Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Playstation Launch Title Review
November 20, 2013 by Maya Mayfield
The Assassin's Creed series continues to grow strong with no forceable sight of slowing down, although Ubisoft has said there is an end at some point in the future to the popular franchise. At least for the next few years we will continue to enjoy the yearly releases on the PS4 that has gained the action-stealth combat game a solid fanbase. In this latest instalment of the series called Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, we are taking back in time to the golden age of piracy.
Edward then sets out on a recruitment mission to gather as many pirates to assist him in taking down the Governor. There are other deeper elements within the game involving memories and historical ancestry, but for the most part is centred on Edwards exploits on the high seas along with his band of pirates.
One of the biggest changes in this new game is the huge scale in which to explore. If you thought Assassins Creed 3 was huge wait until you see the map of Black Flags, which covers the entire Caribbean Sea and all its surrounding islands. There is an abundance of sea and ground to cover in Assassin's Creed IV and it can take a few weeks at least to explore every single island there is.
Black Flag also introduces ship warfare introduced during the later stages of AC3, but this time being the main focus point of AC4. As the Captain of your pirate ship you will be able to launch explosive barrels and cannonballs at enemy ships before they take you down. Destroyed ships can be raided for supplies, ship armour and weapon materials to upgrade on your own ship. Taking control of your ship puts you right into the heart of the action as you navigate across various hazardous open sea environments from heavy rain storms to crashing waves. Manoeuvring can be tricky at times on the open sea as you must avoid steering your ship towards rocky cliff edges, guaranteed to sink your ship. This may seem fairly straight forward until you include enemy ships, firing at you from different angles. We found the camera angles can be a bit of a challenge to control especially during battle sequences.
Fans of the previous Assassin's Creed franchise should be able to easily pick up and jump right into the combat system on Assassin's Creed 4 as things have not really changed much. The combat system is smooth and countering enemy attacks works like a charm to devastating effect. There is a control prompts system in the upper right hand corner of the screen that will require your careful attention as attempting to pull of an assassination attempt or another event like an eagle dive will not work unless prompted.
Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag has a main story to complete as well as side and optional missions to get through. Some of them require very little time or effort such as discovering hidden treasures and locating musical notes. Every island has an additional task to complete. There is a lot of direct travel on AC4 as well as quick travel location points once discovered on the map.
Crafting items is also another feature that is now included in Black Flag. AC3 did touch on this a little and this has now been expanded greatly in AC4. Edward can hunt animals and create things like satchels and holders for his weapons. Each animal skin will allow for different types of items to be carried, and crafting also works in multiplayer mode as well.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag is available both on next-gen and current gen platforms, and we felt that Black Flag does make use of the extra processing power of the PS4 but at times the game did appear like we were playing an improved current-gen title instead of a next-gen game. The character development models all appear to be polished versions of current consoles, but we did notice a huge difference when it came to the games texture and lighting when compared from PS3 to PS4. Overall the game does run smoothly and the frame-rate remains consistent throughout various locations and environments. We did notice the odd bit of glitches here and there, but nothing overly noticeable to interrupt or distract from the action.
The Sound effects and music in Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag is great, each explosion and metal against metal sword fight made us feel like part of the action. The voice acting and interactions between characters during cutscenes are spot on and at times humorous. Edward is a smooth talking, yet witty lady charmer with a British accent. He doesn't come across like previous Assassin's in past series which we believed gives the game a new fresh approach and appeal.
Gamers will have quite a lot of achievements to unlock both in single player campaigns and multiplayer modes. There is a ton of online game modes to get through and each mode will gain you XP points which in turn will help you to unlock other skills. We did encounter a few issues with random disconnections during multiplayer game rooms, but overall encountered no lag when we were able to connect allowing for a smooth gameplay.
The 1st multiplayer mode you will encounter is called Manhunt. The aim of Manhunt is to disguise yourself and assassinate other players and up to 8 players can play Manhunt simultaneously.
You will be assigned a target to assassinate, while also assigned as a target for someone else to kill. Before the game begins you will be giving a general clue as to your target. Once you are in the games room your mission is to discover the identity of who you must assassinate, while avoid getting killed or taking the life of innocent civilians. You will be able to utilise skills like hiding in groups for short periods of time during Manhunt as you seek out your target.
Another multiplayer mode is called Wanted, the game play is similar to Manhunt with the exception of rankings. So the higher you rank the more assassin's are assigned to take you out. Death match is another similar multiplayer game to manhunt but with much smaller maps. The final multiplayer mode is called Assassination. This mode requires more attention to assigned targets, and rewards you for better performed assassinations.
There are other multiplayer modes apart from those already mentioned like, Artifact Assault which is similar to capturing the flag and is aimed at stealing your opposing teams Artifact and returning it to your base to win. Another game is called Domination where you will have to capture a territory on the map and defend it from enemies to gain points. The final multiplayer mode is titled Wolfpack. This game can be played in single player or as a team. The aim is to eliminate different targets before the time runs out. Killing a target gives you extra time, and the games difficulty can be adjusted to suit your skill of play.
With Game Lab you can now create a template for multiplayer games and these templates can be shared with friends. When you select this option in multiplayer it will enable you to play other user created templates on the network.
PS4 owners will be pleased to discover that the Playstation 4 version of Assassin's Creed IV does have additional DLC of over 60 minutes of exclusive missions featuring Aveline the leading character from Asssissin's Creed Liberation game, and Adewale's freedom Cry missions. PS4 owners can download these additional contents for free from the Playstation Network store. There is also an iOS and android app available for download allowing you to interact with the game in real time on PSN.
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is the most detailed game we have ever played to date in the series. Its open world environment and incredibly large scale worlds will offer all you treasure hunters and deep explorers out there hours upon hours of fun. The Ship warefare, hunting and crafting elements adds a great new touch to the games franchise. If you love playing with friends then Black Flag has a ton of multiplayer game modes to keep you all entertained for the next few weeks and coming months ahead. We think Ubisoft have done a great job as a first launch title on the PS4, and we think first time gamers and seasoned veterans of the Assassin's Creed series will thoroughly enjoy this brand new adventure on the high seas.
REVIEW SUMMARY
Large open gameplay world to explore.
Excellent additions in Ship Warfare and Crafting.
Enjoyable multiplayer modes.
THUMBS DOWN:
Next gen version's graphics is not a huge jump from current gens.
Very Minor graphical glitches here and there.
Minor Random connection problems during online matchmaking.
This is a Playstation 4 review copy of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
Overall score 4/5
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