Note: I play the PC version, so some issues you see me talking about might not be present in the console versions.
The Bad
First of all, Assassin’s Creed 4 seems to break the whole “Desmond and the modern Assassins” storyline. If you are expecting a continuation of the Desmond storyline, you are not going to find it in Assassin’s Creed 4. You do see some snippets of that story here and there, but there is absolutely nothing that pushes the story forward. I dislike this. Why do this? The first three Assassin’s Creed games built up a really complicated and mysterious storyline for the player to follow; a story that really intrigues me and makes me want to find out more and figure out what is going on. Assassin’s Creed 4 seems to throw this away.
Second, them bugs. I do not know if this is a problem with the PC version, but the combat is a total mess. Sometimes, pressing ‘counter’ does not counter enemies attacks, and the camera is terribly oriented, so sometimes you are unable to see an attack coming in, or you see it too late. The problem is extremely obvious when fighting on ships. In Assassin’s Creed 3, I remember fighting by the docks, carpeting the floor with the corpses of enemy guards. There were easily 50+ corpses on the ground. In Assassin’s Creed 4, I often die if I have to fight a group of more than 5-10 enemies, mainly because I fail to counter attacks so often. Has the difficulty of combat increased? Or is combat just broken?
Third, ship upgrades. While owning your own ship and upgrading it is awesome (I like ships. Ships > tanks > planes), there seems to be a levelling progression system in play. When doing some ship missions, you are sometimes told that you should upgrade your ship before continuing with the mission. While this is by no means compulsory (you can attempt to do the mission severely underpowered), this reminds me of MMORPG raid requirements. What is this? Now I have to grind out money and materials to gear myself up before I can successfully complete the mission? Blasphemy.
Fourth, and related to the third, is farming for materials and reales (money). A total pain in the butt. While boarding ships and blowing up them is totally awesome for the first five times, it gets old quickly. It does not help that inflation seems to have occurred in Assassin’s Creed 4, and obtaining money does not seem to be easier (harder, or maybe more time consuming). Most items and upgrades now cost close to ten thousand, often more. Things were not this expensive in the previous games. Then you have to sail around aimlessly, looking for ships that contain the materials that you need (picture below). Real fun (sarcasm). If getting upgrades for your ship was not enough, you also could farm for upgrades for yourself. This involved killing animals on islands. These animals often flee if you got too close, and you cannot catch them once they flee. You had to play stealthily, lying in wait for the animal to get close before you strike. Real fun (sarcasm). Assassin’s Creed 4 is probably the first game in the series where I have been so poorly upgraded (I’d say I’m about 30% upgraded) before completing the game.
Fifth, weapon selection. The weapon selection wheel that we are so familiar with in the previous games is gone. Now you press ‘Q’ to cycle through your melee weapons, and use the scroll wheel or numbers 1-9 to control your ranged and utility items. So what happens if you need to change weapon midway through a battle? You either memorize the number that weapon belongs to, or you frantically scroll through your weapons, while fending off attackers. While it might be more realistic and less immersion-breaking, it’s annoying, and scrolling through nine items is just way too much. The weapon wheel in the previous games paused the game, allowing you to pick your weapon of choice at your leisure. As seen in the picture below, you had a clear overall picture of what you have, and your ammo count. In my opinion, throwing away the weapon wheel was a huge mistake. At the very least, have a mini-weapon wheel that appears at the bottom right, so that we can choose our weapon of choice more accurately.
Sixth, identity issues. What is Assassin’s Creed 4, really? A pirate game? An Assassin’s Creed game? What is the point of Assassin’s Creed 4? Does it even advance the story in any way? What am I even doing all these things in Edward Kenway’s story for?
Seventh, lack of improvements. Has anything improved from the previous Assassin’s Creed games? Nope. Maybe the graphics, but I’m not the kind of person who cares about graphics, and my graphics card is not good enough for me to give a proper review about it.
Eighth, music. Maybe my volume is not set right (but it is maxed in game), but I did not hear anything that caught my attention. There is absolutely no iconic tune that people can relate to. Compare this to Ezio’s Family from Assassin’s Creed 2. Tell me that didn’t give you goosebumps.
The Neutral
Health. You now regenerate health as in Call of Duty. Get out of combat, and your health regenerates. Gone are the potions. Realistic? Nope, but using potions in combat is not realistic either. In fact, I’m rather glad potions were removed. I hate needing to ensure that I have ample stock before I attempt a mission. That’s one less thing on my mind.
The Good
World size and things to do. Assassin’s Creed 4 is huge. You get the whole Caribbean to explore. There are sharks and whales to harpoon, forts to capture, ships to plunder, and islands to explore. While I am not much of an explorer in games, Assassin’s Creed 4 is guaranteed to give the explorer and completionist type of gamer plenty of things to do.
Closing Statements
The Assassin’s Creed series seems to have outdone itself with the Assassin’s Creed 2 trilogy, and it does not seem to be able to get back to its former glory. While Assassin’s Creed 4 is a step up from Assassin’s Creed 3, it is nowhere as good as Assassin’s Creed 2. Would the next Assassin’s Creed even be worth playing? Things are not looking good for the future games.
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