Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Yeah I already played Kingdom Hearts III, it disappointed me so much that I came back in time to warn myself ç.ç !
LOL!
I am aware of that, is only that I don't own a vita (but that might change in some days), only a Ps3 so I never played liberation.. I was hopping that the character from liberation appeared at AC III I was sad when that didn't happen :(!

And for the battle system... I was never a fan of the systeam in any of the AC games, but at least at AC II revelations there where a lot of weapons that we lost in AC III the Hook blade is something that i miss a lot! Not only because of fighting /using ropes , but for the "Double jump" while climbing! Climbing at AC III got pretty messy.. sometimes Connor would refuse to climb some random places and i would have to circle around it until he finaly climbs it :(!
Our assassin's crew were better also, in ACIII they seem like random thugs, and I don't like how we use them.
Other problem is that even though a lot of weapons were taken out, our overall menu got bigger so we have to go to a special menu (pause the game) to chose our weapon!

Because the game is set at america and all buildings are smaller than the great constructions that we had in previous games we lost some great things like the parachute ... i think overall we lost more things then what we gainned, also I would like to see some messages from the first civilization with our eagle vision just like in AC II, these little puzzles where lost... we had to find the "hidden messenge" than decode it!

 

Trends show it does. A lot of people want sequels nowadays...[DOUBLEPOST=1373639342][/DOUBLEPOST]

So um, I love it and I didn't think I would. My only complaints are the ditching of the ASSASSIN SWAGGER that started with Altair only those years ago and the fact that this doesn't even seem to be an AC game anymore. It looks like a cool pirate action adventure game.

 

The seq hunting seems a little gimmicky, but the naval looks as strong as ever.

Also, do appreciate the water effects more after actually properly looking at them, I can tell a few improvements over AC3 like how the water physics interact with the shore more naturally and waves look to bounce of each other a bit better.

 

I'm actually really glad i'm getting this for the PS4 now, one of the things I loved about AC3 was the feeling of being a predator in the wild, and with these new weathers and water dynamics will make the stalking of animals and people alike more satisfying and natural.
You know, the original announcement of this title made me REALLY sceptical of this just being another AC3 game with the way it was being marketed, being set in the same place and the same era, which it basically is but with a greater world to play in with more things to do, which I love in open worlds. I'm really looking forward to it now, come on!

 

Having played a few hours into the game, I do admit it is better than III so far. I like the protagonist better though some of the stuff they have him doing before he even gets his uniform makes me wonder what the hell they were thinking. (ie: The leap of faith he does without any training or ancestry showing he's an assassin. Note: Without question.) The other thing that really bugs me that's personal: The game is too bright. They really did do a good job with the atmosphere. But the text in a lot of cases is impossible to read because it's white and there's so many bright colors around it blends in perfectly. They really should've seen this as a problem, I tried adjusting the brightness, but when it's only 10 degrees you can adjust it, it's either too bright and I can't read the text and translations, or it's too dark and I can see barely anything.

Another personal gripe: Again, this was a HUGE turn off for III other than Conner: The text is too small. The tutorials turn horrendously frustrating when I can't read the text on my 24" HDD tv. Yes, I don't have HDMI. I have played AC before, but this is the first time on 360 and I'm still getting used to the controls. There's nowhere on the menu that tells you what the controls are, and I looked. Oh yeah, and nowhere where it shows to make the text larger. Same with databases, which is for me, a huge thing, I love reading and learning about the historical sights and figures. It's impossible for me to read it and they have a huge amount of space without anything to fill, but they shove it in a tiny, unreadable box. Same problem as III, and I heard a Gamestop employee complain also of the same problem on a tv twice my size.

Finally: Traveling so far is painful, time consuming and game filler. There's no fast walking, no easy pickpocketing which REALLY ticked me off, and no horseback riding so far. You literally walk from one end of the city, slowly, to the other. Pickpocketing in this game is HORRENDOUS. Seriously, you have to walk up to someone, hold down a button and wait for it to fill before you get money. If you get caught, the guards chase you down. In ACII, all you did was walk fast and steal money without pausing, it had consequences, but it was much more efficient and easier to do. This is just frustrating and in a lot of cases, impossible.

The present sequences, I warn people who liked the present ones before because of the urgency and atmosphere, will not like the present now. This is nothing like the other games when it comes to the atmosphere and what is going on. Oh yeah, and there's no mention of what happens after III. No worries, no concern. It's pretty much what is described above, but if you're expecting more, I think you're going to be disappointed.

The rest are pretty good, it's not as good as II or Brotherhood, I'm still figuring out what the hell the past has to do with the present right now, there's no clear cut hidden reason why Abstergo is doing this, no hints even. Well, maybe a few, but nothing concrete. I am holding back that judgement until I finish the game.

 

I could be wrong but if you're not using a HDMI lead, and instead a component cable, the things like text, brightness and such will be of a lesser quality. I mean, for a start, HDMI is the standard, using something less than that is obviously going to dip the quality, and in all honesty, if your HDD TV has a HDMI port, you should really get a lead for it, they cost like £3 over here, i'm betting America has them for like $5 or so, it's worth the cheap upgrade to get a better quality on your screen. The last time I heard about an issue like this was with the original Dead Rising, where the text was super small if playing on an SDTV. I really think it's a part of this whole component cable issue.

Travelling is most of AC's world, has been since the first really, i'm not sure what's different about this one, unless you mean the ship is slow or something. The pickpocketing sounds exactly like III's, which is very similar to the first game, and it's much easier to not get caught with this system than the Ezio pickpocketing, who would ALWAYS realise their money was stolen. I'd be surprised if there are many instance where you have to pickpocket in the game.

The modern day bits have never been entertaining or central for many, and I think Ubi have admitted that this time the modern day isn't up to much, it's basically the reason you're in the past and then letting you play in that world. Many people just want to pirate. The only way they could make the modern day more relevant is if they set a more open world playable location, which I don't think they're willing to put resources into. And the reason your in the animus is because you're you basically, as a games tester at Abstergo, trying out a new product which lets you play as Edward, the pirate, before the public can play it. Apart from that bit of press released info, idk anything about the modern day sections.

 

I don't have a HDMI connection on my tv, I have a cable for when I play downstairs with my mom, but I don't have one upstairs. Nor do I have the money or enthusiasm to buy an HDMI tv, this could've been seen as a problem ESPECIALLY after ACIII where it was the same problem and people complained about it, including Gamestop employees. This could've easily been fixed with an option to make the text bigger and the subtitles a different color. I see it as A: Gaming companies expecting you to have enough money to be able to have the best and the biggest of technology, and/or B: Them being too lazy to fix the problem by simply adding an option to the menu to let you change the text. I also note: There is a huge amount of space around the text boxes, but they cram the in the smallest space possible in the databases with blank space around it and the picture of the entry. There's no excuse that they didn't fix this problem after III.

Take ACII, you could easily fast walk to your next location with a huge difference between a normal pace and fast walking. ACIV I've tried, and there's barely any difference between regular pace and fast walking. This really makes it much more slower and painful. The pickpocketing is MUCH harder in this game if you factor in the point that if you get caught, which it takes about 30 seconds for the gauge to fill and if you are spotted with constantly moving NPC's, they don't fight you, they call the guards. The guards come in with guns and swords in almost all cases and you have to run. I have given up on pickpocketing because I've only been successful three times, the other times I either join a group and the action is cancelled, or they catch me and call the guards.

The modern part is eh, it's okay as of now. But yeah, there's nothing really standing out, the reason I said this is because I have seen complaints about the hopes of some modern day activities and other such things, along at least with the storyline. Nothing basically happens in modern time so far. no events, no updates, no storyline, It's basically what Ubisoft said word for word.

 

Making tools to allow for font size change is a partial nightmare for developing since the text in game, apart from subtitles, are not like text documents, they're more than likely pictures and you can't change text in a picture that's been formatted as such. And it would cost a lot of money to solve said problem, considering not many people don't have a HDMI TV, they've been around for over ten years after all.
I don't think ACII's pickpocket system was great since you had to run away every time you pickpocketed someone or you'd get noticed by everyone and would either fight civilians or guards, and it wasn't that important since you could only get money (which was easy to get after a while) whilst now you can get ammo for stuff and items to craft or sell on. I've seen some videos, and I don't think it takes that long.
And why aren't you free running if you're getting across the map? Fast walking is only good to kind of stealth walk, kinda.

 

Avoiding a lot of people, stuff like that...

ACII pickpocketing for me was never a problem. I could walk up to someone, lift their purse and walk away quickly without having any problems, but that's me.

The text, either it's me getting used to it, or something else, seems to be getting larger. Or I'm finding text that is bigger.

Alright, I admit... Once you get to the pirating, it's a blast... Been stealing left and right, the main storyline is... Eh, okay. Edward is no Ezio, but good enough to keep you interested. The pirating is hands down, the funnest part so far, and pretty easy to figure out what target you should hit and not depending at your level and fighting ability, you obviously can't fight very high end ships in the game in the beginning and avoiding is pretty easy as long as you kick the speed up, upgrading is fast, but money is a slight problem, even with the stuff you steal.

Present day is again, slow... But I'm starting to clearly see where this is going. This game is not going to be a very slow intro in, but once you get into the pirating, it's pretty fun and the missions do have a purpose. Nothing so far about the Assassin's other than the first hour or so. Templars have been popping up a few times, but not as much as probably it should.

Overall, once you get past the slow parts, it's a good game, better than III, maybe around Brotherhood, but NOT around II in my opinion.

And I think I just heard my ex-companions present having a convo. ....... That's..... Disconcerting. I don't think that's a spoiler, if so, remove it. =3 Well, I'll be damned... That is them.

 

Alright, I was going to type up this really long thing on my thoughts and stuff, but first my browser crashed and the second time it deleted the blasted thing. Here's the short version:

The piracy thing is the biggest thing and funnest part of the game. This honestly, is not an Assassin's Creed game, five hours in they finally reach the Assassin and Templar part after an hour intro, both drop off the face of the planet mainly. There's nothing mentioned of neither until five hours later, and where I finally gave up on the main part was just getting into the Assassin's role and stuff. And that was just sneaking through their temple without being caught and/or killing the Assassin's. There's no mention of an Assassin, no mention of the Templar's, no mention of the storyline and conflict going on between them. It's pretty much a guy focused on getting money and treasure and MUCH about the lifestyle of a pirate. I would suggest a certain game out of it, but I have a feeling I'd get in trouble for suggesting it. But in seriousness, it is mentioned way too much.

The missions itself... Being brutally honest, is a ton like Assassin's Creed I. It is very repetitive and has no real goal at the end of even killing someone. It pretty much is: follow this person, raid this ship, listen in on this conversation, escort this person, find this person, kill this person for this loot. Every single mission, and I've heard a ton of people complain about this, is about interacting with people other than killing them except once. There is no way around it, it is painfully repetitive and long. There's also massive difficulty spikes that come out of nowhere and hurt it even more. Including the area where I quit in because of how hard it gets in one spot through the whole mission. When the rest is a piece of cake mainly due to the AI never realizing that you're taking them out one by one.

Edward is an okay character, he has a good background, a good goal, but he's no Ezio. Ezio set a bar that no one has reached since he stepped in and charmed everyone with his Italian charm. Edward tries to have the same charm and have his own character, and he's a good character, but he doesn't have the same kick and impact that Ezio does, and it is painfully obvious, but he's still a good character and has his own reasoning.

The climbing, again... Is flawed. I don't understand why they haven't fixed it, but it's flawed. It's very hard when on a ship and trying to get to the top which you have to do sometimes with three to four men chasing after you to get there before they kill you, especially in low health. Sometimes it just won't respond at all to your commands and it can get very irritating when you're getting hacked away and you just want to finish the boarding. That and chasing, as usual, sometimes ends up with you clinging to the side of the building while your target continues on his merry way. If you expect anything else, be disappointed.

The only other thing I have to say is: The camera angle is VERY hard to work with. Especially when firing with your ship depends on it solely when it comes to your main canons that do the most damage. It sometimes sticks or stops and goes back the other way when you want it to be at a certain angle for a shot. The same with fighting, sometimes it's very hard to differentiate the difference between you and everyone else in the shot. Boarding is especially hard in this aspect and it's very easy to lose yourself in the crowd of fighters, which would be okay, but there's enemies still hacking away at you while you're stuck trying to figure out who you are.

I haven't finished it, and I will buy it, just for the sheer fun of the pirating probably when the price drops, and maybe the rest of the storyline, but it has severe flaws and I would say not as good as II and Brotherhood, though better than III.