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

SJRB

Gold Member
Then all you do is charge into it and kill a bunch of people with the 1 button combat to finish it off.

Remember the combat in the original AC, where you had to block and time your counter? I loved that. It wasn't challenging by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it was engaging. Now you just chainkill your way through 10 dudes by mashing the attack button.

The forts are even worse. You can just ignore everyone, climb up, shimmy along a ledge and stab the officer in the back while he's scripted to stand there waiting because the game expects you to charge head-on. Works every time.
 
Buried treasures are worth doing because its fun to hunt for buried treasure.I mean come on. And I'm looking forward to customizing my ship once I get it fully upgraded. I'm going to be spending a lot of time on the old girl.

a bit disappointing in that aspect imo. you can change sails and the wheel and the figure out front... but thats about it. can't do paintjobs of the ship, or performance mods either.


would love to be able to sacrifice armor and guns for speed or get a man of war and wreck shit.


Best part of sid meier pirates was the options... i did tend to go light and speedy and board asap.
 
a bit disappointing in that aspect imo. you can change sails and the wheel and the figure out front... but thats about it. can't do paintjobs of the ship, or performance mods either.


would love to be able to sacrifice armor and guns for speed or get a man of war and wreck shit.


Best part of sid meier pirates was the options... i did tend to go light and speedy and board asap.

Never played Pirates. I heard it was really good, though.
 
a bit disappointing in that aspect imo. you can change sails and the wheel and the figure out front... but thats about it. can't do paintjobs of the ship, or performance mods either.


would love to be able to sacrifice armor and guns for speed or get a man of war and wreck shit.


Best part of sid meier pirates was the options... i did tend to go light and speedy and board asap.

I wish that you could release the wheel in combat so you could ram an enemy ship and instantly run and jump aboard to take out the crew yourself.
 
how do you use heavy cannon things? One optional objective was that, and i had the darndest time trying to figure that out.


Seriously though, why did they take out all the melee weapon types? Varied animations is what kept me from being completely bored with combat in the other games...

And you pretty much can afford the best sword and guns like a few hours in.
 
My favorite shanty is the drunken sailor because I sang that when I was in Chamber Choir in high school haha. Hearing it sung in the game was an awesome moment.
 
how do you use heavy cannon things? One optional objective was that, and i had the darndest time trying to figure that out.


Seriously though, why did they take out all the melee weapon types? Varied animations is what kept me from being completely bored with combat in the other games...

And you pretty much can afford the best sword and guns like a few hours in.

Heavy shot is just the normal fire button from the side of the ship without using the aiming mechanism first. It can only be used fairly close range.

One thing I will say is the combat in Black Flag is the only thing that has taken a step down from 3. The combat in AC3 was really beautiful if still simple to control, with precise animations, cool slo-mo finishes and nice weapon variety. In comparison, Black Flag's animation is fairly janky and you seem to only have swords. It's clear a lot less time was put into combat in Black Flag than in AC3, I guess because there's so much else going on.
 
Heavy shot is just the normal fire button from the side of the ship without using the aiming mechanism first. It can only be used fairly close range.

One thing I will say is the combat in Black Flag is the only thing that has taken a step down from 3. The combat in AC3 was really beautiful if still simple to control, with precise animations, cool slo-mo finishes and nice weapon variety. In comparison, Black Flag's animation is fairly janky and you seem to only have swords. It's clear a lot less time was put into combat in Black Flag than in AC3, I guess because there's so much else going on.

lol indeed. It's still crazy how 5 games in, large scale battles with ai allies is still a clusterfuck of physics and doodahs. failing a counter because someone bumped into me... not 'fun'.

Still, there is a weird satisfying feeling of edward's love to stab people in the face.


Animations do still take too long though, what they should do, counter kills for the most part should be quick and snappy, the last enemy of an encounter should have an elaborate kill animation with slowmo.
 

Derrick01

Banned
Remember the combat in the original AC, where you had to block and time your counter? I loved that. It wasn't challenging by any stretch of the imagination, but at least it was engaging. Now you just chainkill your way through 10 dudes by mashing the attack button.

The forts are even worse. You can just ignore everyone, climb up, shimmy along a ledge and stab the officer in the back while he's scripted to stand there waiting because the game expects you to charge head-on. Works every time.

Anything would be better than what we've gotten with AC3 and 4. They seem to make the entire series less engaging and interactive with each game it gets. Each one takes a little more control away from the platforming, or the combat, or the "stealth". The sad thing is they have no reason to listen either because sales AND reviews keep backing them up. At the very least I wish reviewers would start holding them accountable for making such brain dead games.
 

Tacitus_

Member
Is there some sort of story DLC or Brotherhood style continuation in the pipe? It felt like they left a lot of the plot threads just tangling.

a bit disappointing in that aspect imo. you can change sails and the wheel and the figure out front... but thats about it. can't do paintjobs of the ship, or performance mods either.

A lot of the ultimate upgrades are found in treasure chests. I thought they were all under water but I only found a couple with the diving bell.. most seemed to come from the buried treasures.
 
man, The Tomahawks were so satisfying and fun in AC3.

Thinking about it now, I wonder if the less precise animations and stuff in Black Flag was done to make the game less violent. AC3 battles were incredibly brutal and visceral and the characters were so realistic and the animations so precise, that the overall effect was really intense. You could almost see Connor cutting the guy's throat with the tomahawk or bashing the guy's head in with a club.

I definitely think a decision was made to tone that down a bit.
 

MilkBeard

Member
Guys I am not really following this thread ,but wanted to ask about any FPS drops on the PS4 version ? I am watching some Gamersyde footage and seems to stutter here and there . Is this the case ? Looks gorgeous nevertheless.

Virtually no drops. There is one time I noticed a drop, but I was sitting at the top of a sync point and I could see the entirety of the town, plus the ocean, and some natural area as well. It was a rare occurrence. Hasn't happened at any other sync point, even in Havana it was smooth, where you would have thought the game would chug.

There are some moments where the game might stutter when it loads, but that's just Ubi's janky engine. It also does this weird adjustment whenever the cutscene switches to a different angle. They should definitely refine their engine a bit for the next AC game.

Other than that the framerate has been very consistent. It's also a beautiful game, and I've found myself enjoying just running around because the game looks beautiful. The patch with 1080p +AA was definitely noticeable.
 

Dunan

Member
If you don't have subtitles turned on, you're missing out. There is a lot of capital letters to make it look like an 18th century text, which looks funny and brings an extra layer of atmosphere to the experience.

This was one of my favorite subtle touches. At one point, early in the game, the word "Precursors" is used, and thanks to 18th century capitalization, it's not quite clear if it means "precursors" or "Precursors".
 
where is the last templar key located? I assume its one of the lower places that story gated?



what do you get for beating the legendary ships? How geared out do you needa be?



And its weird that it seems like every story mission is suggesting me to upgrade my ship more, when i beat them losing 1 bar of health at most. my hull is already 1 tick from maxed. what else do you really need in this?
 

Naite

Member
what do you get for beating the legendary ships? How geared out do you needa be?



And its weird that it seems like every story mission is suggesting me to upgrade my ship more, when i beat them losing 1 bar of health at most. my hull is already 1 tick from maxed. what else do you really need in this?
You get a speed boosting ram attack for beating them all. It's my favorite attack to use now.

All I really needed maxed was chain shot and some side cannon stuff to beat all the legendaries. I typically just stay on their ass spamming chain shots to stun them, then mortaring or ramming them in between cooldowns. If you can get a really good angle in front on them, you can alternate heavy shots and chain shots, while blocking them from moving with your ship.
 

Dunan

Member
And its weird that it seems like every story mission is suggesting me to upgrade my ship more, when i beat them losing 1 bar of health at most. my hull is already 1 tick from maxed. what else do you really need in this?

That message is just there to tell you that, in principle, if you've never upgraded your Jackdaw (you love the land stuff and ignore the sea, say), you should do it before taking on that mission.

I hated the sea battles at first -- the game throws so much at you all at once, with the same buttons used for all kinds of different things -- but now I like them.

(Well, except for the time when Kenway somehow fell through the deck of an enemy ship while fighting and was trapped inside it while half my pirates were killed and I was unable to take the ship because only Kenway can do things like destroy flags. And then even though I reset the memory, the game counted all the pirates that were killed while I was trapped. So I had to go recruit another 20 or so pirates. Ah, Ubi glitches; gotta love them.)
 
where is the last templar key located? I assume its one of the lower places that story gated?

I'm in Sequence Six and have all of the keys. If should show you where they are on your map.

Offhand I believe the mission sets started in each of the three key cities (Havana, Kingston, Nassau) and the fourth was on a locale in the middle of the map.
 

Bboy AJ

My dog was murdered by a 3.5mm audio port and I will not rest until the standard is dead
Finally got a diving mission after several tailing ones. Awful. Give me back the high seas!
 
I'm in Sequence Six and have all of the keys. If should show you where they are on your map.

Offhand I believe the mission sets started in each of the three key cities (Havana, Kingston, Nassau) and the fourth was on a locale in the middle of the map.

i dont even remember where I am. just beat the mission where you are
stranded on an island.
 

bgbball31

Member
I'm sure this has been answered in this thread already, but it can be hard to find it in almost 2800 posts.

I've beat the first one and the second one, but never picked up any after that. Is it worth getting this one not knowing the plot for any of the games in between? Needing a game for my PS4...
 

Gaz_RB

Member
I'm sure this has been answered in this thread already, but it can be hard to find it in almost 2800 posts.

I've beat the first one and the second one, but never picked up any after that. Is it worth getting this one not knowing the plot for any of the games in between? Needing a game for my PS4...

Get it. It's the perfect jump in point, hardly anything about the past games really. Nothing crucial anyway. That story arc pretty much finished in AC3
 

Kazerei

Banned
I'm sure this has been answered in this thread already, but it can be hard to find it in almost 2800 posts.

I've beat the first one and the second one, but never picked up any after that. Is it worth getting this one not knowing the plot for any of the games in between? Needing a game for my PS4...

ACIV will spoil what happens in the Desmond timeline in ACIII, but the Desmond timeline sucks ass anyways. Definitely worth getting.
 

Branson

Member
I got this for $27 on ps4. Should I have gotten the PC version or are they pretty close? Gtx580 3gb and 2500k stock at 1080p here.
 
So I just finished the main story and having read the Assassin's Creed: Forsaken novel beforehand I have to say
it made me so happy to see Jenny (Scott) and a young Haytham together in the theater. It ties together nicely with the book.

This is definitely my Game of the Year.
 

leng jai

Member
I'm kind of surprised (okay not really) that the combat in this game is still the same ie. bland, unsatisfying and easy. You'd think they would have changed it up by now after the fifth or so game.
 
I'm kind of surprised (okay not really) that the combat in this game is still the same ie. bland, unsatisfying and easy. You'd think they would have changed it up by now after the fifth or so game.

they did a bit in 3-4. no more guard, just a counter button.... but its still pretty much the same.

pales in comparison to batman... and even sleeping dogs.
 

Derrick01

Banned
they did a bit in 3-4. no more guard, just a counter button.... but its still pretty much the same.

pales in comparison to batman... and even sleeping dogs.

Yeah for all the shit some people give batman because you *can* get through combat by countering and mashing attack like in this, that game actually has about 13-15 other moves you can do and it's fun to try and get through large encounters with up to 6-7 different enemy types without getting hit.

In Assassin's Creed you have no other option but to counter and mash hit. There are no other moves in the game. There's a lot of diverse animations but it's all handled automatically like 70% of the rest of the mechanics in this series.
 

Big_Al

Unconfirmed Member
Yeah for all the shit some people give batman because you *can* get through combat by countering and mashing attack like in this, that game actually has about 13-15 other moves you can do and it's fun to try and get through large encounters with up to 6-7 different enemy types without getting hit.

In Assassin's Creed you have no other option but to counter and mash hit. There are no other moves in the game. There's a lot of diverse animations but it's all handled automatically like 70% of the rest of the mechanics in this series.

That's not exactly true. If you just try and counter and mash hit with enemies like the brutes then you will get spanked who you have to disarm instead. There are a few more moves you can do during combat. For example you can shoot in the middle of a swordfight which I love doing and you can do this with your pistol or your blowpipe, I really like how it flows. It's incredibly fun to counter an enemy, shoot him with a dart and then watch him go mad :p It is simpler than Batmans combat that is true but to say you have no options at all is wrong. Plus Batman has a lot of animations handled automatically as well, outside of using gadgets to enhance the combat you sure don't get to choose what moves Batman actually does during a typical fistfight. But that's why the combat works so well in that game as you're supposed to be the goddamn Batman afterall. Sleeping Dogs is more traditional beat em up where you get to do/choose every move you make.
 

Facism

Member
does anyone have a fix for uplay being total shit when downloading anything? i'm downloading at 135kb but the PC acts like the connection is saturated and webpages/online anything fails to function responsively when downloading at that paltry amount with uplay.
 
have the climbing mechanics/controls changed in any significant way over the past few games? they feel sloppy and climbing seems more frustrating that I found in previous installments. I'm thinking it's because they removed the need to press X with R2 for free-running as opposed to only holding R2. it's bad enough that you apparently only can choose between moving super slow, but randomly jumping on crap I don't want to just trying to get places is very frustrating.
 
I'm not liking this game at all. It's really just another AC3. I'm hours into the game yet the story has gone nowhere because every mission is just a tutorial for one of the thousand game mechanics that they have to teach you. Even worse, there seems to be more stealth missions then ever. Why can't they add a damn crouch button instead of forcing me to use stealth bushes. It's so stupid and frustrating.
 

void666

Banned
I've been playing completely hudless and it improved the game a lot for me. Now i actually have to pay attention to combat.

Just had this HUGE battle trying to take a fort. Had to face the fort defenses plus a man o' war hunter and some other ships. It was a stormy night. I barely took care of them.

Infiltrated the fort and had to use the Eagle vision to locate the officers instead of just follow the red dots.

Everything was so beautiful and atmospheric. My jaw dropped.

I hate Assassin's creed. I hate how repetitive this game can be. But i love everything else.
 
Anyone else having stuttering issues on the Xbone version??

I installed the game and updated it.

It doesn't matter whether i am exploring, fighting, or in a cutscene, but ike clockwork every few minutes, the game will freeze, but the audio will still play.

I uninstalled the game, and reinstalled it, but sadly this hasn't fixed the problem.

Uplay and MP doesn't seem to be working at all on Xbone either.
 
I'm not liking this game at all. It's really just another AC3. I'm hours into the game yet the story has gone nowhere because every mission is just a tutorial for one of the thousand game mechanics that they have to teach you. Even worse, there seems to be more stealth missions then ever. Why can't they add a damn crouch button instead of forcing me to use stealth bushes. It's so stupid and frustrating.

The story missions are slooooow and yeah, definitely suffer from the slow drip of AC3's tutorials. But there's so much else going on in this game, which is more than can be said about 3.
 

DMiz

Member
The story missions are slooooow and yeah, definitely suffer from the slow drip of AC3's tutorials. But there's so much else going on in this game, which is more than can be said about 3.

Pretty much this. As painful as the story missions can be, some of them really do ramp up the activity level, and you never feel like you're pinned down to any particular story mission for long: there's always a new island, a new assassination mission, bars to pay off to find fat ships to loot, hunters, mayhem...

I think I agree with all of the major complaints made here and I still return to this game for more.
 

Unity2012

Member
Anyone else having stuttering issues on the Xbone version??

I installed the game and updated it.

It doesn't matter whether i am exploring, fighting, or in a cutscene, but ike clockwork every few minutes, the game will freeze, but the audio will still play.

I uninstalled the game, and reinstalled it, but sadly this hasn't fixed the problem.

Uplay and MP doesn't seem to be working at all on Xbone either.

No problems here. It works fine. I have not tried the MP yet.
 
The story missions are slooooow and yeah, definitely suffer from the slow drip of AC3's tutorials. But there's so much else going on in this game, which is more than can be said about 3.

There was tons of side stuff to do in 3 as well, but like that game I just don't feel compelled to complete anything. Which is the exact opposite of how I felt when I played AC2 and Brotherhood. I guess franchise fatigue has finally killed my interest in this series along with Ubisoft's design decisions.
 

Zalman

Member
Get it. It's the perfect jump in point, hardly anything about the past games really. Nothing crucial anyway. That story arc pretty much finished in AC3
As someone who hasn't played an AC game before, this makes me quite happy. The story seemed way too complicated earlier so it's good to see them leave that behind.
 
Does the cutscene on the island with Charles Vane change if you air assassinate him with your fists rather than using the hidden blade in AC4?
 

Noi

Member
There was tons of side stuff to do in 3 as well, but like that game I just don't feel compelled to complete anything. Which is the exact opposite of how I felt when I played AC2 and Brotherhood. I guess franchise fatigue has finally killed my interest in this series along with Ubisoft's design decisions.

The content is similar to 3, but the execution is way different. Assassin Contracts in 3 literally just made you go out and kill some random no-name dude standing in the middle of a street or alley with no guards who didn't even put up a fight when you got close to him. Those same missions in 4 have flavor text, additional sneaking requirements for a higher bounty, and proper scenarios where you can apply sneaking/combat to clear the contract.

Anyone with the PS4 version having trouble getting logged into the Ubisoft servers?

As far as I could find, all PSN accounts that were transferred from PS3 are having issues connecting to Ubisoft servers. I haven't been able to connect either, although Multiplayer still works.
 
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