19.4.2015

“an incredible experience”We have come a long way together; words used at the start of the international press event in London last year where the future of the Assassins Creed series was revealed, and they are very true words indeed. We started our journey in the Holy Land, following the path and story of Altaïr Ibn-La’Ahad as he followed his master’s direction in ousting the plots of the Templar Order. Not everything of course was as it had first seemed. Then we moved on to following the adventures of Ezio Auditore da Firenze, an Italian boy who quickly grew into the Grand Master of the Assassin Brotherhood and made it his mission in life to fight against the oppression which the Templars would seek to invoke.Then we took a leap forward in time to Colonial America during 18th Century, where the son of a British Templar and a Native American woman, a boy named Ratonhnhaké:ton or Connor Kenway depending on to whom he spoke, grew into the next great part of our story, fighting to save both his people and all the people who would seek freedom in these lands. All of these lives, places and times of course we have seen so far through the eyes of Desmond Miles, a modern day Assassin who was on a quest with what was left of their kind to protect and learn the secrets behind the mysterious artefact that has lay at the centre of all of these stories; the Apple of Eden. His story came to an end at the close of our previous adventure, but our adventure and his legacy it seems were not ready to be over just yet…Assassins Creed IV Black Flag sees us take a step backwards along this bloodline, to the father of the Templar who fathered our third hero, Connor. This chapter then follows the life of Edward Kenway, a British sailor turned pirate, but not of the kind shown in the storybooks of our childhoods. The pirates we are presented with are intended to be depictions of what true pirates really were; not simply bloodthirsty drunkards looking out for themselves and no others, but men, and in some cases women, who had been left behind by the honest life society had offered them and who were searching for true freedom. There is of course a side to them that does desire riches, that will take blood, and does enjoy a drop of rum or fifty, but these pirates also have a vision, an aim and a purpose. They want to live as truly free men and women in a society not bound by the rules of the rich and powerful. They may sound then as though they are our Assassins in this chapter then, but they are far from that. This introduction to the nature of just one of many factions in the game just serves as a background for you, and much is still to be said about what drives our hero personally.Edward Kenway himself then has his own story, drives and motives. He has left home as a privateer in the hope that he might be able to provide for he and his wife upon his return, but his drunken plans do not bode well with his partner, who leaves him behind to follow this path without her blessing. Kenway still cares for her dearly and shows this throughout the story, but nonetheless his path does lead him down a road to piracy and greed, and the more he seems to get the more he also wants. At the beginning of his story, Kenway is forced to abandon his sinking ship after a battle which tears it apart. Waking up on a beach, he recognises another man, an opponent from the battle, who appears to have also suffered his fate. Kenway chases the man down and ultimately defeats him. Not realising quite what he has stumbled into at the time, he takes the mans equipment and follows a note which he finds on the body which will lead him straight into a Templar plot. The man, you quickly find, was an Assassin who had intended to turn to the Templar side of this timeless war, and who had found something which they needed to obtain an ultimate prize. Having found this out, and being stricken by greed as Kenway is at this time, your character sets out to steal this prize from under the noses of the Templars and sell it to the highest bidder to make his fortune. His mission is questioned by the crew he gathers along the way, with the details remaining hazy and the nature of the prize uncertain, but Kenway continues to track down what these Templars are after.There are many twists and turns along the way in this story, and it would be unfortunate to give away too much more plot that what I already have, but there are a couple of factors within it which should be noted by fans of the series. Firstly, this is very much a pirate game. You do not spend more than maybe a fifth at best of the game’s story as an Assassin, as you do not join their order until close to the end. This may be somewhat disappointing for fans of the series who appreciate the Assassin Brotherhood story lines which have often been very fulfilling and fun to follow. The other criticism which can made of the story is that it ends abruptly, leaving you feeling as though you had not really finished your work here and more annoyingly leaving you with many questions unanswered. Most irritating of all, that question which is on your mind throughout the game is one of these; why did Edward’s son become a Templar? Maybe there is a plan to reveal this in the future, but many fans of the series had hoped that this twist in the bloodline would be revealed during this instalment of the series, and sadly it was not.Now just to confuse things a little bit for you, I am going to turn something I have just said just a little bit on its head. While the storyline can be criticised for just being a pirate story and having little Assassin story to follow, this is a very good pirate game. The gameplay which you will experience is just fantastic, and many elements of it are like none you will ever have seen before. There are so many fantastic features to this it is hard to know where to start, but I guess we will start with the traditional Assassins Creed combat system. As seems to be almost a tradition with this series, the combat system has once again been shaken up. For once however, there is a visible improvement to how things now work. For one, the combat is very fluid again. In the first game you could be in a sword fight and throw out a knife midway to take out someone else. This seemed to become less easy over the next few games, however now it is back in full working order and it is nice to be able to just whip out a pistol to take out that guy running at you while you have kicked the guy you were fighting onto the floor. Aside from the renewed fluidity of combat, it is now much more realistic, and therefore actually poses some challenge. You can no longer simply counter your way through the fifteen people who will come at you one at a time while they watch their friends die in front of them. Enemies will attack you at the same time now, and will not wait for you to kill off their comrades before doing so.you can easily be shot while going in for a counter attack, or stabbed by two people at once. This brings a new dynamic to the game’s combat system but the challenge is a welcome improvement and things certainly feel more real and dangerous than they ever have done before.Another important element to the Assassins Creed series of course it the free running, and this feels more free than ever! Fans will be glad to see some actual tall buildings back in the game; something that was sadly missing from AC3. This means you can leap around like a madman who drank two cans of energy drink too many again, and that was always exciting! You will occasionally still get stuck on random stuff though, and in chases it is still not unusual to climb that wall you didn’t want to climb up and end up losing the target, but at least these are not new issues to the game. Perhaps with some luck these will be on Ubisoft’s list to fix ready for whatever comes next! Now that the game is open world as well however, you can run very naturally straight onto your ship and sail away. There is no loading screen and no waiting around with this, you can just leap on, take the wheel and go. This is one of the game’s best new features, and it carries across its entirety. You can jump from ship to sea, sea to land, ship to ship; essentially do whatever you want without having to hang about before you can do it. This is the sort of fluid, open gameplay that the gaming world has been waiting for a long time to experience, and now it can and it is beautiful!Of course, what a lot of gamers are really excited about it the naval elements of the game. AC3 introduced us to these in a much more basic form to what we have now, and people in general seemed to be very impressed by the mechanics. Now these have been improved upon and the experience is fantastic, have been improved in a massive way on top of an already very good system. When driving the ship, the weather can be as much of a danger to you as rocks and obstructions. A sudden change can mean massively destructive waves, winds that can blow you well off course and other extreme events occurring which can put you in imminent danger, truly testing your ability to control your vessel. In combat, it is more than broadside cannons you will have to control. You can load your ship with mortar shot, explosive barrels, several different types of ammunition for your cannons, chain shot to fire from the front, a massive ram; whatever you may need to overcome your enemies. If you manage to disable them, you will then have the choice to either sink them to the depths or board them and take on the crew for a greater profit. The level of thought that has been put into the naval combat and overall experience in the game is huge, and the game is fantastic because of it. The game may have strayed a little on the story side of things, but its gameplay is absolutely unreal and incredibly, incredibly fun!One other nice thing about the gameplay in this chapter of the series is the additional elements which you have the option to experience. For one, hunting is now a worthwhile activity. It seemed like an almost meaningless part of AC3, but now hunting different creatures in the game allows you to craft new equipment for Edward. Of course, if you really don’t feel you have the time for that, you can simply buy the hides and parts which you need to do this instead, but it is nice to have some sort of meaningful reward behind the hunting feature of the game. It is not only creatures on the land you can hunt though; you may also hunt those at sea. Sharks and whales can be killed in the harpooning activity, testing your skill at timing and accuracy to make your kill. Further to this you also have the option to go diving for treasure under the sea in your ship’s diving bell, which can be very fruitful in terms of finding worthwhile loot. The side activities then seem to have more purpose and worth than they have done before, and it is good to see that this side of things has received some attention from the developers.The look of the game is very good indeed, and in some cases can only be described as unreal. It is certainly at its best during storm events on the seas, where the dynamic weather graphics give massive credit to the graphical designers behind the game. In the next-gen and PC releases of the game, the amazing nature of these is only more so, with water flowing along the deck of your ship, smoke from cannons drifting by as if it were real, and the sea itself looking wild and truly dangerous. The lighting effects used for the Caribbean setting of the game make it look even more beautiful, lighting up the world in all the right ways during the day but darkening it with great gloom when storms hit and utilising fires and starlight well at night to create a perfect atmosphere. It is hard to find a much better looking game on the market right now, and it would be easy to say that this might just be one of the best looking games of this year!Then there is the audio of the game; something which might not generally justify a paragraph of a review to itself, but in this case certainly does. Let’s get the slightly more negative point out of the way first here; accents. Someone during the creation if this game seems to have become confused between what and English and a Welsh accent actually sound like. Your character is from Swansea, and in one particular scene you bump into an Englishman in a bar. Now you have quite a stereotypically English accent, which is fine up until this point, where the Englishman has a Welsh accent and they proceed to argue about the two nations. There have been fewer more complicated situations than this in my gaming history, and it irritated me from here on in. I don’t mean to criticise over petty things, but if you are going to try to use convincing accents in a game, please try to get them right! Now that this niggling point is out of the way, we can talk about possibly the game’s greatest feature; sea shanties! Nothing is more entertaining on the high seas than your crew breaking out into many a wonderful chorus as you cruise off on adventures many. Throughout the game you can even collect new shanties for them to sing, which to me was the most worthwhile side activity of all! Credit to Ubisoft; your accents were a little off, but your sea shanties are just fantastic, please release an album!So that is Assassins Creed IV Black Flag. The game is not entirely perfect with a few little points which can be irritable (yes, I am talking about the accents again) and a storyline which doesn’t quite do justice the series so far, however for the most part it is incredibly good with some of the strongest gameplay and indeed visual elements of any game currently on the market. Had the game been released as a pirate title unrelated to the Assassins Creed franchise, I might have described it as perfect! As it stands, I will describe it as this; Assassins Creed IV Black Flag is an incredible experience which offers a fantastic range of activities under the overwhelmingly good gameplay for which it has been developed. It looks fantastic, it plays well, and if you ignore its slight neglect for the Assassins Creed storyline themes it is no less than beautiful. Sea shanties.The Good - Some of the best gameplay on the market, a fantastic appearance, and of course the sea shanties are but a few of the great reasons to buy this game!The Bad - The story lacks focus on the Assassin theme which should be at its core as a part of this series, and is in some ways more of a pirate game than an Assassins Creed title. Otherwise, its main issue is simply some dodgy accent work.An End Note – Having played the game through and been confused by why the subtitles had so many unnecessarily capitalised words, my housemate and I realised that this was an intentional move to reflect the written word of Old English at the time in which the game is set. So I just wanted to leave this little note to say this; kudos Ubisoft, that’s pretty bloody good!

10.5.2014

The latest instalment in the Assassins Creed franchise appears to be splitting opinion. Some people love the pirating direction the series appears to have taken, others appear to rue the gradual watering down of the primary role of the Assassin.In a game titled Assassin's Creed, they have a point. But there's no denying that on the evidence of AC3, the game and its themes were growing stale.Connor was a dreadful character; in my opinion largely down to appalling voice acting, and the game as a whole was frankly not a lot of fun to play. Far too many annoying optional objectives in every single mission made progression a chore - sure, you can argue that as these were optional,there was no requirement to fulfill them. But nobody wants to feel punished with a big red cross on their screen just because they didn't play the memory in the ridiculous linear fashion some dim developer devised.Don't get me wrong - optional objectives are still around in Black Flag - but nowhere near as many as there were in AC3, where you would have a minimum of 3 per mission, all of which had to be completed in one exceedingly dull playthrough. The ones in Black Flag are much more in line with a gamer's approach to the mission; they're not outlandish and petty, and if you choose not to complete them, or fail them, you are not told off for doing so by having a big red cross flashed in your face. The objective simply disappears from the menu and you can forget about it if you so wish.With that as a prime example, in Black Flag, Ubisoft have corrected the fundamental flaws of AC3 and built on one of the few redeeming aspects of its predecessor: the naval battles.Now I'll be honest. I didn't particularly enjoy the naval battles in AC3. Again, optional objectives. My memories of playing those missions aboard the Aquila are tainted by recollections of repeatedly playing a certain privateer mission in a pathetic attempt to meet the absurd requirements to reach 100% sync.The thing with Black Flag's naval combat is, it is quite simply just fun. I have spent many hours simply roaming around on the open seas engaging ships in battle, all ultimately with an aim to stock up on valuable materials to improve my ship, but never feeling I was grinding whilst doing so. The Jackdaw's controls are vastly improved over AC3's comparatively clunky and unresponsive Aquila, making the whole experience far less frustrating and allowing greater freedom of choice as to how you engage your opponents at sea.For all that battling ships is a major part of the game, there are still considerable hours devoted to land-based play. Your classic AC missions are all here - albeit with a few too many "follow him", "eavesdrop on them" missions for this reviewer's patience - and there are a small number of pure platforming/free running sections for the traditionalists. Whilst the latter is lacking, and the absence of any puzzles is sure to disappoint fans of the wonderful tomb sections of previous instalments, it didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the game.There are still faults, of course. The stealth mechanics are so simplistic and the AI equally so, that it does become a source of amusement as you progress. It's far too easy to sit in thin shrubbery, in plain sight of anyone within half a mile, and get away with murder (literally), whilst a guard stares directly at you and his swiftly falling comrade without batting an eyelid. Guards respond to whistles with an almost adorable childish inquisition; and once you realise how incredibly gullible they are, you will rarely use any other means of distraction to lure guards to their inevitable death.With the Desmond storyline dead and buried (at long last), the "present day" sequences of the game see you play the role of a faceless employee at the Abstergo Entertainments offices, in a permanent state of first-person view. Now, emulating an office job in a video game probably doesn't fill you with excitement, and I sometimes felt the game could have existed quite happily without any present day activities at all, but there's lots of self-referencing humour and easter eggs lying around in these sequences to keep you engagedOne of the main plus points about Black Flag is the sheer size of it. There is around 80 hours of gameplay available here if you so wish to take advantage of it. Scores of islands, harbours, jungles, underwater shipwrecks, whaling opportunities, and of course a handful of towns and cities, complete with tall buildings to scale and rooftops to hop across. This has never really got old for me and in a way, I wish there were more of these bustling hives of activity, instead of the dozens of islands and coves that start to look the same after a while. That said, the pleasure of reaching a synchronisation point and seeing the view from above is enough to warrant their inclusion.The graphics are stunning, by the way. The open seas have never looked better in any game, ever, and the lighting effects of a setting sun over Havana are simply beautiful. Even the pouring rain looks gorgeous as the individual splashes of rain pound against the wooden floor of your ship. Now, I haven't played the PS3 version, but the last 3 Assassins Creeds on that console suffered from a very poor framerate, so I'd be surprised if there was any significant improvement in the PS3 version of Black Flag. On the PS4, it's as fluid and smooth as you could hope for.To wrap up, having suffered from tepid, stale, run-of-the-mill annual releases for two or three years now, Black Flag is the injection of life and freshness that the series desperately needed. This is undoubtedly the best Assassins Creed since AC2. If that doesn't convince you to buy it, nothing will.

28.4.2014

Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag took me around 23 hours to complete, not including the PlayStation exclusive Aveline DLC pack (included with ps3/ps4 purchase of game) that added an extra hour or so to the game. I have to say, the most memorable parts of that time were spent wreaking havoc, pillaging enemy ships to upgrade my own and exploring the vast collection of small tropical islands that make up the game world. You may be realising that the 'Assassin' part didn't appeal to me much, but the pirate side of the game did. Put simply, this is a pirate adventure game wrapped in an Assassins Creed disguise. Below is a breakdown of each part of the experience,with an overview of it all at the bottom.Story: Lacklustre and disappointing, the story did not excite or entice me, providing none of the historical depth that thrilled me about the original Assassins Creed... but as a pirate game we do get to see Blackbeard! In all honesty, the most exciting parts of the story were the Abstergo sections of the game. These are the modern day bits that in previous Creed games have been tedious and sluggish. However, they are short and mysterious enough to hold your interest here, providing welcome relief from the main game for short bursts. 3/5Gameplay: This is where the game shines; it kicks off very early on, you won't see a ten hour long tutorial like the previous game in the franchise. After playing Assassins Creed 3 I had given up on the series (it was just too boring and slow), thankfully Black Flag gets you roaming a free world with all tutorial style missions done within an hour. From then on the game is really fun, particularly when you are at sea. The Jackdaw (your ship) can be sailed and used to attack other ships in fantastically wild open water battles as well as providing a great way to travel to new islands and locations. Unfortunately, the game gets repetitive... some missions are painfully slow and really take the fun out of the exploring and seafaring. The classic 'tail this character' missions are unfortunately part of this game, duller than ever. These slow missions occur so often, especially in the latter stages of the game that the main story just seems like a waste of time, considering the story itself is not exactly riveting. Something that did make a pleasing comeback was the stealth aspect. It is required for some small sections but most of the time it is just a fun optional way of carrying out missions and tasks (much like Far Cry 3). 4/5Lasting Appeal: The game took around 25 hours to finish all in all, with my overall completion at around 64%. I felt I explored enough to really take in everything the game had to offer, from collecting Mayan stones for new outfits to hunting sharks and whales to craft better gear for Edward (the pirate turned fake Templar that you play the game as). A decent run time, not like the abysmally dull Assassins Creed 3 that supposedly takes over 40 hours to end (I stopped playing after 10 hours of boredom), but still long enough to sink into (pardon the pun). The game has 12 sequences in total; these are essentially chapters that mark progression. I still feel there were sequences that dragged on, sequences 7-9 were quite boring in particular, as was the irritating final sequence; it was crammed full of 'follow this guy' objectives. After playing for around 14 hours I had only progressed to sequence 6 due the exploration and general distractions the optional parts of the game had to offer. Generally, it seemed the main campaign was a low point while the wilderness provided tons of fun. 4/5Multiplayer: I have not played much but from what I have experienced (around 3 hours) it is much the same as previous games. Certainly fun, but not really much that felt new in the Multiplayer department. I have never really been a fan of the Assassins Creed multiplayer, my opinion didn't change after this game. 3/5Graphics: On the PS4 this game looked good. Of course, it was just a higher resolution PS3 game with slightly nicer textures. Nothing phenomenal (check out Infamous: Second Son for something truly great) but a step up from last gen. Load times were fairly quick too. Bonus points for the foliage that moves when touched by Edward (not in last gen version). 4/5Overall: Every aspect of this game was filled with good experiences (fun ships battles for example) and some rather bad ones (like a boring story) but overall the fun wins out. If a pirate or `island discovery' based adventure game is something you desire then this is a game to get. Honestly, if you disliked Assassins Creed 3 you will probably much prefer this game. Interestingly, you are provided with a 'rate this' at the end of each mission, to rate the story part of the game out of five. Very few (no more than four) missions got 5 stars from me, with most just being OK. That was really my issue with the main missions, they were never spectacular. The open-world roaming was an absolute blast though. I just wish the Assassins Creed moniker had been dropped, Black Flag had the potential to be a great new pirate based IP, but the Assassins Creed label and all the gameplay baggage that comes with it, drags the game down. 4/5

25.10.2014

Assassin's Creed IV is a misleading title, as of the time of this review there have in fact been 6 games on consoles and I believe 3 on handheld systems, one of which was ported to consoles. So keeping things fresh in a series which sprawls out to that many games yet keeping close to it's assassin roots must be rather difficult. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag not only succeeds at that, it excels above previous entries making it the best game since Assassin's Creed II.For those not familiar with the series I imagine getting into it at this point would be rather difficult to try and understand what is fully going on, and the developer Ubisoft does very little to catch people up on the story.To sum up there has been an underground war going on beneath society between two factions, the Assassins who believe in freedom and the Templars who believe in order and control. Both sides are fighting for what they believe is in the benefit for hummanity. Perspective I guess.In the game world there is a machine in current times called the animus which allows people to see through the eyes of their ancestors throughout different periods of history, giving the chance in each game to play different assassin's and interact with famous people through time, some portrayed as good like Leonardo Divinchi, some bad such as Cesare Borgia.Assassin's Creed IV is set in the early 18th century in the Carribean during the golden age of pirates. You play the role of a pirate named Edward Kenway, a down on his luck Welshman who wants to make his fortune and stumbles onto the Assassin/Templar war by accident. Caring little for either side it takes a while before he decides that either cause is really worth fighting for.I'm going to say two things that contradict the score I've given this game right now, Edward is pretty unlikable and the story is fairly uninteresting with a few plotholes (Edward has assassin skills with no training at any point) but neither of these things get in the way of just how fun the gameplay is.This is a game of two halves, land and sea. When exploring the Caribbean islands on foot it's a pretty standard Assassin's Creed game. Edward is extremely agile able to climb buildings in a parkour fashion, swim, hide as well as use a variety of weapons in combat which although usually comes down to a mainly counter attack affair has some brutal moves that really look great for finishing off enemies.On the water though is where the real fun comes in, where the assassin ends, and the pirate begins. Edward commands his own ship the Jackdaw which can be upgraded with more cannons, a better ram, better hull plating etc. With the Jackdaw you can do pretty much anything you want, attack and sink ships in huge broadsides, board vessels by swinging in on ropes and taking their cargo or even adding that ship to your pirate fleet, attack forts, go harpooning for whales or even look for sunken treasure using a diving bell. There is just a lot to do and nearly all of it fun.As a cross gen game Assassin's Creed IV also looks surprisingly great on the PS4, the water effects are especially gorgeous with reflections, the rolling of the waves and storms. The voice acting is also of an extremely high quality as is the music. Interestingly enough when sailing you can get your crew to sing actual sea shanties of the period should you wish, many of which are actually excellent.To sum up Black Flag is a great game with tons to do and collect. The seafaring is especially brilliant making this the best pirate game you'll play even if it's actually a science fiction game about assassins.+ Amazing seafaring gameplay.+ looks gorgeous.+ Great voice acting and music.+ Tons of things to do and collect.- Edward and the story are a little naff.

25.8.2016

I borrowed the original assasins creed game and was remarkably underwhelmed. In my opinion the opening of that particular instalment was marred by a dreadful opening to proceedings and I never really got into the game proper. I started 2 but at the time wasn't particularly feeling that game either.So I picked up assasins creed black flag originally on ps3 and enjoyed it but then sold my ps3 and gave it to a friend. I picked up black flag again about a month or so ago and yes the graphics are better (the water effects are particularly good in my opinion ),the gameplay by and large us good (if somewhat linear).But I've been pkaying games since pong first hit tvs and have played hundreds upon hundreds of hours on various different platforms and various different genres if games.This is in general a rewarding experience but as per most games the developers let certain sections get stupidly frustrating. When are developers going to learn that repeating things over and over and over because the game mechanics are so random that they become unpredictable is not most people's idea of fun(unless you're some sort if masochist,which apparently judging by the interest in Dark Souls and the ultra hard ilk of games,seemingly doing well, maybe there are more of you out there than I thought !!). Having spoken to many other gamers out there I think most people don't really enjoy being wound up but hey if you do there are bits of this game that'll hit the spot.Steath sections where guards do one thing one minute and then change their behaviour next time. Ship battles which should be easy,leading to you being sunk. Now maybe it's just me,maybe all my years of gaming haven't improved my gaming skills ,but it feels to me at times developers do this sort of thing to add more game play time to a title. I have no problem failing a few times in order to learn how something works,I get it. But when you try something that should really work time and time again with no logical reason why it doesn't thats not my idea of fun.Some of the best games I've played haven't been the longest games or the easiest games,but they've been well paced and seemingly fair. This is unecesassarily let down by bits that just feel a chore rather than fun. Don't get me wrong its a very good game on the whole but like so many other titles it could have been great.Id recommend trying it if you like the pirate theme,naval battles are fun and there's definitely a reasonable learning curve with most of them,the same with the stealth. When it's done properly there's a sense of achievement and its fun. I went into one settlement and took out all the guards first time by observing their movements and employing various different tactics which was great fun. Then I get to the next section and they appear to have changed the rules. The same with the occasional naval battle,you've upgraded your ship,got better ship armour and then a ship which has a low tactical profile somehow does you so much damage that you sink.It just doesn't make sense,so overall very good but again like many other titles let down by inconsistent gameplay. At the price it's available at these days id certainly recommend a try,you never know maybe non of the above will happen to you,but don't say I didn't say it might ha ha. Four stars well deserved, wish I could have given it five.

20.6.2014

The sixth game in the solid-but-slightly-stale Assassin's Creed franchise represents a definite return to form. All the familiar elements are present but the ocean-going dynamic and a lighter tone allow it to chart fresh new territory. For this one, Ubisoft has thrown so much at it that you're never at a loss for something to do. My completion is now at 100% - after over 100 hours of gameplay that took longer than three months. I call that superb value for money.Admittedly it takes several story missions for Edward Kenway (father of AC III's Haytham) to find his sea legs but once he acquires his trusty ship, the Jackdaw, he has a vast open world to explore. In these sandbox-type games,I'm more drawn to the side missions and collectibles as they offer a lot more variation than the main narrative. If Black Flag falls down anywhere, it's with the seen-it-all-before-just-get-on-with-it type stuff: tailing, eavesdropping and instant failure upon detection. Fortunately, such moments aren't that frequent in the grand scheme of things (but there are one or two that'll drive you to distraction before you get them right). The 100% synch 'optional objective' has now become part of the furniture and although I detest having limitations on how I play the game, I will concede that they do add an extra layer of challenge. Let's face it, they're hardly 'optional' if you want to complete the experience.The Jackdaw is almost a secondary character and you'll need to upgrade her as much as possible to take on bigger ships and forts later in the game. There are some 50 islands to explore, three major locations, underwater wrecks, four Legendary Ships (of which at least a couple are insanely difficult), hunting and harpooning, as well as numerous assassination and naval missions. In addition to the usual 'quest' components (synchronising viewpoints, collecting treasure chests, animus fragments, etc.) there are also 22 buried chests, a map being needed for each. If, after having done all this, you're hungry for more, then visit the AC Initiates website for extra challenges.This was my first PS4 game and the graphics look absolutely gorgeous, particularly the Pixar-style shimmering oceans and lagoons. Sometimes, having synchronised a viewpoint, you just want to do a 360-degree pan to take it all in. There's a lot of attention to historical detail and the mostly British cast lend authentic accents and performance capture to the principal characters.By taking note of what makes AC tick and keeping the annoyances to a minimum, Ubisoft has produced an exceptionally enjoyable game and given the series the shot in the arm it needed. Also, by inviting players to rate each mission upon completion, it's clear that their opinions are taken seriously and this bodes well for the forthcoming, French Revolution-set Assassin's Creed: Unity.

10.12.2013

If you enjoyed the ship sections in an otherwise lackluster Assassin's Creed III, you should go buy this now.Sailing the open seas is a real treat, and with your crew singing a shanty, it is sure to bring a smile to your face. The ship battles are a lot of fun and essential to either sink or board and capture to get the materials to upgrade your ship, The Jackdaw and sell your booty to help pay for weapons, outfits and the ship itself. In true pirate style you can find treasure maps to dig up chests in far out islands and regular chests on smaller islands, which is a nice way to pass the time, you can also find special plans to upgrade your ship such as the best cannons and harpoon.Whaling is a nice mini-game and successfully killing your prey gives materials to help craft items to improve Edward in some way, killing and skinning land animals does this too. Underwater exploration was one of my favourite bits, often having to avoid a whole array of nasties including sharks and moray eels while you plunder those underwater chests. There are forts to attack which when captured reveal areas and items on the section on the map it covers and will even fire upon enemy ships who stray too close afterwards! A couple of the forts like to throw in curveballs to what is already a challenging (in early game especially) experience including an island fort being circled by two water tornadoes! There's also legendary ships which are fearsome and will take all the skill you have (and some upgrades) to take them down.The accompanying story on this is very good. It gets off to a slow start and the modern day sections are largely forgettable unless for example you want to know what happened to Desmond after the end of III, but it picks up and there are plenty of interesting characters. Edward Kenway is a charismatic rogue and definitely an improvement over Connor. Kenway and in particular James Kidd, Blackbeard and Bartholomew Rogers are all well acted with great accents. I loved James Kidd straight away. Blackbeard, while off to a tame start, really shines though by the end and Rogers is just a good, interesting character all round. About half way through the story picks up strongly and doesn't let up and the finishing stretch ends up being a very satisfying one.All in all I would put this on par with Assassin's Creed 2, my fav in the series and one of my fav games of all time. While I think the story is marginally weaker than 2, it is still very good and the latter half is very enjoyable but the whole pirating aspect, which helps expand the length of the game for a long time, helps put it on par. I know I will still take to the seas now and again, even after finding everything because it's just so fun to be a pirate.

8.12.2013

Now I may be out voted as to the most anticipated game of the year for PC, but for me it was Batman Arkham Origins. I was ecstatic when I finally got to play it, because of how awesome the last two titles were. However, I was bitterly disappointed. Not because of the story (which is awesome BTW), but because of the terrible way it was ported to PC. Now, I, like many of you, wait with baited breath for games developers to wake up and realise that PC gamers are the most serious, dedicated and intelligent buyers and consumers on the planet. However, with the launch of the so-called next-gen consoles (which my PC spanks on all over), I cannot see this anytime soon.Fear not. Assassins Creed 4 is here to rescue you.I bought this game from my local retailer for around the same price as Amazon on a whim and, some what reluctantly, and I have to say it was worth every penny. Second best game I have bought/played all year (Tomb Raider has to be my best purchase all year).I really disliked Assassins creed 3. I thought they tried to cram too much in to a game and messed it up badly. Chief amongst these blunders was the MASSIVE map they had created. Then they decided that fast travelling between locations was not an option most of the time, which meant you spent all of your free time galloping between locations. This was extremely annoying and terribly off putting. I finished the game nevertheless so I could see what happened with Desmond and his team. After all, that was the most interesting part of this instalment.Now however, the franchise is back and better than ever. It takes all the best bits from Assassins Creed 3 and loses all the worst bits. So this time there is a massive map to explore, but, unlike A3, this time you can fast track to most anywhere on the map. This saves so much time. Best of all, they have expanded on the ship missions and improved them massively. This time you are a pirate Captain who spends most of his time sailing the seas, which does away with the boring horse travel.The best bit about it, however, is the side quests. I haven't finished the main story yet, and have played hours upon hours of the game. Similar to Assassins creed Brotherhood, you can set up your own network of privateers to trade all over the world. Plus you can be a pirate and board ships and cause allsorts of mischief. All of which allow you to trade for cash and upgrade your armaments and your ship.Without actually being one (as I personally hate them) Assassins Creed 4 has become the closest thing to a role playing game that I personally can stomach and love. I recommend this game to all. Screw Batman, the biggest PC game disappointment of the year, get this. I cannot stress it enough!

2.8.2014

I really like the Assassin's Creed games, ever since the first one which was a bit repetitive but I still actually enjoyed it. I mean it has collectables, you can climb up to high buildings and look around and think to yourself that if you wanted to you can go everywhere you can see! Heck I even liked Assassin's Creed 3 (well apart from the actual character)Assassin's Creed 4 looks outstanding on the PS4, the weather being one of the things that really grabs your attention when first playing. When a storm comes you can see the rain dynamics change, palm trees blowing in the wind, viability minimizing and rain bouncing off the ground!for me this is a bigger leap forward on next gen than the actual graphics themselves.Unfortunately nothing has changed with the running mechanics, you can still get caught on things, you will still end up trying to run up walls when trying to escape from soldiers and you will most defiantly just fall off buildings! But hey! we have put up with it for 4 games so why change it eh!Traveling around on a boat really does give you satisfaction, spotting a ship and deciding then and there that you want to board it and take it's good is a fantastic feeling although it does get repetitive once you near the end of the game. Again there are a whole host of side quest but again there are a whole host of the same side-quests.Story isn't to bad either but something that has changed and that's money! unlike previous AC games where after 10 hours you have more money than items to upgrade or places to purchase this version requires you to fork out a lot more. In a way this is better as you don't feel invincible after such a short time and you do want to do more side-quests in order to unlock extras for your character or ship.You can send out ships for a small sum to retrieve money and items however to do this safely you will need to play a small mini game which I wasn't too fond of and neither will you be after the 30th time!Sailing like I said above is actually quite fun and for those who don't want to spend all your time on a boat shouting ARRRRR there is a fast track available to places you have already visited! but for me I love traveling by the boat, watching the weather change, avoiding enemies and looting ships and islands for money and items.The other side of the game where you are out of the animus is a lot shorter after complains from previous games but I for one enjoyed the Desmond levels as it provides a welcome change.All in all being a pirate is a welcome addition to the Assassin's Creed world, not sure how I feel about going back to city based games however co-op assassins does interest me!

16.10.2014

What can i say. Bought this at launch for the PS4 (also bought it at launch). This is one of, if not the best Assassin's Creed games made to date.It needs to be said, that Ubisoft put the whole Assassin order in the background and focussed on you doing what a Pirate does best. Which is of course, pillage, plunder and drink whilst sailing across the ocean in search of buried treasure. That's what makes this game different from the other games in the series so far. I for one enjoy that aspect of it, especially the whole being a Pirate.You play as Edward Kenway, the granfather of Connor and the father of Haythem Kenway. As the game progresses, you learn more and more of the pirate life.

7.4.2014

I liked but was never a huge fan of the Assassin’s Creed games so I came to Black Flag expecting a polished but somewhat average experience. I was right on the first count, wrong on the second. It’s fantastic. Weirdly, though, it’s not the main game that makes it so outstanding. The plotline is great, yes, interesting and fun, but it’s the sandbox element that really makes Black Flag flap in the wind. Sailing from island to island, taking on assassination and naval contracts, blowing up forts, raiding warehouses, running down unsuspecting Portuguese schooners – you can do whatever you want, whenever you want. Treasure hunting, animal hunting, crafting, collecting cargo-holds of materials to turn your ship into an armoured,

28.11.2013

This game can be summed up in two words 'simply sublime'. It is immense and I'd go as far as saying it's the best Assassin's Creed game I've played (I've played them all).So what is so great about AC IV? You play as a Pirate Edward Kenway who is the best protagonist in the AC franchise so far. He may not have the charm of Ezio or the charisma of Haytham, but he is as hard as nails and really captures the true essence of a Pirate.The setting is the Caribbean (surprise, surprise) and it is a fabulous setting! Bright, crisp surroundings with a real vibrancy and the attention to detail makes the setting stand out far above any of the other settings used in the previous AC games.

9.12.2013

This was my first PS4 game and I am happy to inform you that I was not disappointed. I had never been much of a fan of AC and the last time I played one was back in AC2.The first thing that struck me about this game is it has undoubtedly the best water graphics I have ever seen in a game on such a large scale. The ocean shimmers stunningly in sunsets and spray flies in the air convincingly as you sail the Caribbean seas.This brings me onto my next positive. The naval gameplay. I was slightly sceptical as to whether the ship would be easy enough to control without feeling fake and I think Ubisoft hit the nail on the head with the naval controls.My favourite moments in the game are undoubtedley the storms that randomly occur on your travels.

3.12.2013

My first PS4 game. Being a fan since the very first game I have seen this series grow and get better. There have been a few low points (AC3) but all in all a great franchise.The game looks great. I was even impressed with the main menu and straight away knew the soundtrack was going to be epic. So far I am really happy with this game and very impressed indeed. This is easily the best one yet. The graphics are top notch and so far the story is great. Its a massive open world sand box and once you get your ship, you can go pretty much any where. On land the islands look stunning and full of life, not just the animals but the foliage too. The bushes you can hide in a very detailed and on a whole is a true improvement in every way.

12.12.2013

When i saw the launch titles for the PS4 this was one of the games that first appealed to me. I have played most of the previous installments, with AC2 being my personal favourite mostly down to the development of Ezio, and i feel that for a game to be truly great, you must have a truly great main character (Pretty obvious).AC3 fell short in this respect as is widely echoed in other's reviews.Onto Edward Kenway... he really is a fantastic character, and i think the little flashbacks to home are a very nice touch.When you have a character that has as much depth as this, the gameplay can fall short, with less attention given to this. AC4 doesnt have this problem at all,

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