GAME REVIEW: Death and booty in the Caribbean with ‘Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag’

I don’t know when exactly it happened.

Maybe it was the first time I saw a whale leap out of the waves and make a belly-up dive back? Maybe it was the first time my crew sang one of the shanties I chased down for them, as dusk settled over the waters and the sun became half of a yellow coin over the shimmer?



No doubt the game is beautiful, but it the journey itself became worth it when it became an immersive pirate game, when the romance and adventure became interlaced with the Templars vs Assassins plot. If you’ve imagined how it might be to play inside a “Pirates of the Carrbbean” movie set brought to virtual life, then this is the game for you.

Verily, I tell you: this is what you went to sea for, matey.

Savvy all the way

It is 1715 and pirates rule the Caribbean just as surely as the Pope and his priests controlled Medieval Italy (hello, Ezio Trilogy). As you play Kenway, his adventures eventually earn him the respect of pirate legends like Edward Teach aka Blackbeard. Thing is, the war between Assassins and Templars also threatens to destroy the everything the rogues have built, fondly known as their own pirate republic.

The Caribbean cities (and there are a lot of them) from Havana to Kingston, Nassau to Tortuga, are a great way to explore the milieu. The British, Spanish, and Portuguese are masters of the seas with their powerful battle ships, often bristling with cannons. Set against them are the privateers, ostensibly men of fortune but criminals who prey on merhcant and passenger ships carrying rum and sugar and gold.

First off, Ubisoft Montreal sure learned their lesson from the failures of AC3. There’s excellent, streamlined platforming where the controls are almost intuitive and a running assassination via your parkour, whether through the trees of a remote jungle island or from the rooftop of a creole mansion, is as easy as slicing a melon with a scimitar (oh, you’ll need one of those).

Sure, there's a few bugs and a few times Kenway would jump suddenly to a wrong ledge, but that's a nitpick. Combat is likewise familiar for anybody who’s played the previous AC games, only easier to understand and execute so that chaining six kills while surrounded by a dozen Havana policemen is challenging, but never impossible.

Best of all, Edward Kenway is way more charismatic and less brooding than his non-pirate ancestors (Connor, you sulker), making him a great deal more fun to play as. Right off the bat, Kenway's motivations are clear: gold and treasure—and the death-dealing techniques of the Assassins (not to mention their excellent spy network) are a great way to acquire said riches.

Give it to Kenway, though, he's an honorable man as far as privateers go, but what drives him is his own desire for gain, not any overarching cause for world dominance.

Everything's better with pirates

This is a great pirate game, but a shaky AC instalment at best. How Kenway even comes to be trained in the assassination techniques that are the hallmark of those of the Creed are, at best, glossed over.

As happens in adventure games with a strong RPG aspect, gaining enough materials (whether it’s metal or wood) to level up your ship, The Jackdaw, or enough money from assassinations to fund a new sword or spiffy pirate clothes for Captain Kenway requires activities that eventually become chores.

There’s the usual “trail this courier to the target” or “listen in on the conversation while they walk” which are like stray threads in an otherwise cool game, but I never really liked them since AC2 and I don’t like them now—thoughts of “can't I just kill them?” crossed my mind quite a few times during said activities.

For me, the most boring parts were boarding ships. This, however, becomes a necessity if you ever want a choice to actually repair the damage to The Jackdaw after the smoke and blood have settled and not just pick up drifting materials.

Don’t get me wrong, I like raiding, but after the 10th time you’ve boarded a Spanish galleon after blasting its sails immobile, you come to realize piracy's a job, too, and it does run to tedium pretty fast. Especially if you want to upgrade you ship’s weaponry. That is, acquiring metal means attacking and boarding warships, which are always twice as dangerous as unarmed schooners.

Raid that fort, Cap'n!

One of the bigger challenges is raiding forts, which allow you to control locations and open them up for fast travel. They also reveal hidden treasures and points of interest. One of the most enjoyable and challenging times I had was raiding this island fort that had a 360-degree range of defences that happened to be located in a storm-swept location; which meant sea tornadoes.

I only bagged the darn thing after five tries, letting out a hurrah when the last tower was dust from my cannons.

An alternative to the usual raiding and boarding is to loot warehouses filled with shipments of rum, sugar, and other goodies. This means stealthing your way through an encampment to get to a key holder, and then (again without detection) getting to the warehouse door. Failure means an alarm going off and getting ganged up on by dozens of soldiers and the warehouse being emptied if you actually leave the area. It’s a great way to spice up the game.

There’s also underwater hunting for treasure via a diving bell (filled with air, duh) and hiding from sharks, but that’s a pretty one-sided battle when they spot you. You can also hunt sea creatures (take your pick of whales or sharks) to your heart's content for the crafting ladder, but even that mini-game becomes mere folly after you've bagged a great white.


Shanties for many sailors

Atmospheric, apt for the age, and resoundingly moving; it’s full of fiddles up front and center, with all sorts of stringed, portable instruments in the mix, backed up by bongos, hand drums, and various percussions.

Composer Brian Tyler (who also did the in-game music for “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3” and “Far Cry 3”) outdid himself this time not only with the amount of research this must have taken, but the depth of the product he has almost literally hauled from the abyss of history’s maritime library.


AC4 is at its best when you just set sail for an unknown location and battle what you find there with just your wits and available cannons. It treats you like an adult and with just enough support to get you through the mission.

Speaking of missions, one of the best arcs is the Templar Hunt that gives you the opportunity to collect icons that will unlock a sweet and highly protective Templar Armor, later on. Said Hunts also let you touch base with Assassin leaders in pretty obscure parts of the Carribean.

The rogues' gallery

Another well-done aspect is the supporting characters and how Kenway's relationship with them changes as the story goes along. Characters like Blackbeard and James Kidd and some of the very strong women (a fair bit of feminism here, showing how pirate women can be just as roguish) like Anne Bonny and Mary Read are standouts.

There's even a major twist leading to some very dramatic moments that drive the plot forward effectively. But I won't spoil them for you.

There's around 40 or so hours of the main story mission here and about 30 more hours to complete the rest of the swashbuckling missions, from defeating legendary ships to maxing out the question marks on your map.

AC4 provided me with one of the most memorable, visually enchanting, and touching stretches of gameplay that I've had so far, all the time with the historically apt signature of the AC franchise. And I haven't even touched on the meta-parts of the game (hint: Abstergo Entertainment is NOT a real-world developer), which were brief but enjoyable.

Though I played it on a PS3, there's a reason this thing won the PS4 “Game Of The Year” award for 2013 and it's not just because the sight of your ship sailing through the navigation route to Cuba is very purdy to behold.

I'll miss the high seas, but I'm pitching my idea for the next AC installment here. Picture this: a Viking assassin. — VC, GMA News


AC4: Black Flag is available on the PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, PC, and Wii U.