AC4 - Black Flag

#WallOfTextThursday


If you are an Assassin's Creed fan then you are in for a treat.  This game is pretty badass and a hell of a lot of fun.  Gone is the brooding & boring Connor and insert the kick ass pirate Edward Kenway (father of Haytham, grandfather of Connor).  For those who have played this series we all know who the Templars are and who the Assassins are.  This dude is neither.  He is just a guy who is there to steal shit and kick ass and you get to do a lot of it.

The game play mechanics are pretty much the same from previous games and the missions run pretty similar.  Unlock checkpoints kill people and take things.  The biggest difference is the naval warfare.  Yeah, there was some naval warfare in AC3, but this game cranks it up to 11.  Naval warfare is a central part of the game.  Want to move around the AC4 world?  Hop in a ship and get after it.  Don't be surprised if it takes you a few hours to go 1800 meters because you get distracted taking on a Spanish or English fleet.  It can get pretty crazy at times.  The most entertaining moments for me were when I was taking down a land based fort, dodging their mortar and cannon fire while also trying to blow up 5 other boats while in the middle of a freaking hurricane.  Well, not really a hurricane, but a massive storm w/ rogue waves and tornadoes circling around.   Holy shit balls that was intense and fun.

I spent most of my time on the sea just slugging it out with everything I saw on the water.  Luckily when you take down these ships you can either send them to the bottom of the ocean or you can board them and hack some people up.  When you take over their ship you take all their resources (sugar, rum, ammunition, wood, cloth & metal) plus you can repair your ship, take down your wanted level or add them to your fleet (adding them to your fleet allows you to play their mini game that opens trade routes around the world and earns you money).  When you load up on the resources you can sell the sugar & rum and you can use the other stuff to upgrade your ship to give you a better shot at surviving and thriving in the more dangerous areas of the map.  Finally some crafting that makes sense and has tangible benefits.

You have other side quests where you can dive and collect loot and other random stuff, you can jump into a small boat and harpoon some sharks & whales and you have your standard Assassin quests as well.  There is just a whole lot to do in this world.

The story is pretty good but it missed the opportunity to really add depth to draw me in.  That was fine for me because it didn't get in the way of me causing mayhem.  I liked that the game really let me ply the way I wanted.  If I wanted to be a stealthy assassin I could do it and there were a lot of ways you could sneak around the map to take people out.  But, if I wanted to charge in and cause as much chaos as possible I could do it without penalty.  I really liked that because I enjoy running into a restricted area and getting everyone chasing me then reel of a ton of combo chains and stack bodies.

The look of the game is great.  The ocean & water looked incredible and I was playing on the PS3.  The world itself really looked like an upgraded version of Far Cry 3 (same developer and obviously built on the same assets).  It was a world that I was happy to be in and was excited to explore.

In the future I would like to see them get back to the story telling they had in AC2 & Brotherhood and I would like to see them beef up the AI a little.  It would also be cool if they would improve some of the fighting moves and maybe add a skill progression along the lines of what they did in FC3.  I look forward to seeing what they can really do with more time developing for the next gen consoles.

All in all, it was a very good game.  I rented it and put in 70 hours without doing many of the side quests.  I will go and buy it so I can complete the whole thing on a 2nd run.

For those who have played it, what are your thoughts?  If you haven't played it, let me know if you have any questions.

Great... do I have to get this game now too? lol

If you are on the fence I would recommend renting it for a day just to get a feel for it

Same. Though you'd have to rent it from GameFly as i think they're the only ones doing PS4 games currently. Or you can RedBox it for PS3... but i hear the new 1080p better AA PS4 version is by far the best looking.

If I had a next gen console....I would rent it on the old one then buy the new one just to really experience the difference. Would go a long way for me to mentally justifying the cash I spent lol

Since AC4 is a game I'll play and then set aside, I figured I'd wait and buy a used copy. Kinda regretting the decision after your write-up here Can't wait to play it now. AC is one of my favorite series. Kind of weird the hero isn't either an Assassin or Templar though. I guess I'll see how that works when getting into the story. Good write-up, I'm more excited about it than I already was.

NukeLaCoog wrote:

If I had a next gen console....I would rent it on the old one then buy the new one just to really experience the difference.  Would go a long way for me to mentally justifying the cash I spent lol

Well you could always shelf it until you decide on a next gen. That way you'll get that "Oh shit, wow" visual factor and you can snag it much cheaper used.

Well if I get it, it's PS4 only... Let me think about this. Any Black Friday deals?

Since AC is one of your favorites, I believe that this one will be well worth the wait. I am really looking forward to playing it again and going OCD on all the different missions, collectibles and reading the artifacts. I fully intended to just rent it for a couple of days but my addiction kicked and and I couldn't stop till I finished.

I have been playing this on the PS3 awesome! the only complaint I have is the ship battles are too easy. I have taken down the legendary ships before getting any elite upgrades. Apart from that its sweet!

walldoggy wrote:

Well if I get it, it's PS4 only...  Let me think about this.  Any Black Friday deals?  

Check this. On sale for the next few hours.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/goldbox/ref=cs_top_nav_gb27?tag=cheapassgam08-20

I just saw AC IV at Costco for 49.99 if you have a membership.

I thought I'd play a few hours of it yesterday and the whole day seemed to disapear, my "few" hours turned into all day (8 hours +). Even my 3 year old wanted a piece of the action and sat with me watching me telling me to ram other ships lol.

This is definitely one of those games worth shelling out for, Glad I'm getting it on pc though, even better than next gen consoles