Assassin's Creed IV:Black Flag Preview

System: PS4, PS3, PC, Xbox 360, Wii U
Dev: Ubisoft
Pub: Ubisoft
Release: October 29, 2013
Players: TBA
Screen Resolution: 480p-1080p

A Pirate Trained By Assassins
by Angelo M. D’Argenio

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a game about pirates, and Ubisoft really wants us to know that. We got a chance to stop by the Ubisoft booth for a behind-closed-doors demo of the game at PAX East this year, and from the moment we stepped into the door it was nothing but pirates. You’ll sail pirate ships, fire pirate guns, swing pirate swords, sing pirate songs, date pirate women, travel to pirate ports, and become a guinea pig for pirate software. Ubisoft really wanted to stress the pirate feel of the game, using historical locations, events, and characters to please the swashbuckler in all of us.

Assassin’s Creed IV puts you in control of Edward Kenway, a pirate-turned-assassin-turned-pirate-again who sales the high seas on his trusty ship, the Jackdew. Now, if you think that you’ll spend most of your time running around buildings with your mad parkour skills, think again. Most of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag takes place on the high seas. As such, much of the new gameplay introduced in Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag revolves around your ship and its swarthy crew.

When you first start out, your ship will be a modest vessel, with only six cannons about her. However, as you progress through the game, you will be able to reinforce your hull, build up your masts, and increase your cannon count to a whopping fifty-six barrels, practically becoming a warship.

Of course, no ship is complete without a crew, and crew management will be a huge part of the game as well. You will have to hire new ship hands as you sail from port to port. More crew with better skills means an easier time firing down enemy ships or boarding them to steal their booty. Of course, crew can just be outright hired, but making a name for yourself will also cause people to join your crew out of sheer awe. Nothing better for making allies than starting a fight in a local pub. Unfortunately, crew can die easily in the game and will frequently need to be replaced, but crew members that have been with you for a long time will be far more valuable than newbies.

Resources will also be handled differently in Assassin’s Creed IV. Instead of simply getting money for completing missions, you’ll have to secure goods from either plundering them or purchasing them. You will then have to trade them at different ports in order to make a profit. It’s a barebones commerce simulation that was most likely just included in the game for sake of “PIRATES!”

By now, it should be obvious that the naval battles of Assassin’s Creed III will likely be returning, though Edward has a new trick up his sleeve that Connor lacked. By simply getting near an enemy ship and pressing a button, you can start the boarding process, which immediately switches control over to Edward and puts the ship on autopilot. You can then parkour your way form mast to mast, getting onto the enemy ship and getting the drop on their captain before your ships have even pulled up alongside each other.

Exploration will also play a huge role in Assassin’s Creed IV’s gameplay. Edward will be able to procure maps of the surrounding seas, but there are plenty of uncharted isles to explore for those of you who like to stray off the beaten path. Edward can explore underwater as well, diving down to the ocean depths in order to dredge up the sunken treasures that lie there.

What’s really impressive is that the entire ocean of Assassin’s Creed IV is one seamless map. There are few loading screens at all, allowing you to explore the entire world without ever breaking up the action.

Now, some of you may not be interested in pirates at all. To you I say, “What is the matter with you?” However, if you must know there are some non-pirate-themed sections in the present day, where you take control of yourself.

Yes, the present day protagonist is no longer Desmond but you, the player. You will wander through the world in first-person during these sections as a “tester” for a “game” developed by Abstergo Industries. The player will be asked to make important decisions that will change the way the game progresses as their first-person selves and will meet several familiar Assassin’s Creed faces along the way. One has to ask, however, if both you and Desmond can tap into the same memories of the same family line of Assassins, does that make you two related?

Overall, Assassin’s Creed IV still seems a little rough. It was obvious that the game isn’t even nearing an alpha build and the environments still require a lot of work. It’s cool that we got to interact with famous pirates like Calico Jack and Blackbeard, and the historical bent makes this a refreshing take on a genre that usually soaks its stories in rum and cartoony antics. Still, while pirates are cool, they are not enough to sell a game. Hopefully we will get a closer look at the gameplay when we see the game at E3 this year.