Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013, Playstation 4) Review

A JOLLY GOOD ROGER

Also for: Playstation 3, Stadia, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360, Xbox One

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What is it with this franchise and its unprecedented quality leaps back and forth? It's enough to cause whiplash. I was still reeling from the incoherent mess that was Assassin's Creed III, when this swashbuckling revisionist adventure emerged from the depths. Telling a great new tale of a reluctant assassin in the Caribbean, it feels like a reboot for the series, one that reinvigorates my enthusiasm for the Assassin's Creed brand.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is its sixth entry (if you only count the main games), meaning I'm now halfway caught up with the story canon. This is my favorite so far, rivalled only by the second game's great improvements over the first. Black Flag isn't much of an "Assassin's Creed"-game, but is all the better for it. Both storylines - the modern and historical ones - cast off most of the shackles of what came before, and the gameplay follows suit. It was not a second too soon. The old formula, repeated every year, was getting stale and Black Flag is a new perspective with a good story to tell.

In the modern, near-futuristic timeline you play in first-person mode as a faceless, nameless and silent protagonist. You are enlisted by the mega-corporation Abstergo (a front for the templars) as a historical researcher for their new entertainment line. Your assignment is to dig into the recorded genetic memories of a young pirate assassin, who eked out a living in and around the Caribbean in the early 18th Century.

Said and done, after logging into your own Animus device, you play the part of a fortune-seeking pirate and Welshman by the name Edward Kenway (with great, non-Welsh voice acting from Matt Ryan). He sails across the Atlantic to secure financial stability for himself and his betrothed, whom he leaves behind in the old world.

The opening cinematic depicts a bloody battle at sea, that ends with Edward's ship getting blown up. He gets washed up on an island alongside a mysterious hooded guy, who fought for the opposing ship. Upon chasing down and killing his adversary, Edwards finds out his secret - according to a letter in his belongings, he was an assassin. Edward seeks out the assassin's contacts, who only knew him by name,  and attempts to impersonate him in the hope of striking it rich. Of course, this doesn't play out quite the way he had hoped.

Yeah, Edward kinda stumbles into the assassin identity, as if it was a side story. For the rest of the game it lurks behind the scenes in an almost Machiavellian manner, influencing the ideals that flame the central conflict of the main plot.

Edward is, first and foremost, a pirate, and the bulk of his adventure takes place behind the wheel of the Jackdaw, which is what he calls the ship he soon acquires. On the surface, it is a deeply atmospheric pirate game, ripe with open waters, sea shanties, tropical islands, seaside towns, taverns and treasure. The setting is early 18th century Caribbean, and the Spaniards are competing with the Brits over dominion of the region.

The game involves many infamous pirates from history, like Blackbeard, Mary Reid, Anne Bonny and Jack Rackham, most of which become friends with Edward throughout the game. But a pirate's career is often as short-lasting as their lives, and many of these don't even see the end of this storyline. Upset with all the chaos and loss of life and goods, the governments come down hard on the pirates, and recruit pirate hunters to deal with the problem. Things quickly get desperate.

Out of all the Assassin's Creed protagonists so far, I like Edward the most. He and his comrades are running out of safe harbors in quick succession. They gradually become undesirables in cities like Havana, Nassau and Kingston, with the ocean taken over by hostile imperial ships. Black Flag effectively tells a story similar to Red Dead Redemption II, one of the slow decay of an outlaw lifestyle. Black Flag shares the same sense of nostalgia and romanticism, a pursuit of freedom that might not feel realistic, but ignites a spark in any dreamer's eyes.

Such themes rhyme well with the old Assassin (freedom) versus Templar (order) feud, even when the facts and events make the pirates and assassins feel miles apart. You sail a vast expanse of sea and engage in pirating, trading, whaling, hunting and treasure seeking to fund your expedition and upgrade your ship, as well as Edward's personal equipment. And gradually, he learns about ideology - that there's more to life than personal gain and happiness. That's when the assassin plotline joins the fray.

Whenever you feel ready, you can advance the main plot by going to a rendez-vous with another pirate and get to know them better. This often involves colony raiding, treasure hunting and sea battles, but unfortunately also means tailing enemies (both by foot and boat) and eavesdropping. These assignments are a blight on the Assassin's Creed-experience, and that is no less true in Black Flag. It's a clunky mechanic that makes you feel tethered. It also makes no sense to navigate narrow straits in big pirate vessels.

Pure assassination missions are quite fun power fantasies, but are few and far between. The mechanics work well enough that the developer (Ubisoft) allows player agency over what approach to take. Stealth is finally a viable option, but feels overpowered with the addition of the poisonous blowdarts that either put guards to sleep, or send them into a frenzy, attacking anyone in sight before finally dying. You can cheese your way through almost any mission with the help of these darts; I'd almost recommend against using them.

Playing it more upfront through swashbuckling melee feels more thematically appropriate, and is hardly any more difficult than stealth because of the foolproof parry and counterattack mechanic, that works with the lion's share of enemies. The others you can just as easily take out by pistol, or by dropping a smoke bomb, and then assassinating them while they're blinded and gasping for air. It's ridiculously hard to die by the sword in Black Flag.

But the open sea gameplay is so good I can forgive these slight shortcomings. Naval combat is super intuitive and challenging, allowing you to fire in the desired direction just by looking. Your ship is outfitted with different cannons and fire barrels, with different strengths and weaknesses. Between each salvo you need time to reload and take evasive maneuvers, and maybe bracing for impact. And of course, once the enemy is down to its last sliver of health, you can board the ship and attempt to seize it, adding it to your fleet.

A tactical mini-game, accessible from the Captain's quarters, allows you to send these ships on trade routes to earn extra Reales to spend on ship or character upgrades. It's a shame there's no economy for wood, cloth and iron, which are the materials you need to upgrade the Jackdaw. You simply have to raid ships or steal from warehouses to find them. This was such a slow process I didn't bother upgrading my ship to the fullest extent.

But if you do, you can test your mettle against the four legendary ships - one in each corner of the map - that look as fearsome as they are tough to beat. One is a bona-fide ghost ship, surrounded by a thick mist, that comes charging with its battering ram staight at you from out of nowhere, dealing severe damage with every hit. Another encounter pits you against two hulking, aggressive man o' wars simultaneously.

Other side activities and mini-games include whaling, diving for treasure, infiltrating secret pirate caves and playing checkers in taverns. Raiding government forts will unlock all secrets in a particular section of the map. Add to that a series of elaborate side missions, treasure maps, assassination contracts and collectibles and you've got quite a substantial experience to look forward to, where most of your activites are fun and rewarding. The lore database includes pirate legends and hilarious behind-the-scenes banter between employees at Abstergo (possibly inspired by real Ubisoft developer correspondance).

But it would be wasted without the omnipresent atmosphere of a real adventure - your crew's sea shanties, the jargon, the character moments, the naval victories, discoveries and hidden stories - that binds it all together. Surviving a storm becomes a mini-game in itself. The sound design makes the ship come alive, with the boards creaking and sails flapping in the wind. The visual design takes advantage of the colors of the region to make it appear like a real-world fantasy. Details like that make every individual part strong enough to support the ambitious structure of the grand experience.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is a time capsule of an entirely different lifestyle. To leave the safety of law and order to pursue freedom has always felt brave and crazy in equal measure, but this story is inhabited by brave and crazy people. That zeal might have shaped some pirates into brutal savages, and that might have led to their downfall. To quote the Swedish poet Gustaf Fröding: "The dream that never came true / as a dream it was lovely to have."

Granted, I'm the son of a fisherman who also used to sail competitively in his youth, so I might be biased. I grew up on the northern Swedish coast, where my family sometimes spent warm summer days cruising the waters. Evoking the spirit of my late father, I often skipped Black Flag's fast travel in the hopes of hearing my crew sing my favorite shanty "Lowlands Away". That's how much I enjoyed my time in this game, just sailing the open sea. And sometimes I'd salute a mighty humpback, who'd jump out of the waters to briefly attend the concert.