PC Version Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag review
Test of the PS4 and PS3 version of Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag: At the Klabautermann! Ubisoft’s latest part of the open world series turns out to be an entertaining pirate adventure and finally brings a breath of fresh air to the game series. Here you can find out how Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag performs in the test. Update: Now with a test of the PC version.
Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag for PS4 and PS3 in the test – The sixth Assassin’s Creed moves further than ever from the origins of the series. The conflict between the evil Templars and idealistic Assassins that defined the previous titles? In Black Flag he’s just a side issue. Extensive climbing interludes as well as martial fights with all kinds of historical murder tools? Doomed to a supporting role! Instead, the developers ship the open-world game to the Caribbean – with a lot of ocean, lots of islands and three big cities – and let you play a pirate, ship included. With it you sail around Jamaica and Cuba, go whaling, plunder heavily loaded galleons or escape tropical storms. This realignment is proving to be a real boon to the series that we’ve almost grown weary of.Update : On the second page of the article you can now also find the test of the PC version of Assassin’s Creed 4!
You play a good-for-nothing
The hero of the latest Assassin’s Creed is a real ass to start with! Drunk and good-for-nothing Edward Kenway leaves his wife and British homeland to make his fortune in the Caribbean. He promises to stay away for a maximum of two years – long enough to earn enough to support his family hunting pirates. In reality, he becomes a pirate himself. He murders, robs, drinks and only has one thing in mind: his own happiness. So it is that after a sea battle he is washed up on the beach together with a strange guy in an assassin’s outfit. That the man talks about money is his death sentence. The fact that he doesn’t have one with him gives Edward the idea of putting on his robe and adopting his identity from then on.
Of course, all of this will soon be revealed, but it is a great introduction to the game. We get to know Edward and his motivations better than Connor from Assassin’s Creed 3 in the whole game. And we see a guy climbing nimbly like a monkey and killing artfully from the start like he’s never done anything else. That doesn’t seem very plausible, but it saves you a chapter full of assassin training and tutorials. Edward soon captured his own ship, the brig Jackdaw, and from then on he could do whatever he wanted. However, many of the main missions in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag have a tutorial character and establish new mechanics, weapons and game elements up until the second half of the game.
Beautiful new water world
The game’s Caribbean world is huge and oftentimes beautiful riding the waves. You spend a large part of the game, maybe 30 to 40 percent, at the wheel of the Jackdaw. The seafaring system has been taken over from its predecessor and expanded with many elements: more weapons and more types of ammunition. You can also use a telescope to spy on the cargo of other ships, hunt whales or sharks at certain points with a rowing boat and harpoon or dive for treasures with the help of a metal bell. The Jackdaw steers pleasantly sluggishly and indirectly.
When the wind picks up, you can actually feel it pushing the ship off course. Even if sailing is never really demanding, it never seems monotonous. Whales jump out of the water in front of you, fog gathers or you sail into the picturesque sunset. It’s doubly nice if you let your team sing at the touch of a button. If you value musical variety, you have to keep an eye out for sheet music blowing in the wind on land. If you get one, your crew will master a new song. But the life of a pirate is rarely idyllic. That’s exactly what Black Flag is about: because while the Templar and Assassin conflict usually doesn’t play a role, it’s mainly about the history of piracy. You meet all the famous horrors of the seas, from Captain Blackbeard to Captain Kidd, and as part of many missions and often while freely exploring the water world, you let the Jackdaw’s cannons do the talking. What’s a pirate if he doesn’t board ships?
On to the cheerful boarding trip!
The many AI ships scattered across the ocean are a clever brake on your urge to explore. The more southerly the water, the stronger the boats. They bring more loot when looting, but sink you with just a few broadsides. On top of that, many waters are guarded by forts, which you better circumnavigate or – if you dare – bombard and then overrun with your crew. If a schooner is exactly your collar size, you hit it. You ram, you fire your cannons, and you cleverly navigate around your victim, so you rarely offer a good target.
This is particularly impressive on the PS4, as after a few salvos dense powder smoke clouds the view of your opponents. Sometimes, in the rush of battle, we ran into reefs or alerted other ships, who then shot us to pieces. So the naval battles are quite complex. If you are successful, give the command to board. Then the Jackdaw stops next to its wounded victim and your crew crosses over. Depending on the format of your adversary, it is enough to shoot down a few opposing sailors with a rotating cannon.
However, you won’t conquer big chunks until you ignite powder kegs or cut off the enemy flag and take out a whole bunch of enemy troops on top of that. In the end, rich booty is worth it and you are faced with a choice: Do you let your victims go? This improves your reputation. Are you slaughtering the ship? This will repair the Jackdaw. Or do you send it to your fleet. It turns out to be a meta-game that runs online and can also be played using a tablet or smartphone. An interesting mechanic, but not available in our test version. Likewise, we haven’t been able to try the tablet integration of the PS4 game yet. This allows you to study the world map or treasure maps on the mobile device without having to interrupt the game on the TV.
