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Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag |OT| Not Based on a DisneyLand Ride

After loving AC:1 & 2, disliking Brotherhood and Revelations and hating AC:3, I'm not sure why i've preordered this, let alone am super excited for Friday (being in the UK).

The thing i'm most worried about is it being repetitive as fuck...
So to the people who have played through it, how is the repetition compared to the prior games?
 

SJRB

Gold Member
After loving AC:1 & 2, disliking Brotherhood and Revelations and hating AC:3, I'm not sure why i've preordered this, let alone am super excited for Friday (being in the UK).

The thing i'm most worried about is it being repetitive as fuck...
So to the people who have played through it, how is the repetition compared to the prior games?

It's an AC game, which means most missions have a similar structure. However, they're pretty diverse and haven't felt repetitive yet. The game does have quite a lot of eavesdropping missions, the worst are the "stay within 15 feet of the target" while said target walks the most absurd route through all kinds of areas that suddenly became restricted just as a gameplay mechanic to make it more difficult for you. Those aren't fun and they will never be fun.
Sailing the seas doesn't feel repetitive in the slightest, but that's a hate/love kind of thing.

That being said, most missions are awful. Poorly designed, poorly executed. I endure the missions because I enjoy the freeroaming aspect.
 

Asd202

Member
So I've played the game. It looks great, presentation wise it's really good, world is big and seems interesting and sailing is fun but of course stealth ( while better than previous AC games it's still bad ), combat and enemy AI are still shit. The really need to change those things for the next game..
 
Wow this is game is really good - it's the first AC I've played and I'm loving it. I think that free run is really spotty (ie. running up un-runable wall, jumping in random directions, hanging instead of jumping, etc.) but everything else feels pretty nice.
 

Albo

Member
Playing on PS4

I can't believe just how stupidly dense all the inane side bullshit is in this game. I loved AC2 and AC Brotherhood, and maybe if I went back I would see they exhibited this characteristic as well just to a lesser degree, I don't remember enough to say. However I just finished sequence 6 of this game and holy shit I can't take this game very seriously. Every other MAIN STORY mission is a pseudo tutorial or straight forward tutorial for one of the billion side activities that exist in the game. A mission for deep sea diving, a mission for boat pirating, a mission for hunting, a mission for Mayan shit, a mission for capturing forts, a mission for lowering wanted level, a mission for there fleet management mini game, so on and so on. I feel like this game is the most ad hoc game I have ever played. It's like they find it impossible to either create unique situations for the main story, or refuse to only allow players to do something once and must force it into a continued bit of gameplay through side missions. Not to mention the ridiculous amounts of collectibles. It feels like this game appeals to all the shallowest measures of game design.

That's not to say I think the game is bad, but just that it actively works to cheapen itself through exploiting everything it does to the point that it actively detracts from the story. One can only imagine how much contrivance exists in the story in an effort to make possible all the tutorials they need to give for their side shit.

It's an AC game, which means most missions have a similar structure. However, they're pretty diverse and haven't felt repetitive yet. The game does have quite a lot of eavesdropping missions, the worst are the "stay within 15 feet of the target" while said target walks the most absurd route through all kinds of areas that suddenly became restricted just as a gameplay mechanic to make it more difficult for you. Those aren't fun and they will never be fun.
Sailing the seas doesn't feel repetitive in the slightest, but that's a hate/love kind of thing.

That being said, most missions are awful. Poorly designed, poorly executed. I endure the missions because I enjoy the freeroaming aspect.

These are the things I'm concerned about that hold be back from getting the game. FC3 had similar problems with it's filler side content and collectibles. It's one of the few times I remember where I didn't bother doing most of that stuff in a game that was good. Maybe It's just me becoming jaded with Ubi's similar game design, and or becoming fatigued with the series having completed all AC games 100% (even ac3). Might get it down the line if it's cheap and I have nothing else to play.
 
Yeah I see no reason why anyone would get this on pc from any place besides eBay ( or free with a new nvidia card).

Is the extra preorder/ super edition stuff anything of worth gameplay wise?
 

Effect

Member
I find it strange how Edward can
mimic every assassin's hability. He can do the parkour thing, he's agile as hell, he can use dual hidden blades as a pro. And he never had assassin training. Unless there's some sort of plot twist down the road.

This is one of the things I couldn't let go of regarding the game and really added to my overall negative feeling towards it. It made no sense to me.
 

iNvid02

Member
Yeah I see no reason why anyone would get this on pc from any place besides eBay ( or free with a new nvidia card).

Is the extra preorder/ super edition stuff anything of worth gameplay wise?

the only thing that sticks out is 60mins of aveline gameplay and adewales side story. the rest looks like a few minor missions on random islands, skins/weapons/ship customization items and some multiplayer characters.

but seriously. I miss when Assassin's Creed was full of conspiracy theories and Assassin vs Templar Conflict.

yeah it was pretty enjoyable trying to figure out what the hell was going on. but like always once the curtain is pulled back its difficult trying to sustain that mysterious feel
 

Omni

Member
Finished it tonight... and god damn is the story fragmented. It actually ends like they just stopped 3/4 through production and slapped some credits there. It's literally like "wait... that's it?". I had to read the AC wiki afterwards to understand what happened.

but seriously. I miss when Assassin's Creed was full of conspiracy theories and Assassin vs Templar Conflict with mysterious supernatural overtones. They really got it right with ACII, didn't they? I mean, they had the damn Pope in there as a Templar. ACIII and IV are kinda just... dull. There were moments that were obviously supposed to have a bit of meaning... but the characterisation and general fragmentation of storyline meant that I had no feeling one way or another. Hell, I had no idea who half of the Templars were that I was killing nor why I was going after them.

Story is better than ACIII of course, but still nowhere near ACI/II.

If I had to complain about gameplay, it's that it is still too damn easy. And for some reason they've gone back to ACI combat where one person attacks you at a time.
 
Is there a reason why we haven't had a female assassin in a console game? Are they afraid a female protagonist won't sell as well? I enjoyed having Connor as the hero because it gave an outsider's perspective on the greater conflict.

Also, Connor earned his role as an assassin. Edward seemingly was born with ninja skills. His transition into the brotherhood was too quick. "Okay, I'm an assassin now though I dont require any training cuz I'm already a master assassin."
 

ruxtpin

Banned
This is my first AC game since AC1. I've got AC2, Brotherhood, and Revelations in my 360 backlog, but whatever. I picked it up for the PS4 - because pirates - and played it for about 16 hours over the weekend.

I'm really enjoying it. It still has a certain repetitive factor (each city has the same type of side-missions, etc) - but I feel like those are optional now. Even at 900p, the game is absolutely gorgeous. And I'm getting a kick out of sailing around and listening to my crew sing - "Whoa ho and up she rises! Early in tha' morning!"

Like others have asked, I'm not entirely sure what the point of getting full-sync in an area is. I wish there was a little bit more incentive in that regard. And... I think the
berserk dart
might be a little bit overpowered, but even so - it's a riot shooting folks with that thing.
 

Deimo5

Member
Is there a reason why we haven't had a female assassin in a console game? Are they afraid a female protagonist won't sell as well? I enjoyed having Connor as the hero because it gave an outsider's perspective on the greater conflict.

Also, Connor earned his role as an assassin. Edward seemingly was born with ninja skills. His transition into the brotherhood was too quick. "Okay, I'm an assassin now though I dont require any training cuz I'm already a master assassin."

How was Ezio, I can't really remember. He could at least fist fight and free run pretty well before becoming an assassin right?
 
Also don't really like how guards don't really react to dead bodies, they just walk by.

And for some reason they've gone back to ACI combat where one person attacks you at a time.

hunh. my copy (ps3) must be special? i've had many instances where a body's drawn attention, & many instances when i've been swarmed (particularly when boarding enemy ships). can't say either things' consistently happened, but both've happened most of the time...
 

Skyr

Member
Is there a reason why we haven't had a female assassin in a console game? Are they afraid a female protagonist won't sell as well? I enjoyed having Connor as the hero because it gave an outsider's perspective on the greater conflict.

Also, Connor earned his role as an assassin. Edward seemingly was born with ninja skills. His transition into the brotherhood was too quick. "Okay, I'm an assassin now though I dont require any training cuz I'm already a master assassin."

assassins-creed-liberation.jpg

Guess they wanted to try out how players react to a female character here.
Seems like they still hesitate to do it on console tho.
 
Damn, I think the sixth Assassin Contract in Havana bugged on me, I left a long time ago when I botched it and didn't come back until just now and the mission is not anywhere to accept and the area it was at is red but no target with Eagle Vision.

Unless he is just in the city bugged somewhere lol.
 

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
Is there anywhere that one could VPN unlock this through, or does the PC version have the earliest release in NA?

I've rummaged through a bajillion Steam store pages and the US unlock time is the earliest of the lot (~25 hours from now).
 
So I got my PS4 last Thu night and have really been enjoying this game. I was particularly interested to try the touchpad integration on the map but found it rather abysmal. It feels as though the map navigation was designed with momentum for a joystick and they simply applied the same interface to the touchpad. It doesn't feel anything like using my iPad to move around on a map. Did anyone else notice this? Have a fix?
 

Pooya

Member
email/hacking related spoiler, seq 7

so watch_doge is in the same universe? lool

I guess the shareholder meeting in Chicago was probably in Watch_Dogs too in some way.

the emails about product planning and settings were quite fun to read.

I actually enjoyed reading all those emails and other files. The present day stuff isn't annoying to me here. I think this has been their best attempt yet, I'm far from the end though.

I wish they kept some of these stuff in Splinter Cell Blacklist :|
 
Is there any real reason to go into the real world first person stuff? I really have no interest and just want to play the actual game, but will I be missing important stuff/unlocks/etc
 

Cheska

Member
Does renovating your main island not net you extra income like it used to in previous AC games? One of my absolute favorite things in the previous games was upgrading everything in the cities and banking in on that cash.
 

Zincalloy

Banned
This is quite possibly my favorite game of all time and I'm only 25% in.
My only question is, where the hell is the 3D on the PS4? I read originally that it was going to have 3D support...
 

Dead

well not really...yet
The Sally Brown sea shanty is stuck in my head since yesterday. Shit is so catchy lol

Also I still can't believe that there is seemingly no way to unlock the original Assassin outfit from the start of the game once Edward customizes it. There are variations of it that you can buy, but the actual original one seems to be gone forever. Makes no sense considering how many unlockable outfits there are in the game :(
 

Dead

well not really...yet
oops, my bad about the double post
email/hacking related spoiler, seq 7

so watch_doge is in the same universe? lool

I guess the shareholder meeting in Chicago was probably in Watch_Dogs too in some way.

the emails about product planning and settings were quite fun to read.

I actually enjoyed reading all those emails and other files. The present day stuff isn't annoying to me here. I think this has been their best attempt yet, I'm far from the end though.

I wish they kept some of these stuff in Splinter Cell Blacklist :|
lol

well, during the last AMA on Reddit, the AC4 game director said to someone who was asking about a modern day AC that
Watch Dogs is coming out
and that AC would continue to have a historic focus

so...straight from the horses mouth lol
 

d00d3n

Member
So I wonder, will this unlock right at midnight tonight on uPlay? Really want to play this later.

I wonder this too. When exactly will the game unlock in the USA? The game is on a really weird release timer here in Sweden: the Steam counter says that it will unlock at 19.00 in three days.
 

Takuhi

Member
Have they done anything with the "Rate this Mission" feature yet? Was the idea for that to patch the game to improve the least popular missions, or is the data just being used to influence the design of future games?
 

Muffdraul

Member
Nice to see all of the positive "yes it's much better than AC3" impressions. AC3 killed my enthusiasm for the franchise to the point where I had no intention whatsoever to bother with AC4. After playing through the Killzone campaign twice over the weekend, I'm ready for a new game. And fuck waiting for Amazon, I'm going out on my lunch break to grab a copy. Can't remember the last time I did that, it's been years.
 

hlhbk

Member
Good lord. I am at the beginning of the game and can't get anywhere without it freezing. Have to start over each time.

Which version?

So I am confused people. I read one page back that the game is poorly optimized like AC3, and then I see moving the Shadows to normal fixes it. Can anyone else confirm?
 

Breemin

Member
PS4 disk base version here.

I am absolutely loving this game! The second screen on the IPad is an awesome feature to play with your little ones as navigators.

I have AC3 on WiiU and could not get into it. AC4 pirate theme is awesome, sailing the seas looks simply awe inspiring.

Some of the controls are a bit flaky, platforming can be off sometimes. The sea battles are indeed fun, but do become repetitive.
 

GDJustin

stuck my tongue deep inside Atlus' cookies
Have they done anything with the "Rate this Mission" feature yet? Was the idea for that to patch the game to improve the least popular missions, or is the data just being used to influence the design of future games?

It's being used in conjunction with play data (Ubisoft can see where/when people Desynchronize and fail missions) to craft patches.
 
I still don't know if I should buy it on PC (single GTX 680) or PS4.
I mean, to have the nvidia features and better framerate would be nice but I'm only buying Killzone SF for the PS4 and I'd have nothing to play in it besides that.
Mh.
 
Holy shit, GAF, why didn't you tell me this game was so good? I'm about 4-5 hours in now, well into the ship combat, and I have to say boarding a ship is one of the more fun things I've done in a video game this year.

This game is leagues better than AC3 - with much more focus and polish - and probably the greatest pirate game ever made.

Looks beautiful on PS4.
 
How was Ezio, I can't really remember. He could at least fist fight and free run pretty well before becoming an assassin right?

Yes, but his father was secretly training him to become an assassin (though Ezio didn't realise it at the time). Wasn't he about to be made aware of the order just before everything went to hell, and his father/brothers were hung?
 

Muffdraul

Member
Yes, but his father was secretly training him to become an assassin (though Ezio didn't realise it at the time).

Are you getting that from an AC book or comic or something? Because it certainly wasn't indicated in the games. All of Ezio's training happened after
his father & bros. were killed.
The only thing his father ever referred to was "your special ability" which all of his offspring would have inherited.

EDIT: Although he and his brothers seemed to do the Leap of Faith just for fun... hmm, wonder where they picked that up? I may have to concede!
 
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