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[conman]

I caved and bought this (at a reduced price) finally. AC3 was so bad that I thought I had sworn off the series entirely, but some reactions in this thread and elsewhere convinced me to give AC4 a shot. I'm ten hours in and really enjoying it. It's not quite up to the level of the best in the series (AC1, ACB, and ACR), but it does well with what the series has always done best: exploration and environmental storytelling.

One of my favorite minor additions is the use of an icon overlay when you are perched at viewpoints. It means I rarely (if ever) have to use the map screen, which avoids the "paint by numbers" feeling of completing tasks and finding items. It feels organic to play without the HUD (I play with only the SSI on), and they've thankfully played down the cinematic storytelling. Most of the narrative is gleaned from the environment and game systems (which is what was great about ACR). The only real misstep is the present-day narrative. I liked the Desmond storylines in most of the other games and loved the conspiracy theory stuff, but this is just goofy and sloppy and unnecessary.

Still too early for a final verdict, but so far, I'm pleasantly surprised.

 

[Toa TAK]

Finally beat all four Legendary Ships.

Now I could go around and clean up the rest of the collectables, but since there's no achievement for that the last thing I need to do before (maybe) doing multiplayer is to 100% the story.

That's the fun part.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Can I exit the animus post game so can read up on all of the post-it notes and stuff? That was a huge issue for me with 3, the fact that I couldn't read all the emails and such post game.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Finally beat all four Legendary Ships.

Now I could go around and clean up the rest of the collectables, but since there's no achievement for that the last thing I need to do before (maybe) doing multiplayer is to 100% the story.

That's the fun part.

I'm not sure if you're serious with that last line, but it really is. When everyone wrote off AC3 because of a slow story, disjointed mechanics, poor main character (their words, I love Connor) etc... I enjoyed he hell out of Forest Gumping through the American Recolution while playing the actual "game" of the game.

 

[SpoonyBard]

Can I exit the animus post game so can read up on all of the post-it notes and stuff? That was a huge issue for me with 3, the fact that I couldn't read all the emails and such post game.

Yes.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Yes.

Thank you.

The recent info on Unity brought me back to the game. With my fragmented play sessions and Ubi's knack for time-jumps and poor plotting, I'm a little lost as to what happened.

Up to the start of sequence 12 spoilers:

Spoiler

Two women, both pregnant, were imprisoned. One died in Kenway's arms, how'd the other get out? I just witnessed the scene where you see one of the women sitting against a tree reflecting on the loss of her child and fellow pirates and I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to know her besides nearly witnessing their hanging and helping them escape. Was the other woman Kidd?

 

[SpoonyBard]

Up to the start of sequence 12 spoilers:

Spoiler

Two women, both pregnant, were imprisoned. One died in Kenway's arms, how'd the other get out? I just witnessed the scene where you see one of the women sitting against a tree reflecting on the loss of her child and fellow pirates and I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to know her besides nearly witnessing their hanging and helping them escape. Was the other woman Kidd?

I think pretty much no-one knows who they were. Another annoying thing about that prison mission was the "visiting old friends" secondary objective. That's not exactly a great missing briefing, I had no idea what that meant.

edit: and an another reason why most of the side missions are better than main missions - no secondary objectives.

 

[SirMossyBloke]

Thank you.

The recent info on Unity brought me back to the game. With my fragmented play sessions and Ubi's knack for time-jumps and poor plotting, I'm a little lost as to what happened.

Up to the start of sequence 12 spoilers:

Spoiler

Two women, both pregnant, were imprisoned. One died in Kenway's arms, how'd the other get out? I just witnessed the scene where you see one of the women sitting against a tree reflecting on the loss of her child and fellow pirates and I couldn't figure out how I was supposed to know her besides nearly witnessing their hanging and helping them escape. Was the other woman Kidd?

Spoiler

The other one got out because your assassin friend rescued her. She's right there as you rescue the one that dies.

The one that died was Kidd.

 

[MoonsaultSlayer]

Spoiler

The other one got out because your assassin friend rescued her. She's right there as you rescue the one that dies.

The one that died was Kidd.

Thanks. It's been a while and I was confused as to how I was supposed to know them and if one was Kidd or not.

 

[spekkeh]

I have to eat crow, this game is really fun to play, even though I was quite done with the AC concept. Naval battles are great fun, and the switching between ship and landbased missions does well to keep things interesting. The game does feel quite bloated, and every time I open the map and see Far Cry 3 I groan. I hope the main storyline doesn't last very long. (I'm timestarved so very hostile to bloat)

I do wish they added a bit more tactics to the naval battles though. Wind especially. These were times when you could return back from a six year trip around the world only to have to wait two weeks right outside of the port for the wind to change in the right direction again (in Dutch we have a famous idiom about this, in fact fifty percent of our proverbs and idioms have to do with wind or sailing and are from this time period, and I sail myself, so maybe it's a bit overblown sensitivity). Obviously compromises have to be made to keep the game playable, but circle strafing around another ship is kind of silly. It also feels daft to sail into the wind and see the sails bulge from behind.

 

[conman]

I have to eat crow, this game is really fun to play, even though I was quite done with the AC concept. Naval battles are great fun, and the switching between ship and landbased missions does well to keep things interesting. The game does feel quite bloated, and every time I open the map and see Far Cry 3 I groan. I hope the main storyline doesn't last very long. (I'm timestarved so very hostile to bloat)

I'm in the same boat (ha). I'm enjoying this despite myself. I will say, though, that there doesn't seem to be anything really tying it all together. The parts are greater than the whole.

There's no real "story" to speak of, and none of the underlying sci-fi metastory is worth a damn. All the story of the Templar/Assassin stuff is pretty much absent. The only thing that makes it an "Assassin's Creed" game is the core traversal mechanics and systems. The game consists of mostly just wandering around, going from place to place and battle to battle. It shouldn't be as fun as it is. That's a testament to how well the individual pieces have been designed. As long as I don't try to see the forest beyond the trees, it's great. But it all starts to dissolve if I start thinking about the (non-existent) big picture. I'm sure this is the result of Ubi's now-routine factory style and compartmentalized development of the AC series. It plays more like an MMO than like a narrative-driven or open-world game.

And, yet, for all those problems, I'm enjoying it. Ubi has made a science of fun. Like Infinity Ward with CoD, they must have unbelievably complex player metrics by now after 3-4 games so tight on one another's heels.

 

[spekkeh]

As long as I don't try to see the forest beyond the trees, it's great. But it all starts to dissolve if I start thinking about the (non-existent) big picture.

Haha yes, this is exactly the problem, and what I meant with 'when I open the map and see Far Cry 3', which I also considered fun in the moment but completely vapid as an overall game. You hit the nail on the head with this description. I love to play the game, but get annoyed right the instant I start to think of the big picture.

 

[conman]

Haha yes, this is exactly the problem, and what I meant with 'when I open the map and see Far Cry 3', which I also considered fun in the moment but completely vapid as an overall game. You hit the nail on the head with this description. I love to play the game, but get annoyed right the instant I start to think of the big picture.

No kidding!

I'm almost twenty hours in now and I still have no idea why either of the two player characters (pirate guy and play tester guy) are doing what they're doing. I still have no idea why Pirate Man's even listening to these other characters, why he's doing Assassin things when he's not an assassin, etc. The in-progress data entries make it seem as though the idea is supposed to be that this is an unfinished game (which is why it's being play-tested). But that's a seriously lame cop-out for insanely bad (or absent) writing. There are even asides between developers that acknowledge how unconvincing his motivation is. How is that okay?

Revelations did almost the exact same thing; however, the difference in that game was that we'd already spent two full games following Ezio, so there wasn't much need to fill out his character or motivations. And we'd spent three full games following the Assassin-Templar history and Desmond's story, so there wasn't much need to fill that out either.

But in AC4, we know nothing about either storyline or character. For such a big-budget game that gets so many of the details right, it's really pretty amazing how much they've totally screwed the pooch with the big picture stuff. Really great in small doses and on the small scale, but as soon as you start thinking big, it all falls to pieces. It's beautiful and the setting is amazing, but, yeah, I'm starting to lose motivation (with only 20% completion at 20 hours) since there's no real reason to keep going. I have no interest in seeing where the "story" goes. And the game systems have already shown me everything they'll do for the next 20-30 hours. The game parts are a lot of fun, but as a complete game, it's really quite awful.

 

[methane47]

It just struck me..

HOW IN THE HELL DID THIS GAME NOT WIN BEST MUSIC awards?

The shanties litterally KILLED IT.

The shanties should have won the game best music hands down.

 

[SJRB]

It just struck me..

HOW IN THE HELL DID THIS GAME NOT WIN BEST MUSIC awards?

The shanties litterally KILLED IT.

The shanties should have won the game best music hands down.

I think because the shanties are not original tracks? Not sure, most of them definately aren't anyway. I think that's a requirement.

 

[conman]

It just struck me..

HOW IN THE HELL DID THIS GAME NOT WIN BEST MUSIC awards?

The shanties litterally KILLED IT.

The shanties should have won the game best music hands down.

Doesn't matter if it won or not. Those shanties are effing awesome. Fact. I'm filing these away for future drunken nights among friends. That's the truest sign of winning.

 

[malfcn]

Fastest way to get resources? Have some loot, but can't upgrade because not enough metal or other requirement.

 

[someday]

Fastest way to get resources? Have some loot, but can't upgrade because not enough metal or other requirement.

I think the only way is through taking out other ships. Man 'O Wars have the most metal.

 

[SJRB]

Fastest way to get resources? Have some loot, but can't upgrade because not enough metal or other requirement.

Fastest way is getting two wanted "stars". Pirate hunters always carry metal and respawn pretty much every 5 minutes. Second tier wanted level will get you about 90 units of metal eacht time and are extremely easy to take down.

In between fighting them you can still hunt for regular ships carrying metal.


Ultimately it will still require a fair amount of grinding to get all the upgrades, there is no fast/easy way to get loot.

 

[malfcn]

Something is wrong with an Island.
I have a single enemy that just stands there. And the contract is missing so I cannot complete this location. Glitch or will be fixed later in game progression? It's been that way for awhile.

And holy hell I hate the Legendary Ships.
Defeated 3/4, but the pair is stupid. Let's make big boats that can turn on a dime, and have nitro..and once one goes down the other becomes a godly beast. Make it arbitrarily more difficult just to be a pain in the arse.
Hate when games do this kind of cheap difficulty spike.

 

[backflip10019]

Finished the main story yesterday. What a letdown. Having skipped AC3 (because of how terrible I've heard it is), I had no context for the ending and was shocked at how abruptly it concluded both inside and outside of the Animus. It felt rushed and unfinished.

Anyway, I think I'm done with the series. The stealth mechanics stress me out too much, and I hate having to redo sections of missions simply because the controls were wonky and Edward decided to jump to his death. Overall, very disappointing.

 

[GungHo]

Something is wrong with an Island.
I have a single enemy that just stands there. And the contract is missing so I cannot complete this location. Glitch or will be fixed later in game progression? It's been that way for awhile.

I've had this happen with taverns before. As near as I can tell, broke is broke.

Fastest way is getting two wanted "stars". Pirate hunters always carry metal and respawn pretty much every 5 minutes. Second tier wanted level will get you about 90 units of metal eacht time and are extremely easy to take down.

In between fighting them you can still hunt for regular ships carrying metal.

You can also get lucky by going into some of the contested areas where the British and the Spanish are fighting and pick up all the dropped cargo. There have also been a couple of times where I boarded a ship that was incapacitated either by one of the other countries' ships or incapacitated by a waterspout. The latter is pretty dangerous because you need to dodge all the waterspouts, too. However, it strips their deck, so it's a real easy steal. I've gotten men of war and frigates that way early on, and you can get a lot of diamonds when you scrap the bigger ships. There's plenty of additional sailors floating around in the area, to boot, after that happens, so you don't need to worry about going back into port for resupply.

 

[Fedelias]

Just finished the game... wow that ending was actually really good. This is the first AC game where I've really felt invested in the story. I wanted to know what happened next with Edward and how he'd progress.

Spoiler

Actually felt emotional at the end with the song playing and him meeting his daughter.

Damn good job Ubi.

 

[Curufinwe]

So no news on the Jackdaw edition or something similar coming to the States?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00I9WW5N6/

I plan to get a PS4 some time this month and AC4 is the game I wanted to start with.

 

[teruterubozu]

Incredibly LTTP but Amazon dropped it to $19.99 so I just picked it up.

I started last night - same old AC I thought, treasure/assassinations/stalking/etc. OK, - then ROGUE WAVE! Holy Crap! Playing more this morning.

 

[conman]

Incredibly LTTP but Amazon dropped it to $19.99 so I just picked it up.

I started last night - same old AC I thought, treasure/assassinations/stalking/etc. OK, - then ROGUE WAVE! Holy Crap! Playing more this morning.

Once you get out of the towns and onto the ocean, it's a special experience. I'm now 50 hours in, and the game is still surprising me.

The only major drawback to the game is that it insists on still being an "Assassin's Creed" game. I understand that from a sales perspective, they needed the brand. But it's more often hindered rather than helped by the old AC mechanics and narrative tropes. The modern-day junk is just that: junk. And the Assassin's vs. Templars part of the storyline isn't nearly as compelling as the story of the politics of the pirate republics (colonialism, slavery, independence, criminality, etc). That old AC stuff just gets in the way of having fun. Also, time spent in the big towns feels like a real slog and kills the pacing. I wish they could have ditched the AC brand altogether and used this to start a whole new IP.

 

[GungHo]

What it made me really want was a modernized Sid Meier's Pirates. A lot of the pieces were there... running a fleet, running cargo, piracy, fighting to gain new ships. What it missed was the social aspects of interacting with local governments and being able to chose which Empire for which you were a privateer, or being able to not only upgrade my guns, but being able to upgrade from a brig to a frigate or man of war, or even go down to a sloop for some of the "sneaky missions". I'd also have liked more ship types.

 

[teruterubozu]

What it made me really want was a modernized Sid Meier's Pirates. A lot of the pieces were there... running a fleet, running cargo, piracy, fighting to gain new ships. What it missed was the social aspects of interacting with local governments and being able to chose which Empire for which you were a privateer, or being able to not only upgrade my guns, but being able to upgrade from a brig to a frigate or man of war, or even go down to a sloop for some of the "sneaky missions". I'd also have liked more ship types.

And dancing & courting ladies. I quite enjoyed the ballroom dancing in Sid Meier's Pirates (the newer one). But yeah, I'm enjoying the Jackdaw stuff, but the AC stuff is the same shit, virtually unchanged since ACII.

 

[vareon]

Just bought this because of Amazon sale. After leaving AC since Revelations, this feels fresh again, as long as I don't burn myself with the usual AC stuff early on.

 

[Incitemaybe]

Just picked this up for Wii U and I was wondering what does the update do?

 

[~~Hasan~~]

i have to ask. my friend is selling his copy of the game to me for like 27$ or something like that.

after its been out for months, i want to know what gaffers think of this game. i liked the first assassign creed. didnt bother with the others till assassign creed 3 " rent it" and i couldnt play more than 1 hour of it"

i didnt like the story and the game on ps3 was just horrible.

i love pirate stuff. how is this game really ? do i have to keep collecting shit here and there all the time to finish the game ? what does gaf think about it

 

[teruterubozu]

i have to ask. my friend is selling his copy of the game to me for like 27$ or something like that.

after its been out for months, i want to know what gaffers think of this game. i liked the first assassign creed. didnt bother with the others till assassign creed 3 " rent it" and i couldnt play more than 1 hour of it"

i didnt like the story and the game on ps3 was just horrible.

i love pirate stuff. how is this game really ? do i have to keep collecting shit here and there all the time to finish the game ? what does gaf think about it

I just finished it - the story part at least. I thought the pirate stuff was really well done. The ship stuff is worth the price of admission alone - cannonading ships and forts, navigating incredible storms, listening to my men sing shanties, using a spyglass to get info on passing ships, watching misty sunsets in the sea. If you like pirates, Master & Commander, tales of high seas adventure then it's a must-play. There are many cameos by actual historical pirates and the whole "ship culture" is well done.

As for the the Assassin's "collection" stuff, of course there's plenty of it. The treasure map/hunting element is piratey, but many of the same climb-tower/stealth/collect/assassins-contracts are same-old, same-old kinda tired AC stuff. After awhile I got sick of the stealth gameplay and just went into towns with guns blazing and swords swinging.

It doesn't seem like there will be any new Sid Meier's Pirates any time soon so I was pretty satisfied.

 

[~~Hasan~~]

I just finished it - the story part at least. I thought the pirate stuff was really well done. The ship stuff is worth the price of admission alone - cannonading ships and forts, navigating incredible storms, listening to my men sing shanties, using a spyglass to get info on passing ships, watching misty sunsets in the sea. If you like pirates, Master & Commander, tales of high seas adventure then it's a must-play. There are many cameos by actual historical pirates and the whole "ship culture" is well done.

As for the the Assassin's "collection" stuff, of course there's plenty of it. The treasure map/hunting element is piratey, but many of the same climb-tower/stealth/collect/assassins-contracts are same-old, same-old kinda tired AC stuff. After awhile I got sick of the stealth gameplay and just went into towns with guns blazing and swords swinging.

It doesn't seem like there will be any new Sid Meier's Pirates any time soon so I was pretty satisfied.

ok. thank you. well its 27$ so i guess if i dont like it, i can sell it for the same price later on so i am good.

 

[Liferebooted]

I really wanna go back and plat this game, did they ever fix the ps4 uplay not being able to log into due to having friends?

 

[mitchman]

I really wanna go back and plat this game, did they ever fix the ps4 uplay not being able to log into due to having friends?

Yes, it was fixed.

 

[kizmah]

Just finished the game. Surprisingly it is my most played title on Wii U so far clocking in at 53 hours.

 

[strafer]

Can I just say how much a fucking love the soundtrack.

It's amazing.

 

[malfcn]

After not playing for over a month I have no idea what is going on.
Just completed sequence 12..Whoops.

 

[malfcn]

The end felt abrupt to me.
The singing end and the brief "flashback" were well done though.

I think the achievement was trolling? Or maybe it was the daughter twist.
"You didn't see that coming"

To me the story felt disconnected. Edward wanted to find the observatory, and Abstergo wanted to find the observatory..but it felt like there was never any urgency. And those tailing missions. Constantly having to eavesdrop, in areas that had no guards to instantly being populated. Everyone was constantly betraying you. I didn't feel connected to a lot of the characters. My biggest problem is I may have spread the game out over too many months and sleepless nights and got fuzzy on the details and story though.

My favorite part might have been just now looking up the ending to watch it again.
From DSP's channel: "Oh he has a son too! Oh shit it's Haytham."

I literally burst out laughing.

 

[malfcn]

Decided to check out MP.
Is this supposed to be fun?

 

[hateradio]

After not playing for over a month I have no idea what is going on.
Just completed sequence 12..Whoops.

I hadn't played it in over a month either, and I had done like 90% of everything to that point.

Unmarked spoilers:

I felt like the modern-day plot failed miserably. There was nothing to it aside from introducing the Sage who wanted to bring back Juno. Other than that, it was a hollow mess.

Edward's story was decent, but I never really cared for the guy or what he wanted or anything. I feel like Kidd would have been a much better protagonist. I really liked her voice actress.

 

[Jimnymebob]

I've just got the Wii U version, and I'd just like to know if I can get the other protagonists outfits from having the other 5 games on the PS3 linked to my U Play account?

 

[FUBAR McDangles]

Finally got around to buying this game on X1. Mostly because the hype for Unity had me itching to get after it.

Just got the Jackdaw. Lots of fun so far.

 

[Curufinwe]

Where'd you get it from and how much was it?

I think it will be my first PS4 game but its still over $40 on Amazon.

 

[FUBAR McDangles]

Yeah I got it from Amazon for ~$38 or so. PS4 seems to be a bit more. Not sure why.

 

[Blue Ninja]

I've just got the Wii U version, and I'd just like to know if I can get the other protagonists outfits from having the other 5 games on the PS3 linked to my U Play account?

I got them on PC after having played the previous ones on 360, so I think it's possible.

 

[Curufinwe]

Yeah I got it from Amazon for ~$38 or so. PS4 seems to be a bit more. Not sure why.

I assume it's just a popularity thing. The PS3 and 360 versions are half the price.

 

[Footos22]

Having troubles with the PS4 version and connecting to uplay after the main menu.

It crashes out of the game every time without fail.

I have resorted to cancelling the uplay connection. But its a bit of a shitter. Is this a common problem or do you think i should reinstall.

Its happened so often it actually records a video to send to sony when it happens.
Bit of a dampner, that and my ocd is getting the better of me.

MUST COLLECT EVERYTHING before doing another mission.

 

[velociraptor]

Wow this game is awful. There are far too many side missions, and almost all of these side missions are utter garbage. They've also thrown in far too many collectibles. Yep, this is a Ubisoft game alright. What a way to artificial pad out the lifespan of the game. I imagine getting 100% on this game would take more than 100 hours.

 

[Ashtar]

Wow this game is awful. There are far too many side missions, and almost all of these side missions are utter garbage. They've also thrown in far too many collectibles. Yep, this is a Ubisoft game alright. What a way to artificial pad out the lifespan of the game. I imagine getting 100% on this game would take more than 100 hours.

This is one complaint I just don't understand.... side missions are optional so why get mad that there's "so many of them" collectibles also are optional the only one that help with progress are the schematics but I don't think that you're prevented from progressing bc you didn't unlock the final mortar.
Unless of course the two sentences aren't directly related and you're stating the game is awful and then also saying the side missions and collectibles annoy you.