome change from the dour streets of Assassins’s Creed 3’s Boston and New York.

When you are’t exploring cities, searching for Sea Shanties (hard fact, you haven’t noticed the full majesty of Black Flag until you have heard every shanty) and looting chests, you spend about 40 percent of the game at sea, in the Jackdaw. There is a wide range of interesting naval activities to complete too, the climax of which are the naval fortresses. These are like boss battles--you drag them from sea with your cannons and mortars before swimming ashore to kill the fort captain and claim the place as your own. This then un-fogs areas of the map for you to explore. Each fort has its unique “defence mechanism’’, so working out how to crush them is a real test of skill.

Most of the other collectables just appears  on your map, which means that discovering 
them requires time rather than actual skill or smarts. Love a good grind?  You will find it here. I feel a definite feel of serenity as I chop across the sea with my crew singing sea shanties and pointing out areas of interest. Oh, have you stopped singing? Well, I didn’t tell you to stop, did I? No. Then start singing again.
Side missions themselves are a mixed kit of quality. While grabbing all the Animus shards is a teeth grinding exercise in a passionate ‘‘stuff collection’’, Templar hunts and the Assassin contracts  offers refreshingly creative breaks from the main story. Even the shark / whale hunting  feels different and satisfying every time you climb into the Jackdaw’s fishing boat.

Unfortunately, the game does break apart during some of the main missions, which rely too vigorously on repetition of systems that have barely evolved since the original game. Tailing targets listening stealthily on discussions, even following ships in the Jackdaw—they are great the first few times you do them, but Black Flag just replays the same mission types again and again. It’s a blunt contrast to GTA 5’s smart, original mission design, and something that needs to be examine before the next game. I only recall one assassination mission,  which captures the creative magic that made Assassin’s Creed 2 such a runaway success. Made me feel warm and cozy , a dark glimpse into my own psyche that I will ignore for now. So, for a game called ‘Assassin’s Creed’ there is very little actual assassination.

And… it’s here where AC4 is going to split opinion. As I said at the start: Black Flag is a great piracy sim with some well-rounded, well-voiced supporting characters, but the later parts of the story are still in thrall to mystical, beard stroking cod philosophy that disheveled Assassins’s Creed 3. It’s at these moments when Black Flag is weakest. Characters are killed  too quickly, plot threads are  tied off too hastily, and the final confrontation is one of the least satisfying in any AC game to date: all concessions to the game is labyrinthine lore.

Following Desmond’s death, Black Flag was a perfect opportunity to break away from all the mystical guff that has kept back the series, However, the appearance of ‘‘returning characters’’ feels like a lead weight dragging Edward Kenway to the depths of silliness. Shame, because the real way this game handles the relationship between the historical segments and the cutting edge story is superb.

You play as a random Abstergo employee, who plunges into the Animus as part of research for a pirate game. Basically, the game is about Abstergo making the latest AC game, yeah? It’s extremely self-referential, but handled superbly well. This alone guarantees that there’s enough in-jokes and fan satisfying stuff in the out-of-Animus world to satisfy die hard fans. Ubisoft even trolls players at one certain point, letting players access a leaked document that examines possible future locations for the Assassin’s Creed series. Few games treat fans with such a playful respect.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is a great game, for sure, but I found the experience immensely enjoyable. Accepting that it’s really a game about pirates, not assassins, and you will love filling the boots of Edward Kenway for 30 to 40 hours. A great pirate game, but not a vintage Assassin’s Creed.