Ubisoft Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag by Oliver Bowden

This game is great.

I played the original AC years ago but couldn’t get into it and shelfed it. Fast forward to Black Flag. I decided to give it a try because of the pirate theme. You spend the game as a ship captain that gets mixed up with the Assassins and becomes part of their order. The traditional “run and climb anywhere” ability is present and the world is quite large and the cities are very diverse and full of items to collect, places to unlock, and side missions to complete.

The story of the game is engaging and the characters are entertaining and well played and voice acted. Not having played the other games in the series was not a detriment to either story or actual playing experience. The in game tutorial plays out as the game progresses and isn’t forced, but feels like a natural part of the learning process. As for the over arching story itself, you learn a lot about the past characters and the theme of the struggle through in game dialogue and cutscenes as well as through the “present day” Abstergo missions. The characters all have their own personalities and the great graphics of the game help to portray them as individuals with emotions.

Controlling your own pirate ship was a great deal of fun. You have the ability to upgrade your ship with reinforced armor, upgraded cannons, and customizable visual features. As you explore the world you can engage other ships in naval combat. This plays out by sailing around, or into, them while firing cannons and dropping exploding fire barells. Once enough damage is done you can sink the ship or board it to fight the enemy hand to hand and capture the ship. Once captured the ship can be used to repair your own ship, the Jackdaw, it can be added to your fleet (which is a mini game in and of itself where you can complete side missions and earn additonal gold/rewards), or it can be used to lower your ‘wanted level’ in order to keep bounty hunter ships from coming after you.

The handling of the ship is not necessarily easy at first, but after some time at sea it becomes natural. I like that the developers have you battling the ever changing sea through large waves and storms, this adds some realism to the time spent navigating or ship battling. While at sea you may come across harpooning location that starts yet another mini-game . In it you are in a small boat trying to take down any number of sharks or whales with harpoons in order to harvest their valuable hunting good. These are used for upgrades to your character or they can be sold.

One thing that really made me fall in love with this game are the seas shanties. These shanties are one of the many collectible things you can find and chase down in the game. While at sea your crew will burst into song as your ship crashes through the waves and you speed past the beautifully rendered islands of the Caribbean under a bright blue sky. Being a fan of of folk music and sea shanties in real life I was elated to hear my crew out of no where start singing sailing songs that I myself know. This small touch really cemented my love for the game.

This game is a must have in my opinion. It has something to offer any type of gamer and should not be missed.

Es muy buena la experiencia de este juego en la XBOX 360, viene con dos DVD y su pequeño instructivo.

Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is really one of those games that hooks you, whether or not you’re an Assassin’s Creed fan yet. Going into this game, I had every AC game except the original under my belt, so I was definitely excited to play this one. The hype for it was massive, and it certainly delivered! I’ll divide this review into the two main sections of the game: Story & Gameplay.

STORY:

Unfortunately, the story was one of the weakest parts of AC4. In past AC games, we’re used to riveting stories with some of the most memorable characters, stories that both make sense and are a fun ride. While this game opened pretty strongly, and the first half or so was pretty good story-wise, the last half is just a drag and you find yourself just not caring about any of the characters anymore. Although the new main character as well as a couple of the supporting ones are good, others are just plain awful. For example, I found the main Assassin master in the game to be one of the most boring, uninteresting characters in it. That’s not good at all, and even though the gameplay outweighs this con by a lot, I still was disappointed that the story and characters in this game were generally lackluster.

GAMEPLAY:

The gameplay is what really saves AC4. It stays true to the traditional easy to pick up, hard to master Assassin’s Creed gameplay, and adds some minor tweaks to improve it where it can. The downside to that is we still have some of the ever-lingering problems that we’ve seen with the series, such as the sometimes-inaccurate freerunnning and annoying weapon switching. Even though there were some interesting elements added into combat, it’s still a bit over-simplistic and button-mashy. The naval combat is undoubtedly one of the most memorable parts of the game. You have your own ship that you’re free to use and upgrade however you choose, and exploring the entirety of the Caribbean in this badboy will provide you with many hours of fun. It’s even cleverly added into some campaign & side missions as well, allowing you to seamlessly go from land to sea without any loading whatsoever. And boarding ships in true pirate fashion, brawling it out with the crew, and collecting your plunder? Easily some of the most fun things about the game. AC4 allows you to explore every nook and cranny of the Caribbean, and this is one of its major strengths. Although most of the campaign missions are fairly linear, this open-world exploration makes for many hours of pure fun and entertainment along your ride. You’re greatly encouraged to explore, as exploring will allow you to find new places, missions, and upgrades to your character. There’s a very wide variety of missions and tasks in this game, nearly all of them rewarding. That being said, it still has some bad missions, and some ever-annoying gameplay elements such as eavesdropping and tailing will bore you to death at times. Fortunately, these can easily be overlooked when compared to the game’s beautiful graphics, naval combat, and variety of things to do. It even has a multiplayer mode as well, which I haven’t been able to check out extensively yet. However, the multiplayer leaves plenty of room for customization and fun with friends.

OVERALL:

AC4: Black Flag is a wonderful game, boasting great graphics and mostly excellent gameplay. It’s at its best when it doesn’t try to be an Assassin’s Creed game, and this is completely fine. Some of the issues plaguing the series are still here, but these can be overlooked when compared to the rest of the fun things to do throughout your journey. With an extensive multiplayer and lots of DLC, combined with its excellent story mode, AC4 is one of the must-have games of the year, for AC diehards and newcomers alike.

Best game best delivery best quality what more do you want?