Assassin's Creed IV
Black Flag
[ Register or Signin to view external links. ]
Game Information
Release Date: October 29, 2013
Developers: Ubisoft Montreal
Publishers: Ubisoft
Platforms: Xbox 360, Xbox One, Playstation 3, Playstation 4, Wii U, Microsoft Windows
Genre: Action/Adventure
Players: 1, Multiplayer: 1-8

Synopsis
The year is 1715. Pirates rule the waters of the Caribbean and have established a lawless Republic. Among these outlaws is a lethal young captain named Edward Kenway. His notorious exploits earn the respect of legends like Blackbeard, but draw him into an ancient war that may destroy everything the pirates have built for themselves.

Plot
The story takes place in the 18th century in the Caribbean as Robert Kenway finds a way to gather information on the conspiracy of the templars living between the Spanish and British territories. The sole purpose of the templars living within the Spanish and British territories is to gain knowledge of the location of the observatory so they can use it a spy tool to black mail foreign leaders. Robert then interferes with the templars as seeing that he can gain wealth for doing so. With this, Kenway puts the order of the Assassins in jeopardy. So Kenway is set out to find the observatory and retrieve the artifact before the templars do to prevent them from gaining control of the lands and seizing power. After Kenway manages to retrieve the artifact and store it away for nobody to ever again retrieve it, he gains information about the death of his wife and travels back to be with his daughter.

Gameplay
The gameplay is fascinating and intriguing to be play the role as a pirate. Players will be able to experience the role of being a pirate and live in a setting of what a pirates life was like. Like previous installments, players will be to use a variety array of weaponry from swords, to blades, to guns, and everything else in between. Players will be able to travel over 50+ different places throughout their play through of the campaign so players will experience tons of variety that will surely give them a terrific time of playing. A unique feature to this Black Flag is that players can engage in taking over ships from other pirates and travel to different islands without any restrictions, as well as having their own ship to customize and use it to travel and also take it into battle. Players gain access to use a spyglass which they can use to spy on other enemies, ships, and other various things from a long distance to see what they will be engaging with.

Multiplayer
Like the other installments of Assassin's Creed that featured multiplayer, the multiplayer is unique in its own way compared to other games that feature mostly a point and shoot anyone in your path style. For players that never played the multiplayer portion of the game, it would be best to platy the tutorial to gain better knowledge of the game style the multiplayer possesses. There aren't too many changes made to the multiplayer portion. Stuff like the killing animations have been taken from previous multiplayer characters and implemented to the characters on Black Flag. The taunts for some characters have also been used in previous installments as well. A few new things the multiplayer portion possesses is that the player can create their own unique game mode and have their own set of rules and restrictions to what can and can't be used. There are some new abilities and perks added, as well as modifications to certain abilities to enhance multiplayer gameplay,

Graphics
The graphics are far superior compared to any of the older Assassins Creed games. The movement of the water and the clarity is awesome and can easily see what is underneath the waves of the ocean. The weapons each have a variety to them by the minor details upon the weapons like the markings, gems and diamonds on the multiplayer weapons, and the colors amongst them. The faces of the characters and personas are well done and textured. The movement of the mouths are excellent. If playing on the next generation consoles, the graphics should be astonishing to the player's view as the graphics would be more of a higher quality and clarity as well. The graphics of the animals look realistic as well and gives that realism affect once engaged.

Controls
Like previous Assassin's Creed games, the controls in this game have many ways to function which will let players experience different ways to use the buttons and increase their gameplay. Not too many changes to the controls to the single and multiplayer portions. Obviously, if the player is a newcomer, then they will have a hard time figuring out the multiple array of controls to function the game properly while the more an experienced players that played the Assassins Creed games before shouldn't. Overall, despite from the different and multiple controls, the game does give players a fantastic play through and shall get more comfortable to the feel of the controls for this unique style of gaming.

Rating
Gameplay: 9.4/10
Multiplayer: 10/10
Graphics: 9.8/10
Controls: 9.8/10
Overall: 10/10