Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - PlayStation 4

AC IV is not by any means the greatest Assassins Creed to date but it is a huge improvement over AC3 and for PS4 owners, it is arguably the richest gaming experience of all the available launch titles.Pros:The ship-to-ship combat is very fun, offering upgrade incentives and varying degrees of challenge to the player. Kenway's ship is upgradable by looting resources from enemy ships and upgrades are necessary to fight larger ships with more armor and firepower. Upgrading the ship takes a significant amount of looting and treasure hunting, but it is fun and never felt like work even though it's quite repetitive.Game-play in AC IV is very smooth and the graphics look excellent for an open world game with basically no load times. I had almost no issues climbing, jumping, running, or swimming throughout the game, although the controls while swimming underwater take a bit of getting used to.The multiplayer content is great. I have played every other AC title and never played multiplayer on any of them, so I was very pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable multiplayer is in AC IV. So far (early 2014) this multiplayer experience has provided me with more replay value than any other game for PS4.The scavenger hunts are always one of my favorite parts of any AC title and AC IV has added some new treasures to find across the pirate infested Caribbean. My favorite things to chase down are the sea shanty's which attempt to fly away as you approach and once captured, they provide your crew with a new song to sing as you sail the open sea.The portion of the gameplay outside of the animus is unique, without giving away any spoilers I will say that you are coerced by a mysterious man to steal data from the Abstergo office and deliver it to some familiar allies from previous games.The weapons and combat great, offering you killing power and mobility that you're used to from AC titles but in a new environment.Cons:The story follows Edward Kenway, a pirate who finds himself mixed-up with assassins and templars in the Caribbean Sea. Edward's loyalty is really only as good as the gold it provides at first, but throughout the game that changes as he get's more involved with the power struggle between the two secret societies. Edward does not develop any lasting relationships with other characters which leaves me as a player quite indifferent to who he is or who the other characters throughout the game are. The story will not be anybody's favorite part of this game, and would have docked some stars if the open world environment didn't pick up the slack. Also Kenway is not really an Assassin, which doesn't affect the gaming experience but it does cause some detachment from the over-arching conflict that is present in other AC titles.Climbing back onto the ship gets to be a little tedious as Kenway will find many reasons to stop the ship throughout the gameplay and unless your near a dingy on the the beach you have to swim out and climb up the side of the ship many many times. This didn't really bother me much, but it would be ideal if there were a sort of lift (like you might find in the cities to propel you to the top of a building) to assist you out of the water and onto the deck of the Jackdaw.The multiplayer is in need of patching, I have been playing on a consistently for about three months following the release of the PS4 and loading the multiplayer menu for AC IV still causes the game to freeze on a regular basis. Matches will also sometimes get a bit buggy as players come and go during the character selection, but this is more due to connectivity issues than the game itself. I have posted on Ubisofts forums about these issues and am still awaiting a fix.As with all Assassins Creed titles, there is very little danger to your character. I wish it weren't quite so easy to stay alive during the fighting in Assassins Creed, but it's also fun to be nearly invulnerable when surrounded by enemies.If you own a PS4 and you want to have some lasting content on your new console, I recommend this game over all the other launch titles for the PS4. My 5 stars would have been a 4 stars if this game hadn't come at a time when the PS4 was desperately starving for more content.

I'll skip over the major points that have been said by most other reviewers and just give a few minor ones that stood out to me personally.-- This (may) apply only to next-gen, but the graphics....wow. Especially great after you take over a ship and everything brightens for a few seconds or at that midday time when colors are so clear. Looks incredibly sharp.-- No glitches! The map is enormous and I've run into maybe 2 glitches at 98% completion, and none that have interrupted gameplay (once a guard was stuck in a rock...not a big deal).-- Getting of the main story line is as much fun or more as continuing with it. I've never bought a game where I didn't finish the campaign first. I've logged somewhere between 50 and 60 hours so far and have happily been engaging in ship battle after ship battle just for fun.-- The characters! At first I was disappointed that pirates like Charles Vane and Blackbeard had small parts (imo) but now I just appreciate the attention to detail Ubi gave even small aspects of the game.-- I loved the way the story built over time. Maybe it was because I took so much time between main story missions to tool around in the world but I felt some suspense leading up to....let's say Edward's big discovery so I don't spoil anything. I wish other characters were explored more, like James and Anne.-- The shanties are awesome. Even though the method to collect them doesn't make much sense, they're still fun. Much more exciting than other collectibles anyway. Keep them!!-- The varied islands and whatnot are really immersive. Background noises change from location to location - at the beach you hear seagulls and waves, in the jungle you hear insects, etc etc. They vary enough to keep things interesting without being unrealistic.-- The upgrade system for the Jackdaw is great. As an added bonus, even when you're done with the game in other aspects, you have incentives to keep upgrading because those Lengendary Ships are pretty hard otherwise.Honestly, I didn't feel like much of an "assassin" in this game, but it wasn't lacking in any way. The present day, as always, was just not as....fun....as the rest of the game. But, still an interesting backstory. Also, if Ubi takes away naval battles, I think the series will suffer.I am trying to think of cons but the ones I can think of are really tiny. There's something for everyone in this game, except maybe FPS people and they have enough games to make 'em happy. There are a ton of plantation/warehouse raiding opportunities but they're optional. After every successful boarding of a ship you have 3 options, and choosing one plays one of the same 3 cutscenes each time. It's repetitive but only lasts a couple seconds. Also, the reward from the Mayan Stelae is lame....but other than that I love this game! Highly recommend!

Just like the classic creed games If you enjoy the others in the series you'll enjoy this one easy to play good graphics easily controlled characters