Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag: A Pirate's Life for Me.

New game time. I know there's a lot of differing opinions about the AC series from the three of us but that should definitely be a good thing going into this game.

I actually played quite a bit of it on 360 before starting over on PS4 a few weeks later. Still, i abandoned it on PS4, never really expecting to go back to it. Now i have a reason.

On a personal note, i'm a huge fan of the AC series and have been since the original game came out years ago. Altair was a great character and the crusades were a great setting. Getting through Ezio's story over the course of three games definitely kept my attention with his (and Desmond's) story. The games under the AC2 umbrella brought some gameplay dynamics that were fantastic and others that remained stagnant for too long throughout the series. AC2, Brotherhood and Revelations were still very enjoyable games to me. Hell, i even read some of the companion books to go along with Ezio's story, i liked it that much.

maybe it's the "De Firenze" that really connected me to Ezio. 

Connor Kenway's debut in AC3 was easily the lowest point of the series. Connor was a bad character and, with the exception of naval battles (which are fucking awesome), the new dynamics of gameplay, specifically those goddamn horses, did nothing to enhance the game. Couple that with the squatty, boring setting of the northeastern colonies of Boston, NY and Philly as well as the god awful and extra-abundant native american language (that made half the dialog in the game require subtitles) and AC3 never really had a chance to please with creative choices like that.

Philly in AC3. Who thought this would be fun? 

I remember going into a meeting with Ubisoft right before the official announcement of AC4. The devs at Ubi Montreal were fucking stoked about the new game. They knew they had something that fans would like and had taken the fans dislike of AC3 to heart. Refocusing the game on Edward Kenway, emphasizing the naval battles and weaving Edward through a story that loosely incorporated real life pirates and forsaked (forsook?) the squatty cities of AC3 for massive jungles and islands like Cuba, was the correct direction.

damn. 

Overall, AC's story and pseudo-historical angle has always been one of my favorite aspects of the franchise. Like reading Devil in the White City or other Erik Larson books, there's an enjoyable formula at play here. That said, i remain skeptical of two major components of the AC series.

1 - Combat has not evolved as much as it should have throughout the series. I've used the Arkham comparison quite a bit regarding this and i think it remains true. You simple can't have the combat of your master assassin be so clunky when Batman can fluidly take on 30 guys at once.

Or, you know, like eight without breaking a sweat. 

2 - The external story, taking place outside of Edward at Abstergo Entertainment, is one that seems to have ignored what came before with Desmond Miles. Don't know how i feel about that because i hated the way they ended Desmond's story in AC3 but that didn't mean i was happy to abandon that plot entirely. Intrigued to see how it's handled here in Black Flag.

Abstergo: You only thought we were an evil shadow corporation. 

Edit - i left the above as a draft for weeks until HotFuj reminded me to post it. Sorry about that. I'm a handful of chapters into AC4. Still intrigued by the Abstergo element and really want to see how that gets sorted. The meat and potatoes gameplay is still something i enjoy though my gripes about combat remain and i 100% agree with the fact that the missions requiring you to tail and eavesdrop are stupid and annoying. It's just a bad formula and shouldn't be used more than two or three times a game. All said, i'm chugging through the game and, even though i'm covering ground i've covered before on 360, i really don't mind doing it again. Let's see if that remains the case when all is said and done.

-joker