Ubisoft

 It’s always enamored me how certain groups throughout history were able to survive so long and yet have the profound skill of writing and making it into a recording. Between the Ronin, Vikings, and the one I want to cover, the pirates. Between the tyrannical-esque rule of England and the French monarchies at that time. However, the pirates ( with the help of Robinson Crusoe) established a freelancing yet stable society upon Nassau and the freedom to roam in South America itself. A game that does a really good job at depicting Cursoe’s work was Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag, the first game out of Desmond’s tetralogy. However, due to the initial shortcomings of the third mainline entry, they began a somewhat divisive narrative of a revolving door of protagonists. I want to cover the gameplay, graphics, and art style to see whether this was truly a healthy change for the series or the ontology of the downfall of the series.

The Gameplay received a massive upgrade with a thriving open world that is traversable with fleshed-out boating mechanics. I love the characterization of South America from its more barren or dilapidated look to the more tropical jungles, to even Mayan ruins. The boating mechanics span from long-range, short-range, and melee-esque combat. Depending on which you equip, will be the judge of your outcomes in battle with looting for personal gain and resources, survival, and at times boat stealth (yes that is a thing within this game). You can also change and customize the cosmetics of your ship.

While off the ship, you are equipped with dual swords, hand cannons, and last but not least, the hidden blade, which is made to be more of a Mayan version since the presence of the brotherhood is correlated with the Mayans. You also get equipped with a couple of other tools like a dagger and a rope dart, but a lot of those upgrades are required via hunting materials, which is okay. I’ll be honest; grinding character action games are somewhat divisive within the community.

The overall movement comes back from the previous entry ( combat and parkour mainly) with even more cinematic fight scenes and free run sequences. It also includes more stealth rooms on land and in ships as well. Longtime fan S.Lebron loves the power fantasy aspects of Black Flag.

“Love how we can choose to fight with just the hidden blade or choose swords (or be unarmed!). The combat itself feels so cool, too, with the animations,” Lebron said.

The graphics within the game caps in the 60s range. However, it is always important to turn off VSync to remove any unnecessary lagging and slowdowns. Even with this, the game constantly remains the same, even with the more detailed models for the characters and asset diversity between the nature, archive, and the water. This engine returns from 3, with the take being based on a less aggressive version of the mass effect engine. However, they differentiate this through the art style. A new anonymous player believes the graphics handle well for its age.

“I’m able to play it at 60fps max settings on my 1050ti, and it looks downright gorgeous in some areas. The jungles are so much fun to look at and explore,” the user said.

The art style gets a pretty low-key but practical upgrade, with face designs and clothing designs as well. The only notable change is through the colours they use with greens and yellows, I think it’s a very necessary and thoughtful change, which I actually really like. Former Gamer Bolt journalist Kurtis Simpson believes the game’s art design is very coherent.

“The Art of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag gives us a detailed tour of every city, weapon, character, ship, and jungles,” Simpson said.

Overall, this game is truly breathtaking and just really simple. I think this was a huge step for UbiSoft, and it’s kind of unfortunate that this was the last truly subjectively good game, even with its flaws. Even with some of the public saying this game isn’t as good since it wasn’t a “immersive” Assassin’s Creed game, but a good pirate game is completely disrespectful to both the series and to this title, and to be honest for those who say that just need to get immersed in taking a shower instead of worrying about what genre this game truly is.