Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013)

 Following the end of Desmond's story, Ubisoft continued with the annual release of Assassin's Creed games with Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. It was released for PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, Wii U, and Windows in October/November 2013.

Plot

The present day story is set at Abstergo Entertainment where the player is an unnamed analyst sifting through the memories of Haytham Kenway's father, Edward. Set from 1715 to 1721 in the Caribbean, Edward had been a Welsh farmer who left his wife to be a privateer in the Caribbean before turning to piracy. His ship is attacked by a rogue Assassin named Duncan Walpole. Edward kills Walpole and takes his Assassin garb and documents he was carrying for the Spanish governor of Cuba. 

Edward makes his way to Cuba and briefly gets involved with the Templar Order run by Cuban Governor Laureano Torres, Woodes Rogers, and Julien Du Casse. Torres explains they are looking for the Observatory, a Precursor Temple that would allow the Templars to spy on whomever they pleased. The key to the Observatory is a man called the Sage, who the Templars capture and bring to Havana. After feeling like he was short changed on his reward from the Templars, Edward goes to break the Sage, who is named Bartholomew Roberts, out of captivity, only to find he has already escaped. 

The Templars discover this betrayal and imprison him on a prison ship. Edward escapes with Adéwalé, a former plantation slave also imprisoned on the ship. They free other captives and seize control of a brig in the Spanish fleet, escaping with it through a hurricane. Edward names the ship the Jackdaw and takes it to Nassau. There he meets up with Edward Thatch and Benjamin Hornigold to help set up a Republic of Pirates. Setting forth with the Jackdaw with Adéwalé as his quartermaster, Edwards helps Thatch capture a galleon to use for defense of Nassau, killing Du Casse in the process. Edward captures Great Inagua, where he uses the cove to make a settlement. 

One of his fellow pirates James Kidd invites him to Tulum on the Yucatan Peninsula to learn more about the Observatory. Upon arrival, Edward discovers that Kidd is an Assassin and the information he brought to the Templars harmed the Assassins based in Tulum. While there, Edward confirms that Roberts is the Sage from Mayan ruins. The Assassin mentor Ah Tabai informs Edward that slave traders arrived at Tulum and captured both Assassins and Edward's crew. Edward helps free both groups, but is still banished from Tulum for helping the Templars. 

Deciding to pursue the Sage himself, Edward take Torres hostage as a ploy to free the Sage from a slaver in Jamaica, Laurence Prins. Upon arriving in Kingston, Edward sees James Kidd, who intends to assassinate Prins and Torres. Edward prevents this, convincing Kidd to wait until he has the Sage. Prins and Torres escape, causing Edward to revise his plans. Edward and James go after Prins, with James revealing that he is a woman named Mary Read. Together, they infiltrate Prins' plantation and assassinate him, though the Sage again escapes. 

Returning to Nassau, Edward discovers their Pirate Republic is in bad shape. He and the other leaders agree to lay off pirating for a while and instead seek out medicines to help the people of Nassau. Edward and Thatch, now known as Blackbeard, end up travelling to South Carolina to attain medicine, with Thatch deciding not to return to Nassau afterwards. 

The British Empire reasserts authority in Nassau not long afterward, with Woodes Rogers arriving to offer a pardon to the pirates there. Benjamin Hornigold goes over to him, but Edward and Charles Vane decide to break out of Nassau. They build a fire ship and break the blockade to escape. 

Edward travels to visit Thatch, who is planning on retiring with Nassau fallen. However, they are attacked by British forces and Thatch is killed. Edward meets up with Charles Vane afterwards, who agrees to help him find the Sage. They capture a slave ship that might have information, but before they can get any information, they are mutinied upon by another pirate, Jack Rackham, and stranded on an island. Vane goes insane and Edward escapes the island by himself. 

Resuming his hunt for the Sage, Edward learns he is on an island off of Africa. Edward meets Roberts there and frees his crew, earning Roberts' trust. Roberts has Edward help him capture a Portuguese man of war for his flagship, then assassinates Benjamin Hornigold, who had joined the Templars following Nassau's fall. Roberts reveals the Observatory and the device held within to Edward before trying to strand him there. Edward is injured in pursuing him and Roberts decides to turn him over to the British. 

After several months in prison, Edward is freed by Ah Tabai, who came to free Mary and Anne Bonnet, who had joined Mary in pirating and was captured with her. Edward is able to free the two women, but Mary dies during the escape after having been sick for some time. Edward tries to drown his sorrows in a bottle, and is forced to relive all of the friends he has lost while in a drunken stupor. 

Edward is awoken from his drunkenness by Adéwalé, who convinces him to make amends with the Assassins. Edward takes on Anne as his new quartermaster and sets out to end the Templars. He seemingly assassinates Woodes Rogers, who tells him that Roberts is back in Africa. Edward tracks him there and assassinates him, recovering the device in the process. Returning to Havana, Edward pursues Torres, but is fooled by a decoy and has to fight Torres' bodyguard El Tiburon. 

Realizing that Torres is already at the Observatory, Edward sets off in pursuit. After fighting his way through Spanish soldiers and the Observatory's defenses, Edward assassinates Torres and is able to return the device to its home. He then learns that his wife back home had died and that his daughter, whom he didn't know existed, was coming to the Caribbean. 

The game ends with Edward granting the Assassins the use of his cove as a base of operations. He greets his daughter and returns to London with her, remarries, and has a son, Haytham, from this second marriage. 

In the present day, the analyst is occasionally brought out of the Animus to hack into Abstergo computers by an IT specialist, John Standish. He passes the information to Rebecca Crane, who with Shawn Hastings has infiltrated Abstergo Entertainment. The analyst is eventually imprisoned by Abstergo, at which point John helps him escape to to hack the computers again. This hack reveals that Juno is loose in Abstergo's computers, but is unable to possess a physical body yet. 

Furious, John attacks the analyst and reveals that he is also a Sage, who turns out to be Juno's husband Aita, who had been reincarnated multiple times throughout human history. John tries to poison the analyst, but is killed by Abstergo guards. The analyst is released as Abstergo finds out what John was up to this whole time. 

Gameplay

Where naval gameplay was limited in III, Black Flag fully realizes the potential that naval gameplay could bring to the franchise. The entire Caribbean is open for exploration, from the Yucatan Peninsula to Hispaniola, and from Jamaica to Florida. There are islands and underwater wrecks to explore, along with Mayan ruins and dense jungle. 

Naval combat also takes primary importance in the game. Players can use the Jackdaw to attack other ships, ranging from tiny gunboats to massive man of wars. Defeating these ships will grant the player money and materials to improve the Jackdaw and the settlement at Great Inagua. Once the Jackdaw is strong enough, the player can take part in four legendary battles, which feature fights against extremely powerful man of wars that can be difficult to defeat. 

Hunting returns in this game, with materials from animals kills being used to create better equipment for Edward, such as body armor and bullet pouches. Whaling is introduced in this game as well to help in that endeavor. 

Dual wielding of weapons returns, with Edward chiefly using two swords. He can carry up to four pistols at once, which can be used to chain shots together. Edward also has access to a blow dart that can be used to fire sleep or berserk darts at enemies. For stealth, Edward can use groups of people or foliage as cover to hide from enemies, which can be used to set up ambushes. 

Collectibles in this game include treasure chests, buried chests which contain ship design plans, manuscripts, animus fragments, messages in bottles, Mayan Stelae, and song sheets. The Mayan Stelae can be used to unlock a room in Tulum to give Edward a special First Civilization outfit. Side missions include assassination contracts, conquering naval forts, naval missions, and Templar hunts. The Templar hunts allow Edward access to a special outfit locked away on Great Inagua. 

Thoughts

Black Flag was the first game I played to 100% completion, and for good reason. This game is just plain fun. Weirdly enough, this game works far more as a pirate game than an Assassin's Creed game, as Edward is never at any point an Assassin, though he does work with them at the end of the game. He is first and foremost a pirate captain and the game revolves around the player doing pirate activities in attacking ships and exploring the Caribbean. 

Truth be told, there was not much difference between the versions of the game released for the seventh and eighth generation of consoles. It might be because Ubisoft was not aware the eighth generation consoles would be released in time for the game's release when they started development in 2011 and only belatedly created a version of the game for eighth-gen consoles. Ubisoft would not take better advantage of the newer consoles capabilities until Unity the following year, or arguably even Origins in 2017. 

Edward's character development is compelling as well. He is brash and selfish at the beginning of the game, but as he self destructs through the course of the story between losing all of his friends and immersing in a violent lifestyle, he matures and sobers up by the end of the game. The deaths of Thatch and Mary hit particularly hard, along with Edward's attempt to drink away his sorrow. The most moving part for me, however, was the end of the game when Anne sings the "Parting Glass" as Edward meets his daughter for the first time and leaves his piracy behind. 

The Caribbean is designed beautifully, though the design of hurricanes in game was personally annoying just because I'm a meteorologist. In particular, I liked sailing on the open ocean during sunrise and sunset in game. However, just for me personally, my favorite setting from all of these games did not come in this title. It came in the next one.