Assassin's Creed Black Flag takes an interesting turn from it's predecessors. The story no longer follows the life and memories of Desmond Miles' ancestors, but now follows a new unnamed character who works for Abstergo Entertainment. This company takes the memories of employees' ancestors and turn them into products such as video games and movies. The protagonist is currently researching the life of Edward Kenway; a pirate who gets caught in the war between the Assassins and Templars.
Players must traverse the immense world to complete missions, find treasure, and explore the vast seas. The visuals are stunning. With the lush tropical islands, the vast powerful sea, and the well-designed cities the game looks amazing. While you run through the streets and across rooftops, it looks and feels smooth and realistic. The sound design however sounds quirky at times and repetitive. While swimming you hear the same two sounds over and over again. At points when you are near a person that is a mission objective, they may repeat a line 3 or 4 times in a row before changing what they say making it really noticeable that it is an AI.
Although most missions allow you to decide whether to sneak past stealthy or run through and kill everything, you do get a completion bonus for doing it without going into combat. There may also be another side objective such as killing enemies around a corner or inside a hidden area. You may restart from a checkpoint at the beginning of the mission to retry as many times as you want until you are satisfied with how you completed it.
Players will find themselves spending most of their time on sea. Their ship will encounter whales, hurricanes, and other ships that will seek to destroy them. The ship battles are fun but get repetitive after a short while. Controlling the ship may be a challenge at first but players will catch on fairly quickly. Upgrades will be available for your ship, armor, and weaponry as you progress through the game.
Overall, Assassin's Creed Black Flag gives a strong feeling of adventure. Exploring the tremendous world and learning your surroundings creates an experience that allows players to have strong control over the outcome of each mission. Although it may have moments where it feels repetitive, there is enough missions to choose from to enjoy the game in general. Even if you are not an Assassin's Creed fan, this game is worth picking up and playing through.
