REVIEW | Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

REVIEW | Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

Written by Michael Richardson

Published 25 June 2018

All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

Opinions expressed in this review are of the reviewer alone.

Game Copyright 2013 Ubisoft Entertainment.

Repetitive Beauty

Years ago, I universally viewed annual franchises as low-budget, low-effort attempts to slightly reinvent a franchise. Leave no doubt, companies such as Activision milk their Call of Duty and Destiny installments, and Electronic Arts has a multitudinous array of trademarks such as Madden and FIFA that gamers yearly commit to purchase. One of Ubisoft’s annual franchises is Assassin’s Creed. After so long, I felt the need to fight back against my stigma of yearly franchises since I had never played an Assassin’s Creed game before. I heard a majority of them were high-quality and took upwards of three years to develop, so I was on board to finally try one out. Hearing it widely regarded as the franchise's best, I bought Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. Upon finishing the game’s main story with a seventy-five percent completion overall, Black Flag left me with a feeling of missed potential that permeated most of my experience.

Controlling the High Seas

Assassin’s Creed IV follows the moment-to-moment gameplay of its predecessors. Taking on the role of Edward Kenway, a retired privateer who seeks fame and fortune, you’ll work to institute democracy into the largely colonized West Indies by killing some dudes, seeking revenge on more bad dudes, finding many collectables, and completing side quests. To start, I thought the setting of the game was fantastic. Diving into a mostly neglected part of history, the West Indies felt like a fascinating and authentic take on eighteenth-century European colonization that added the ability for many great gameplay opportunities, such as ship sailing, lotting plantations, and liberating slaves. I also like the addition of prominent historical figures such as Blackbeard that go along with the setting. I hope more developers learn from Ubisoft and delve into largely unknown or uneducated parts of history to create a game centered around modern mechanics like Black Flag.

In terms of gameplay, Black Flag follows the traditional Ubisoft open world gambit of a lot of things to do with little substance to them. The main story missions mostly boil down to a repetitive grind with having to tediously trail a target, stealthily find them, and then execute them. The game seldom adds variety, which is a shame since I enjoyed the unique missions where Kenway had to free prisoners or abolish an enemies’ resources.

Among the reasons the game starts to feel repetitive is that Edward has few combat tools at his disposal. While the inclusion of weapons such as sleep darts, pistols, and swords are satisfactory, with the appreciable option of going in guns-blazing or furtively into most setups, I never felt the arsenal was incredibly versatile and truly added depth to combat. In addition, the sword-fighting is simply atrocious, with Uncharted-like combat that fails to engage and leads to constant frustration, with the game regularly improperly registering inputs and locking onto different targets on the other side of the screen. Also, switching weapons felt far too long, for instance with Edward taking upwards of three seconds to switch from a sword to pistol, and then reloading for another six seconds which often led to death. While there are optional upgrades to the arsenal that alleviate the slowness of the weapons, I think starting out with a weak, fast arsenal would have increased enjoyment. It certainly doesn't help that the game employs a complicated control scheme that never quite clicks. Furthermore, more versatility and immediacy in the combat would have helped by alleviating realism for the sake of entertaining gameplay.

However, the gameplay is not entirely abysmal. To elaborate, the series’s trademark mobility remains in full-force in this installment and incredibly enjoyable. Whether it be a scenario such as chasing through a crowd, climbing onto a building, leaping onto a tree, then air-assassinating a target, I was frequently impressed and frustrated when Edward occasionally disobeyed my inputs and leaped into death. The myriad of options with the traversal help to create a living, breathing game world that I found myself addicted to explore.

By far the best features of the game are the naval combat and upgrades. Taking control of Edward’s ship, the Jackdaw, you’ll gradually expand your crew and receiving RPG-like upgrades throughout the entirety of the adventure, such as increasing the ship’s armor or cargo load. As a result, you’ll be able to secure a fortress, or take down more ferocious foes for supplies and reales (the game’s form of currency). I loved upgrading the Jackdaw and it gave the game a personal feeling. The combat on the ship is incredibly intuitive, being able to fire weapons such as cannonballs from the sides, fire barrels from the rear, heavy shots to decimate opponents, and more. Upon bringing a vessel’s health down low enough, you’ll be able to board it and after tackling a certain number of requirements, you’ll be able to take all the supplies from the enemies’ cargo. I rarely got bored of the naval combat, and was wowed from the beginning when I was able to board and eventually plunder a ship, climbing up the masts and taking in the scenery, reminiscing about the perilous battle I had just endured to get to this point. In many ways, Assassin's Creed IV made me feel like a renegade pirate, and I adored that aspect of it.

There are many side quests that add a lot of content to the roughly twenty-hour story. Whether gathering collectables, skinning mammals, undergoing missions to fulfill assassin duties, or looting shipwrecks, there was always something new for me to do at any time. While the tasks become repetitive after a while, I appreciate the variety nonetheless. In addition, the story from the Templar Hunts bring great world building into the Assassin’s Creed universe.

While the gameplay mostly entertains throughout, the story serves as a weak substitute to justify the interaction. As previously mentioned, Edward Kenway’s story is one driven by fame and fortune, and that alone is not terrible. However, whereas games such as the original God of War succeeded in making the player care for the protagonist with an immersive story and extremely compelling gameplay, Black Flag has none of that going for it. Almost every single character lacks development, and most are driven by mundane revenge tales the game never elaborates on. In addition, the overabundance of characters serve to drown out the ones from earlier in the game due to their uninspired and forgettable dialogue, only talking about fortune and murder. Edward was the only interesting character, with his backstory being one of motivation to win back his wife. Unfortunately, the abrupt ending the game throws as an end to his story only proceeds to frustrate and reeks of missed potential.

However, the worst part of the game is unilaterally the Abstergo sequences. Industry giant Abstergo Entertainment, the in-game developer of the lucrative Assassin’s Creed franchise, has hired you to work on the unannounced Kenway project. On the way, you’ll uncover corporate espionage that, again, the game expects to captivate the player but falls flat. First off, going from the action-filled West Indies to a first person employee job just felt off putting and unnecessary. The side-story on display is uninteresting and barely alludes to previous games in the franchise, as it so heavily tries to draw inspiration from. I believe the last Playstation trophy achieved from completing the Abstergo sequences sums up these parts of the game: “It’s all Good”. The trophy suggests how the game simply wants the player to forget everything that happened, like a parent that says to their offspring ‘It’s all good, time to go home now’, when any knowledgeable child would know something's not ‘good’. While the hacking mechanics on display are a fun distraction, and the idea of a game company inside of a game is an intriguing concept, I believe the game would have been much stronger without these sequences.

In contrast, the presentation consistently impressed me with it’s polish. Black Flag has among the greatest art direction of any game I have ever played. The vibrant foliage of the jungle, incredible water effects, eighteenth-century realistic housing, and great facial animation all culminate to create one of the best-looking games of the eight generation, even though it was also released on seventh-generation platforms. The lighting is similarly fantastic, cinematics relatively thrilling and action-centric, and the sound of the waves while roaming the West Indies Sea never ceased to delight me. Additionally, the game runs smoothly at thirty frames per second with seldom frame rate dips, and employs a crisp 1080p resolution.

By far the best aspect of the presentation is the soundtrack. Composed by Brian Allen, the creator of the Fast and Furious series music, Black Flag’s music features a uniquely pirate-like aesthetic that seamlessly connects many of the game’s themes, and adds a bombastic yet calming tone to the numerous action scenarios. The main theme is particularly sublime, with a somber tone that turns into an enthralling, adventurous melody. The sea-shanties are also a highlight, being catchy to the point where I started singing them in-game and outside moving the lawn. While some more instruments and genres would have appreciated in the soundtrack, it's like asking for more ketchup on an otherwise delicious burger where the soundtrack should otherwise be commended. In many ways, I could not escape the sheer splendor of the game’s presentation, and Ubisoft should be commended for effectively mastering the art and sound design of an open world.

Verdict

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag often fights itself. While the game often succeeds in creating fun, albeit repetitive scenarios, that gameplay limits itself from the dull and inspired story that serves as a means to an end. The Abstergo sequences grind the pace of the game to a halt and interrupt the otherwise seamless gameplay experience. Even the fantastic naval combat, upgrades, and presentation cannot undermine the arduous story and lack of character development. With that being said, Black Flag provided a fantastic series foundation that paved the way for the franchise to reinvent itself with the likes of Assassin’s Creed Origins, and remains a fun if frustrating adventure that’s unlikely to attract players that have grown tired of the formula from previous installments. If you're itching for a game with boatloads of content and a beautiful setting, give Black Flag a try. It might not reinvent the Ubisoft open world and is certainly not the best in the open world genre, but it provides a fun, although safe adventure through one of the more underappreciated parts of history.