Well I guess I’m an Assassin’s Creed fan now. One of three things I promised not to do when it came time to make game reviewer principles for myself all those years ago. Don’t review games you didn’t properly finish or put enough time into. Review what you want and don’t let others force you into reviewing what’s hot. Most importantly of all, don’t fall for big franchises with an absurdly large number of entries like Assassin’s Creed or Call of Duty. Last one is a bit specific, but whatever some rules are made to be broken I suppose. I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed: Origins and had a blast playing Assassin’s Creed 2 the other week. Two games with wonderful worlds to explore, run around in, and protagonists with engaging stories and character development. I said during my Assassin’s Creed 2 that I might give Black Flag another go, and in fact I did. This is the one that’s been recommended to me a lot by friends, because for many Assassin’s Creed fans this is considered the best one. The highest point in the franchise before it all went downhill, because Ubisoft hasn’t found any way to innovate.
Black Flag is respected for a lot of reasons and not just for being one of the best Assassin’s Creed games. It’s one of the first and grandest pirate games ever made. An on seas adventure where you can pillage and plunder to your liking. Survive raging storms, fight the British navy, discover ancient treasures, and the world could be explored to your liking. None of the constrictions of entries prior were here. Just you, a ship, and a massive body of water to sail across. A dream so many avid pirate lovers had, and I know plenty of them. I have a lot of friends who adored the golden age of pirating or grew up watching the Pirates of The Caribbean films. Movies I never watched, but nonetheless it was fun hearing them express their love for pirates. I’ve never been a pirate lover myself, but I understand the appeal of them and have always wanted to learn more on why people love pirates so goddamn much. Low and behold Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, considered by many to be the best pirate game. I gave it a go in 2021, couldn’t get into it, stop playing it, and haven’t touched it since. A disappointing feeling mind you. I could tell the game was great, but it just didn’t click for me at the time. Haven’t thought much about it since then, but thankfully now I’m in the mood. One because I loved Assassin’s Creed 2, and two because one of many games I covered recently was Another Crab’s Treasure, another fun ocean game.
I played Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag for the past week or so and managed to roll credits a few hours before writing this review. Not only did Black Flag finally click for me, but it managed to be much better then when I first tried it back in 2021. I really love this game. It’s a massive step up from Assassin’s Creed 2 and has quickly become my new favorite entry in the series just like a lot of Assassin’s Creed fans. There were some ups and downs, and just like me back in 2021 it might not click for everyone. I’ve seen people claim it’s a great video game, but not a very good Assassin’s Creed game. It strays very far from the traditional formula and if you aren’t willing to accept how it plays and switches things about you are not going to have a good time. However, not every game is for everyone and sometimes you just have to accept how things are to fully enjoy it for what it is. Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is f*cking awesome and it’s one of many games I’m very happy to have given another go. Today we’re talking about why Black Flag is so amazing and why it still holds up a decade later.
Let’s go steal some boobies- I mean ass. I mean booty. Yeah, that's what I meant.
Story
Rather than follow a member of the Assassins or soon to become a member we instead follow an outsider named Edward Kenway. A Welsh-English man who picked up a job as a privateer hoping that one day he’d make enough money to afford him and his wife a life of luxury. Better than the one they have now as they spend their days living in a small wood baking in the sun. The two of them would often get into arguments over Edward’s dreams until one day they both separated. So now Edward spends most of his days navigating the seas and sticking it up to the British and Spainards who rule the Carribeans. In the present day, for Edward at least, we see him battling it out with the British in a raging storm. The British are overtaking the crew and the helmsman responsible for steering the ship is gunned down. Edward takes control of the steering wheel and attempts to guide the remaining crew to safety. Only to then be swallowed by a huge wave alongside the enemy ship. He washes up along the shores of a deserted island where he encounters the surviving member of the British ship. A rebel Assassin by the name of Duncan Walepole wo now works for the Templars.
Edward attempts to reason with Duncan saying they can both work together to get off the island, but Duncan wants nothing to deal with Edward as he works with the British who are later revealed to be controlled by the Templars. Duncan flees, but Edwards manages to catch up and kill him in a sword fight. Edward steals Duncan’s clothes, a relic which he is carrying, and letter addressed to Wooden Rogers. One of the many Templars leading a search for a special man. So Edward nabs himself a ship, meets up with the Templars, tricks them into thinking he is Duncan, and manages to get paid a ton for handing over the relic. The man the Templars are hunting is The Sage, someone who can guide them to an ancient device. Before they can acquire The Sage he manages to escape and Edward is caught impersonating Duncan. He is imprisoned on a ship, but quickly manages to escape his shackles with the help of the freed slave Adewale. The two of them along with the other prisoners manage to take down a fleet of British ships and claim one of the ships as their own. Edward becomes the captain of a gang of pirates, and together they work to become the fiercest pirates to sail the Carribeans. They also meet legends like Blackbeard, James Kidd, and Benjamin Hornigold who desire to make a utopia for where pirates can live free without the strict governing of the British. Along the way Edward will learn the truth of what is going on. Who are the Templars, the Assassins, and his place in all the madness going on.
Gameplay
Black Flag despite having a lot of the DNA of entries prior does enough to make it feel entirely new and refreshing. In fact, this didn’t even have to be an Assassin’s Creed game and it still be seen as amazing. Rather than have one giant city to explore or multiple smaller maps much like Assassin’s Creed 2 you have a big old ocean to sail around. A world with dozens of islands to go to, stop at, enemy ships to plunder, and much more. On sea travel is mainly done with your big grand ship, the Jackdaw as Edward calls it. Piloting said ship is easy as all you have to do is walk up to the steering wheel, and your crew will help pilot the ship by raising the flags. There’s three different traveling speeds, and you want to switch between them often to help with tight turns and not collide with rocks and land. You can explore to your liking, but sometimes you’ll enter a restricted area. If an enemy ship spots your ship you are forced into combat. When fighting an enemy ship you have to position your own in the right way so that you can fire upon them. You do have a front cannon to fire forward, but that only deals so much damage. What you’ll mainly be using are your side cannons which do more damage, reload faster, and fire rapidly. There are other tools you can use that you unlock in the game. Fire barrels to leave explosives behind you, mortar to deal heavy fire at a longer range, and you can deal bonus damage if you charge up an extra shot after dealing heavy damage with your side cannons to open up a weak spot.
When an enemy ship is weakened enough you can either sink or board them. Raiding the ship and killing enough enemies will nab you one of three options. To repair your ship using whatever remains, lower your wanted level since raiding more ships raises awareness of your crimes, and sending a ship to your fleet which is a whole other thing I don’t want to talk about. You gain a ton of resources depending on the ships you raid, but the choice you may want to make often is to repair your ship. The Jackdaw has three health bars and when one goes down you get closer to death. You recover that health bar by doing repairs, but when all of them are gone you and your entire crew is killed. Outside of that you have the traditional Assassin’s Creed gameplay. Run around cities, parkour, assassinate targets, and hand to hand combat. There's a lot of collectibles lying around, chests to be opened, towers to climb to reveal the map, and you have a fair amount of options when it comes to dealing with enemies. Stealth kills or fights them head on. You got a ton of weapons to use and one of them is a gun to pick them off from afar, but this tends to raise awareness. Combat is all about deflecting at the right time, attacking, breaking defenses, and to deal lethal blows so things don’t get too overwhelming. Learn to deal with it and you’ll manage.
So you’re gonna accumulate a lot of money and resources during your adventure. They can be spent to upgrade either your personal equipment or the strength of the Jacksaw. Whether that be the hull armor, the amount of cannons you have firing, the strength of said weaponry, refilling ammunition, or adding new things like a ram. You want to dedicate as much as you can to your ship and at times hunt for extra resources, but dangerous areas later on have deadlier ships. Enemy ships that’ll be bigger, have more artillery, and more health to pierce through. So you will have to grind, but every upgrade feels meaningful as your Jackdaw becomes a fierce beast that can ravage the seas. Outside of that there’s not much else for me to say. The game has a great core gameplay loop, is a blast to play, and manages to not feel too annoying over the twenty plus or so hours it takes place across. Become the greatest pirate to exist!
“We roam beneath the black flag. A rollocking we go. We bleed the kingdoms dry!”
Thoughts
As my best friend said and Iquote, “Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is a f*cking riot.” This is one hell of a game and I enjoyed almost every minute of it. This is my favorite Assassin’s Creed title now, and while there are flaws and painful segments the highs are so high that I overlooked the problems. Jumping from Assassin’s Creed 2 was jaw dropping as I got to witness the leaps forward in terms of technology and how refined the gameplay is. The world is open to explore, and while there are some areas that will pummel you if you come under equipped I still love how they give you the option to explore these zones to your liking. The naval combat is great and is the best I’ve seen in a video game to date. Learning where to position yourself, stray away from enemy fire, avoid colliding rocks, outgun your foes, and raid them so you can get the resources you need to keep going. Boarding ships can get repetitive over time, but I like how the bigger ships introduce more challenges. More enemies to kill, lower the enemy flag, kill the captain, kill the scouts above, or blow up their gunpowder reserve. The game is constantly finding ways to make raiding and sailing fun. One major flaw Black Flag manages to fix is money. In the other games you have a crap ton of money piling up near the end, but Black Flag has reasons to go spend it. Upgrade your ship, afford better weapons, and be more readily prepared for the gander vessels.
I will say though I didn’t find myself buying any character upgrades. I beat the entire game using starting swords and not much else, which does bring me onto one complaint I have with this game… kinda. Fighting enemies in hand to hand combat is easy. It’s just counter and press the attack button to perform an instant kill. You get invincibility frames while doing so, and it seems like enemies like taking turns attacking you rather than go full ham on your ass. I’ve died a few times, but it was usually for just button mashing. The game is easy in this case, but I will say I had more fun with the combat in Black Flag than other entries. It controls much better than the second game, and isn’t as easy as say Assassin’s Creed: Origins. You do have to pay attention and certain enemy types get you to switch up your fighting style. It’s fun and satisfying, and at times that’s all I need for a game trying to give off the swashbuckling fantasy. I love the world they’ve made, the islands you can stop at, and how you still have the tradition to run and stealth around in. They got rid of social stealth, but honestly it was really finicky in Assassin’s Creed 2. They made a game that is more consistent to play and I appreciate the effort put in. The one thing I wish for is just being able to sail into the port of a town instead of having to load in. You could do it in The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker, so why not here? Also some towns and islands big enough allow you to, but I digress seeing how this game was released a decade ago.
For 2013 though this game looks gorgeous. No more brown murky colors of the 360/PS3 era. Check out the shining blue waters, bright sunny skies, and islands teaming with plantlife. I found myself gazing in awe as I looked into the distance, and there were moments I just wanted to sail the seas peacefully and enjoy the feel of this game. Final thing I want to talk about is the story. The core reason I loved Assassin’s Creed 2 so much was because of its protagonist and how he grew with time. Ezio is one of the most compelling characters in this franchise, and I see why. Now a lot of you are gonna disagree with what I have to say, but Edward is as compelling and in some cases a better character than Ezio to me. I love how this story takes place from an outside perspective and deals with a man sucked into a conflict he wants nothing to deal with. I love the background around Edward and how he gave up his life to chase his dreams. Run away from his problems and reality in the hopes things will get happier under his control. It doesn’t and instead things get worse due to Edward’s actions. He starts a war, his friends blame him for the death of others, the Assassin order is put in shambles, and soon his said friends get killed. It’s the weight of the world on his shoulders and all he can feel is guilt. Misery for what he has done and his drive to fulfill his dreams did more harm than actual good. It’s a tale about trying to justify the selfishness of one’s self, and I think the last chapter pays off. We see Edward mature as a person compared to the beginning of the game. Fix the problems he started, take responsibility, and try to go back to the life he once had. Accept reality and do what is right not just for himself, but for those around him. It’s a wonderful narrative and a work of art. Sure some things could be better like the involvement of certain historical figures and the villains, but it’s beautiful nonetheless.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag is the best pirate game ever made and my favorite in the series. Your liking of this game will depend on your view of the franchise and whether you can accept how this game play, but if you can accept it for what it is you have a fun game with an excellent story, setting, and compelling protagonist. I love this game. It has its faults. Hand to hand combat like I said is quite easy, a lot of the collectibles outside of sea shanties are pretty much useless, and there’s some weird difficulty curves with some story missions. There was a mission later where you had to board a slave ship, and I spent numerous attempts until I got it done right. Still, I love this game. Black Flag is timeless and I hope one day they can make another pirate game as good as this. One that isn’t Skull and Bones, because how do you make a worse version of a game you made before. I give Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag a 9.5/10 for being superb.
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