Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag

Much fun confirmed. Utility of Second Screen app just discovered in this thread, now workday can't end quick enough.

Late to the party, but AC4 "Gold Edition" digital version was for sale on Playstation 4, so I decided to pick it up. I'd sworn off the series after disliking AC3, but I keep hearing how good this one was-- and I miss the fun I had with the Ezio games (and even the original).

After reading back several pages, looking at Wikipedia, and more, I haven't been able to work out exactly what this includes and what other DLC might be worth getting. Anybody else pick up this version?

Also, should I be looking at other games in the series? (Rogue, Liberation...?)

Now, to clarify, I have zero interest in anything multiplayer. Between that and the weak reviews, it seemed like Unity was definitely one to skip.

Based on the Amazon description, the Gold edition of AC4 includes all the DLC. The Aveline missions are just okay, but the Freedom Cry DLC is awesome (and was even released as a standalone game).

Unity is fantastic. The negative reviews are largely because of performance problems at release that were fixed in an early series of patches. The other potential negative about Unity is that it all but removes the modern-day element of Assassin's Creed gameplay. If you're a huge fan of the modern day story and lore, Unity will be a disappointment in that respect, but in every other way it is a wonderful AC game.

You don't have to play the co-op in Unity to enjoy the game. In fact, all but a couple of the co-op missions are fairly easy to solo. The ones that aren't easy can be done, but it's not really worth the effort unless you absolutely have to have all the achievements. I'm not a fan of online multiplayer either, but I found the Unity co-op quite fun. It's not competitive and I never ran into a griefer (only the occasional technical problems typical of any online game where you must rely on the internet connections of 2 or 3 other people, some of whom might be in Latvia, using a potato for a router). If the reason you have zero interest in multiplayer is because of the competitive nature, I'd say at least give the Unity co-op a try.

I enjoyed Unity's Dead Kings DLC also. It adds some new gameplay elements, a cool new kind of weapon, different types of enemies, a nicely spooky environment and an interesting, though very brief, story.

I haven't played Rogue, but everything I've read says that if you enjoyed AC4, you'll like Rogue, because it's basically more of the same type of gameplay that was in AC4.

Liberation HD is a poorly executed port of a mediocre Vita game. I tried to play it but couldn't get past the first couple of missions. The controls just didn't feel right, and I wasn't a fan of the look of the game. From what I have read, it does have some unique gameplay elements like Aveline's disguises, but the combat didn't feel right to me.

BadKen wrote:

Based on the Amazon description, the Gold edition of AC4 includes all the DLC...

Unity is fantastic. The negative reviews are largely because of performance problems at release that were fixed in an early series of patches. The other potential negative about Unity is that it all but removes the modern-day element of Assassin's Creed gameplay. If you're a huge fan of the modern day story and lore, Unity will be a disappointment in that respect, but in every other way it is a wonderful AC game.

You don't have to play the co-op in Unity to enjoy the game. In fact, all but a couple of the co-op missions are fairly easy to solo. The ones that aren't easy can be done, but it's not really worth the effort unless you absolutely have to have all the achievements... If the reason you have zero interest in multiplayer is because of the competitive nature, I'd say at least give the Unity co-op a try.

I did look at Amazon, but some sources say that various digital "gold editions" have different content than the hard copies. It would be nice if the Playstation store could block you from content you already bought in a bundle. So confusing...

I appreciate the Unity mini-review. I am that rare fan of the modern-day stuff... every game I was often excited to rush through missions and get back to Desmond.

On the other hand, good to know Unity is still a good game without the co-op. It's not just about griefers... it's about hating people, mostly. I get way more social interaction than I want in life. I also tend to play games very slowly, enjoying exploration and detail, moving at a frustratingly slow pace for most other people. I also enjoy knowing that I can pause and walk away at any time if the dog needs to go out or I want a drink or whatever.

I really enjoyed Rogue.

... So I've completed all the side missions. Checked all the checkboxes in all the towns (except one, and either the map will change at some point or the thing is glitched because I cannot reach it while on the highest point with no-where to jump.) Defeated the legendary ships. Cleared out all the diving locations. I GUESS I'll start doing the main missions. Maybe I'll finally unlock the dart-rope thingy.

Oh, I have all the templar keys, but now, because of Story, I'm not allowed to leave Nassau to go collect it.

Edit: I'm having to cope with the idea that at some point I will run out of things to do... this makes me very sad.

Wow Rezzy, you're really into this! Are you using the companion app as well?

Eleima wrote:

Are you using the companion app as well?

Yuppers. Much to the dismay of my tablet battery. It is surprisingly useful, but I really wish you could do more with the resources you gain by clearing trade-routes... or at least macro certain ships/destinations or assign them to keep certain routes clear without having to sit through that battle animation. Yes. My three level 60 boats will destroy the two gunboats, even if those gunboats get to shoot 6 times first. No, I will not want to use a fire-barrel, thank you. I nag because I love.

Hehe, I hear you, I know exactly where you're coming from. Fire barrel? What's a fire barrel?

I'm avoiding the story missions so hard that I'm actually roaming around and collecting the chests and animus fragments from the uncharted areas of the map.
The Kenway fleet timers for some of the routes are measured in days, and some of the animus fragments seem to be positioned for maximum annoyance. There's one just out of reach next to an angled palm at the top of a cliff. Six missed jumps meaning a swim and climbing back up the cliff and I started ramming my ship into the wall to see if I could just run along the edge of the boat and jump from there, but the game keeps auto-backing away from the edge of the island as soon as I release the wheel and wow does stuff like that annoy me.

The worst part is that knowing Assassin's Creed, I'll come back to this later and collect the damn thing on the first jump.

Rezzy wrote:

Edit: I'm having to cope with the idea that at some point I will run out of things to do... this makes me very sad.

I remember that feeling. I'm going to buy AC:Black Flag again on PS4 and play it through again at some stage.

Rezzy wrote:

I'm avoiding the story missions so hard that I'm actually roaming around and collecting the chests and animus fragments from the uncharted areas of the map.

I did anything but the story missions most of the time. I only did one or two main missions when I felt suitably guilty after going no where near the story for a week or more (with most Assassin's Creed's probably enjoy the story stuff a lot less than the exploring and side missions.)

I would play a game with nothing other than sneaking around and using berserk-darts on people. So much fun to just pfft the sniper in the center of camp and watch him start taking pot-shots at the people below. Once they're converged under this tower pfft one of the heavies and let him throw some grenades around for a bit. I did most of the assassination contracts like that. Sneak around until the target is spotted, sneak close, hit him with the berserk-dart and let his friends do my dirty work.
Sleep darts and couriers = painless refill of ammo!
I'm now officially out of fun things to do or progression to work towards. I can try to 100% missions, collect all the loot in the uncharted areas, or finish the story.

Edit: Oh, can anyone explain the smoke-bomb to me? EVERYONE carries them apparently, but I have to force myself to waste my pfft slot on them. Am I missing some great advantage they give?

Rezzy wrote:

I would play a game with nothing other than sneaking around and using berserk-darts on people. So much fun to just pfft the sniper in the center of camp and watch him start taking pot-shots at the people below. Once they're converged under this tower pfft one of the heavies and let him throw some grenades around for a bit. I did most of the assassination contracts like that. Sneak around until the target is spotted, sneak close, hit him with the berserk-dart and let his friends do my dirty work.
Sleep darts and couriers = painless refill of ammo!
I'm now officially out of fun things to do or progression to work towards. I can try to 100% missions, collect all the loot in the uncharted areas, or finish the story.

Edit: Oh, can anyone explain the smoke-bomb to me? EVERYONE carries them apparently, but I have to force myself to waste my pfft slot on them. Am I missing some great advantage they give?

Making melee combat into a game of instant death.

Demosthenes wrote:

Making melee combat into a game of instant death.

That hasn't been my experience. One or two assassinations (which I could have done just running in) and then it's back to having to break defenses.... hmm... unless you need to always get behind them before attacking...

Rezzy wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

Making melee combat into a game of instant death.

That hasn't been my experience. One or two assassinations (which I could have done just running in) and then it's back to having to break defenses.... hmm... unless you need to always get behind them before attacking...

Honestly, I preferred sleep darts and berserk darts as well anyway. Berserk snipers are always amusing... though sleep darting them and watching them fall is funny too.

Rogue is on sale on Steam for $32.50 if anyone's interested. I haven't played it, but I think it's pretty much the same thing as Black Flag, but with a different character.

Rogue is on sale for $15 on amazon right now, or it was 2 days ago when I bought it.

i just started this game last night (a couple of years behind the curve) and man is this thing gorgeous. For someone who got very bored with AC2 in the first few hours and liked AC1 (and also wrote off most other ACs) I'm liking this a lot more than I expected. I'm playing on PC but with no mods - do any even exist? And my 970 is doing just fine.

It feels like everything I liked about AC's mechanics and parkour, but in the lush environments of Far Cry, so far. The pirate battle intro was fine but I assume I'll be getting much more into that later on and that it will also pick up a bit.

My 660Ti was running it as High/Ultra at 1920x1080 without any issues, so that 970 has to be humming along just fine.

I've got a 2560x1440 native monitor but I still seem to be doing okay. Hopefully that keeps up!

Aw man, you guys have made me want to go back and play more Black Flag. It's by far the best Assassin's Creed game. So much history and great landscapes. Also, my carribean girlfriend says that the accents they have are all very accurate, so that's pretty neat.

Ha that's cool! If you want to friend me on uPlay or steam, uplay is rightontargt4 and steam is damnablebear! I haven't gotten into multi yet, just gushing over the SP experience

Tengrii wrote:

Aw man, you guys have made me want to go back and play more Black Flag. It's by far the best Assassin's Creed game. So much history and great landscapes. Also, my carribean girlfriend says that the accents they have are all very accurate, so that's pretty neat.

Well, except Edward's which is decidedly not Welsh.

damnablebear wrote:

Ha that's cool! If you want to friend me on uPlay or steam, uplay is rightontargt4 and steam is damnablebear! I haven't gotten into multi yet, just gushing over the SP experience :)

I played it on the Xbone. Can we play together if you're on the PC and I'm on an Xbone? I wouldn't think so...

Demosthenes wrote:

Well, except Edward's which is decidedly not Welsh. :lol:

True, but I was referring to those who were supposed to have been born in the Carribean. The difference between Haitian accents, Trinidadian accents, and Jamaican accepts are all very accurate, apparently. I can't hear a difference but she swears there is one. They all sound Jamaican to me.

Ah, no, not on PC and Xbone. Oh well!

Tengrii wrote:
damnablebear wrote:

Ha that's cool! If you want to friend me on uPlay or steam, uplay is rightontargt4 and steam is damnablebear! I haven't gotten into multi yet, just gushing over the SP experience :)

I played it on the Xbone. Can we play together if you're on the PC and I'm on an Xbone? I wouldn't think so...

Demosthenes wrote:

Well, except Edward's which is decidedly not Welsh. :lol:

True, but I was referring to those who were supposed to have been born in the Carribean. The difference between Haitian accents, Trinidadian accents, and Jamaican accepts are all very accurate, apparently. I can't hear a difference but she swears there is one. They all sound Jamaican to me.

I know, I actually read that they were pretty strong on working on accents and such like that, especially after they did ACIII where they worked a LOT with Native American actors of various tribal ethnicities to make sure they nailed that aspect as well as possible.

Makes it all the more humorous that Edward doesn't have a Welsh accent and everyone in Unity has English accents instead of French ones.

Demosthenes wrote:

\
I know, I actually read that they were pretty strong on working on accents and such like that, especially after they did ACIII where they worked a LOT with Native American actors of various tribal ethnicities to make sure they nailed that aspect as well as possible.

Makes it all the more humorous that Edward doesn't have a Welsh accent and everyone in Unity has English accents instead of French ones.

What gets me is that they couldn't even get native French speakers for the odd times where someone is actually speaking it. They're all being spoken by people who are clearly not native speakers. Oh well.

Tengrii wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

\
I know, I actually read that they were pretty strong on working on accents and such like that, especially after they did ACIII where they worked a LOT with Native American actors of various tribal ethnicities to make sure they nailed that aspect as well as possible.

Makes it all the more humorous that Edward doesn't have a Welsh accent and everyone in Unity has English accents instead of French ones.

What gets me is that they couldn't even get native French speakers for the odd times where someone is actually speaking it. They're all being spoken by people who are clearly not native speakers. Oh well.

The actors for the main two are French Canadian.

So yeah, it's even weirder.

Fun fact: young Edward Kenway was born in Swansea, Wales but relocated to Bristol, England at the age of ten. That's why he has more of an English accent. The writers actually changed his origin because the producers liked the way his performance capture actor sounded:

The AC Wiki wrote:

Voice actor/motion capture provider Matt Ryan initially chose to portray Edward with a Mancunian accent during casting call. However, after the developers heard Ryan's natural Welsh accent they asked him to voice Kenway instead with a South-Welsh English accent. They then chose to rewrite Kenway's backstory to fit Ryan's accent.

cube wrote:
Tengrii wrote:
Demosthenes wrote:

\
I know, I actually read that they were pretty strong on working on accents and such like that, especially after they did ACIII where they worked a LOT with Native American actors of various tribal ethnicities to make sure they nailed that aspect as well as possible.

Makes it all the more humorous that Edward doesn't have a Welsh accent and everyone in Unity has English accents instead of French ones.

What gets me is that they couldn't even get native French speakers for the odd times where someone is actually speaking it. They're all being spoken by people who are clearly not native speakers. Oh well.

The actors for the main two are French Canadian.

So yeah, it's even weirder.

Our French is a totally different language than France French. One of my friends is from Quebec, and he went to France on holiday. French is his first language, and yet in France they continuously insisted in speaking English because "French is clearly not your native language." The french we learn in school is France French, which is, similarly, entirely useless if you try to use it in any French-speaking areas of the country.