LaserRaptor
Clear blue skies, salty water crashing against your ship, wind in your hair as you hum to the sea shanties of your crewmates. Open sea as far as the eye can see only distrubed by a few distant shores covered in dense forest and hills. Suddenly you catch a glimpse of a ship carrying a lot of cargo through your spyglass and greed overcomes you as you ready weapons to board them and loot them for all they are worth, what can stop you? This is the ultimate pirate fantasy and this what Black Flag sells.
I don’t usually start with the gameplay portion but it’s such an integral pillar to Black Flag’s experience, I have to. Atmosphere is another pillar that holds up Black Flag. Till today the game has the best pirate music I’ve ever heard and easily a close contender to having the best soundtrack in the franchise. This was a cross gen so the graphics still hold up well enough, the brilliant art direction definitely plays a part. I have to say Black Flag has my favorite character designs in Assassin’s Creed and it still surprises me how well they are animated in cutscenes. I will briefly rant about how assassin aspects didn’t fit narratively later but I happily admit the gameplay fits the pirate fantasy really well. The flashy combat of AC really adds to the swashbuckling feel of being a pirate and guns were improved from AC3. Also unlike AC3 the in game economy works really well to facilitate hunting which takes place both on land and water. The assassin tools might look a bit off on a pirate but they added gameplay variety for which I’m always grateful. As usual I loved using the rope dart and berserk darts. The combination of side activities like treasure hunting, whale hunting, mayan puzzles along with ship combat sold the pirate experience for me. I could elaborate on how well all the mechanics surrounding the ship is but it’s an experience anyone played the game would know well. Any game has yet to top that.
Despite all my glowing praise of the game systems I can’t say I was too impressed playing long after release. The game might have been impressive at release but in today’s open world dominated gaming industry, it’s hard to ignore the restrictions on exploration. Treasure hunting for money is not that important since it’s much easier to make money through ship battles and it really sucks that we can’t get unique gear out in the open world. There is no story side content to do out in the open world and technological limitation really puts a barrier on the illusion of freedom you have. I strongly believe Black Flag would have been a much better game if it was made in the style of modern open world RPG-lite AC games.
Now this doesn’t need a new paragraph but I will cause I want to emphasise how bad the quests are in this game. Easily more than half the story quests are infuriating tailing missions. They are slow and an incredibly lazy method of info dump but that’ll not all cause you have to keep in mind to not get detected by enemies while doing a slow parkour challenge. Making players juggle attention between gameplay and story at the same time is not challenging, it’s annoying. It’s not even like the info dumps you get are engaging. I used to think I didn’t mind tailing missions as they vary the type of quests, this game proved me wrong.
Now on to the narrative!
If you asked me to name the single best achievement of Black Flag, my answer would be the pirate fantasy. But if you let me name another thing, it would be Edward Kenway. Ezio might still be the most developed protagonist in the franchise but he had 3 games to go through that. He goes through as much development in a single game and is handled surprisingly competently.
Edward is greedy, hungry for freedom from civilization and hungry for a better life filled with riches. In this he embodies the pirate philosophy, if there is one. But there’s also another seed seated deep within his heart that never could grow, the desire to provide for his family. He carries that desire in his new life, as we see him try to desperately hold together the rag tag group of pirates in Nassau. Unfortunately freedom means nothing without safety and security, achieving which is incompatible with the former. This forms the basis of conflict within the group. Some want to boldly hold on freedom at the cost of even their life and others want to crawl back to safety which they fought to run away from. A fruitless endeavor like that is used to tie up Edward’s character arc as he realizes the cost of freedom and how much the people close to him means.
The conflict of civilization and complete freedom is a fascinating microcosm of the larger templar versus assassin philosophy but the story never really delves into the themes beyond the quite obvious parallel it’s drawing. Instead the narrative chose to focus on how characters caught in this crisis react. I didn’t mind that, all major characters had strong personalities and their views clear on the issue. I have to give special mention to the character designers coupled with voice actors that brought to life the major players in the story so well. I definitely think the structure of this narrative was a clear improvement over Revelations.
But at the same time I couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied. The conflict started before I even got to know the characters well. We explored the pirate life through gameplay more than narrative, though I have to admit the gameplay was really well designed for its time. But this is where I think the story is in conflict with itself. It wants the players to connect to the tragedy of the pirate cause while at the same time focusing on character over ideology. At least to me we got neither well fleshed out characters or themes.
Black Flag is a pirate game first and an assassin’s creed game second. I say this as both a praise and criticism since this duality permeates through every aspect of the game. As of the time of writing this there has been enough discourse on whether the game makes good on that duality.
Personally I never really cared all that much if it’s a “true” AC game since I believe having a unified creative vision for a long running franchise is near impossible when you don’t have the series creator in the team anymore. Not to mention the financial incentive of slapping on a well known franchise name on a game just to make money. Before playing I was interested in if the 2 parts manage to complement each other.
But as I come to the assassin part of the plot, I wish I could show through text the enormous sigh I let out. It exists tangential to the main pirate story to bridge it with the modern day aspect. It makes some effort to relate to the main themes by linking relevant characters, especially the wonderful Mary Read. I know many will say how this part of the story is essential to Edward’s character arc but I would strongly argue that this is the case only because it’s forcefully made so. Edward only has a passing interest in the assassins and never fully commits to it. He doesn’t need a cause in life because deep in his heart, he already cares for his family and friends. Losing that family causes a change in his heart, not seeing a cult of weirdo assassins. Not being essential isn’t a big issue, what bothers me most is this part of the narrative actively messes with the pacing. You’re constantly flip flopping between both stories and any momentum built up in the pirate story is put on hold to progress the assassin plot.
I can’t know what the narrative department really wanted to make but if I were to put on a tinfoil hat, I find a strong parallel of Abstergo forcing your in game character to forget about pirates and chase Isu artefacts with the narrative wanting to tell a pirate story but forced to make an assassin game.
I don’t usually start with the gameplay portion but it’s such an integral pillar to Black Flag’s experience, I have to. Atmosphere is another pillar that holds up Black Flag. Till today the game has the best pirate music I’ve ever heard and easily a close contender to having the best soundtrack in the franchise. This was a cross gen so the graphics still hold up well enough, the brilliant art direction definitely plays a part. I have to say Black Flag has my favorite character designs in Assassin’s Creed and it still surprises me how well they are animated in cutscenes. I will briefly rant about how assassin aspects didn’t fit narratively later but I happily admit the gameplay fits the pirate fantasy really well. The flashy combat of AC really adds to the swashbuckling feel of being a pirate and guns were improved from AC3. Also unlike AC3 the in game economy works really well to facilitate hunting which takes place both on land and water. The assassin tools might look a bit off on a pirate but they added gameplay variety for which I’m always grateful. As usual I loved using the rope dart and berserk darts. The combination of side activities like treasure hunting, whale hunting, mayan puzzles along with ship combat sold the pirate experience for me. I could elaborate on how well all the mechanics surrounding the ship is but it’s an experience anyone played the game would know well. Any game has yet to top that.
Despite all my glowing praise of the game systems I can’t say I was too impressed playing long after release. The game might have been impressive at release but in today’s open world dominated gaming industry, it’s hard to ignore the restrictions on exploration. Treasure hunting for money is not that important since it’s much easier to make money through ship battles and it really sucks that we can’t get unique gear out in the open world. There is no story side content to do out in the open world and technological limitation really puts a barrier on the illusion of freedom you have. I strongly believe Black Flag would have been a much better game if it was made in the style of modern open world RPG-lite AC games.
Now this doesn’t need a new paragraph but I will cause I want to emphasise how bad the quests are in this game. Easily more than half the story quests are infuriating tailing missions. They are slow and an incredibly lazy method of info dump but that’ll not all cause you have to keep in mind to not get detected by enemies while doing a slow parkour challenge. Making players juggle attention between gameplay and story at the same time is not challenging, it’s annoying. It’s not even like the info dumps you get are engaging. I used to think I didn’t mind tailing missions as they vary the type of quests, this game proved me wrong.
Now on to the narrative!
If you asked me to name the single best achievement of Black Flag, my answer would be the pirate fantasy. But if you let me name another thing, it would be Edward Kenway. Ezio might still be the most developed protagonist in the franchise but he had 3 games to go through that. He goes through as much development in a single game and is handled surprisingly competently.
Edward is greedy, hungry for freedom from civilization and hungry for a better life filled with riches. In this he embodies the pirate philosophy, if there is one. But there’s also another seed seated deep within his heart that never could grow, the desire to provide for his family. He carries that desire in his new life, as we see him try to desperately hold together the rag tag group of pirates in Nassau. Unfortunately freedom means nothing without safety and security, achieving which is incompatible with the former. This forms the basis of conflict within the group. Some want to boldly hold on freedom at the cost of even their life and others want to crawl back to safety which they fought to run away from. A fruitless endeavor like that is used to tie up Edward’s character arc as he realizes the cost of freedom and how much the people close to him means.
The conflict of civilization and complete freedom is a fascinating microcosm of the larger templar versus assassin philosophy but the story never really delves into the themes beyond the quite obvious parallel it’s drawing. Instead the narrative chose to focus on how characters caught in this crisis react. I didn’t mind that, all major characters had strong personalities and their views clear on the issue. I have to give special mention to the character designers coupled with voice actors that brought to life the major players in the story so well. I definitely think the structure of this narrative was a clear improvement over Revelations.
But at the same time I couldn’t help but feel unsatisfied. The conflict started before I even got to know the characters well. We explored the pirate life through gameplay more than narrative, though I have to admit the gameplay was really well designed for its time. But this is where I think the story is in conflict with itself. It wants the players to connect to the tragedy of the pirate cause while at the same time focusing on character over ideology. At least to me we got neither well fleshed out characters or themes.
Black Flag is a pirate game first and an assassin’s creed game second. I say this as both a praise and criticism since this duality permeates through every aspect of the game. As of the time of writing this there has been enough discourse on whether the game makes good on that duality.
Personally I never really cared all that much if it’s a “true” AC game since I believe having a unified creative vision for a long running franchise is near impossible when you don’t have the series creator in the team anymore. Not to mention the financial incentive of slapping on a well known franchise name on a game just to make money. Before playing I was interested in if the 2 parts manage to complement each other.
But as I come to the assassin part of the plot, I wish I could show through text the enormous sigh I let out. It exists tangential to the main pirate story to bridge it with the modern day aspect. It makes some effort to relate to the main themes by linking relevant characters, especially the wonderful Mary Read. I know many will say how this part of the story is essential to Edward’s character arc but I would strongly argue that this is the case only because it’s forcefully made so. Edward only has a passing interest in the assassins and never fully commits to it. He doesn’t need a cause in life because deep in his heart, he already cares for his family and friends. Losing that family causes a change in his heart, not seeing a cult of weirdo assassins. Not being essential isn’t a big issue, what bothers me most is this part of the narrative actively messes with the pacing. You’re constantly flip flopping between both stories and any momentum built up in the pirate story is put on hold to progress the assassin plot.
I can’t know what the narrative department really wanted to make but if I were to put on a tinfoil hat, I find a strong parallel of Abstergo forcing your in game character to forget about pirates and chase Isu artefacts with the narrative wanting to tell a pirate story but forced to make an assassin game.
BotW is a terrific achievement in reactive exploration gameplay. A set number of abilities you get at the beginning can be mix and matched with the elements in the open world to make your own dynamic fun.
"See that mountain? You can climb it" type of design philosophy has never been better and in some ways they topped Bethesda. In a genre struggling to make exploration worth while, BotW succeeds with flying colors owing to its traversal system.
Despite all my praise, the game's not without flaws. It has repetitive dungeons, awful side quests, a less than stellar weapon durability mechanic. Not to mention story and characters while charming are nothing to write home about.
"See that mountain? You can climb it" type of design philosophy has never been better and in some ways they topped Bethesda. In a genre struggling to make exploration worth while, BotW succeeds with flying colors owing to its traversal system.
Despite all my praise, the game's not without flaws. It has repetitive dungeons, awful side quests, a less than stellar weapon durability mechanic. Not to mention story and characters while charming are nothing to write home about.