Assassin's Creed IV : Black Flag

[Maf]

No, you’re not allowed to quit until you got all of those pirate’s wood

 

...

 

...

 

What?

[Maryokutai]

Yeah, I remember this being a 60 hour game or something. You might be able to shave off ten or so depending on how many or how few side missions you tackle but it's not a short game. But if you don't enjoy it just stop right there because it's not going to reinvent itself in the second half.

 

Also might want to steer clear of AC in the future. Took me 129 hours to complete Odyssey (which is quite a bit better than Black Flag in all fairness).

[bellow]

Having said all that I've just done a major session and got myself into sequence 10. Googled that there's twelve to the main story.

 

I think I can hold out for that.

[Maf]

Don’t trust what you read on the internet you still have like fourteen five thousand sequences to go

[DisturbedSwan]

I mostly dumped the story after the opening until I was finished exploring, think I was probably at least 40 hours hours in before I picked up the story again.

 

The story isn’t the best but the exploring is what made the game incredible for me.

[bellow]

I'd agree with that, but up to a point. Exploration here doesn't yield the same rewards as in a big scale RPG, where you can chance upon a killer piece of kit or a hidden character with an epic quest to fit you up with. In fact you're basically told what your gonna find in text or map pointers before you get your feet dirty on a new island.

 

And that equates to some cash in chests, some useless collectables, or the same puzzle over and over.

 

That did keep me happy for twenty hours, though, as did the sea battles, but repetition levels that buzz off in the end.

 

I'm quite happy to see this thru, though. @Maf just tried to scare me off, drawing on my natural aversion to excessive length.

[bellow]

Credits have rolled at just under 40 hours. I enjoyed it for the most part, but I do still have issues with some of the 'workings' of the game. 

 

It seems to do so many things in the gameplay but always slightly worse than it's done in other games, as though it's not quite fully formed. Like the combat is a weak, messy version of the batman games, the platforming is sometimes just an annoyance, with the protagonist hurling himself on anything but the path you're aiming for, and the stealth is just feckin weird. You can't even duck behind a bush or a box, or crouch in your approach to a kill. You have to do this impossibly slow standing walk to take someone out from behind. Stealthy, it ain't. 

 

The seafaring was pretty great though. That actually seemed well put together. 

 

 

[regemond]

So the series run through rolls on. This, Rogue, and Unity, then I think I'm done for a while. I played Syndicate again not too long ago, and the newest ones are a far enough departure that I think I'll be happy leaving it there.

 

Anyway, BF was the first AC game I really, REALLY enjoyed in the series. I used to play these when the gtm forum was still a thing, and I knew there was 'something' there, but the series just never used to click with me. It's this one that changed my mind and got me fully on board (sorry), and I can 100% see why that was the case. Desmond's story has concluded, and now Abstergo are a game developer, and the Animus is a VR platform. This means you're no longer reliving your ancestors' lives, but playing a story about a random Assassin's life. 

 

It's great fun. The naval combat has been expanded and refined from 3. The easier traversal, while still a bit finnicky, has been refined from 3, too. The map still feels huge, and the story is so stupid that I can't help but enjoy it. I've been bouncing around hunting animals on land and at sea, taking down random pirates, causing all sorts of shit for the British and Spanish fleets.

 

Honestly, the modern day sections were absolutely shit on from a great height by, well, everyone. I'm in the minority for this, and I know I am. But I love these little sidetracks from the main game this time. I love the first-person view (although I'd never got to play the DLC on Revelations before, so that might be why I was more receptive to it). I love finding the QR codes, and I really like the 'hacking' puzzles, especially because it means I don't have to start fucking about with completely out of place puzzles while sailing the West Indies.

 

As a cross-gen title from the PS360-PS4 and Xbox One-era, there's a weird, waxy quality to the graphics, and everything has this weird level of saturation to it. I assume it's to hide the fact it was very much a last-gen title in next-gen (at the time) clothes, but it's one of the biggest distractions for me.

 

I loved this game at the time, and I love it now. It's one of the few AC games that stands up to the test of time for me. Syndicate has its charm. Ezio's trilogy exploded the series. But this - this is the pinnacle of 'old' Assassin's Creed.

[shinymcshine]

I loved BF on 360, but just couldn't get into Freedom Cry (when it was free on PS+) - probably nothing wrong with it, I just didn't get the same vibe and I'd lost the flow of how to play AC by then.

[Metroid66]

Checked my last post in this thread and it seems my last play thru of this was near enough exactly 5 years ago. Don't know it's the crap English winter weather but I just had an urge to set sail in sunnier climes.

 

Piratry beckons and, I have to admit the truth, I'm being an utter arsehole in this. I'm just going around stabbing fools and nicking their gold. I'm usually quite the pacifist in videogames. 

 

Last played this on the switch I think. I'm playing it on my big telly this time, and the seafaring is all kinds of epic.

 

Shiver me timbers, I tells ya.

[Metroid66]

I find the seafaring in this highly addictive, and it could be one of the best things anyone ever came up with at Ubisoft.

 

Disabling a ship thru battle on the high seas and the boarding and fighting it out on the enemy deck is just top videogaming.

 

I need to get back on land really because I've been playing for hours and I'm only on sequence 3. My ship is coming along nicely tho.

 

[Metroid66]

Got myself to sequence 9. It's certainly a game of 2 halves - the fabulous seafaring and open world pirating, and then the sequence missions which are 90% tailing/eavesdropping scenarios which, it has to be said, are getting a little obnoxious by way of repetition.

 

Plus, you can never really get any exposition from eavesdropping as all your concentration is focussed on avoiding the many ways you can fail these atrocities. Then you get a mission follow-on, and you have bugger all idea what you're doing it for. 

 

It's a decent game tho, for all that, but it's not a patch on the later RPGs for my money, even tho it always tops the best AC games lists on YouTube.

 

[Metroid66]

Done!

 

Finished with a flurry of pretty cool missions and a nice cutscene.

 

It's pretty much the best regarded of the pre-rpg era games, and for good reason. It's a rum soaked adventure and a half but, if the truth be told, the game isn't really standing the test of time. It's a bugger to control at times, with Kenway often just going his own way while you hammer buttons and wonder if your controller has taken the knock; there's far too many tailing missions, and the combat is basically arkham asylum - if the combat in arkham asylum was shite.

 

And yet there's the magnificent seafaring, the unimpeachable cast of characters, and the whole beautifully drawn game world, which let's you take an assassins tour of Kingston town no less. 

 

Still very much worth a playthru, but just clinging to the right side of archaic at this point.

[Maryokutai]

Puts the stories about an apparent remake a bit in perspective. I thought it'd be pointless when I heard that, but like you point out, as much as people give the series shit for being always the same, they have made improvements from game to game and BF is two generations old at this point and has had 6 (?) sequels already, so there's definitely some stuff they could improve.

 

The thing about the missions also reminded me that this was the game that asked you to give every single mission a 1-5 star rating after its conclusion. Which is such a weird feature to integrate into a game, and easily by far the most immersion-breaking idea I've ever seen in a videogame. But maybe it's also responsible for the complete lack of tailing missions from Origins onward.

[Metroid66]

3 hours ago, Maryokutai said:

The thing about the missions also reminded me that this was the game that asked you to give every single mission a 1-5 star rating after its conclusion.

To be fair I think that was woven into the memories as some kind of in-game customer feedback. You've probably forgotten but in Black flag Absturgo are trying to push the animus as a 'total recall' style entertainment.

[Maryokutai]

The only thing I remember about the Animus stuff in that game was the first person perspective, which I thought was pretty cool.

Maybe it was interwoven better than I remember and maybe a more casual observer would completely believe the illusion, but I just found it weird and intrusive. But ultimately not a big deal, either – I just mentioned it because your posts suddenly reminded me of it.

[regemond]

I didn't think it was worth opening a whole new topic when I'm playing the remake, Resynced.

 

I'm not too far in. Just a couple of hours, so I've dipped my toes into ship upgrades, and it's taught me how to initiate ship combat. 

 

Listen, I don't know if it's rose tinted glasses or not, but I don't think this is a significant upgrade from the original. The graphics aren't HUGELY improved, at least not from memory. I've just read what I said from last time I played it, back in 2022, and it seems like the waxy quality has gone, but other than that it's essentially the same. Maybe things are a bit smoother? 

 

Anyway, there are (IMHO) significant omissions from last time round. The phone companion app that helped me getting loads of upgrades is gone. I used to love controlling my fleet and sending them on worldwide missions while I was away from my console. It's honestly one of the few times where I thought the added app made sense. It had already been shut down last time I played it and I missed it there too.

 

The modern day sections have been nixed, too. I really enjoyed them, but AC now is all about keeping the illusion of it being modern day bullshittery while only distantly mentioning it. I really don't like that these have been stripped out. They gave a nice context to the ongoing story. Apparently they've been replaced, but I don't know what with yet. 

 

The worst thing though, is they've tried to replicate a simplified version of the newer titles' combat. So instead of tapping Square/X, you're tapping R1/RB. It just feels so unnecessary for a game that wasn't about deep combat.

 

From what I've read, the ftm trans pirate is still in it, which is an aspect I loved, because it felt real. It wasn't just done to pander (as the complaints usually go when anything trans-related is even mentioned), it was a part of the characters back story. Might even be true to the real person, but I can't be fucked checking that.

 

I truly believe there's no reason for this remake to exist. They could have just churned out the original again and it would have been just as good. I'm happy it exists. It's just pointless.

[Maf]

I played about an hour so far. Still in the tutorial section. 
 

I really enjoy the vibe and kind of liking the story this time around. I think it looks really nice as well. It’s a nice summer adventure. But certainly not loving the game 

 

Maybe I’m projecting because of how hot it is. But watching these people run around the Havana in 14 layers of clothes, buttoned up to the neck is madness to me. That would kill you before the blades. I also think Conway has the worst assassin’s outfit of all the characters. Which you would think shouldn’t matter too much but does affect how much I like him

 

That said I’m trying to pay attention to the story as AC games lose me fast and the writing and characterisation is better than I remember 

 

The game hasn’t really started yet, but so far it isn’t that fun. I only played AC Mirage a few years ago, and I dunno what the difference is, but I remember having a much smoother and better time with that 

 

It really could be knowing Conway isn’t an assassin but watching him do all the assassin shit without being told, learned or instructed is taking me out of the action  and I’m not enjoying doing it. It’s always been a huge disconnect for me in this game 

[Metroid66]

18 hours ago, regemond said:

 

I truly believe there's no reason for this remake to exist. They could have just churned out the original again and it would have been just as good.

 

I'd be surprised if this was true. My last playthru wasn't that long ago and is reported a few posts up on this very page, where my main complaint is how archaic the gameplay feels, especially the combat - which is truly awful in the original. 

 

I've played Shadows. If it feels anything like that it will be a huge improvement.

[Maryokutai]

20 hours ago, regemond said:

From what I've read, the ftm trans pirate is still in it, which is an aspect I loved, because it felt real. It wasn't just done to pander (as the complaints usually go when anything trans-related is even mentioned), it was a part of the characters back story. Might even be true to the real person, but I can't be fucked checking that.

 

Mary Read was a real person, like most major NPCs in this series. I don't think she should be considered trans though, from what little information we have she didn't identify as a man rather than just hid behind that facade to survive in a very hostile environment. The way her character arc concludes in the game is also unfortunately how it happened in reality. I read a semi-fictionalised retelling of her life last year called 'Saltblood'. It's an excellent book IMO, highly recommend.