With the recent launch of the Xbox ONE and the PlayStation 4, on top of Nintendo’s Wii U, there’s a lot of ground to cover when it comes to multi-platform games like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. As well as delivering a much richer graphical experience for the new, super-consoles, developers Ubisoft has also had to create a class gameplay experience on the previous iteration of games consoles too, including PS3 and Xbox 360, as well as catering for PC gamers.
To a large extent they’ve managed to pull it off, basing the game in the excellent gameplay premise of the series and delivering clear areas of differentiation between the varying console visuals. However, as a result of the need to cater for all, instead of developing for the best, AC4 just doesn’t quite push the possibilities as much as other new console titles like Ryse: Son of Rome.
Storyline
The storyline is just as centred around the modern day looking back on the past as in previous Assassin’s Creed games, but as ever you’ll feel much more connected with the Animus driven historical adventure than with the modern intrigues of Abstergo Industries. In the past you play Edward Kenway, a free-spirited pirate with a sense of adventure and a single minded focus on his dream of wealth and success. He’s also the grandfather of Conner from Assassin’s Creed III.
Where the storyline of AC3 was a little serious at times, Black Flag is much more devil-may-care, which brings with it a lot more of a fun adventure to the 4th game in the series. Taking on the role of a pirate who gets himslef mixed up in the fractured world of the Assassins and the Templars, along with their battle for supremecy, leads to a lot of great action.
Added to that is the rich selection of characters from the era, ranging from your trusted and hardened quartermaster Adewale to infamous pirates like Edward Thatch (AKA Blackbeard), Captain Benjamin Hornigold and Anne Bonny. There’s also dancing girls, a stream of pirate crewmates and all the British and Spanish navel commanders you can slaughter.
The setting in the heart of the Caribbean makes for a big part of the story, as well as the graphical beauty of the game as you get to go from cutting through azure blue waves to running around tropical forest hideaways in the many islands dotted around. You also get to experience pirate strongholds like Nassau and larger cities like Kingston and Havana.
Graphics
While the look of the game is beautiful across all of the consoles, the finer detail and more stunning elements of graphical rendering can be found on the Xbox One and PS4 versions. Everything you look at in the game is lush and excellently animated, whether it’s the crashing waves around you, the tropical fish darting around in the shallow water, the island’s palm tree fronted beaches or the dark and emerald greens of the forest canopy.
That said, there are still a couple of negatives in the look and feel of the game even at its best. For example, the cut scenes aren’t as pristine as they could be in terms of character animation and construction, looking every bit a product of CGI instead of the lifelike computer animated reality of the pirates. That’s not to say that they aren’t an improvement on previous games, it’s just that they aren’t as believable as those in Ryse.
This is added to by a few minor in-game tells, like Kenway’s swimming style, which looks a bit too much like a mechanical bath toy than the sinewy presence of Edward carving his way through the Caribbean Sea. We can’t help but feel that the game would have been much more impressive if it had been developed solely for next-gen and retrofitted to older consoles at a later date, allowing it to strive more for perfection rather than the pleasing all approach it’s gone for – although that’s probably not the most lucrative plan, so we can understand Ubisoft’s constraints.
The Wii U version of the game is a little more detailed than the PS3 and Xbox 360 equivalents, which are also plagued with frame rate niggles, but all three of them suffer from similar draw distance issues as objects and scenery in the distance appear out of nowhere, or seem to construct themselves as you get closer.
However, none of these limitations are present on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4 and Xbox ONE ports. Texture is rich and life-infused, with expansive draw distances meaning that everything is fully formed from miles away and the details is amazing up-close and impressive in the distance. Add to that the extra slickness the Wii U, PC, PS4 & ONE versions have in terms of animation and frame rate over the PS3 and 360 and you’ve got more than enough to go on in terms of your choice of console to play the game on if looks are important to you.
Gameplay
The gameplay is the well trodden 3rd person open-world sneak and battler that has been at the heart of Assassin’s Creed games since the very beginning. However, with each new iteration things get that little bit sharper. You won’t find yourself stuck in as many high wall climb loops as you might have done in Assassin’s Creed 3 and the free running element of the game is slicker than ever, so you’re not battling to get somewhere or struggling to stay on the path you’ve decided on.
The fight engine is also pretty effective, especially the free aim pistol firing capability and Edwards responsiveness in a fight is ever so slightly improved on the last game. The down side of the neCaribbean setting is that you don’t have any steeds to go thrashing through the snow covered forests with, which was one of the joys of AC3, but in Black Flag you have the compensation and might of the Jackdaw to command and develop.
Edward Kenway’s majestic ocean fighter is the perfect pirate ship, giving you great speed, maneouverability and a whole host of attacking options to take down the British and Spanish navies. About 40% of the game is taken up with naval battle, so you’ll get to know and love the Jackdaw pretty quickly. While you may feel a bit vulnerable as you first start to get used to naval battle it doesn’t take long for you to pick up the skills you need to take on pretty much anything you want. This becomes increasingly possible with the vast array of upgrades that you can add to the ship, which make it ever more powerful as you progress through the story.
The online multiplayer options for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag are also pretty cool, as you take on the role of either the hunter or the hunted. Get into teams or go it alone, it’s a lot better than expected and adds even more longevity to what is already a pretty big game.
Ubisoft has come under a bit of bad press for including the whaling element of the game and in all fairness we can see why. It’s a pretty brutal concept. Their argument that it is a depiction of the reality of the past is definitely true, but it’s not a part of the game that we enjoyed.
One of the big differentiators between the console versions is the fact that the Nintendo Wii U port benefits from its use of the brilliant gamepad display as a second screen to look at the map and inventory seamlessly without the need to pause the game. While there is the Assassin’s creed 4 app that lets you do something similar using your iPad or iPhone, it does incorporate a second device, so it’s not quite as easily accessible as the Wii U gamepad.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is a genuinely amazing game, with awe inspiring graphics, especially on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, a great storyline and more gameplay brilliance than a Lara Croft model girlfriend.
Assassin’s Creed 4 review: 4/5
