[OLD] Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - The High Seas Caesar

Over the last couple of years or so I have become more of a fan of the Assassin’s Creed franchise. Each game has managed to improve on the last one in some way, but also introduced ideas that don’t really pan out very well. This became more pronounced when the franchise started going to a yearly release schedule with Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood and Revelations, which helped pave the way for the divisive Assassin’s Creed III (though this divisiveness came more from reactions to the main character and setting). That said, it was a little surprising to me that they would announce a fourth numbered game shortly after the last, but I was still on board anyway and wanted to find out what it was like. Though I had pre-ordered Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and picked up on the day of release, I was only able to play it after finishing a couple other reviews after college finals, so I apologize for that delay on my end. Once I finished it, I did find myself overall liking this game more than its predecessors.

Black Flag follows the life of Edward Kenway, aka Connor’s grandfather. Edward wants to impress his estranged wife, Caroline, by becoming a “man of quality” and making a lot of money. To accomplish this, he becomes a privateer for the navy. While out to sea, he turns to pirating and ends up killing an Assassin named Duncan Walpole and taking what’s on his person. Afterwards, he meets up with Templars and, in the guise of Walpole, sells off valuable information that concerns the Assassins. Later in Nassau, after freeing a man named Adéwalé, he forms his own pirate crew and gains his own ship, which he dubs the Jackdaw. In search of further fortune, he ends up on a search for a place called the Observatory and eventually finds out just how big of a mistake he made in his meeting with the Templars.

The story moves along at a pretty good pace and is written well to boot. I was very fascinated by the information the player is given about the Templars and the First Civilization, as well as a more in-depth look at the titular Assassin’s Creed: “Nothing is true. Everything is permitted”. Edward is a man who at first runs his life purely out of love for money and with a blatant disregard for the safety and livelihood of everyone around him, even the allies who begin to trust him. As a result, he kind of deserves all of the scorn that he gets for his initial philosophy and way of life. Not only do I like having a protagonist in the franchise who is this deeply flawed, as opposed to a total ladies man, I also found it to make his character development later in the game that much more satisfying as he comes to realize the consequences of his actions. He does try to right his wrongs throughout the story, especially in a particular lengthy side quest, but eventually he grows to care about more than simply monetary gain and it was nice to see him fully understand the meaning behind the Assassin’s Creed and care for the lives of others. This real progression of character is what helps make him my favorite Assassin yet.

Yes, that is Blackbeard (left) and Black Bart (right) with Edward Kenway (middle).

Of course, the other half of the story is the modern day segments, which I found to be handled surprisingly well. Rather than focusing on a single Desmond-like character using the Animus, it follows an unnamed Abstergo Entertainment employee who is hired to look into the life of Edward Kenway and help the company get footage for a couple of their upcoming projects, those being a video game and a feature film. Since these segments are also in first-person, this implies that the employee is you, specifically, which helps some of the bigger twists in the story carry more impact. Also, in an effort to appeal to everyone, these segments are deliberately designed so that you can spend either a few minutes or a few hours trying to explore everything and learn more, so if you really dislike the modern day parts of the story, you can pretty much skip them entirely. This is a great move, though I ended up trying to get everything in the modern day anyway and one should be aware that there are points where you must interact with the real world to advance the plot.

In an intriguing twist, the setting of Black Flag is in a time before the events of Assassin’s Creed III, taking place in the Golden Age of Piracy instead of Colonial America. As such, the world itself is quite different, taking place in a much larger section of the globe. There are many different islands to explore, both big and small, all with varied environments that help them stand out from each other much more than Colonial America (though I wish to stress that I liked Colonial America anyway because my ancestors were involved in America all the way back to the Mayflower). I noticed a brighter color palette with Black Flag, which is actually very realistic and sells the very open setting as well as highlighting the high level of detail put into every part of the environment. The water is also very well animated, though I must say that the splash animations were a little sub-par. In any case, this is definitely the best looking Assassin’s Creed game yet.

True Fast Travel is a returning feature from Assassin’s Creed III, which is good because the world of Black Flag is absolutely gigantic. Getting to a spot on an island on foot isn’t so bad, but bigger levels may require you to traverse through dense jungles, so Fast Travelling on larger islands is more attractive. To get between individual islands however, you may need to sail all the way from one island to the next, which can take a really long time. There are ways to ease the length of the journey, but unlocking Fast Travel points becomes absolutely essential to cut down on travel time if you’re trying to go to a very specific location. Fluid movement among the platforms and trees is a returning element as well, albeit much more refined and less glitchy than before.

In searching for an appropriate image, I am assured that
this represents at least part of the game's world.

Combat is pretty similar to that of Assassin’s Creed III, but at the same time it seemed to be missing some features that I liked from the latter. Edward can still dual wield swords, but the effectiveness is limited to the individual stats of the swords, which was a little disappointing due to the lack of a single weapon to rely on. Unarmed combat and wristblade-only combat is also pretty much useless, a major disappointment as I had to depend almost purely on my swords to quickly get rid of enemies. Guns are also a viable option, though if you want to rapidly chain shots together, which you can with up to four shots, you have to wait a bit for Edward to reload before you can do that cool feature if you’ve fired already, and even then I was never able to reload back up to four (I have no idea if that was tied to my upgrade choices, so that could just be player error). Thankfully the momentum-based combat is still present, but the toughest enemies still can’t be taken down through this method, which awkwardly forced me to resort to breaking their guard even with a number of the enemies around me. This situation worsens as soon as a grenade gets thrown, so there was hardly an opportunity to kill a group with momentum alone. The blowpipe and rope dart also return for use both in combat and in the field, though the rope dart arrived too late in the game for me to really integrate it into my strategy all that well, though firing darts in the field is a good way to thin out the enemy forces before initiating combat. Also, smoke bombs are very helpful in a pinch to quickly eliminate a wave of unnecessarily tough opposition.

Since this is a pirate game, you will see the water quite a lot, mostly if you’re travelling somewhere for the first time. Fortunately there’s a lot on offer to keep things interesting and core ship mechanics introduced in III are greatly improved upon in Black Flag. The Jackdaw was very easy to maneuver and combat between ships is very refined and much easier to execute. Naval Battles are where the most improvements were made, including the ability to fire mortars and more advanced versions of specific weaponry. It takes a little getting used to, but after that it feels very intuitive and you feel like you can take on any ship. While locked in combat between ships, you can take two routes, those being to either sink or personally raid the ship. Sinking the ship offers less of a reward, that being half of whatever cargo that ship was carrying at the time; sometimes this is unavoidable once the Jackdaw is upgraded high enough. Boarding the enemy ship after crippling it will net you all of its cargo, though you may also need to complete other objectives like killing a certain number of crew members or destroying a flag. This option is the best route for gathering supplies for upgrades, so it’s fortunate that they made Naval Battles more fun to go through.

The Jackdaw (appearance can be manipulated by the player).

With that said, upgrading the Jackdaw can be extremely difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. You’ll not only need Reales, the currency of the game, you’ll also probably need some amount of cloth, wood or metal, sometimes a combination of them. Earning the coin is easy, since you can just sell off all of the valuable sugar and rum you find, but getting the materials presents a challenge. There are a few ways to do it, but it can take forever no matter what you do, not helped by the noticeable lack of metal compared to the other materials. For this, there is both good and bad news. The bad news is that at certain points in the story you will be forced to upgrade the Jackdaw if you want to survive, making grinding for materials a necessity. The good news is that there is an exploit you can use if you haven’t been spending your time finding ships to raid, or don’t have the time, which requires you to repeatedly destroy a downed Man-o-War at a specific point in the story (I will only say Sequence 8, Memory 1) and reloading the checkpoint over and over before quitting to the Main Menu to save everything you earned. It may take a while, and the cargo may be random, but it’s the fastest and most consistent way to get everything you may need.

While you’re out to sea, you can also complete a number of side activities, enough to keep you busy for quite a while if you’re looking to do absolutely everything possible in Black Flag. Aside from Naval Battles, you can also go harpooning for a variety of whales and sharks [NOTE: While you can hunt whales, Ubisoft has stated that they do not condone whaling and that you are able to hunt whales for the sake of historical accuracy], explore underwater wrecks or even go on treasure hunts across the different islands in the game. There’s even more to do besides those, but being able to do so much in the first place allows the water sections to have even more of a purpose and I found what I did do to be a lot of fun. I haven’t tried to collect everything yet, due to the sheer number of Animus Fragments hidden underwater for instance, but I may go back in the future to try and find everything Black Flag has to offer.

Whaling doesn't look like this, but you can hunt what you see here.

The mission structure in Black Flag is improved over its predecessor, with no difference between gameplay and story to be seen (e.g. you actually follow instead of lead). I can see that more time was put into making sure that the missions were balanced and playable, but I found myself to not enjoy doing missions as much as I did just roaming around and doing my own thing. Eventually the story missions became a little monotonous, such as having to repeatedly tail people to find out information or accomplish something. When wandering through the world I felt more freedom and less constraint from the story, but I still went through it anyway to fully unlock everything, including the rope dart and diving bell (required for underwater exploration).

Before I get to PS3-specific content, I want to note that this is the first game I’ve played where sea shanties are a feature. You can find them around the world to have your crew sing them in a manner akin to a naval jukebox. Having your crew sing a shanty can make trips on the open sea less stressful and adds a bit of atmosphere. Collecting them, however, is another story. These things fly away when you try to get them, so you end up having to chase them down and you may not get them. This led me to do one thing I had previously never thought I’d say out loud: spawn camp the sea shanty. When you know exactly where they spawn, you can simply camp where they would be and you’ll get them without any problems except for the part where you have to wait what can feel like an eternity; still worth it in the end to get some vocal variety.

Running after a sea shanty can be difficult.

Since I played the PS3 version of the game, I also got access to an additional hour of gameplay (actual completion time may vary). Surprisingly, it follows the point of view of Aveline from Assassin’s Creed III: Liberation, so it felt a bit jarring to go between protagonists and time periods for only a small amount of time. This section has Aveline freeing a slave whom Connor mentioned via letter would be of interest to her. The story was more straightforward than the game she’s actually from, though I didn’t really find any trouble with combat thanks to the über powerful machete in her possession taking down enemies with ease. It might be worth it for some fans to get the PS3 version just for this one bit of story, but it feels like it could be safely skipped as it has no bearing on the events of any of the related games (including the tangentially related Black Flag). In any event, the controls for Aveline were a little better than the Vita, so I am now curious about the HD version of her original game just to see how much differently it controls.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a yearly sequel that is actually fun to play. Edward is a deeper character than others before him and his time period is a very interesting one to explore. Improvements made across the board also help his story stand out, though I think the missions were less fun than going out to sea or just running around on my own. Assassin’s Creed fans should pick this up to continue the adventure, though it is getting increasingly difficult for newcomers to jump on without spending a lot of money. This is my favorite Assassin’s Creed game yet, but I really hope that Ubisoft actually waits another year to put out the next one because playing the games is now more of a thing that happens instead of a real event worth getting excited for.

[OLD] Assassin's Creed III - New Blood

While I did start playing Assassin's Creed from the second game, I did do something last year where I played through every single game from the beginning to build up to Revelations. Personally, I felt that the first game was a somewhat rocky start, the second showed higher promise and the other two games in the Ezio trilogy showed signs of decay from having yearly releases. This year saw the release of the franchise's third major entry, Assassin's Creed III, only a couple of weeks ago to positive acclaim. Assassin's Creed has been building up to this game through the previous four, taking a total of five games to align its release with the end of this year. So now this review will try to answer the simple question of whether or not the payoff is totally worth it.

In the present day, Desmond Miles and Co. take the Apple of Eden into an underground Temple in New York constructed by the precursors. While there, they hope to use the Animus to peer into Desmond's memories and discover the location of a key that will help prevent a great disaster: a solar flare so powerful that the Earth will be destroyed on 12/21/2012. Since Desmond has learned all that he can from Altaïr ibn-La'Ahad and Ezio Auditore da Firenze, he takes to learning from following a different ancestor, a half English half Mohawk named Connor Kenway, real name Ratonhnhaké:ton (pronouned "Ra-doon-ha-gay-doon"), through the American Revolution. After his village is burned down as a child, Connor, as a teenager, learns of a destiny involving an unfamiliar symbol and heads to the home of Achilles Davenport for guidance. Though reluctant as first, Achilles agrees to help train Connor as an Assassin to combat the Templars. During his training, Connor gets involved in the events of the American Revolution and learns more about the events leading up to that faithful day in his village, as well as how much of it may involve his father, Haytham Kenway.

The story of Assassin's Creed III shows just how well the game can handle the story and tie up loose ends. There is a lot of narrative depth in both time frames, though mostly in the world of the Animus, which I found actually helped me remember smaller details about the setting better. Connor's journey is a tough one for him, but he finds the perseverance to find the Templar named Charles Lee and make him pay for the crime against his people (and is a total badass at the end when he finally offs him). It was also interesting to watch the American Revolution unfold from his point of view, partly since I have an ancestor (Major John Buttrick) who was involved in the battle of Lexington and Concord, and I trust that any creative liberties didn't get in the way of historical accuracy. I enjoyed Connor's thread and felt that his story was the overall strongest aspect of the game. While some may feel that the number of cutscenes can get in the way of this, I actually felt the opposite.

As for the present day, the story of Desmond Miles was concluded in a way that was surprisingly satisfying. I wasn't jumping for joy every time I got to control him, but he was definitely fleshed out better as a character. My least favorite bit about him was the missions he performed to gather the power sources for the precursor Temple, since the villains are defeated in a very anticlimactic fashion, but the rest of the time was certainly interesting. He has time to actually bond with his dad (voiced by John de Lancie), adding some weight to his backstory as seen in Assassin's Creed: Revelations. The information we also learn about the precursors while inserting the devices however is nothing short of fascinating, making the climax of the game more emotional and somehow transforming Desmond from a character we don't usually care about to one that we can actually feel emotion for in the final minutes. The ending, especially its twist, was pulled off rather well and can be seen as setting up a potential sequel.

The world of the Animus itself however is very impressively constructed. Between Boston, New York and the Frontier, this world is massive and simply fun to explore, though a little tiring at times. The two cities look similar to each other in some places, though I did find that enough differences existed to make them feel unique. The Frontier avoids this however by having plenty of environmental obstacles to navigate, mainly trees and steep cliffs. Everything is also beautifully rendered, with graphics that actually surpass those in the Ezio trilogy of games. The colors stand out a little more and the lighting combined with the dynamic weather help everything look visually appealing.

Of course navigating the world is important and can be accomplished in brand new ways. You could run and climb or go on horseback to get to your destination quicker, but now it is possible to climb up trees and navigate through them quickly from branch to branch simply by holding down one button while running. This method is very convenient for stealth as well, letting you strike from above with the element of surprise at your advantage. Other ways of climbing are carried over from previous games and also tweaked in just the right ways to help emphasize the focus on fluidity. Then there's the newly introduced Fast Travel mechanic, allowing Connor to go between certain locations at any given time, instead of just when you get to a station that allows it, provided you have discovered some of them first. Fast Travel comes in really handy, so it's a great idea to take advantage of it when you can and it really cuts down the time required to get to most missions.

In the heat of combat, it's always good to consider your options, and the latest installment has been tweaked in all the right ways to make that decision easier. Long gone are the days of struggling with your weapons to have any effect on your enemies, horrible block timing windows and relying solely on counterattacking. Okay, that last one is still there, but it's been reduced to an option rather than something to lean on. By that, I mean that combat is still based on countering the opponent, but you can now reliably attack an enemy, be they Redcoat or Patriot, in a much more fluid manner. Weapons can now be dual-wielded, a feature that's both useful and powerful. Because of this, I was able to rely on Connor's Tomahawk rather than a hidden blade during a struggle. It is also possible to use items such as rope darts, an immediate favorite, to bring some enemies down to where you could end their life with one blow.

Thanks to the advanced combat, it's also much easier to battle unarmed, since there are now enemy types with tactics to defeat them that are easy to remember, especially if you know that you can trip them up or use alternate weapons in combat. Performing kill streaks will also increase Connor's power gradually and create flashier kills, so eventually a tougher guy will die in one hit. Better block timing also helps make combat more of a breeze, since blocking enemy strikes is now more of a real possibility. Assassin's Creed III, with regard to timing and combat abilities, seems to have taken some cues from Batman: Arkham Asylum, but I think that by doing so it's much better off and has the best combat system of any Assassin's Creed game.

Also new to this game are Naval Battles, also known as combat between ships. When missions within the story required these I was able to get the hang of them and felt good with each victory, but it wasn't a feature I was ready to jump back into. It definitely increases the replay value however and is a good compression of actual naval fights, though it's rather interesting how ordering the crew to duck from cannon fire avoids any and all damage to even the ship.

As for the economy system of this installment, I couldn't really get into it. In the Ezio trilogy the economy was simple enough that I could get hooked on increasing the value of the property and earning more money extremely quickly and efficiently. In this game however, I felt that the economy system either wasn't explained well enough or it didn't do enough to grab my attention. The way they set it up is interesting and fits the time period, but I won't be trying to up the Davenport Homestead anytime soon.

I also have a couple other complaints, the first involving a rather annoying glitch. You see, there's a lock picking mechanic that involves turning tools with both sticks and mashing on one button to brute force the lock. While a little annoying from slight mistakes leading to everything coming undone in a second, it still worked pretty well. However, there were times where it was completely obvious that Connor's animations for this minigame were meant for a certain height, a very specific one at that. Sometimes the tools would be completely misaligned with their proper locations and be above the intended slot. I even had it where I just held the tools in the right spot, but then the lock would undo itself all the way without the chest opening, forcing me to redo the entire operation. I would question whether or not someone caught that in testing, but thanks to Tales from the Trenches, I know that someone must have, the developers just probably didn't have the time or didn't want to iron that bug out for release.

I also felt disappointed somewhat with the mission structure. There seem to be fewer missions this time around thanks to there only being 15 memory sequences, but at least five of these sequences are more like extended tutorials even though they advance the story. Aside from these, even though the game has a heightened sense of freedom, there are still some very strict constraints on what you can do, such as staying on one set path. Sometimes it seemed a little vague on whether or not the target could die during a chase, of which there are quite a few that are also poorly handled, but in one instance I tackled a target properly and the game still registered them as being dead! In some of them, there's even somewhat of a limit on your margin of error, which is to say none. If you get hit by one guy during a chase, you're pretty much screwed and might as well just start over, unless the environment is lucky enough to give you some way of anticipating them. In one specific instance near the end of the game, a particularly linear chase sequence with no way to get ahead of my target (Charles Lee), an explosion occurred and the game physics collided in a way that forced Connor to spin in the air and land in the water, ruining my chances of success. Then there's also the case of Samuel Adams telling you that he'll lead you through the underground, only for the game to really mean "You're leading him to your destination without a real guide. Good luck!"

Before I end my review however, I should go over a couple of bonuses I received. First off, I got the PS3 version of the game, granting me access to an extra hour of gameplay (actual time may vary, by the way). In these exclusive missions, you play through West Point missions that have Connor interacting with Benedict Arnold. This I felt was alright, since it retained the same level of mission structure as with the core game, but the story is definitely what you play them for, since it gives you an alternate insight into what went on with him at the time. However I will point out that one cutscene in particular felt more like an obvious machinima. The other bonus is from pre-ordering the game at GameStop, granting access to the "Lost Mayan Ruins" mission and the exclusive Sawtooth Sword weapon, belonging previously to Captain Kidd. This mission is pretty short, but I enjoyed it for taking advantage of Connor's skills in the core game, the weapon serving as an extremely useful and powerful reward. I felt this "GameStop Edition" was worth it.

So, is the payoff totally worth it? Yes and no. In terms of narrative, the game delivers on all fronts and is a very satisfying journey through the American Revolution with a great protagonist and a very fitting finale for Desmond Miles' journey as well. However, despite some very good tweaks, there is the occasional odd glitch and some poor mission design choices that can bog down the enjoyability for some, though the quality of the economy and the Naval Battles are more dependent on who's playing. It's a great trip for returning fans of the franchise, who have no doubt already bought this. If you still haven't played anything in the Assassin's Creed franchise, I would really recommend playing it from the beginning. The games aren't really that hard to get at this point and it seriously helps the narrative flow, especially considering the continuity lockout at the gorgeously animated opening cutscene. Otherwise, this is probably one of the best games of this year.