Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

[jolldan]

I know this is one of the best reviewed game in the series even before I've played it, like this one set the bar so high for me and the newer games might not be close (and I don't expect them to) but I'm excited to play the rest, see the other locations/time periods especially the more modern looking cities as I'm not into jungle, tropical island, province areas that much. I've noticed that the graphics in this franchise gets better with very new game and that is just exciting to witness. Anyway, I love this game, it's a great "my first" game in a franchise to play and I think I'll definitely add Ac to the likes of Gta and Re, videogame franchises that I'll be checking out for years to come. I'm kinda sad that I'm done with the game,the last mission was quite anticlimactic. There's only four naval missions for me to finish and I'm skipping those as the only things that I need to buy are more ship armor upgrades and a guest house, and I don't need those anymore.

Story - 7
Gameplay - 9

If you are looking for the best Assassin's Creed experience I would skip the two following games in Unity & Syndicate they are widely considered the historic low's of the franchise.

Ezio's trilogy in terms of story is still the best for me personally.

Would definitely recommend you Origins & Odyssey.

 

[Marvolo]

Dont skip Unity. Now that it's been patched a lot it's worth playing and it can be bought for an extremely low price. It's way of presenting a mission and giving you unique opportunities and various entry points and distractions was neat. It's got the most challenging combat of the old style AC games. The story is a bit weak but it's a part of the overall story and should be played at least once if you care about the overall story. Plus the AC Developers were still really obsessed with authentic location details so Revolutionary Paris is wonderful. After Unity they decided to lighten up and focus less on locations being as historically accurate as possible.

It's also got a pretty good customization system allowing all sorts of gear loadouts that let you focus on different play styles. I tended to use all stealth gear in Unity because the game seems more suited to stealth builds than combat builds. Something I feel the franchise has all but completely abandoned in Origins and Odyssey.

 

[jolldan]

Dont skip Unity. Now that it's been patched a lot it's worth playing and it can be bought for an extremely low price. It's way of presenting a mission and giving you unique opportunities and various entry points and distractions was neat. It's got the most challenging combat of the old style AC games. The story is a bit weak but it's a part of the overall story and should be played at least once if you care about the overall story. Plus the AC Developers were still really obsessed with authentic location details so Revolutionary Paris is wonderful. After Unity they decided to lighten up and focus less on locations being as historically accurate as possible.

I just have horrible memories of glitching in to walls lol and had little interest in Arno's story would say he's probably our least interesting protagonist. To be fair though climbing up Notre Damn was very cool.

 

[psylockolussus]

I'm already in Unity's sequence 3, though I am taking my time and getting more money for upgrades as the enemies are harder.

I plan to get Rogue and Syndicate later this month. I'm saving Origins and Odyssey early next year. For the first five games, since for ps4, they are only available digitally - I am a bit less interested to check them out as I prefer to buy games in physical format. Though since there won't be a new Ac game next year, maybe I'd check them out after I'm done with the newer Ac games.

 

[jolldan]

I'm already in Unity's sequence 3, though I am taking my time and getting more money for upgrades as the enemies are harder.

I plan to get Rogue and Syndicate later this month. I'm saving Origins and Odyssey early next year. For the first five games, since for ps4, they are only available digitally - I am a bit less interested to check them out as I prefer to buy games in physical format. Though since there won't be a new Ac game next year, maybe I'd check them out after I'm done with the newer Ac games.

Origins is amazing, the combat, the map, the gameplay feels like a total overhaul. Plus you get to go all slash happy with a frigging Khopesh can't recommend it enough.

 

[Havok83]

Im also of the mindset that Unity and Syndicate shouldnt be skipped. I did find Unity to have a weak and overall unengaging story, but it introduces the murder mystery which are hands down the best collection of sidequests in the franchise

Syndicate was fun with an interesting setting. The gameplay is much improved over previous games. I cant imagine playing any of them in rapid succession though. That would make me hate the series

 

[psylockolussus]

I can't believe that I'm already done with sequence 4. Unity feels short. From what I'm sensing is Rogue is more like Black Flag while Syndicate is more like Unity. So I'm glad that I picked up Unity first before I go back to a Black Flag type game. Does Syndicate even have naval missions?

I also can't wait for Odyssey and Origins if it's more on combat because the Assassin side of me isn't really into stealth and tailing. Though I'm hoping a price drop happens for those two soon. I feel like I might pick up other games after Syndicate, and give myself a break from Ac if I can resist and wait for a price drop.

 

[Marvolo]

Syndicate is a bit of a black sheep. It had a different developer team from Unity. The Unity team was damn near pushing their game engine to the bursting and revamped and altered much of the old systems. While on the other side of the fence the Syndicate team was sticking to the old formula, not really pushing any boundaries, and simplified everything they borrowed from Unity. Even the graphics and, the world, and the npc's felt scaled back in detail and complexity after Unity. About the only new thing Syndicate did was allow playable male and female protagonists, but even that was limited. It left Syndicate feeling like a black sheep and a step back after Unity.

 

[jolldan]

I can't believe that I'm already done with sequence 4. Unity feels short. From what I'm sensing is Rogue is more like Black Flag while Syndicate is more like Unity. So I'm glad that I picked up Unity first before I go back to a Black Flag type game. Does Syndicate even have naval missions?

I also can't wait for Odyssey and Origins if it's more on combat because the Assassin side of me isn't really into stealth and tailing. Though I'm hoping a price drop happens for those two soon. I feel like I might pick up other games after Syndicate, and give myself a break from Ac if I can resist and wait for a price drop.

No im pretty sure it didn't.

Can't speak for Odyssey as I haven't played it yet but you will definitely enjoy Origins the game obviously encourages you to use stealth but if you are willing to put in the grind and upgrade all you gear first then you can jump straight in to battle with big groups of enemies.

Plus the weapons are so much more varied it adds a layer that previous games just didn't have. I was a big fan of the regular swords but there are a lot of different types of weapon to choose. Top swords to go for imo are the Conductor of Souls, Hepzefas Sword or the Imitation Siwan Khopesh.

 

[psylockolussus]

The one thing I'm looking forward to Syndicate is the ability to finally play a female character/assassin. I don't think I'll play Liberation or the dlcs as those would require me to spend extra cash (in ps4 store) and that Liberation isn't part of the main games.

I just hope I won't get fatigue or get stuck so I can reach up to Odyssey. As of right now there's no videogame that I want to play first right now other than these Assassin's Creed games.

 

[Marvolo]

Even if you do feel fatigue before you get to Origins and Odyssey, those two game are such a big total system overhaul that they dont feel like more of the same.

 

[psylockolussus]

The only reason other than fatigue for me not to buy them, is I know they would be much cheaper 10 to 12 months from now and I could just buy games like Last of Us, dmc/uncharted collection, Re origins collection first which are cheaper. But I'll probably crave in and pick up Odyssey/origins before the collections/other games and Re2 remake. I was planning to get Re2 first but not anymore, as I'm having more fun just roaming around.

 

[Marvolo]

The only reason other than fatigue for me not to buy them, is I know they would be much cheaper 10 to 12 months from now and I could just buy games like Last of Us, dmc/uncharted collection, Re origins collection first which are cheaper. But I'll probably crave in and pick up Odyssey/origins before the collections/other games and Re2 remake. I was planning to get Re2 first but not anymore, as I'm having more fun just roaming around.

Assassins Creed games, even the newest game almost always drop to $35 or cheaper during Black Friday weekend. It could be different this year, but it's worth keeping an eye on stores's deals that weekend.

Also keep in mind, Origins two DLCs are actually worth getting. The older games's dlc were mostly fluff, but Origins dlc are a good amount of gameplay, whole new areas, significant character moments, and are just plain fun.

Odyssey's DLCs haven't been released yet, but one of them in particular ties into one of the three major plots in Odyssey's main story. It will be worth getting if the quality matches Origin's dlc quality.

 

[Iceman]

I am so far behind on these games it’s getting silly. I like the look of the last 2, definitely look like steps in a new direction.

 

[psylockolussus]

Assassins Creed games, even the newest game almost always drop to $35 or cheaper during Black Friday weekend. It could be different this year, but it's worth keeping an eye on stores's deals that weekend.

Also keep in mind, Origins two DLCs are actually worth getting. The older games's dlc were mostly fluff, but Origins dlc are a good amount of gameplay, whole new areas, significant character moments, and are just plain fun.

Odyssey's DLCs haven't been released yet, but one of them in particular ties into one of the three major plots in Odyssey's main story. It will be worth getting if the quality matches Origin's dlc quality.

I plan to skip dlcs over all. Because that would require to put $ on my psn account which I haven't done yet. Second, even if the dlcs are included in the disc, I sometimes just move on to another game. Though this could change IF I purchased the other Ac games online and then decided to download the dlcs.

 

[Marvolo]

I plan to skip dlcs over all. Because that would require to put $ on my psn account which I haven't done yet. Second, even if the dlcs are included in the disc, I sometimes just move on to another game. Though this could change IF I purchased the other Ac games online and then decided to download the dlcs.

Dlcs arent on disc. Only digital. And you dont need to put money on your PSN account. It allows you to pay the price directly from a credit or debit card. If you arent comfortable using your own credit or debit card on PS Store you can buy a PS Store gift card from a store like best buy or walmart or Amazon and use that gift card to purchase the dlcs.

 

[psylockolussus]

From the store that I buy the videogames, they told me that they offer a service where customers could pay in exchange for credits/load (steam/psn/xbox) and the customer will get a code that can be used for the ps store. I think that's much easier and less hassle than trying to connect my credit card to ps store. That's probably what I'll do if I can get to the earlier games.

 

[psylockolussus]

I know what you meant. Someone can correct me if wrong but there is no physical copy of both PS4 games to find in stores as AC 3 is only remastered on PSN. I believe the same holds true for Liberation

I just got the physical ps4 disc for Ezio trilogy, I can't wait to play them! And I'm assuming the Americans collection is also out there for ps4, since Ezio trilogy featured older games. The only one that I might not get to play is the first one.

 

[psylockolussus]

So I went back playing this for the unfinished things, and my God, upgrading the Jackdaw takes a lot of effort. I finished the game with my armor at 70% and now its at 73%. I was gonna buy the final health armor for the ship, but I didn't have enough money so I bought something else. This is like the only game in the series that don't give you hourly income. I was able to finish the naval contracts that I left behind, but I still have one left which I am reserving for when the ship got more upgrades. I still haven't beaten any of the legendary ships here and I want to at least beat one. I think I should also finish the Abstergo office stuff and finish Kenway's fleet as well. I guess I should be happy that I at least have something more to do here, but my God, I might have to take down a hundred more ships to get all the remaining ship upgrades