Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

[Swarley]

EDIT: Taken down already.

[IamMedellin]

[jms493]

New dude looks like a bad ass.

[Chrispy]

WHY MUST U TEASE US LIKE THIS?!?!?!


edit: nvm

[Chrispy]

Holy shit @ those graphics

[Epidemik]

I just started AC I

[wr50l]

I just started AC I

Don't let it put you off 2+. It's pretty monotonous after a while but the rest of the series never dips like that.

[IamMedellin]

[Swarley]

[Swarley]

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag Preview

Since the dawn of Assassin's Creed in 2007, the series has followed a set of established ground rules. Players assumed the role of Desmond Miles, a present-day hero in the center of a secret war between Assassins and Templars. He controls ancestors in a device called the Animus to unravel modern mysteries and help the Assassin cause. The needs of Desmond's order have always required him to move further along in history, but that time is over now. Desmond's chapter is closed, and with it many of Assassin's Creed's conventions.

After a trilogy of titles chronicling the life of Italian assassin Ezio Auditore, Assassin's Creed III signaled a fundamental shift with a new era and hero. With the fourth installment, it's happening again. Instead of continuing Connor's story, the franchise is shifting back in time to the days of his grandfather, Edward Kenway. Players steer this pirate captain through dangerous waters to greatness in the West Indies as he merges his swashbuckling ways into the world of Assassins and Templars. In addition to showcasing all-new expansive cities in the Caribbean, the latest entry introduces an open-world ocean to explore and fully realizes the ship mechanics that were, in hindsight, merely teased in the last game. Welcome to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, a new course for Ubisoft's blockbuster franchise.

The Real Pirates

The development of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag began back in September 2011. By the time ship combat was conceptualized and proven for AC III, the Black Flag team members believed they could build out the mechanic as a core concept of an entire game. "When AC III was in development and we knew we were doing this Haytham-Connor, father-son story, we realized if we went back just a few decades in time we'd be right at the golden age of piracy," says lead scriptwriter Darby McDevitt. And so Edward Kenway was conceived.

The father of Haytham and grandfather of Connor, Edward grew up poor in Britain and got married at a young age. When class and family issues came between the couple, he set out to the West Indies to seek fortune and make a name for himself. He served as a privateer for a while, but once the monarchies of England, Spain, France, and others signed a series of treaties around 1713, the contracts dried up. After a few years of peace and poverty, Edward and the rest of the now-struggling privateers began working for themselves as pirates, raiding ships and hauling in loot throughout a ten-year span when pirates ruled the Caribbean.

As with all Assassin's Creed games, Black Flag is based on historical record. Between 1715 and 1725, pirates like Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Charles Vane, Benjamin Hornigold, and Anne Bonny became legends. In Black Flag, these colorful characters cross paths with Edward during his adventures.

Don't expect the cartoonish Captain Jack Sparrow from Pirates of the Caribbean. The development team isn't interested in clichés like fantastical talking parrots and hooks. "If it didn't occur or if it wasn't prevalent, then we're just not going to do it," McDevitt says. "What's real is already amazing. We don't need to resort to any of the fake stuff."

In addition to historical sources, the developers are using more grounded entertainment for inspiration. Movies like The Mission and Master and Commander and TV shows like Deadwood may not directly connect with pirates, but they nail the tone the writers are targeting. On the gaming side, they looked to Red Dead Redemption, hoping to do for the pirate fantasy what Rockstar did for cowboys.

Black Flag is not solely a pirate game. At the beginning of the story Edward is immersed in the swashbuckling lifestyle, but he soon comes into contact with Assassins and Templars. "Assassins are compassionate anarchists, and Templars are benevolent dictators," McDevitt says. "We realized we could actually go further along those extremes. With the pirates, it's an even more extreme version of the Assassin philosophy. We liked widening the scope of that conflict." Edward's innate seafaring and combat skills are further honed with Assassin training, but he struggles to reconcile his selfish, cavalier pirate attitude with the two competing higher ideals.

Naval Warfare

Ubisoft bills Black Flag as the "first true naval open-world game." While we haven't seen the high seas exploration in action, combining the visuals and mechanics from the previous game with an ambitious open-world plan fills us with excitement. Whereas AC III had linear, contained, and scripted missions at sea, Black Flag features a massive ocean that connects 50 different unique land locations in the Caribbean. These waters aren't simply a method of transportation; they serve as one of the core pillars of new gameplay mechanics.

If you thought there was lot to do in AC III, Black Flag ratchets up the amount of activities. At any time on Edward's ship, the Jackdaw, he can pull up a spyglass and search the horizon for points of interest like an uncharted island. Onscreen, players see a list of grayed out items, only displaying the basic details once you dock at the landmass for the first time. These locations include hidden coves, fishing villages, jungles, Mayan ruins, plantations, and large cities like Kingston, Havana, and Nassau. "We don't want players to feel like all these varied locations are separate maps that you have to load into," says game director Ashraf Ismail. "It's very important for us that the game feels unified, that this is one world and that players really get immersed."

To that end, players can sail to any island, get out, and explore it without any loading breaks (traditional large cities still need to load, however). You can even jump off the boat anytime and go for a swim. The primary purpose of going overboard is to experience the new underwater exploration segments. Using a diving bell (a large metal structure that holds air in its cavity as it submerges) the diver can descend into the depths of the ocean, swim out to nab treasure, and return for a fresh gasp of air without heading to the surface. Edward uses this to search wrecks for lost treasure and hidden secrets while trying not to drown and get eaten by hungry sharks. Great whites aren't the only aquatic life he encounters. Concept art at the studio revealed a whale-hunting mechanic, which should be quite profitable if you can succeed.

The true danger and opportunity on the open seas is the wide array of other ships. The trusty spyglass can reveal what kind of cargo is onboard and what kind of defenses a ship has. Depending on the risk and payoff, some ships might not be worth going after, but practically every vessel players see can be attacked. These range from smaller sailboats to lumbering warships, each with recognizable behavior traits. Ubisoft offers the "Charger" as an example, which prefers ramming you at full speed to a strategic cannon battle.

Ubisoft wouldn't detail the changes it's making to the core naval combat, but stressed that boarding has received a complete overhaul. Edward can command the crew to use grapple hooks to pull the two vessels together from any angle. Instead of boarding using the same repeating cutscene from AC III, players can choose any tactic they wish. Edward can assault the other crew in straightforward gun/melee battle, jump into the water and swim around to sneak up on the rear flank, or even climb his mast, hop over to the other, and perform an aerial assassination on the enemy captain. Just be sure to keep an eye out for patrolling military ships before raiding. These well-equipped craft rush to fight off any marauders.

In combat, Edward draws from the traditional Assassin playbook with dual hidden blades, swords, and pistols. This long-range option is now free aim, so you have more control over what you are targeting. Don't worry about Assassin's Creed turning into Gears of War, however. Guns still only hold a single shot and require the same cumbersome reload time as in the previous game, though Edward carries four pistols on him at all times. While Connor dual-wielded smaller weapons, Edward is the first Assassin to double up on swords.

This plundering and pillaging results in cargo holds full of goods and gold, but any smart pirate knows you have to invest in your business to increase returns. Black Flag's economy encourages players to spend most of their riches on upgrading the Jackdaw. Offensive, defensive, and navigation add-ons can make your ship more formidable against a wider array of ships. Some particularly tough warships camp out at intriguing islands and attack any curious under-equipped vessels. Barriers such as this keep your experience more focused in the early part of the game and offer incentives to participate in activities, earn loot, and buy upgrades so you can surpass them later.

Present Day

Of all the changes that Black Flag is introducing to the Assassin's Creed franchise, the new take on the modern time period is the most drastic. "Desmond's saga ended with AC III," Ismail says. "We had to ask players to believe you are playing a guy named Desmond who is playing a guy named Altair, Ezio, and so on. Because [Desmond's] story is over, we wanted that one level closer in. You're not playing another guy. You're playing yourself in this world."

The player assumes the role of an Abstergo Entertainment research analyst who's digging into the life of Edward Kenway using an Animus. Since you're not part of Desmond's family line, fans may raise an eyebrow at the fact that a non-relative can experience the memories of another. Ubisoft assures there are story foundations for this teased in AC III. The most likely scenario would seem to be tied to Desmond's conversation with his father, William, late in the game after the old man is rescued from Abstergo. When Desmond asks if the Templars got to him, William replies that he was able to resist, but it may not have been enough. "I know they've been working on ways to extract memories and let others sift through those memories," he says. "Maybe they're even analyzing mine right now."

William's fears are confirmed after the end credits, when players begin controlling Connor as someone other than Desmond. An unknown voice directs your quest to find pivots within the Animus. Once you're successful, the voice celebrates, "Holy crap. We did it. It's done. His data's uploading to the cloud. Vegas baby! Vegas!" The player's real-life gamertag is then shown to be "synchronized with the cloud." Is this William Miles' data? Is the voice on the line an employee of Abstergo Entertainment?

Playing the role of yourself as an Abstergo agent isn't completely new. The Assassin's Creed Revelations multiplayer rewarded fans with first-person videos of what it was like to climb the ranks within the Templar organization. AC III's multiplayer videos showcased Abstergo Entertainment propaganda, while further unlocks revealed hacker group Erudito's altered takes on the videos. AC: Liberation on Vita was also an Abstergo product, though it didn't contain present-day gameplay outside of some messages.

Playing as the Assassins' enemy worked in a separate multiplayer setting, but it seems strange that the single-player is going to the dark side as well. The team assures that it's not that simple. "You start the game being an innocent employee just doing your job," Ismail says.

"For new people, we want to reintroduce the conflicts of the present day," McDevitt adds. "They'll be like, 'Oh this is my job.' For people who know the franchise, working for Abstergo might be a little weird, but that's part of the joy of discovery. It's like, 'What kind of weird s--- are my employers up to?'"

Even though most of what you knew about the present day timeline is absent from Black Flag, the ongoing tale will continue. "We pick up right where the old story left off," McDevitt says. "But because you are the character, we have to introduce you into the world in a different way. It'll be full of surprises. All of the things set up by the ending of AC III, those continue as well."

Hopefully, this opens the story to a new, more personal scale, though it's difficult to imagine how the writers are incorporating the all-powerful goddess Juno into a sterile Abstergo office building. We're hopeful that this new present day direction leverages the tossing of Desmond's present-day baggage without removing the soul and personality that a fully written character provides.

http://www.gameinformer.com/games/assassins_creed_iv_black_flag/b/playstation4/archive/2013/03/04/assassin-39-s-creed-iv-black-flag-preview.aspx?PostPageIndex=3

[Slateman]

So, basically, they're going to take the best part of AC3 and make an entire game out of it?

Hmmmm ..... not sure how I feel about this.

[Swarley]

The Dawn of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
It’s a pirate’s life for the Kenway family.

Assassin’s Creed seems to enjoy operating without limits. The franchise has always dreamed big and attempted to deliver even bigger, and if the series has one blatant weakness, it’s that its annual ambitions exceed what consoles are realistically able to produce. Its grand designs have left modern hardware behind, and the series remains shackled - alongside a few lingering design shortcomings that continue to appear. Yet as one of the most compelling modern franchise concepts, it’s hard not to be excited by whatever new era Ubisoft’s global studios are able to conjure up. The question, then, becomes this: can the Assassin’s Creed franchise balance its desire to move into yet another new era with its need to acknowledge its inherent strengths and weaknesses? After five installments, is ambition enough to keep this modern blockbuster relevant as we begin to move into a new generation of technology?

In the case of Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag, those ambitious designs have moved prior to the American Revolution, to the earlier half of the 18th century, off the east coast of Northern America where piracy thrives. It is in this era that we’ll meet Edward Kenway, father of Haytham and grandfather of Connor, - clearly signifying the pursuit of what Ubisoft is calling the “Kenway saga” of Assassin’s Creed games. Where Haytham and Connor were present at the dawn of a new democracy, Edward will be tested by the failure of the old one.

Edward himself seems designed, or at least destined, to stand as an answer or a contrast to Connor, which should please critics of the Assassin’s Creed III protagonist. While Connor was more firm, more stoic, more serious, lacking some of the vibrancy of his predecessors, Edward is intended to be more charming, clever and reckless. In fact, when Black Flag starts, Edward is already a pirate, one who is destined to encounter the assassins’ order.

Black Flag director Ashraf Ismail stressed that his global team was focusing on placing Edward into a more historically accurate take on this era – no parrots, no Krakens, no theme park shine. Clearly the team is aware that Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean series has defined much of the fictional narrative surrounding pirates, and it wants to change that image and style. It wants to be grittier, more true to the dark, rough reality of the era. Ismail references Kurt Sutter’s twisted, gritty, grounded television show “Sons of Anarchy” a few times when describing his vision for a cast of characters that encompasses Charles Vane, Calico Jack, Blackbeard and more. That’s a bold claim for any medium and any time period.

The Pirate’s Creed

Ismail’s Montreal-based team, in conjunction with studios from Singapore, Sofia, Annecy, Kiev, Quebec City, Bucharest and Montpellier, is working towards building what he describes as the “first true naval overworld.” Fans of The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker might technically beg to disagree, but nonetheless the ambition is well-founded. Black Flag aims to blend between its land and aquatic experiences seamlessly, to the point where Edward can simply dive off of his ship, swim to the shore of one of 50 or so locations in the Carribbean, and explore. No loading. No segmented feeling. Ubisoft also plans for a great deal of variety in these locales as well, ranging from plantations and jungles to Mayan ruins and exotic coconut islands. All of this joins content hosted in three major cities – Havana (described as analogous to ACII’s Venice in terms of vertical emphasis), Nassau (the home of the so-called Republic of Pirates) and Kingston (a very dangerous, British-run city). Collectively the land-based portions of the game will comprise about 60% of Black Flag's core missions.

Of course, a vast expanse, even one filled with locations, means nothing if a game’s inherent gameplay ideas – upgrade systems, experience points, combat, exploration – don’t work. In this sense, faced with such a massive game, it’s a bit reassuring that many of the developers from the acclaimed Far Cry 3 have joined in with the Black Flag crew. Some are working on sea-based gameplay. Others are working on the core progression of Edward’s abilities. Ismail stressed to IGN repeatedly that all of the game’s activities, from hunting and harpooning (water-based hunting) to exploring underwater environments, will feed into a larger sense of progression and evolution of play. As with past AC games, Edward can upgrade his equipment in a variety of ways, but Ubisoft is now adding the ability to do the same with his ship, the Jackdaw, and its crew.

With the bold claim that Assassin’s Creed III was just testing the (forgive us) water in terms of naval combat, Ismail’s team intends to make Black Flag’s ocean-based warfare deeper and more complex than before, adding more weapon types, enemies, and challenges. These ideas stack onto an already fundamentally sound core, which for many was a highlight of ACIII. Calling back to Far Cry 3, Edward uses a spyglass to view ships and islands from a distance, which communicates valuable information on a destination or foe prior to any sort of engagement. Players will also be able to exploit weather patterns, luring the opposition into less than ideal conditions such as dynamic storms, to their advantage.

Of course, naval warfare doesn’t just end on the high seas. You’ll board your enemy’s ship, and Black Flag will offer a variety of options when it comes to this type of confrontation. Your goal with any ship-to-ship fight is to eliminate the other captain. How you do this is entirely up to you. Edward could simply grab hold of a swivel gun on his ship, firing the small cannon at his counterpart. He could use one of his (up to four, depending on your upgrades) pistols to simply fire a bullet at the foe’s head. Alternatively, Edward could risk boarding the other ship in a variety of ways, leaping from mast-to-mast and performing an air assassination, or charging into the fray, intending to cut down his foe with his sword.

Fixing the Past and Present

That kind of flexibility lends itself to the entire mission philosophy for Black Flag. Ubisoft wants to remove some of the barriers that previous games created, leaning more on open-ended directives, something that lends itself more towards the (comparatively) simple assassination orders from the first AC game. Ismail described his approach as being less about hand-holding and more about providing basic objectives with flexible conditions for satisfying said objectives, which also includes refining game systems for things like detection and stealth, so players better understand how the game "reads" their actions.

The entirety of Black Flag’s development could be characterized by that self-awareness and franchise-centric reflection. When we asked if the team had taken a look at how it paces its story and mission structure, Ismail noted that his team has, from the start, been focused on building mechanics within the pirate theme that the story then supports – not the other way around. The same applies to the franchise’s tendency to rely on excessive mechanics that continue to stack year after year – some that seemingly exist just for the sake of having something new. It’s here that the Black Flag team is placing a discerning eye, because any system the game doesn’t need is being discarded.

The best example of this comes with the series' familiar notoriety system. Previous games would base enemy interaction on how discreet or blatant you were in terms of city navigation and combat. Kill someone in direct sight of the city guard, for example, and you’d quickly find yourself wanted by the authorities. In Black Flag, this system has been tossed out, as navigating the wide ocean and traveling from location to location makes this sort of “worldwide alert” illogical. Regardless of this game’s ability to deliver on its larger vision, the fact that this latest AC team understands some of the flaws of previous entries is entirely reassuring.

Another stumbling point of the AC franchise: the modern storyline. Though an afterthought in the minds of many, the Assassin’s Creed saga focuses a great deal on the contemporary conflict between Assassins and Templars. Until ACIII, that part of the storyline was told through Desmond Miles. With Desmond’s story concluded, Ubisoft was left searching for another way to continue the tale in 2013. It’s doing this by making you, the player, part of the narrative. Though details were purposefully left vague, you are a person hired by Templar-controlled Abstergo Entertainment to research a pivotal moment in Desmond’s ancestry. You’re told to look into Edward Kenway – and away you go.

Ubisoft is attempting to find the delicate balance between the game’s Caribbean setting – where the bulk of the game takes place – and its modern counterpart, where a significant amount of lore is held. The team hopes that it can incentivize hardcore Assassin’s Creed fans to step outside the world of pirates and explore the Abstergo facility, by providing a variety of unnamed activities and information as a means of reward.

Bring Me That Horizon

Assassin’s Creed has long had grand ambitions, but those same narrative and game design risks have sometimes proven the series’ greatest weakness. Those bold desires, combined with the speed at which AC iterations are released, has resulted in a variety of flaws that have remained for years. But now, as this sixth installment begins to make the transition between the existing generation (Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii U, PC) and the next (so far PlayStation 4 is confirmed), Ubisoft’s designs seem to be getting a new lease on life – a new freedom to think bigger than ever.

Black Flag, if Ubisoft’s intentions come to life, seems poised to address some of those problems. The team seems genuinely interested in not only providing a new, naval-based, open world experience, but finding a better lead character, and fixing some of the faulty missions and gameplay systems from the past. There is plenty more to learn about the game, and plenty to play, but if nothing else, it’s genuinely exciting to see Assassin’s Creed head in this direction. It’s different. It’s unexpected. But the series must take risks and remain self-aware to remain fresh and relevant as an annual franchise. All indications point to Ubisoft taking these exact steps, and much like the limitless horizon of the ocean, the result full of possibility and potential.

http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/03/04/the-dawn-of-assassins-creed-iv-black-flag

[Twigg4075]

At what point does this series become the next Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero or CoD?

I know a lot of people complained a lot about aspects of Revelations and AC3 seemed to be an overall lackluster entry in the series. This yearly release schedule is a bit much.

[Slateman]

At what point does this series become the next Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero or CoD?

I know a lot of people complained a lot about aspects of Revelations and AC3 seemed to be an overall lackluster entry in the series. This yearly release schedule is a bit much.

I think that is dependent on this game. If it's another miss like AC3, it's there.

[Prodigal Son]

At what point does this series become the next Tony Hawk, Guitar Hero or CoD?

I know a lot of people complained a lot about aspects of Revelations and AC3 seemed to be an overall lackluster entry in the series. This yearly release schedule is a bit much.

Revelations problem was that it was a mobile game turned into a console game. AC3 was being worked on at the same time as the AC2 series, so a lot of stuff brought into those games was not able to make it into 3 because an entire system had already been put in.