With the launch of the Xbox ONE and PlayStation 4 going toe to toe with the dogged Nintendo Wii U it was on like Donkey Kong for the console war showdown, but with the multi-platform release of Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag there was a little skull, crossbone and cutlass for all. It brought back Ubisoft’s age old battle between the Assassins and their brutally direct nemesis, the Templars, only this time around it’s much more of a naval based battle as the historic element of the game takes us directly into the briny seas of pirate infested Caribbean water.
Release date
In terms of the next generation consoles, it went out on the Nintendo Wii U a little earlier than the rest as the port had a release date of the 1st November 2013, along with the PC, PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game. The Xbox ONE and PS4 versions of the game didn’t hit the shops until each of the consoles were released towards the end of 2013, with major retailers setting the release date set as the 29th November.
Story
In a brilliant twist the game serves as both a direct sequel and also a prequel to the joint storylines of Assassin’s Creed 3 with the events picking up directly after Desmond’s journey back in the animus in the present and a generation before the time of Haytham Kenway and his son Ratonhnhaké:ton in the past.
This time around, the plot starts out in the present with Abstergo Entertainment, the modern day face of the Knights Templar, as they try to get into memory system of the Animus to access the memories of Haytham Kenway’s father, Edward. A budding pirate and assassin, he’s got the entire high seas ahead of him, with the help of his ship, The Jackdaw, and some pretty influential friends to call on, including Blackbeard himself.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag is fairly similar to the third iteration of the game with 3rd person control over your main character, Edward, in an open world Caribbean Sea. However, there have been a number of notable additions to boost AC4 and one of the biggest is the massive increase in the naval element of the game. While this featured in AC3, it is much more of a focal point in Black Flag as you take The Jackdaw out for nautical spins, open sea battles and island attacks.
As you progress and start to make your fortune, you’re able to add to the strength of The Jackdaw throughout the game, building up its capabilities as you gain to update its strength, speed, manoeuvrability and firepower. New weapons for your ship in the game include the mortar fire, which you can use to take out fortified towers, fire barrels to give you the capabilities to attack from the rear and a charger ram to take ships down with direct head-on collisions. An important thing to note is that when you take an enemy fort, it becomes yours to attack enemy ships and increase your influence in the Caribbean, so the more of these you take, the of the map you control and have access to.
As well as the naval element, Edward will also be able to take the plunge in a way that has never been done in an Assassin’s Creed game before. While we’ve been able to swim before, what we’ve never had the luxury of doing is dipping under the water, which is one of the new features of AC4. It adds a real world sense of variety to the gameplay and brings a whole new aspect to the potential gameplay options you have at your fingertips.
It’s not just at sea that Edward delivers new capabilities either. He’s also got some new fighting skills to add to the gameplay, like the free aiming shot feature, which lets you take out your pistol aim and fire at an attacker as and when you need to, so you can pick out a head shot to take down your enemies. He also has a very cool looking blow dart to silently take out his victims, or deliver a batch of poison that will send your enemies berserk, attacking each other and leaving you free to pass silently on your mission.
Graphics
Console versions
There’s a school of thought that says that the lowest common denominator will dictate the quality of cross console games, but our experience with the more recent Assassin’s Creed games is that this isn’t necessarily entirely true. While all of the versions of the game will play similarly, there were a few key factors that went on to influence which console gamers went on to buy the game on, as it was released at such a significant juncture in the crossover between 7th and 8th generation consoles.
Firstly, the PS3, Xbox 360, Wii U and PC editions of the game hit the shelves around a month earlier than the PS4 and Xbox ONE release. As such, if you wanted to play the game as soon as possible then the existing console and PC set might have been the deciding factor.
However, we also knew from Assassin’s Creed III that the Nintendo Wii U version of the game had improved graphics on the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions, and that was the case again with the Caribbean title. It was a similar situation for the Xbox ONE and PlayStation 4 versions, but not only did they out peg their own predecessors, but they also had improved graphics on the Wii U version of the game, utilising the added power of the big two consoles to deliver glorious detail and long draw distances.
Essentially, if you wanted better graphics, but didn’t want to wait then the Wii U version had the edge, especially with the addition of the inventory access through the gamepad and the off-TV play option. But… if you were planning to get one of the new consoles and wanted to hold out for the full delivery of graphics might then you might have been better off holding fire until the 29th November.
Settings
Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag introduces a whole new range of settings too and one of the coolest has got to be the Caribbean jungle. It’s lush and interacts brilliantly as Edward stalks silently through it with an abundance of places to hide. You’ll also get to roam around in caves, underwater reefs, plantations, ancient ruins and palm tree covered islands.
In terms of the major cities in the game, you’ll have Havanah, the capital city of Cuba, which at the time of the game’s storyline was controlled by the armadas of Spain. There’s also Kingston, the capital city of Jamaica, which was a British colony, and Nassau in the Bahamas, which was the pirate haven for pirate chieftains Thomas Barrow and Benjamin Hornigold. The latter will feature in the story of the game. The cities are a step up from the previous installment of the game with even more detail and beautifully rendered buildings, foliage and people.
Review
It’s a massive game to play with more adventure than a trip to Neverland, more scraps than every Rocky movie ever created and more world to cover than you will every actually be able to see, unless you played the game solidly for a couple of years. It’s got exceptional graphics, especially on the new generation consoles and will provide hours and hours of visceral entertainment. Read our full Assassin’s Creed Black Flag review for more information.
