Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag review

EMERALD ISLES

The game is spread across some 50 locations on the open world map. As well as the big ports of Havana (Spanish), Kingston (British) and Nassau (a pirate freetown), there are fishing villages and inland plantations to plunder, hidden coves and Mayan ruins to explore and miles-upon-mile of treacherous jungle. Forts can be attacked from the sea, using your ships cannon, or infiltrated from land by stealth.

Although it’s an open world, you won’t be able to take on the most powerful galleons of the Spanish and English navies at first – each carries up to 100 guns apiece. You’ll need to upgrade your 60m long Jackdaw as you progress, from six cannons up to 56, and by adding mortars, explosive mines, swivel guns and even a diving bell. Yes there’s even underwater exploration, allowing you to swim down and plunder wrecks.

Your ship, the Jackdaw, is (literally) one of the biggest characters in the game. You’ll have to keep her repaired, crewed and loaded, plus add regular upgrades

You’ll earn your own pirate base, which you can upgrade with conveniences such as shops, later you’ll gain your own fleet of ships that will plunder in your name, and for your profit. Then there’s treasure to find, with maps to follow, which can be brought up on a tablet or smartphone, as can your sea chart, to help you navigate more easily.

On top of all this is a solid multiplayer mode, though one that doesn’t bring naval combat unfortunately. Still the sneaking, running, chasing and backstabbing are all a nice change of pace from the usual shooting, shooting, shooting of most online competitive games.

CONCLUSION

If you haven’t played an Assassin’s Creed game recently then this is a great place to get back onboard. The meta-narrative has been rebooted, the historical setting is undoubtedly the best to date and the new sea-faring elements are a huge, and excellent, addition to the series. If you’ve tired of the series’ key mechanics, though, then beware that this game will feel very familiar in parts.

That said, it’s also far greater than the sum of its parts, the best pirate game ever (sorry Monkey Island). As a swansong for the Xbox 360 and PS3 era of gaming, this is an undoubted masterpiece, one that lives up to the scale of GTA V, but which shows you don’t need to shock to entertain, and you can even educate a little too.

However, it’s hard not to mark it down for the sheer familiarity of most its core mechanics. So five stars if you’re new to all this, or if you really like pirates, but you might want to knock one star off if you’re tired of wielding those twin blades.