The best entry in the series after Assassin's Creed 2, Black Flag proves a game can overcome several flaws as long as it manages to be fun.
A high-budget pirate sandbox action/adventure where you can sail around the sea from Kingston to Nassau, board enemy ships during naval battles, roam crocodile-infested swamps, run parkour-style on the roofs of Havana, dig for buried treasures in small atolls... I mean, how can one not love a premise like that? It's an instant winner.
Characters are vivid, voice acting solid, dialogues written with surprising flair. History provided here is the usual "based on real events" baloney; pirates are romanticized into brave rebels. Whatever - don't play Assassin's Creed expecting reliable history lessons. Sadly, the modern-day Abstergo plot, the series' tiresome framing device, refuses to go away and die. What would you rather do in a game about pirates - take control of your ship in the middle of a storm or speak to your boss in a corporate office? Every time the game shifts to a modern-day sequence (thankfully, not often) it's like getting commercials in the middle of a blockbuster.
Black Flag has a few dubious design choices. Insta-failure stealth missions are grating; they would be less annoying if the stealth system was exceptionally well thought-out, but this isn't the case. Enemy AI has its issues: for example, sentinels are remarkably unaffected by the disappearance of their comrades. Combat is once again dominated by the stupidly overpowered counter attack; and, speaking of overpowered, special mention goes to berserk darts, which allow to complete many missions with absurd ease. Overall, you'd think stealth and combat would be more polished in a series about assassins.
Still, the game is better than the sum of its parts and highly enjoyable - in particular, its mix of naval and terrestrial exploration (journey to far away islands, visit jungles with jaguars and Mayan ruins...) is fantastic.
For another entertaining (but sadly underrated) sandbox in the same setting, try Pirates of the Caribbean (2003).
A high-budget pirate sandbox action/adventure where you can sail around the sea from Kingston to Nassau, board enemy ships during naval battles, roam crocodile-infested swamps, run parkour-style on the roofs of Havana, dig for buried treasures in small atolls... I mean, how can one not love a premise like that? It's an instant winner.
Characters are vivid, voice acting solid, dialogues written with surprising flair. History provided here is the usual "based on real events" baloney; pirates are romanticized into brave rebels. Whatever - don't play Assassin's Creed expecting reliable history lessons. Sadly, the modern-day Abstergo plot, the series' tiresome framing device, refuses to go away and die. What would you rather do in a game about pirates - take control of your ship in the middle of a storm or speak to your boss in a corporate office? Every time the game shifts to a modern-day sequence (thankfully, not often) it's like getting commercials in the middle of a blockbuster.
Black Flag has a few dubious design choices. Insta-failure stealth missions are grating; they would be less annoying if the stealth system was exceptionally well thought-out, but this isn't the case. Enemy AI has its issues: for example, sentinels are remarkably unaffected by the disappearance of their comrades. Combat is once again dominated by the stupidly overpowered counter attack; and, speaking of overpowered, special mention goes to berserk darts, which allow to complete many missions with absurd ease. Overall, you'd think stealth and combat would be more polished in a series about assassins.
Still, the game is better than the sum of its parts and highly enjoyable - in particular, its mix of naval and terrestrial exploration (journey to far away islands, visit jungles with jaguars and Mayan ruins...) is fantastic.
For another entertaining (but sadly underrated) sandbox in the same setting, try Pirates of the Caribbean (2003).