Assassins Creed games over the years, have generally stayed consistently strong. While there have been some stumbles here and there with some iterations of the game not being quite as strong as they could/should be, after the disappointing first game it is fair to say that Ubisoft upped their game and have now got one of the strongest IP's around. Taking all that into account, there has still been a niggling something that hasn't hooked me as much as I could have been to these games. Assassins Creed 2 was the game I had the highest completion percentage on, Brotherhood was just as strong. I completely lost interest in Revelations, and in hindsight, I think I praised AC3 a little too highly in my review last year. But I still felt a twang of excitement for AC4 on Xbox One, and it was a game that was high on my 'must play' list, especially after Watch Dogs got delayed. My perfect game is a single player action experience in an open world which encourages me to explore as much of it as I can to discover it's hidden secrets, with an decent story arc to keep me playing. Would Assassins Creed 4 be my perfect game?
The scope and size of AC4 is HUGE! The world, the story length, all the side missions and collectable make this a 40-50+ hour game to fully complete. Your sandbox is the Caribbean Sea (and its many many islands) during the Golden Age of Piracy. Be you on water or land, there is plenty to see. You are Edward Kenway, a Welsh born (had to mention that somewhere - Go Wales!) pirate in 1715, where you find yourself falling into the world of Assassins and Templars after stealing the Assassin outfit from a fallen foe. You’re caught between the needs of the different factions in what proves to be, for me personally, one of the more interesting story lines of the series - which thankfully doesn't include any super slow opening hours like its predecessor. Kenway is the father of AC3's Haytham Kenway and grandfather to main protagonist of that game - Connor (Ratonhnhaké:ton).
Being a game featuring a pirate as it's protagonist, it's unsurprising to see a large focus on ships and travel by sea. I'm happy to report that either I've drastically improved my abilities at the helm of my ship (The Jackdaw), or the controls have been tightened. I had difficulty getting to grips with the naval combat in AC3, but quickly fell into it and felt comfortable. This aspect of the game also makes good use of the intricate rumble features available on the new Xbox One controller, being able to feel the cannons fire, and the hits you take yourself adds to the immersion. Further focussing on the pirate angle the game has, Edward also has a fleet that he can manage, which replaces the assassins you recruited for jobs in the previous games. The fleet can be sent into battles or sent on missions with cash and loot rewards. The biggest rewards however, come from taking out enemy ships and fleets. You can engage them in battle, and once they are weak enough board them, kill some of the crew and take any cargo they may have (rum and sugar to sell, cloth, wood and metal to improve your own ship). These defeated ships can then be used to repair The Jackdaw, sent to Kenway's fleet, or used to lower your wanted level (attacking too many ships increased your wanted level akin to GTA, but here you have hunter ships after you rather than cops). The latter I found to be an option I took less and less due to hunter ships usually having a lot of cargo to loot.
I previously touched on the amount of side activities to do, you could spend hours and hours just exploring the world and ignoring the main story. There are treasure chests to find, secret maps, animus fragments, shanties (for the pirates to sing on your sea voyages), warehouse raids, viewpoints, Mayan puzzles and much more to keep you collectable junkies going. If you want more hands on missions type side activities, AC4 has you covered there aswell - assassination contracts set you a target where you receive more money depending on how you take them out. Naval contracts are basically assassinations by ship and the templar hunts are mini missions with multiple objectives that can be found on different islands within the world. You also have your own 'cove' to upgrade, from establishing shops and taverns to improving the aesthetics of your house. As previously mentioned you can also upgrade your ship - you will need to find hidden blueprints for the top level upgrades that will be needed if you want a chance to take on the games legendary ships. You can improve Edward by buying new weapons, and crafting items to increase health along with other attributes. The crafting system is heavily borrowed from the successful implementation of it in Far Cry 3, where you are required to hunt and skin animals to craft different items. And if all that isn't enough, you are able to attacks forts to take over and reveal more of the map and partake in some deep sea diving.
Visually the game is very pleasing. The deep blue seas look fantastic, from the waves to the ocean spray. And the deep sea diving sections are a nice change of locale, and are well presented. The sandy locations accompanied with forests and greenery brings a whole new colour palette to a series which has previously heavily featured large city environments. Characters facial and movement animations are top notch aswell, along with the weather system changes – stormy seas and rainy sequences are particularly impressive. What I would say is, that you can tell that this is a game which has seen a facial upheaval from 'last-gen' gaming, rather than being made solely for the new generation of consoles. Yes it looks nice, but it all feels more of an upgrade rather than something brand new.
Returning fans of the series will fall right in with the controls. The combat system remains unchanged, and still heavily focuses on counters and breaking an enemy’s defence before being able to deal damage. Long range shooters also make a return so timing the use of a human shield correctly is very present. Free running still comes with some of the annoyances it has done previously - Edward will jump off things instead of climbing, and not be able to climb things it would appear he should be able to. It's nice to see that the additional objectives to each mission (usually revolving around stealth/killing in a certain way) don't weigh so heavily on your completion percentage. Each addition objective now takes up 10% of the sequence, rather than the higher amount they have done before.
The present day sequences of the story with Abstergo are still here. But they aren't quite as intrusive as they have been in the past, and feature a first person perspective of a new employee to the company rather than feeling like 'modern day assassin time'. In fact I didn't mind these too much, you’re put in the place of a person who is doing research for a company that is apparently making a new video game. But you'll soon find out the different motives of Abstergo and you are able to hack other employee’s hardware to unlock hidden research and information on what the company is really doing. It can make a nice change of pace, but I still firmly hold the belief that Assassins Creed could easily survive without the inclusion of a modern day story running alongside its main narrative.
And if single player isn't enough, the successful multiplayer makes a welcome return. You play as an assassin either hunting or being hunted, and a lot of the time both of those in the different game modes. There isn't much of a change to the proven formula, and there is a tutorial before jumping in for people who aren't familiar. There are plenty of different character models available to choose from aswell, along with more in planned DLC. I've barely touched the multiplayer due to being so engrossed in the single player game. So I won't be taking this into account in the final score as it wouldn't be fair to make a judgment based on the little amount that I've played.
Assassins Creed is in danger of becoming stale, there are still a lot of missions which fit the template of the games gone by - follow a target, eaves drop etc. That being said, Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag is one of the strongest entries to the series, bringing enough variety to the table to keep it interesting, especially with the naval missions. The game world is huge and exploring is thankfully encouraged. There is enough game here to keep you busy for weeks, and that's without even touching multiplayer. This is a game that comes recommended. It is not my perfect game, but if you want your fix of fun open world gameplay on the Xbox One - a game type which there are currently not many of. Extremely enjoyable - go get your pirate on!
