Thoughts on AC IV: Black Flag

As most of you are already aware of, Assassin's Creed IV was unveiled by ubisoft earlier this week. The next game in the series will be titled "Black Flag".

The game is suppose to put a heavy emphasis on naval combat, which was introduced in the last game (AC3). This sounds pretty good, considering that some of the best parts of AC3 were the new naval mechanics. The game will be set in the West Indies and Caribbean and a whole new character will be introduced to the series. You will play as Edward Kenway. If the last name sounds familiar to you, thats because it should! Edward is actually Haytham's father and Connors grandfather. Edward is also a pirate. The time period is set before the american revolution (obviously), in a time where pirating was huge, especially in this part of the world. The game will have huge underwater sections to explore and even hunt (or harpooning as they are calling it) much like Far Cry 3. In fact, some of the FC3 team has already moved over to join in on Black Flag. Its been said that the game will consist of about 60% land and about 40% water. There will be jungle areas, which will play similar to the frontier sections of the last game. There will also be cities. Nassau, Kingston, and Havana are all confirmed to be in the game as major cities, with other 50 locations in total.

My thoughts? Well, they are rumored to be adding an upgrade system and changing or completely scrappy some key mechanics that have been plaguing the series lately. Not to mention putting a more heavy emphasis on stealth. So as long as they do some things that CLEARLY separate this game from the pack, well then I'm okay with it. I am still extremely worried that one of my favorite franchises, after continuously putting out annual iterations, will begin to suffer from serious "franchise fatigue". An AC game centered around pirates definitely seems like a good fit though.

One of the things that I just do not understand though. Is why call this game AC4: Black Flag, and not just AC: Black Flag? This definitely seems like its going down the road of Brotherhood or Revelations, by extending the Kenway legacy, much like those games did with Ezio. Maybe because your playing as a whole new assassin, they feel they have to name it the next numbered edition of the series. Oh well, I guess none of this really matters in the long run. As long as the bring the heat, then they wont hear any complaints from me.

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