Assassin’s Creed IV: What We Know

Before we get going, lets get the deluge of Sid Meier’s: Assassins!, Pirates of the Caribbean Creed, and Assassin’s Creed: On Stranger Tides jokes out of the way now.

All out of your system? Good! Lets talk about some stuff.

As you may well have heard, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flags has been announced, promising to be full to the, err…bilges(that’s a piratey word, right?) with pirate related goodness. Set in the 18th Century Caribbean, Ubisoft is planning to put the naval aspect debuted in the previous installment into greater focus, for better or for worse. With a number of leaks and official announcements cropping up in the past week or so, lets take a look at what we know regarding Black Flags.

 In The Navy…

Of course, it wouldn’t be a new Assassin’s Creed title if there wasn’t an argument about the presence of non-assassin activities. In this installment, you will see the naval combat element from ACIII improved upon and finding itself in a seat of greater prominence. Fitting for the theme – you’re playing a pirate after all – but the inevitable argument will always be that the game is called Assassin’s Creed, not Pirate’s Creed or Navy Captain’s Creed.

I’ll admit, this one has me torn. Though I don’t deny that the naval battles aren’t the main attraction of a game with ‘Assassin’ in the title, there’s no denying that they were genuinely enjoyable in the previous installment. I found myself playing through every naval mission, despite never taking advantage of the trade routes they rewarded me with. As long as the entire game doesn’t seem to be at sea, they’ll be a welcome addition.

The World is Your Oyster

Scooping up a double handfull of corporate buzzwords, Assassin’s Creed IV promises ‘systemic gameplay’ in a ‘true open world’. Basically what I can gather is that AC4 is going to fill its world with plenty of underwater wrecks, ship encounters, Mayan ruins and fishing villages, and allow you to seamlessly explore all of it without any of those pesky loading times. Okay, I can dig it! That’s the spirit that made the first few installments in the series great.

The only point tempering my optimism is my prevailing belief that open worlds contain lots of open space. Open world gameplay is only as interesting as the amount of experiences that come out of it, otherwise it simply feels like a long commute between the interesting bits. Ubisoft will have to make an effort to make each area as interesting as possible. And no, making me chase after almanac pages doesn’t count.

 A Pirate’s Life for Me

On a list of geek fixations, Pirates is way, way up the list, nestling somewhere between Ninjas and Chuck Norris. But few games have really given us the experience of what it’s like to be a pirate. Ship-to-ship combat, boarding parties, looting and plundering and treasure are all appealing factors in this new theme.

However, Ubisoft just needs to make sure the story doesn’t suffer for it.

The idea of a morally ambiguous pirate doesn’t exactly mesh well with the established ‘protect humanity’ philosophy espoused by the Assassin’s. Now, this in itself is not a bad thing. Conflict within the character, and a resistance towards the Assassin Order could be an excellent start to building a genuinely interesting character. But only if they embrace that conflict. The main character can not simply switch between being a notorious Pirate and a selfless Assassin when the plot calls for it. This was the problem they had with Connor, who’s motivation shifted to whatever the plot demanded, rather than following a consistent thread of development.

 The Story Continues…more or less

As Ubisoft has confirmed, Desmond’s story has ended as of the previous installment, leaving the idea of the main character rather up in the air. The present day main character, that is. The new ancestor you will be taking control of is Edward Kenway, grandfather of the previous installment’s Connor. This means you’ll be playing either some other distant relation to Desmond, or are using the technology that allowed Abstergo to filter through his memories without Desmond, hinted at in the last game. At this point, the latter seems more likely.

Hey! Maybe this character will actually have a story arc! Just a suggestion…