Assassins Creed 4 Black Flag Hits (PS4)

If you enjoyed the ship sections in an otherwise lackluster Assassin's Creed III, you should go buy this now.Sailing the open seas is a real treat, and with your crew singing a shanty, it is sure to bring a smile to your face. The ship battles are a lot of fun and essential to either sink or board and capture to get the materials to upgrade your ship, The Jackdaw and sell your booty to help pay for weapons, outfits and the ship itself. In true pirate style you can find treasure maps to dig up chests in far out islands and regular chests on smaller islands, which is a nice way to pass the time, you can also find special plans to upgrade your ship such as the best cannons and harpoon. Whaling is a nice mini-game and successfully killing your prey gives materials to help craft items to improve Edward in some way, killing and skinning land animals does this too. Underwater exploration was one of my favourite bits, often having to avoid a whole array of nasties including sharks and moray eels while you plunder those underwater chests. There are forts to attack which when captured reveal areas and items on the section on the map it covers and will even fire upon enemy ships who stray too close afterwards! A couple of the forts like to throw in curveballs to what is already a challenging (in early game especially) experience including an island fort being circled by two water tornadoes! There's also legendary ships which are fearsome and will take all the skill you have (and some upgrades) to take them down.The accompanying story on this is very good. It gets off to a slow start and the modern day sections are largely forgettable unless for example you want to know what happened to Desmond after the end of III, but it picks up and there are plenty of interesting characters. Edward Kenway is a charismatic rogue and definitely an improvement over Connor. Kenway and in particular James Kidd, Blackbeard and Bartholomew Rogers are all well acted with great accents. I loved James Kidd straight away. Blackbeard, while off to a tame start, really shines though by the end and Rogers is just a good, interesting character all round. About half way through the story picks up strongly and doesn't let up and the finishing stretch ends up being a very satisfying one.All in all I would put this on par with Assassin's Creed 2, my fav in the series and one of my fav games of all time. While I think the story is marginally weaker than 2, it is still very good and the latter half is very enjoyable but the whole pirating aspect, which helps expand the length of the game for a long time, helps put it on par. I know I will still take to the seas now and again, even after finding everything because it's just so fun to be a pirate.

The latest instalment in the Assassins Creed franchise appears to be splitting opinion. Some people love the pirating direction the series appears to have taken, others appear to rue the gradual watering down of the primary role of the Assassin.In a game titled Assassin's Creed, they have a point. But there's no denying that on the evidence of AC3, the game and its themes were growing stale.Connor was a dreadful character; in my opinion largely down to appalling voice acting, and the game as a whole was frankly not a lot of fun to play. Far too many annoying optional objectives in every single mission made progression a chore - sure, you can argue that as these were optional, there was no requirement to fulfill them. But nobody wants to feel punished with a big red cross on their screen just because they didn't play the memory in the ridiculous linear fashion some dim developer devised.Don't get me wrong - optional objectives are still around in Black Flag - but nowhere near as many as there were in AC3, where you would have a minimum of 3 per mission, all of which had to be completed in one exceedingly dull playthrough. The ones in Black Flag are much more in line with a gamer's approach to the mission; they're not outlandish and petty, and if you choose not to complete them, or fail them, you are not told off for doing so by having a big red cross flashed in your face. The objective simply disappears from the menu and you can forget about it if you so wish.With that as a prime example, in Black Flag, Ubisoft have corrected the fundamental flaws of AC3 and built on one of the few redeeming aspects of its predecessor: the naval battles.Now I'll be honest. I didn't particularly enjoy the naval battles in AC3. Again, optional objectives. My memories of playing those missions aboard the Aquila are tainted by recollections of repeatedly playing a certain privateer mission in a pathetic attempt to meet the absurd requirements to reach 100% sync.The thing with Black Flag's naval combat is, it is quite simply just fun. I have spent many hours simply roaming around on the open seas engaging ships in battle, all ultimately with an aim to stock up on valuable materials to improve my ship, but never feeling I was grinding whilst doing so. The Jackdaw's controls are vastly improved over AC3's comparatively clunky and unresponsive Aquila, making the whole experience far less frustrating and allowing greater freedom of choice as to how you engage your opponents at sea.For all that battling ships is a major part of the game, there are still considerable hours devoted to land-based play. Your classic AC missions are all here - albeit with a few too many "follow him", "eavesdrop on them" missions for this reviewer's patience - and there are a small number of pure platforming/free running sections for the traditionalists. Whilst the latter is lacking, and the absence of any puzzles is sure to disappoint fans of the wonderful tomb sections of previous instalments, it didn't detract too much from my enjoyment of the game.There are still faults, of course. The stealth mechanics are so simplistic and the AI equally so, that it does become a source of amusement as you progress. It's far too easy to sit in thin shrubbery, in plain sight of anyone within half a mile, and get away with murder (literally), whilst a guard stares directly at you and his swiftly falling comrade without batting an eyelid. Guards respond to whistles with an almost adorable childish inquisition; and once you realise how incredibly gullible they are, you will rarely use any other means of distraction to lure guards to their inevitable death.With the Desmond storyline dead and buried (at long last), the "present day" sequences of the game see you play the role of a faceless employee at the Abstergo Entertainments offices, in a permanent state of first-person view. Now, emulating an office job in a video game probably doesn't fill you with excitement, and I sometimes felt the game could have existed quite happily without any present day activities at all, but there's lots of self-referencing humour and easter eggs lying around in these sequences to keep you engagedOne of the main plus points about Black Flag is the sheer size of it. There is around 80 hours of gameplay available here if you so wish to take advantage of it. Scores of islands, harbours, jungles, underwater shipwrecks, whaling opportunities, and of course a handful of towns and cities, complete with tall buildings to scale and rooftops to hop across. This has never really got old for me and in a way, I wish there were more of these bustling hives of activity, instead of the dozens of islands and coves that start to look the same after a while. That said, the pleasure of reaching a synchronisation point and seeing the view from above is enough to warrant their inclusion.The graphics are stunning, by the way. The open seas have never looked better in any game, ever, and the lighting effects of a setting sun over Havana are simply beautiful. Even the pouring rain looks gorgeous as the individual splashes of rain pound against the wooden floor of your ship. Now, I haven't played the PS3 version, but the last 3 Assassins Creeds on that console suffered from a very poor framerate, so I'd be surprised if there was any significant improvement in the PS3 version of Black Flag. On the PS4, it's as fluid and smooth as you could hope for.To wrap up, having suffered from tepid, stale, run-of-the-mill annual releases for two or three years now, Black Flag is the injection of life and freshness that the series desperately needed. This is undoubtedly the best Assassins Creed since AC2. If that doesn't convince you to buy it, nothing will.

My first PS4 game. Being a fan since the very first game I have seen this series grow and get better. There have been a few low points (AC3) but all in all a great franchise.The game looks great. I was even impressed with the main menu and straight away knew the soundtrack was going to be epic. So far I am really happy with this game and very impressed indeed. This is easily the best one yet. The graphics are top notch and so far the story is great. Its a massive open world sand box and once you get your ship, you can go pretty much any where. On land the islands look stunning and full of life, not just the animals but the foliage too. The bushes you can hide in a very detailed and on a whole is a true improvement in every way. Character models are great and move well, expressions look lifelike. On the sea; my my! fantastic! This is what I really love about the game. The weather is great and in storms is just a joy to sail making sure to hit the large wave right to come crashing down safly on the other side. The battles are great to and the ship combat has been massively improved fron the 3rd where it just seemed like it was chucked in at the last minute. Here you can tell it's as big of a part of the game as the land based game play. I guess it makes sense seen as the main player is a pirate.Now you notice that I only gave 4 stars. This is very harsh but there is one thing I was hoping they would have sorted for the new game and that's the annoying free running mechanics. Edward wants to climb everything close by when pulling the run trigger. This can get really frustrating when you are trying to catch something/someone and you end up climbing up the wrong thing. Even worse when in combat as you try to get away and climb onto a rail or tree instead of jumping over only to get killed. It makes me very cross.I can live with that though and would only really take half a star off if I could. I've lived with it since the first and it hasn't stopped me being a fan.I say get it for some great pirate fun. There is tonnes and tonnes to do and it's a load of fun.**UPDATE**One thing I forgot to mention was the app you can get for the game on your phone. A really nice companion app. If you have the game get this app for sure.

This is actually the first Assassins Creed game I have played so I am new to the series. I figured the time was right to experience it considering the rave reviews it has been getting. This game is everything I hoped it would be and now I am not only a fan of the series but I am completely addicted to playing it too! For years I have always dreamed of playing an open world game at sea where you had your own ship and you were able to fight other ships, board them and take them for your own. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker came close because it had an open world at sea but it did not have that complete experience I was looking for although it was still a great game. Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag is by far the best open world sea based game I have ever played! It is like the Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim of the seas. This is the closest you are ever going to get to the Pirates of the Caribbean movie.The scale of this game is truly epic! Ubisoft have created a game that is not only highly addictive but will last you a very long time because there is just so much to explorer and it has multiplayer too! I can play this game for hours and not get bored. The ship to ship combat is just amazing the way that everything plays out makes you feel like you are taking part in an epic battle. The fighting system is as you would expect from an Assassins Creed game it is very natural looking and fluid. Boarding ships with your crew and having sword fights with your enemy is incredibly cinematic. You will become completely engrossed in this game it really does make you feel like you are living the life of a pirate. From cinematic moments, dynamic weather and pirate themed music throughout this game it has it all.What makes this game so amazing is the transitions from land to sea. You will feel like you are a part of this living, vibrant world. Nothing beats that feeling when you have spent a lot of time at sea raiding other ships and completing missions followed by returning to land in your ship with that great sense of accomplishment.

When i saw the launch titles for the PS4 this was one of the games that first appealed to me. I have played most of the previous installments, with AC2 being my personal favourite mostly down to the development of Ezio, and i feel that for a game to be truly great, you must have a truly great main character (Pretty obvious).AC3 fell short in this respect as is widely echoed in other's reviews.Onto Edward Kenway... he really is a fantastic character, and i think the little flashbacks to home are a very nice touch.When you have a character that has as much depth as this, the gameplay can fall short, with less attention given to this. AC4 doesnt have this problem at all, with the fighting 99% of the time being fluid and if executed correctly, you can be moving seamlessly through scores of soldiers cutting through them with speed and skill.The way you can always alternate between a stealthy approach or going the more open and sometimes more entertaining way of killing everyone in sight... it means that the game always has a freshness about it.Free-running as always with AC games is superb, although my only minor gripe would be that even at the start of the game, you can free-run as if you are already a master assassin, but i will let them off on this one as the game is amazing.The Jackdaw is one of my favourite parts of this game, and I thought i wouldn't enjoy this part of the game, as i wasnt that much of a fan of the ship missions in AC3 and they weren't as enjoyable as the rest of the game in my eyes. I happily ate my words... The Jackdaw is visually stunning, and as much as i cannot say i have any nautical experience, i would assume the handling it is spot on.Normally i do not really agree when people say they actually stop and admire the visuals of a game, as i play games for the gameplay, but i stand corrected on this game. Travel speed on The Jackdaw while your crew sings a shanty is one time where i actually thought 'wow, this looks awesome'All in all, the game is equal with AC2 or even better in my personal opinion, and i would recommend this game to anyone that owns a PS4

Worth while buying great game

I was unsure about buying this game - I didn't think much of Assassin's Creed 3. I'll be honest the only reason I bought it was because I'd run out of things to play on the PS4, and Amazon given me a £10 voucher off due to preordering my PS4 bundle from them...I'm very glad that I took the plunge though. Firstly as everyone seems so focused on graphics this generation (not whether or not a game is actually good....) they won't disappoint. At times I just had Edward stand there whilst I admired the scenery. I've played the 360 version and the difference is very noticeable. From the vegetation to the sea spray and smoke whilst pirating the seas! Great soundtrack too, I loved the sea shanties!Aside from the graphics, the game plays very well - had a good solid story and likeable characters. There's lots of side quests and collectables for you to get your teeth into, making it a lot of game for your money - not to mention the whole pirating of the seas action available to you, which you can spend HOURS playing!I finished the game with 77% sync and will go back at some point to try for 100% I'm sure. I highly enjoyed every minute and am glad to see UBISOFT get it right this time. My favourite Assassin's Creed game so far - very much looking forward to the next instalment now!As a side note, the game works very well on Remote Play via the Vita.

When i first got this game i was a bit sceptical about it being pirate based, but i absolutly love it.. I am so glad they didnt just play it safe for the next gen game by reusing the old assassin creed games, as it brings something new to the franchise by freshening it up and adding a new lease of life. The graphics are perfect down to the last leaf on a tree and really shows it in all its glory especially early on in the campaign where you have to break out of that pirate ship and hijack one of the many ships whilst swinging from ship to ship, aswell as the vibrant colours from the vegatation and beautiful sea blue ocean. I havent played much multiplayer yet which shows how good the single player is as i am normally one of the first to try it out. Love the music and the pirate chants, also the upgrading system to the ship and Edward adds the personal touch to each player. People have given the parcore system negative reviews but i cant see anything wrong with it and would find it hard to try and find ways to improve it without ruining the flow of the game.Overall - A must buy with anyone with the next gen consoles!

Producto nuevo, y llegó en buen estado.

I got ps hit version idk any diff but game is good,very good for pirates lover,idk what is ubisoft passport they asked for code i didnt got but overall game is goodAny questions dm = SLOOOB#2468 on discord

Tremendo juegazo, me llegó bien y perfecto, espectacular

Magnifico capolavoro... Nulla da aggiungere.

I played this at launch and just replayed it almost forgetting just how much fun it is. With all of the fluid ground assasinations, and added CQC, it’s a great game with just that. What blows this game out of the water (pun intended), is the addition of ships, levelling up, and most of all the glorious ship battles. This is my favourite Assassin’s Creed game period simply because it’s a huge, fun world, and the ships make it that much more enjoyable. It’s near perfect and never gets dull. At this price, it’s a huge steal. Buy it whether you’re a fan of AC or not. It’s that good.