S&S Review: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

Title: Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag
Format: PS4(reviewed), PS3, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Wii U,  PC
Release Date: November 15, 2013
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
Price: $59.99
ESRB Rating: M

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is the latest title in the long running Assassin's Creed franchise, and with the franchise making an impressive leap onto next gen consoles for the first time, it proves to be the best Assassin's yet.

Story and Presentation:
Year after year Ubisoft continues to do a remarkable job at creating wonderful settings for you to explore and to do battle in, and this time the massive Caribbean setting is just as beautiful as I'd hoped. The story revolves around Edward Kenway, a man on a dangerous quest for wealth. Along the way he becomes untangled in the everlasting battle between the Templars and the Assassins. Unlike other protagonists in the series, you never really know what side of the playing field Kenway is on. He's a big departure from Connor, whose morals and goals were clearly understood.  Kenway proved to be one of favorites out of the series, even over the great Ezio Auditore.  The voice acting in the game is stronger than ever, with Kenway and the infamous Blackbeard stealing the show.  Ubisoft always manages to bring these historic characters into a fictional piece of work, and they've done another stellar job at bringing the lore of piracy into an action adventure title.  I played the game entirely on the PS4, and there were many times where the game just left me impressed.  Obviously the game still looks good on current gen systems, but the game's solid framerate was a huge plus.  Too many times in AC3 the framerate crawled during the more heated battles, and in Black Flag, that's never the case. Even during a chaotic thunderstorm, battling a fort and enemy frigates proved to a be smooth experience.  There are still those few technical glitches, where characters will popup out of nowhere, and weird animations will cause enemies to flail uncontrollably when you're in combat.  These are minor occurrences, and a just minimal dent into an overall polished presentation.

Core Gameplay and Multiplayer:
The core gameplay mechanics from Assassin's Creed 3 is still very much intact in Black Flag, but it features a bit more polish this time around.  Countering and dodging attacks is still the bread and butter, as it still requires a bit of timing to make your way through the bigger crowds.  Naval play this time around has been greatly improved, and you'll be spending much more time behind the wheel of the infamous Jackdaw.  Plundering and looting ships will be a big component of upgrading your own ship.  This is just one of the many side activities that Ubisoft has implemented to keep you busy outside of the main story missions.  You can also dive underwater and excavate old ship wrecks for loot, hunt templars, take on Assassin contracts, and a number of other side activities that net you cool and meaningful rewards.  This is one of the elements I always love in AC games, the side quests always pay off in the long run.  The main story offers a ton of highs, but it still manages to utilize the same tedious mission archetypes that we've all come to despise in previous AC titles.  Eavesdropping and tailing is still a big part of the game, and the game never really improves upon the structure to make it more exciting.  The tailing missions do benefit however, from the wide open areas, which gives you more freedom over tailing your target.  Even with that said, the single-player still gives you numerous missions that are a pure adrenaline rush.  I don't play Assassin's Creed games for the online multiplayer, but if you love the multiplayer in previous games, you'll come to enjoy Black Flag multiplayer's offerings.

Final Thoughts:
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag doesn't dramatically change the familiar formula from the last game, but it does give us more from what we loved out of AC3, naval combat and exploration.  This is easily the best AC I've played since Brotherhood, and it shouldn't be missed by fans of the series.

S&S Rating: 9/10

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