Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

By: Adam Coleman 

Once again, let us turn back the clock and dive into the role of our favorite Templar fighting Assassins. In this installment, we play the role of a ruthless, cut throat privateer turned pirate named Edward Kenway. For those of you new to the series (or who have been playing the previous games in the dark without any sound, weirdoes), this is the grandfather of our last protagonist, Connor, and the father of Haytham Kenway. Edward is a great character. He comes to life, in the same way Altair and Ezio did in their respective games. He fits the role of a swashbuckling pirate through and through. He’s sly, less than graceful, always looking to make a quick coin or two. This all takes place during the Golden Age of Piracy, a 100 years before Connor’s time I’d say and you play your way through a massive Templar conspiracy (surprise, surprise) and move throughout the Caribbean, and if I may, It’s F*****G MASSIVE. I mean, if you thought that playing in New England was hard to navigate, then you better bring a second map and a third navigator to help you out on this one.

Believe it or not I didn't have any rum before this

In this installment, the map is just enormous and far from empty. Aside from the main story, there are just so many things you can find yourself distracted with before you move on to the next main mission. There are just so many islands, little settlements, and hidden coves strategically placed all around the map, it’s nearly impossible to see them all. Among the chaos of the Caribbean, there are, like all of the Assassin’s Creed games, three main cities you travel between. They are not as important in this game like they are in AC, AC2, and AC3, but they do start out as the center of focus. What really takes center stage throughout most of the game is the mighty Jackdaw. There are so many things you can do to upgrade the Jackdaw. Things like the broadside cannons, to the swivel guns, and you even get mortars to hit your enemies before they can even get close.  All the customization is great too. You have a choice to customize the type of sail, the wheel, and your ship’s figure head. You have a plethora of choices. Everything from pieces of Blackbeard’s ship, The Queen Anne’s Revenge, to styling you’re ship to tribute the pervious assassin’s before him (or after in Connor’s case). The only downside is that the upgrades cost a significant amount of in game money.

The Black Pearl’s got nothing on me.

As for the naval battles, they have improved immensely. It will take a bit of adjusting at first, but once you get the hang of it, you’ll want to fight every single ship you see on the horizon. Once you have your ship and you know how to battle, the last thing you’ll really need to know is where your home base is. In AC3, you have the Homestead. At the Homestead, you make improvements by completing side quests. What has changed is in Black Flag, you get your own freaking island, and it’s pretty big too. Like before, it holds an unlockable armor, a bunch of other hidden secrets, and can be upgraded. What is different is that you have to upgrade it by, again, spending some more in game cash. Seems to be the only real flaw from what I have seen throughout my time playing. But I know what some of you are thinking: “If Desmond is dead, how can we go on?!” I’m here to tell you to give the present day story a chance. I was skeptical at first, and the present day story was a big, fun part of the game for me. Desmond’s story was mostly what kept me coming back (aside from the awesome assassinations). I was afraid that without Desmond, there would be no present day story. There is no way they could replace him. Move on, and play as another character. But that’s the thing, he hasn’t been replaced, and the Assassins are still out there, just play it through, and if you’re anything like me you’ll love it. All you have to do is take that Leap of Faith.

Good:

           

- Great story line

           

- Enormous map of the Caribbean to play in

       

    - More side quests and things to collect than there are letters in this review

  

         - PIRATES!....and you get your own ship

Bad:

         

    - Free running movement can still be a pain at times

           

- Everything costs some outrageous amount of money, and that takes time to collect

           

 - NO DESMOND!!

Scully Rating: 9.5 out of 10

Assassin's Creed 4 Trailer

(Article by Sean Dibble)

Last week we found out that Assassin’s Creed 4 was going to come out and we got a few details. Monday March 4, 2013 more information game out, one of this was confirming that Edward Kenway was going to be the main character for the game. This means that the game will do a first for the franchise and be set prior to a one of its games. The addition of piracy is a nice twist of things, but enough of me rambling on and on we all know you just want to see the trailer. So here you go watch enjoy and go out to pre-order this game which comes out October 29^th 2013 for all consoles including the next-gen ones that will be coming out in the future.

In the News: Assassin's Creed 4!?!?!?

Written By: Sean Dibble

Well guys and gals Ubisoft has just announced that Assassins Creed 4 : Black Flag is a go. The game will be released on PS3, Xbox 360, PC, and the Wii U with no inclination of its release on the PS4, but with that being released this year we can only assume that this game will be released on that system as well. The game will be based upon a pirate theme and if any of you are like me when enjoying the naval battles of Assassins Creed 3 asking “why didn't they make this a bigger part of the game?” well I believe they had this game already in mind. What is interesting though is that because the games usually take place during famous eras and because its pirate based that would mean sometime between 1500's to the 1700's, but Assassins Creed 3 took place in the late 1700's during the American Revolution. So this may be a first for the franchise instead of moving forward in time they may be going backward or even possibly overlapping. The overlapping theory comes from the Examiner who believes that the games main character will be Edward Kenway and yes that name should sound somewhat familiar being because he is the grandfather to Connor Kenway the main character to AC3.  Another thing that will make most players very happy is that they are not creating the many spin-offs to AC3 and jumping straight to the next part of the series.  But that is all we know so far hope to hear more very soon according to Ubisoft they will be releasing more info about the game Monday but we can only hope.