Hello, I’m Davey hailing from the Gamerhub, and as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla has released, the gremlins behind this site asked me a question: Had I played any of the Assassin’s Creed games, and which one was my favourite. Now, as it happens, my answer was Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, but it quickly transpired that I hadn’t played the one everyone seems to love: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. What you’re getting here, dear gamers is not just a look back on a game from a few years ago, but effectively a review from a gamer out of time.
The Premise
In AC4, you play as a *somewhat* fictional pirate known as Edward Kenway as he tries to rule the Caribbean seas, and gets caught in a cold war between the legendary Assassins and their time-honoured and seemingly immortal foe, the Templars. That’s the surface level of the premise, anyway. Scratch the surface, and you have the Welsh Pirate torn between his loyalties to rob as many slave plantations as possible, his loyalty to his friends in founding a pirate republic, and his loyalties to the Assassins, who ultimately save his life early on in the game. The narrative for this game is wonderfully interweaved with an unnamed modern day protagonist, who gets a job at Abstergo Industries, exploring the DNA and gentetic memories of the previous games’ protagonist, Desmond Miles.
The Gameplay
This is where Assassin’s Creed Black Flag truly comes into its own. The Eagle Vision is crisper, sharper and thankfully time-limited in the game, allowing the mechanic to be only used tactically, which is something in my opinion that Rocksteady should have learned from when creating the Batman: Arkham series. It’s superbly rendered, even on the legacy console I’ve been using to get the authentic experience as advised by our resident Assassin’s Creed fan, Grahame Singleton (and whilst we’re here, go and read his articles, they’re brilliant). Even on a lowly Xbox 360, this game renders this mechanic in a sharp and crisp manner, which is awesome, even if the frame rate suffers a bit for it.
The parkour element of the game, which came to define the previous entries in the series, is far sharper than it has been before, with even Edward Kenway commenting on it at one point in the game. When you reach Havana in the game, he comments on his climbing anf parkour ability to Stede Bonnet, with him saying “Every finger is a fish hook, mate”, which is some wonderfully meta self-reflection, and dear lord, the game has more than earned the right to be cocky about it. There are very few times in the game where climbing proves tricky, and even fewer where your fingers are challenged to find the right moments to get things done on the Parkour front. One minor gripe I had though, was with the analogue stick functions. Sometimes, you can be running across rooftops to find Edward running in a way you’re not wanting him to, and that can get annoying, until you’ve sunk a few hours in and learned how it works. I am told, however, that on the Xbox One consoles, this has been improved somewhat, but I turned the air positively sapphire for the first few hours.
The one thing that made this game truly stand out, however, was the naval concepts and mechanics. Firstly, the sailing mechanic is truly wonderful, particularly to those who love their racing games. As a former PlayStation loyalist and a current racing game enthusiast, one of the things that really impressed me was how the Jackdaw steers exactly like a boat actually does. Without going too science teacher on you, you need to steer at a slower speed and earlier on water than you do on land, and this is accurately reflected within the game as well, which, if you ask me, is more than impressive. There is only one thing, as far as boat manoeuvrability is concerned that I would improve. If you sail an actual boat, how many sails you have up determines your speed and acceleration, but given the other naval mechanics in this game, I’m not surprised that this got left on the cutting room floor.
The naval battles on this game are it’s crowning achievement. Not only do they feel tense, with a riveting and pounding orchestral soundtrack as you play, but the variety and methods you can use to conquer are brilliant. From sinking a schooner with one or two blasts from your swivel gun, to taking on ships of days gone by that have now become legends, the world is literally your oyster. It does get tricky to manage, particularly when you’re taking on more than one at once, and you’ll find that your blood pressure rises when faced with nigh-on no win scenarios, but the rewards are well worth doing.
The Soundtrack
Normally, I only spend about 300 words on this section for a game, but this element of the game requires more comment. This is because the voice acting in this is superb. Edward Kenway’s accent might change between a Welsh and a Merseyside accent at times, but the other voices kept within the game are really authentic to the time period. From Ed Thatch (the infamous Blackbeard)’s Cornish accent, to the Preston accent used by Billy Kidd, the range of voice acting in this game is spectacular.
Whilst we’re on the subject of voice acting, we have to talk about the music in this game, and specifically, the shanties. As someone of Cornish heritage, hearing the folk songs sung by my ancestors recreated within the game was a truly heartwarming experience, with classics such as “Farewell to Padstow” and “Drunken Sailor” sang by the cast, even if they don’t always sing in key! The amazing thing about the shanties, however, is that they provide the lyrics to every one you unlock as you get them, even if there’s a heck of a challenge to catch the shanties as they float along parkour lines across the rooftops.
And finally, we can’t ignore the non-diagetic music used. Whilst remaining unmistakably Assassin’s Creed with the key musical motifs, there’s a fair few musical nods to the Pirates of The Caribbean franchise in there as well. Whilst I don’t recommend playing this game in front of small children due to the adult themes and swearing, I highly recommend buying the soundtrack digitally to play in the car if you’re driving with the family. From the melancholy “Marked for Death” to the uplifting crescendos in “Take What Is Ours”, Brian Tyler really outdid himself this time and it shows. If the naval battles aren’t your sort of thing, get this game for the soundtrack alone.
The Difficulty
Brace yourselves, dear gamers, particularly if you’re using an Xbox 360, because even on the easiest difficulty, this game does not fuck about. If you’re after becoming the most feared pirate to rule the seas and earn a fortune, then you’re going to need to excel at all the early missions. From the moment the game stops holding your hand and lets you become a dread pirate lord, the game ramps up in difficulty in a quite a steep curve, particularly with the heat mechanic, where privateers start searching for you in Hunter boats which put up one hell of a challenge.
On the brighter side of things, the modern parts of the game, which involves completing a series of minigames and a wee bit of first-person parkour is refreshingly easy to do, even if the QR code texts are more than a little disturbing. The secondary phase of the hacking minigames was my favourite, although my mood was somewhat ruined as it reminded me too much of Frogger. It was brilliantly fun, but frustrating. The first person parkour, as there is one moment when you’re dangling dangerously and staring at Montreal from precisely the worst angle imaginable, is nauseating, but other than that, the game excels itself when the modern world is concerned.
DLC
Ahh, yes, here comes the fun part: The Downloadable Content (DLC) was so popular among the Assassin’s Creed gaming community that Ubisoft actually released it as an extra game add-on. Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry follows one of the standout characters from the base game, Adewale, as he attempts to take down as many Templars as possible through Haiti, and liberate as many slaves as possible throughout the journey. I’m afraid I dont possess this, so I can’t say much further, but both Calum and Grahame highly recommend it, and so I will simply tell you to go a get this when you get the chance.
The Verdict
This has got to be up in my top 20 games that I’ve ever played, and that’s not even a difficult stretch. The open world feels gigantic and this hasn’t been repeated until Assassins Creed Syndicate, but it really grabs you. The soundtrack is probably the best I’ve heard in any game. I mean that, seriously. The difficulty curve rewards when you get the hang of it, and well, being part-Cornish, I’ve always wanted to know what happened to people of this particular period, and I fanboyed out at the mention of Jamaica Inn.
Seriously, if you haven’t played this game, play it. I promise you’ll have a lot of fun in the process.
So that’s my review! What did you think? Did you agree with me? If you did, or you didn’t and think I’m a bastard (like your mum), please let us know. You can find me on Twitter here: @heresdaibhi
Til Tomorrow,
Davey
