Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

After a respite, I have returned to Animus to live the life of Edward Kenway in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. This title picks up after the events of Assassin's Creed III, but has a very different setting. Instead of being a modern day Assassin, hiding from the Templars and delving into the past via an Animus, your character works for the Templars, or rather their Abstergo Entertainment Company as an analyst for the Sample 17 project. The goal of the project is to produce a video game, set in the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy, based on the 'donated' memories that comprise Sample 17.

As the games before it, Black Flag is a third-person, open world, action-adventure title with a heavy emphasis on stealth. As pirate captain Edward Kenway, you stalk the Caribbean for the biggest prizes, and remove any obstacle from your path, typically with a sharp blade. Of course, a pirate would not be much without a ship, and yours is the Jackdaw. It is not the biggest ship sailing the seas, but given the proper resources, it can become the fiercest. Black Flag has an M rating from the ESRB for blood, strong language, violence, and sexual themes. If you should not be exposed to such content, then you likely should not be reading this review.

Should you set sail under the black flag or scuttle this game? Time to find out.

Whether or not you're a fan of Assassin's Creed, it doesn't matter. This game will satisfy both fans of the series and those who just want a damn good pirate game. Everyone wins. For those who wanted both of those things, your luck is well and truly in.

Black Flag is an ambitious game but has a truly great pay-off at the end. The sense of exploration and freedom found in this game isn't something that you would find in most other games. With the north part of the Caribbean as your world (including but not limited to places like Jamaica, Cuba and Barbados) you can sail as pirate captain Edward Kenway on your ship, the Jackdaw, through the open seas taking on British and Spanish ships to steal their cargo, hunting sea creatures and exploring underwater shipwrecks. There's just so much to do. The sense of progression in this game is really great too. In previous AC games there was often an issue of having too much money and not having anything to do with it. Well here you can use that money to upgrade your character as well as your bad-ass pirate ship. As the game progresses you'll be able to take on larger and larger vessels with bigger prizes and even take on the Legendary ships. The characters are mostly based on real historical figures of the period and all are interesting as well as well produced in every respect.

Issues with the game however are that combat is still to easy, stealth is not refined enough and regardless of being a fan of the franchise, the story really didn't do it enough for me. I honestly preferred the story in AC3.

I would recommend picking up this game. It's fun, well made and engrossing. Even if the story doesn't really float your boat, there's so much more to do in terms of side quests. I therefore give this game a 9 out of 10 and would argue that it was one of the top 5 games of 2013.

Thanks for reading this review I hope you found it helpful. If you enjoyed it please feel free to read my other reviews.

A memorable and fun game, basically pirates of the carribean the game, this is without a doubt the crow favorite ac game

Best assassin's creed game, it has such a. Pirate feel, it's amazing how good the graphics still are,without a doubt my one of my favoruite games ever theres so much to do

While I have not completed every Assassin's Creed game, I have played portions of most (though I have not touched Origins or Odyssey). Black Flag is the greatest of them all. The Ezio trilogy may have the best story, but this has a fantastic balance of excellent gameplay and a decent story. If you are looking for the ultimate AC experience, go with Black Flag or Syndicate.