Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag
Assassins Creed IV: Black Flag is the sixth main instalment
in the Assassins Creed Franchise, and the second instalment in the Kenway
trilogy sub franchise proceeded by Assassins Creed 3 and succeeded by Unity and
Spinoff Rogue, with the latter being the last game released for the seventh
generation consoles. As of February 2014, Black flag had sold 10 million
copies. It was released to critical acclaim and is said to improve on all the
aspects the previous game Assassins Creed 3 got wrong. The issues fixed
included a more charismatic protagonist in this case the ambitious Edward
Kenway, a great sense of freedom from the get go, in the form of Havana in
sequence 2 and the open ocean in sequence 3 and a break from the normally
convoluted and confusing plots to a more simple plot based more around piracy than
the fight between the Assassins and Templars.
The game is also noted for its formulaic approach to mission
design, with the same mission archetypes appearing again and again. Black Flag
is particularly noticed for its focus on tailing missions. Mission types also
include Assassinations (surprise), the aforementioned tailing, Eaves dropping
and naval battles. The game is based around a privateer turned pirate Edward
Kenway searching for a Lost First Civilization site called the Observatory, which
has the power to see through people’s eyes, providing you have their blood
sample. While on the hunt for the observatory, he gets caught up in the
millennium long war between the Assassins Brotherhood and The Knights Templar,
two powerful organisations that work in the shadows and are responsible for all
of history’s most important moments. The Assassins led by the mysterious and
skilled mentor Ah Tabai and the Templar's led by Grand Master of their Caribbean Branch Laureano Torres. By doing so, he initially starts working for the
Assassins due to profit but eventually see’s the error of his ways and begins
working towards becoming a master assassin and by doing so, destroys the
Templar's influence over the Caribbean. While playing both sides to his benefit,
he comes across the enigmatic Bartholomew Roberts, a sly and secretive slaver
turned Pirate captain who becomes the most successful pirate captain in history
due to his use of the observatory’s Piece of Eden, in the form of a crystal
skull.
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| http://assassinscreed.wikia.com/wiki/Benjamin_Hornigold |
Assassins Creed has two notable play-styles. The first being
using stealth to dispatch enemies and accomplish the objectives given and the
other being a more upfront approach of rushing into combat and dispatching the
enemies quickly and efficiently. The game is noted for its land combat being
too easy. This is slightly touched upon, with the starting health bar being
composed of 4 bars, which could easily be depleted especially if the Sniper and
Brute enemy archetypes were met in combat. However, not only could Edward be
upgraded with more health and weapons, but the combat system is easy to learn
which results in most player being able to take on large amounts of enemies while
remaining unscathed. However, the naval combat system is not as easy as the
ground combat. The naval combat system is easy enough to learn, but there is a
variety of enemy ships, all leveled. These all pose different levels of
challenge from level 3 gunboats to the level 75 legendary Man O’ War’s. This
requires the player to focus on upgrading Edwards Ship named The Jackdaw
because while the game can still be easy to complete without upgrading Edward
for a skilled player, the game is near impossible to complete without upgrading
the Jackdaw outside of the story no matter the level of the players skill. This
gives the game a nice sense of difficulty.
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| http://www.tradeindetectives.com/blog/how-to-upgrade-the-jackdaw-fast-in-assassins-creed-4-black-flag/ |
The game consists of many different activities. The first
being the main story in which completing missions within it, advances the games
narrative. Outside the main missions are also side missions, with this game
featuring Assassins Contracts, Naval Contracts and Templar Hunts with those
following Edward on his journey to get keys for Templar Armour and in the
process, taking out the Caribbean’s most powerful and influential Templar's.
This not just the only side content with lots of activity’s and collectibles
including Animus fragments, treasure maps, chests, shanties, Mayan stones,
viewpoints etc.
The game has a large and well refined economy system,
allowing for the player to make a lot of money and provides lots of items and
upgrades for the player to spend their well-earned money on. To gain money
within the game, there are a few options. The main option is to board and take
over enemy ships which provide 5 forms of loot, rum, sugar, wood, metal and
cloth. While all five of them can be sold, the wood, cloth and metal can be
used to upgrade the Jackdaw. However, the rum and sugar can only be sold. Due
to this being their only use, they sell for a lot more than the other 3
materials. The most profitable way to gain money is the Meta game Kenways
Fleet.
This can be played by
sending ships to his fleet upon capturing them and accessing the naval maps
within The Jackdaw’s cabin. Upon accessing the maps, the player can fight other
ships in various shipping zones to clear them and gain supplies which can then
be traded for the games currency called Reales. If this feature is utilized
properly, the player can receive over one hundred thousand Reales per voyage
leading to a vast profit. This money can then be spent on a plethora of items.
These include swords, pistols, outfits, hunting supplies, ammunition, art
pieces and ship upgrades.
http://s1362.photobucket.com/user/HeavenlyController/media/ac4weaponcross_zps7cbb0451.png.html
In all Assassins Creed games, they have featured a parkour
system which is pivotal to how the game plays out. The parkour systems in each
title, allow the player to scale virtually any structure in the game, most
notably viewpoints. In Black Flag, the same system is implemented, albeit
without the ability to scale rock face’s that Edwards Predecessor Connor could
climb. The parkour system is especially needed in this game, since Edward has
to scale ships masts that he has boarded to either take down the ships flag or
take out snipers. It has always been a crucial part to the series, and it is
mainly what the series is known for.
This leads me on to my next point. The naval aspect of the
game is crucial to how the game plays out. A good portion of the games missions
take place at sea, and In order to complete said missions, the Jackdaw has to
be upgraded as mentioned before. In order to do this, the ships have to be
boarded for the materials. In order to initiate boarding, the player has to
attack an enemy ship. Upon doing so, the player has to use the Jackdaws weapons
to drain the ships health bar. When the health bar is drained, the enemy ship
stops dead in the water. The player is then given the option to either board or
sink the ship. Sinking it, gives the player half of the supplies which they
have to manually retrieve. However, boarding the ship forces the player into
combat.
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| http://guides.gamepressure.com/assassinscreediv/guide.asp?ID=22686 |
The player is then given a set of activities to complete to fully take
over the ship. No matter what type the ship is, a set amount of soldiers have
to be dispatched from 5 when boarding a schooner, up to twenty when boarding
non-legendary Men O’ War. However, the type of activity and the number of them
depend on the ship type and level. The weakest and the strongest types of ships
in the game cannot be boarded with them being Gun Boats and legendary Men O’
War respectively. The player has a certain amount of crew members to help board
the ship. If a large amount of them die, the boarding is failed. After the
objectives have been completed with examples being igniting the ships barrels
of gunpowder, killing the captain and removing the ships flag amongst others,
the player is given three options. The first is to use the enemy ship to repair
the Jackdaw. The second is to lower Kenways wanted status with pirate hunters,
and the last is to send the defeated ship to Kenways fleet to be utilized in
the Meta game. The player has to choose one of those options. No matter what’s
chosen, the player gets all the ammo and material the ships carries, along with
some captured soldiers who substitute for lost crew members.
As previously mentioned, the game has a naval wanted system.
After a set amount of ships have been
destroyed, 4 different wanted levels activate. The first wanted level spawns in
a level 17 brig. The second level not only spawns the aforementioned brig, but
a level 11 schooner spawns beside it. At level 3, a level 38 Frigate spawns.
Finally, at level 4, not only does a level 38 frigate spawn, but an incredibly
powerful level 60 Man O’ War. These ships’ can be taken down in combat, but
more spawn until your notoriety level goes down. This can be achieved through a
few methods. Firstly, by choosing the option to lower it after a ship boarding.
Secondly, the player can bribe a senior officer who will completely wipe it.
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| http://guides.gamepressure.com/assassinscreediv/guide.asp?ID=22687 |
The game has a few boss fights. The land combat only has one
true boss fight in the penultimate mission but a few major characters can be
dueled, but only act like the officer archetype in combat. They can be
dispatched by a standard counter then a full on offensive. However, the naval
combat has a few notable boss fights. These come in the form of legendary ships
and forts. The legendary ships are level 75 Men O’ war who are scattered around
the four corners of the map. All four (technically five) offer a particular
challenge that the other legendary’s and the standard ships do not offer. By
defeating them, you get 20,000 Reales per ship, an animus challenge for beating
one of them and for beating all 4, an achievement or trophy as well as a
powerful ramming ability which also speeds up the Jackdaw.
The other naval boss
fights, the forts are dotted around the Caribbean Sea. There is one fort per
area and once defeated, opens up the icons for activity’s in that region. In that
sense, they act as the viewpoints of the open ocean. In order to take over a
fort, the defenses have to be taken down. The amount of defenses depend on the
fort region going from 2 in an early story mission, up to 9 in the lower region
on the map. Once the defenses have been destroyed, the player can dock next to
the fort and join his crew in taking over the fort. Once within the fort, the
player has to accomplish a task to get the fort commander to surrender. This is
always to kill the fort captains. The lower level forts only have a couple, but
the higher level forts have up to 3 captains. Once the captains have been
dispatched, the forts soldiers surrender. In order to fully take over the fort,
the player has to kill the fort commander in his office. Once this has been
done, the fort is taken over, and the player receives money, unlocks the icons
for the activities in the region and gains access to the naval contracts, a
type of side mission.
The naval aspect had been previously been explored in Black
Flag’s predecessor Assassins Creed 3, but they were linear missions, while with
Black Flag, you can pilot The Jackdaw in Free Roam, with much more options to
upgrade. The advanced naval mechanics are also carried on to Assassins Creed
Rogue and were further expanded on with new features and weapons being added.
AC:IV Black Flag also has a multiplayer mode. This consists primarily of a mode called wolf pack in which a group of players tries to get as many points as possible to get to the next round. If the players get to the last round, they win. There is also the typical death match mode where the players go on a free for all killing spree. There is also a mode called 'Wanted'. This is when the players hunt down a certain player and work as a team to dispatch them. A mode called game lab is also available, which allows for the player to customize their own matches and make there own game types. This allows for greater replay ability and freedom to play the multiplayer .
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| http://www.toptiertactics.com/20760/ac4-black-flag-multiplayer-strategy-1-identifying-targets/ |
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