Now Playing: Black Flag

Another year, another Assassin’s Creed. Or two. Or three. How many will release this year? Was it two last year? On the same day? I’ve had mixed feelings about the AC franchise for a while now, as equally interested in the series as I am sick of the bloody thing.

So what keeps me coming back? Primarily, it’s the historical angle – periods not generally explored by this medium. If there’s one thing I can’t really fault in any of the AC games I’ve played, it’s the fantastic attention to detail of its settings.

The last AC game I played was 3. But as much as I liked the setting, the actual gameplay of AC3 was bloody dull, combined with a bland protagonist and story. It did introduce some very cool ship combat mechanics though, which someone fortunately realised the potential of and built an entire game around. 

Which leads us onto Black Flag. It’s as much a pirate game as it is an AC game. Although the Assassins vs Templars stuff is a significant part of the core story, the majority of the content is built around playing pirate, and aside from a few irritating stealth/tailing sections (nowhere near as annoying or frequent as in AC3 though) it’s far more of an action game with a focus on naval combat.

There are assassination side jobs you can choose to undertake, but the actual ‘assassin’ part of Black Flag feels barely there. Which was a good call, given the setting. Because unlike AC3, Black Flag handles its setting far more effectively when it comes to incorporating it into the story and gameplay.

Which sounds a little weird, because Black Flag also doesn’t really deviate from the AC formula. Or what you might call the ‘Ubisoft game template’ if you’ve also played Far Cry 3/4 or Watch_Dogs.

You have a world map, split into different areas. In each area you can climb a ‘high point’ to unlock the local map, revealing side content and collectibles. You have core story based missions in addition to various side activities. You also have an upgrade/crafting element – in this case for your ship, gear and pirate hideout.

And once again, a lot of this stuff is mostly filler and not very interesting. Upgrading the pirate hideout is just a money sink, as are many of the cosmetic ship options. The only upgrade components worth investing in are the ship combat upgrades, although all you really need is the upgraded mortars if you want to cheese some tougher fights. You can hunt animals to craft gear upgrades (extra pistols/ammo etc), but when it’s quicker to simply buy the items you need, it seems a little pointless.

What else? You’ve got stuff like the whale hunting which is a neat diversion the first couple of times, but then you’ll be tired of it. You can also dive sunken wrecks which is fun a few times, I guess. Oh, and there’s an entire ‘fleet’ mini-game thing where you can send ships you’ve captured on trade/combat missions. It’s Black Flag’s version of the ‘assassin’s guild’ missions of previous AC titles. But the rewards aren’t really worth the time it takes to bother with. It’s an irritatingly fiddly system which you’ll soon forget about. If it had actually tied into the core game in some way – such as engaging in fleet battles alongside your own ships, I might have cared to invest more time into it.

Collectibles. Lots of collectibles! I really wish they’d do something like in Arkham Asylum/City, where the collectibles actually required you to solve some kind of puzzle to collect and it tied into the story in some way. Hell, even Watch_Dogs incorporated unique collectible based missions such as the Serial Killer clues. But, as in previous AC titles, you just unlock the map revealing the locations of the collectibles and then you run about and pick them up. It’s a pointless time sink that puts even the hardiest OCD to the test. I think I lost patience around the 68% mark.

Disappointingly, this even extends to the treasure ‘maps’ you can find, all of which have the map coordinates printed on them! Why not make them a challenge to find? Or split them into multiple scraps which the player has to piece together? Or give us riddles to solve? Or something? Anything!

Oh dear, I’m starting to rant and I don’t want to give the impression I didn’t like Black Flag. Because I do! In fact, it’s probably the best AC I’ve played since AC2! And that’s the weird thing about it. It shares many of the same problems as AC3. The free running aspect is fine, although once again, it can go a bit wonky at times. The combat is the same slow and easy counter-based system which makes fighting a tedious breeze. Oh, and the side content is mostly pointless, repetitive filler. 

So why is Black Flag so much better than AC3? Well, as I said, it’s mostly because despite sharing the same template, it doesn’t quite feel like an AC game. It also makes far better use of its historical setting in terms of its core missions. It also, somewhat surprisingly, gives the player a lot of freedom to explore the map very early on.

And it’s about pirates! It’s a game where you play as a pirate doing pirate related things – sailing the ocean listening to your crew sing, fighting and boarding ships, attacking forts, raiding plantations, avoiding the authorities, exploring desert islands and sunken wrecks for treasure! Playing pirate is cool, and Black Flag captures that feeling well. It succeeds because it embraces its setting and theme and uses it to complement its gameplay in a way AC3 never did.

But it also succeeds in the way it handles its character and story, which are both far more engaging than in AC3 (although it does get a little muddled towards the end and feels a bit rushed). This even extends to the ‘real world’ segments, which were nicely placed throughout the game and I actually enjoyed a lot. Hell, I wish I could work at Abstergo Entertainment.

So let’s talk performance. Black Flag looks fantastic on its highest settings, but performance wise it’s wildly inconsistent. When I first ran the game, I was struggling to hit 60FPS, so I began to lower various settings until I got the game running smoothly. However, it all looked a bit rough around the edges, so I decided to continue tweaking until I found a happy balance.

To cut a long story short, I ended up just switching everything back to maximum and playing the game at 30FPS. It wasn’t ideal, but it sure looked pretty! But here’s where things get weird. The next time I started the game, on the same bloody settings, I got a smooth 60FPS (in the same location – I tested it). Great! But then, the next time I played, it dropped to 30. Since then, it seems to fluctuate between 40-60, occasionally locking at 30 for no apparent reason. I really don’t know what’s up with it. Like I said, it’s wildly inconsistent. It sure looks nice, though.

Overall, I enjoyed my time with Black Flag far more than I was irritated/frustrated by it. Although it suffers from many of the same issues as AC3 due to its adherence to the AC ‘template’ it manages to wrangle free of them thanks to its story, characters and enjoyable, diverse and interesting missions. But it still feels like there’s an even better game buried in here though, one which is struggling to escape what has become a very tired formula.

That said, Black Flag is a solid, enjoyable title, and certainly the best AC title I’ve played since AC2. Even if you’re not a fan of the series, I’d recommend it simply as a pirate game. Yo ho ho!

7/10