Video Game

Assassin's Creed Black Flag

Overly Dramatic Review in One Sentence

Not the Assassin's Creed game we wanted, but the pirate game we deserved.

The Actual Review

Gameplay

This is the best part of this game. The hand-to-hand combat feels very clean, and I had no issue with it at all. The changes they made coming from the original in 2013, and Assassin's Creed III to match the Assassin's Creed Shadows style really was a breath of fresh air for this game. I never needed to change weapons or upgrade them other than achievement hunting, so there is no loot hunting from a combat prospective.

There are still some very annoying gameplay mechanics regarding loot looping. You have to collect a ton of different things from constantly attacking ships to fully upgrade your ship which you need to be able to take on the "Legendary Ships." Then you have all the hunting you have to do for gathering different skins to upgrade Edward's pouches. Yes, there was an addition in Resynced to allow you to use the "Bones" to trade for different skins which means I didn't have to go and hunt all the sea animals over and over again. You also have to build a fleet and then send them on missions to get blueprints for different parts of the ship. I have never looked up the mechanics of this, I found it beyond tedious and a waste of time in the 2013 version and this one very quickly.

The ship battles are so much more fun than I remembered them being. I think part of that is because the way the engine can create ocean swells, tornadoes, and just a turbulent sea. This means that attacks can be rendered useless by the sea. When you do get into a solid fight against a good ship, the diversity of the attacks means that strategy does matter. What I do wish is that you could upgrade your ship to the size of a "Man-o-War" or something like that. One of the main points of the fights is boarding the ship and either taking it over, destroying it, or in some cases, being able to steal the Captains chest. Well, when you board a "Man-o-War" you can't see the deck of that ship so you have to climb up. This is so dumb to me that you constantly have to do this. I find do it against these ships pointless, so I usually just destroy the ship.

I will also say, that I am pretty sure that they increased the sailing speed, because I vividly remember it taking forever to move from one point in the ocean to another. To the point the world felt massive. This time around, I used fast travel as often as I could. I don't remember being able to do that, but it has been 13 years. So maybe I could, but I for sure used it as the Caribbean is outstandingly large. This size becomes a frustrating point in Assassin's Creed Odyssey as well.

Graphics and Sound

Chef's kiss on this upgrade. I feel like I am surrounded by the open sea with the wind filling my ears pulling the sea shanties to resonate so well. There were also good explosion sounds and high-fidelity voices and songs. Take all of that and add in the storm weather. Ooo man.

The graphics upgrade is so nice. It will be so difficult going back to the old engine for Assassin's Creed Rogue and that makes me sad. The sun sets, the whales jumping, storm rolling. I mean look at these 2 pictures I took in-game in photo mode. I never do.

Story and Characters

This is where I am going to say a hot take that if you think about it, makes complete sense. The story sucks if you want an assassin's creed game. There are no if, ands, or buts, about it. This entire game is a pirate fantasy and if that is what you want, then it is epic. I mean if Sea of Thieves had spent 3 minutes looking at this game and coping the gameplay, it would be a hot game still. But if you want and Assassin's Creed game, this is not it. It is the beginning of the series thinking that characters that do not care of about the Creed are worthwhile characters to the story.

So you have a pirate that steals an Assassin's uniform and then just does whatever he wants. He doesn't really grow a conscience until the last second when it serves him most. In revenge rather than gold. As Black Beard even says, "In a world without gold, we would have been heroes." He doesn't care about the creed, we get nothing new for the Template vs. Assassin, you spend half the game in a conflict with the Assassins, and Edward's entire Assassin ark takes place YEARS later in the story line.

Now with Resynced, they got rid of the Modern day portion. Yes in the OG version of the game it was jarring to be pulled out when it did, but that story is important to the series. This one has a walking simulator with some parkour while an AI tells you What If... stories. It is NO different and easily worse. What they should do is start in the Modern day, give the precursor to what is going on and the setup it. Then give you an option for the first pull if you want to leave the bloodline story and play how they intended, or to finish the bloodline story and play the modern day at the end. Much like 007 First Light where you get to play the story, and then you can do the Simulator later. It isn't that crazy of an idea.

As for the characters, most of them are just there. Annie is awesome, a constant moral checkpoint throughout the story. Ade is also this straight arrow. Then both of them get trampled by Edward and his money pirating way. Yes, both of them were pirates as well, but they had a belief of people over gold. It took Edward a decade in game to figure that out. The new characters, Deadman and Padre, are some of the coolest characters. I am so happy they added in these extra people. They also bring some cool new combat items.

We do get "The Observatory," which from what we know in the future I don't know if it matters or comes back. I do know that this finished in a comic book, which is another issue itself. I have no issue with the "technology" that it is, but I can't figure out how it would be used in mass by the Isu. A spy tool? I mean, sure that makes sense. But why keep the blood vials for so long?

My Rating

From a place of reluctance, I have to admit that it was a very fun game. I still think it is a terrible Assassin's Creed Series game, but it is a great pirate game. The changes in the graphics were stunning, the action and adventure compelling. The story is a sinkhole that created the downfall of the main story. Here is why I say that. Edward isn't an assassin in this game. So we get Assassin's Creed Unity and Assassin's Creed Syndicate with these conflicted assassin's, and then we start to see non-assassin's playing a larger role to the detriment of the assassin order like in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. I think that this idea takes so much away from the Assassins vs. Templar fight that it basically gets forgotten, which is sad. However, all of that aside, I will begrudgingly say that this is a "GET THIS GAME" just because being a pirate is fun.

This video gives a good walk through of the changes and why this is so much fun.

Parental Rating

They would be so mad. Sex, alcohol, slavery, and language everywhere. A lot more violence in the takedowns that previous games. They would be upset for sure.