I applaud any video game that reaches franchise status. It’s a difficult task in today’s video game market to create something fresh and turn a profit (ask Curt Schilling’s 38 Studios about this) at the same time. Franchises, such as Gears of War, Halo, and even Call of Duty have constantly redefined their respective genres, pushing graphical and gameplay boundaries at each iteration. Yet I chose these three games for a reason: their products have fallen flat.
Gearheads like me found Judgment's storyline and level design to be too compartmentalized. Halo 4 was a transitional piece developed by 343 who feared of alienating Bungie’s fans by playing it safe. And even with the amazing dog and fish artificial intelligence displayed during Xbox One’s press conference, Call of Duty: Ghosts seemed like more of the tired gameplay. If you don’t believe me about Gears or Halo, check out the latest Xbox Live gameplay metrics from Major Nelson, or run a quick comparison of the dwindling Metacritic scores.
Innovation is what is desperately needed. Luckily, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag has this in spades. Before I deep dive into specifics, there are two features that really stood out to me which lets me know that Ubisoft listened to our complaints about Assassin’s Creed III. The first is that gameplay just starts. Tutorials are extremely streamlined. Within two minutes of starting up the game, you’re already involved in a high speed footrace through a beautifully rendered jungle environment. The second are the “comment cards” at the end of each mission. Purely optional, you can provide feedback on what you just played. Short of developing the game as you played it, I must say Ubisoft is really trying to win back fans after Assassin’s Creed III.
In case you couldn’t already tell, I love this game. I decided to wait for the PlayStation 4 version, which has minimal graphical improvements over the PlayStation 3 / Xbox 360 versions. Most noticeably to me is the amazing detail to water. If you’re like me, you’ll be spending a majority of your time sailing the high seas in search of deserted islands full of loot or entrenched in glorious sea battles. The attention to little details, such as individual drops of rain during a downpour, or the subtle splashing of waves against the bow are real stand outs in this version. Unfortunately, draw distance does suffer slightly, but by no fault of the PlayStation 4. Ships slowly phase in to eyesight, a byproduct of utilizing the same gaming engine between both older and newer platforms. This doesn’t affect core gameplay but is noticeable when you’re sailing amongst the high seas and a ship suddenly phases into eyesight some 1,500 meters away. It’s disappointing that the Ubisoft crew couldn’t address this.
Ubisoft took the idea of The Frontier, the massive sandbox which Connor explored in Assassin’s Creed III, and took that idea to an even greater level: open world gameplay. While there are some special sections of the game which load independently (major cities, such as Nassau), a great majority of the game is seamless. That means a typical gaming session start by hunting exotic animals for crafting materials on a deserted island to freeing prisoners to naval battles to ship boarding, all without a loading screen. This type of freedom is rarely seen outside of Grand Theft Auto titles, and is a welcome addition to the Assassin’s Creed universe.
Besides the main storyline, there are naval and assassination contracts to be completed, treasure chests and maps (based on global latitude and longitude for starting coordinates), shark and whale harpooning mini games, underwater exploration, clothing and weapon crafting, and even ship upgrades. Although most exploration yields money and material for upgrades, there are the occasional “epic plans” which provide top tier rewards. Exploration is rewarded, and no matter which direction you choose to go in, progression feels rewarding. It’s a smart system that has been perfected elsewhere and is finally gaining traction in Assassin’s Creed. Couple this with the great climbing and combat mechanics and you have a title that feels much more fleshed out than its predecessors.
Unfortunately, there are some elements of this game that come up short. Many of the problems that plagued Assassin’s Creed III remain prevalent. Edward can assassinate people via the hidden wrist blade before he has it. Guns and other stolen enemy weapons still get stuck and float aimlessly in mid-air when climbing. Unnecessary clipping is prevalent, especially climbing around the Jackdaw’s numerous sails and pulleys. These are all polishing issues, and by now, Ubisoft should have sorted these out. But none of them really impact the overall experience.
Oh, and although I think I’m in the minority here, but I loved the entire Animus/Desmond mystery. But fear not, for the entire Animus/Abstergo angle is almost entirely optional. You play as a nameless, faceless and voiceless Abstergo employee whose job is to fine tune the upcoming pirate vacation simulator. Of course, should you choose to snoop around the office, you’ll never know what you find...
The most frustrating thing about the game, perhaps, is that the overall plot seems incomplete. Edward Kenway leaves his family in search of fortune. Not revenge, not a piece of Eden, or establishing The Order… only money. What makes this goal odd is that the amount he actually requires doesn't seem to matter. By the time I left the first island, doing my usual “grab every chest and loot every corpse” routine I had a little over 8,500 reals. What is the major payday after the first mission? It’s a paltry 1,000 reals. Although Edward makes a comment that the amount isn’t enough to retire, there is no “get enough money to go home” quest. In fact, I spent so long plundering the high seas I was near to 100K reals at one point. I ended up dumping them all into the Jackdaw and upgrades, but nowhere did I get the sense that I was close to getting Edward home. The arbitrary “I need more money goal” is sloppy.
Overall, this game is not perfect. But in my opinion it’s the greatest Assassin’s Creed game to date (sorry Ezio!). I highly recommend it to old and new fans alike. It’s a great peak into what truly next generation, open world gameplay is all about.