Gadgetory

what's up internet Kevin here on TLD we're covering all the biggest games to come out this holiday season as well as getting ready for the next gen console move and today we've got our full review of the latest addition to one of Ubisoft's biggest franchises assassin's creed 4 black flag now Assassin's Creed 3 was a lot of people's least favorite in the series for a number of reasons including lots of bugs not as good of storytelling and a protagonist that just felt flat compared to previous ones and so there's a big fear as to whether or not assassins creed 4 will hold it down the same path or breathe new life into the series so let's go ahead and check it out and find out so assassin's creed 4 technically 6 what makes so different from the games before it well at a first glance not a whole lot to be honest core mechanics of the same combats the same some of the specialty weapons you make use of are the same and for the most part when you're on land you're basically planning a tropical version of Assassin's Creed 3 without all the bugs so what's different well there's a few important things the game's change in style tone and pacing and most noticeably the ship now while Assassin's Creed 3 added naval missions which in my opinion one of the better things that added to the series Black Flag has taken the concept and expanded on it a lot more making it a focal point in gameplay you get your own ship which has a lot of costly upgrades that you will invest in partly because it's satisfying great enemy ships with ease and partly because you don't want the games later levels to destroy you and you have some cosmetic options as well like buying different sales or monuments to put on the front battle you will be spending a lot of time on this thing and most of your money will go towards making it the most destructive force you can with much of the gameplay having you use the ship as a way to travel and explore different locations and also as your main means to make money whether you make it by searching for lost underwater treasure or you just murder and plunder everything you run into on the high seas now some of the game's old mechanics did come back lookout repurposed to focus on the ship instead specifically the notoriety system is just on your ship itself instead of lowering it by removing random posters from places no one could ever see them instead you let the occasional ship go or you bright people the guild system for side missions and making money has also been replaced by a functionally similar fleet mode where captured ships can be turned into pirate vessels that you send out to complete missions and make you more money these additions in gameplay combined with the game's storyline really makes this one a lot less about assassins a lot more about just being a jerk on the high seas and plundering to your heart's content well destroys to a feature the whole assassins vs. Templars plot featuring greek gods as ancient superhumans the game's individual plot for the most part puts assassins in the back seat and mostly just focuses on you trying to get what you want while meeting several historically famous pirates like Blackbeard Calico Jack married and so anymore this honestly ends up making the game a lot more engaging and the writers did a much better job on this one balancing this huge overarching conspiracy plot with a fun self-enclosed storyline with a protagonist that's way more likeable think of basically what Ezio would have been like had he not awoken to righteous vengeance but instead just focused on living his dream and taking what he wants honestly you're a bit of an asshole compared to most of the other leads but that's also what helps make this character more enjoyable not to mention the room it makes for character development now another big change they made that really makes this game a lot more addictive is it's changing pacing a lot of assassin premiums the past too focused on just having one or two gigantic cityscapes with three adding a few wilderness areas to explore as well well for is built on that same idea but has cut everything up into much smaller areas in a very logical fashion there are some decent sized cities you can go to but for the most part they're all tiny little settlements mixed with the wilderness of tropical Isles because the game takes place in the open seas with several small and divided islands the game can give you a much better sense of what needs to be completed wear and makes collecting hidden stuff a lot more bearable and actually doable being told to collect three animus fragments and find four chests on one of several islands is a lot more engaging than saying hey go find a hundred feathers strewn across one huge city it's less daunting it keeps your attention better and makes being a completionist to feel a lot more warm and fuzzy because you can actually see how islands and areas get checked off as you do things now of course this game is not without its faults it shares a lot of them with the rest of the series and are a lot of problems that many series fans become begrudgingly familiar with freerunning is still a mess in certain situations especially in chase scenes that can just be frustrating once you've failed were accidentally scaling a wall when all you wanted to do was run and turn a tight corner enemies seem a bit less inclined to take turns attacking you one at a time but combat is still for the most part of it choppy and not as fluid as other third-person action games if you want to raise an example of something similar but much smoother just look at the batman arkham city series of course if you're playing the game right then the combat should be kept to a minimum because you're just assassinating targets and staying stealthy but it still comes up often enough to be noticeable especially with all the ship decks you have to clear from raiding vessels now this one does feature the multiplayer mode which its own dedicated fan base and outside of some balance tweaks likeability cooldown setup options new perks and slightly altered scoring the mode at its core is still very much the same game team matches have two competing teams of identical quadruplets find and stab each other or steal relics or the free-for-all wanted modes have players kill each other back to back to back there has been one very big new addition though and that's the game lab game lab is a match creation mode that lets you customize game modes basically in just about every way possible outside of letting you actually add new things including being able to adjust what counts for scores what loadouts people are allowed to use time limits lots of stuff now playing these matches doesn't allow for the same kind of rewards so people can't rig easy level ups and achievements but once you've leveled up and just want fun matches to screw around in it's great though definitely one of those things that's made much more fun by playing with actual close friends as opposed to just random matchups so in a series that's now spanning six games almost all of it to released back to back where it is Black Flag fall amongst the rest of them well in my opinion this one actually ranks pretty highly two and brotherhood are still the peak as far as I'm concerned but this one gets a lot closer to touching them then revelations or three did while it's len b's missions don't really do a whole lot to revolutionize the game's core dynamic the addition of the pirate ship and all the different pirate-themed admissions and storyline makes this one a lot more enjoyable if you're a fan of Assassin's Creed you'll enjoy this game if you're a fan of Assassin's Creed and you like pirates then you'll love it well that was our review of assassins creed 4 black flag if you liked what you saw check out the link in the description to grab a copy for yourself and while you're down there if you enjoyed this video please make sure to hit that like button to let us know and if you're not a subscriber yet now is the best time to become one because they have a lot of content coming up very soon including unboxings and reviews of the ps4 and Xbox one until then i'm kevin for TLD and we'll see you next time you