Francis drops into the local Ubisoft office in Sydney to sail the high seas in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag on the PlayStation 4.
The hands-on demo of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was showcasing the enormous open world it has to offer. Even after playing around for an hour, I was still hooked and wanted more! The guys at Ubisoft had to distract me to something else to take me away from the controller and get me away from the console or else I wouldn’t leave. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag has got me hooked back into the series and ignited that excitement back after feeling deep depressions and disappointment after the last couple installments of the series. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will definitely win back a lot of fans and newcomers to the series.
Open World
It has only been touched slightly on how big the world is but once jumping into the game and getting to explore it freely, you can only gauge at how big it is. It isn’t just a big world filled with nothing, everything is alive in the world and environment and there is so many activities going on. You go to a small outpost or encampment filled with free faring pirates and explorers just drinking and going about their lives. You go to the bar and being a new face you are thrown into a brawl to earn your drink.
The newest addition to the series is the naval combat and underwater sea exploration. The naval combat is improved greatly with a lot of new weaponry and tactics available on the Jackdaw that players will never get bored of. On the sea, you will encounter both pirates and government naval ships sailing around. Unfortunately for me, my inner destructive pirate self-had the urge to sink every ship I come across, leaving no survivors. This caused me to be marked by both pirates and naval government to hunt me down on the seas which caused me to battle right across the sea without a moments rest. The coolest weapon on the Jackdaw is the long-range mortar bombardment cannon able to fire at unsuspecting ships dishing out plenty of damage.
When you first get to explore the underwater section of the game, you’ll be stunned by how much detail and work has been done to create underwater ship wreckage filled with treasures. Like the saying goes, “When there’s treasure, there’ll be trouble” and right at that as sharks and eels infested the area striking at every moment they can get. Side tracked, I tried to swim towards a whale that was about to barge into the bottom deck of my ship but only found myself desynchronising. Adding into the hunting is the harpooning activity allowing you to hunt sharks and possibly whales which I did not get the chance to in the demo.
Character – Edward Kenway
A lot of thought have gone into creating the character Edward Kenway and the portrayal of a pirate. Since the classic Pirates of the Caribbean and iconic character Captain Jack Sparrow, we imagine pirates as free spirits, dangerous and drunken individuals. Fear not, every pirate gives off that feel and Edward Kenway gives that rough expression of a pirate, born into hardship and tough as steel. Even carrying dual pistols into a fight is dirty when you are already armed with dual hidden blades.
Excited and greatly pleased with the short hands-on of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, there is plenty of surprises in AC4: Black Flag that is yet to be unveiled. A lot of improvement has been made and the graphics on the Playstation 4 brings it to life. The sounding in-game is more clear and crisp with the echoing of your actions bouncing off the walls in caves.
Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag leaves port on October 29th for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. PC, Wii U, Xbox One and Playstation 4 editions will be available November 21st. Thanks to Ubisoft Australia for the hands-on!