Black Flag attempts to mesh the Assassin's Creed formula with a pirate adventure which, despite some of the jank that always comes with this series, is done fairly well. Both the stealth and the naval combat are improved over the previous entry. That said, as much as I liked the naval mission in AC3 as side content, it being the core content in Black Flag eventually wears out its welcome. As beautiful as its rendering of the Caribbean in the 18th century is, the cities here lack the splendour and fun traversal of the Ezio games and none of the rural or jungle areas are as interesting as the frontier from AC3. There's mostly just small isolated islands which makes sense for the setting but they ultimately don't stand out as anything memorable. There is a good amount of fun side content that fit the character such as spear hunting and undersea exploration.

I feel somewhat mixed with the story. On one hand, there is some wonderful highs in the writing and it has a delightful cast of characters but there's a lack of flow between the story beats. I wouldn't say there story feels rushed but there is perhaps some problems in fitting the pirate narrative into the typical Assassin/Templar conflict of the series. I can imagine that some people greatly prefer this game's story for that reason though. I also never particularly warmed to Edward. I'm certainly appreciative of them not doing another revenge driven motivation but it feels like the developers fell back on the puckish rogue character archetype after people rejected the, in my opinion more interesting, serious and naive Connor. Edward's character development is more pronounced here than his grandson's however.

Judgment (or the much better Japanese title: Judge Eyes) takes the brawling combat from the Yakuza series and mixes it into a detective story which brings along gameplay mechanics such as investigating, tailing, lockpicking, disguises, etc. Similar to Yakuza, you also have a wealth of minigames unrelated to the main campaign. Yakuza always had endearing characters but sometimes the plot got overly convoluted and muddled but Judgment has some of the best writing this studio has ever done. With a whole cast of great characters that get a satisfying arc along with a wonderful protaganist, the game presents an interesting story in its murder case that keeps you engaged throughout its various twists and turns. The dragon engine combat is a lot more refined than its iteration in Yakuza 6 and although the detective gameplay parts will be hit and miss for some people, I appreciated the change in pace.

A solid stealth action adventure game with a decent story. The game essentially has two main sets of gameplay. Finding a path around rats and sneaking by human enemies with the two occasionally being mixed together. Initially, I thought it was going to get repetitive quickly but they surprisingly find ways of keeping the encounters fresh.

You gradually get a number of tools to use with your sling and despite being a very linear game, you do have some options on how to deal with enemies, at least in certain encounters. It's a shame that the final chapter is a real drag with annoying extended fight sequences and a tedious boss fight. Still, the story kept me going and the relationships between the characters are cute.

The poster child for the game of missed potential. Admittedly, I played it after a number of the glitches were fixed and the performance is actually pretty good on PS5 but those problems shouldn't be ignored. Night City is gorgeous and I appreciate the vertical design and entering interiors without loading, the city does come off feeling a bit empty. Empty because there isn't a lot of interesting and varied things to do there and also because it's literally empty. Hardly any cars or pedestrians populating the streets. I did enjoy the role playing aspects of the game and the writing can be decent although it strays into being overly edgy at times. It's an OK game but undoubtedly a mess.
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Returning to this game with the native PS5 version and a bunch of new patches, I am definitely left with a stronger impression and want to give it a higher score. There's definitely still some problems but with less glitches and crashes (although I still experienced some), it's easier to see the good in the game. Night City is no longer Ghost City although is still probably fairly unpopulated looking for how bust a city it's supposed to be. Playing a very different build from my first playthrough, the role playing aspect is very fun. I'm not sure the game is really deep or challenging enough for you to really dig into different builds but I still enjoyed working through the skill tree to make my knife throwing and gorilla arm punching character more powerful. It is still is very much a game of missed potential but it is not unsalvageable. They could absolutely do more with the city if the series is continued.

Returning to this game after playing it when it came out, I find I still quite enjoy it, warts and all. I like the setting and I think Connor is a good protagonist despite him not being well liked among the fanbase. Haytham is great too. Overall, the story it tells is satisfying even though it manages to be really slow in some parts and then feel rushed in others. I appreciate the willingness to portray the founding fathers in a negative light and point out their hypocrisy.

The combat has a bit more flair compared to the Ezio trilogy but the stealth feels a bit broken and unusable. The Homestead portion of the game is wonderful. The naval combat is fun and I enjoyed it more as a side activity then when it became a full feature of the following two games. Boston and New York can be a little dull to explore but the frontier is a cool location.