WeView Verdict: Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag

After writing WeView last week, I went back to play more of Assassin’s Creed IV after leaving it for a while as I couldn’t find the time. It just seems like just a big adventure that I can’t really enjoy it when I get one hour here or there, so I’ll need to drop all of my Uni work and stop editing things on TSA before I can play it properly.

And will it be worth it? Probably, judging by your responses and comments. Black Flag has been quite enjoyable so far, but it seems to get even better as you play more.

“The game is an absolute joy, start to finish.” said psychobudgie while Lyts1985 took part in WeView for the first time, to praise the game, saying much the same as budgie but citing the “pang of sadness as the end credits rolled” which seemed to pretty much end the game, as there was no fun to be found in the game length extending multiplayer.

JR. said that while it didn’t top Assassin’s Creed II, it came pretty close. DividSmythe also loved AC2, and was “very surprised” by this title.

A lot of people took time to praise the next generation visuals, with matthangzhou saying it was “graphically amazing” while Dom said that the game “looks fantastic on PS4”. Taylor Made also loved those visuals, but added “this game does not disappoint from ship battles, to skinning animals to getting drunk the game is an absolute beauty.”

After a few weeks away, tactical20 made a return with a lengthy comment, but summed up everything in one great paragraph:

It’s by far the best experience I’ve had on my PS4 so far, and again I was extremely pleased with it’s longevity. The hundreds of missions to do meant this game kept me occupied all over xmas and into the new year. There was enough variation to keep things interesting, although being a completist, I actually enjoy AC’s more laborious tasks too. The ship battling is a vast improvement on AC3, and has gone from one of the worst bits to one of the best.

Oddly, bunimomike isn’t a fan of Assassin’s Creed, but loved this and has “never looked back”, citing it as “one of the most enjoyable games” he’s ever played, with some beautiful water effects. Apparently the PC version is quite buggy however, which has put somewhat of a downer on the situation, forcing him to stop with around six hours to go.

“A huge contrast to AC3 – as well as being generally much more thought out, it was the first in the series to feel truly open world.” said tantalus_blank, while element_666 also loved the improvements after the franchise had soured on him, describing this as his new favourite AC title.

DuffyBox sent us some wonderful screenshots from the PC version, where “the waves have a sense of mass and force behind them that puts most other games to shame”, and you can see those above.

“The usual AC formula broken up with sea battles works brilliantly” said rob_b who also brought attention to the useful smartphone app. It was double-o-dave who seemed to gather everyone’s thoughts into one sentence by saying that the pirate section “ended up being the most enjoyable section & saviour of the game”.

That’s it for this week, and the voting has been extremely positive. There were fifteen Buy It ratings and just a single vote for Rent It, with no one saying you should either pick it up in the Bargain Bin or altogether Avoid the game. I better get back to it, then.

Let’s not forget about the poll, though. While Batman: Arkham Origins just takes the biscuit and will feature tomorrow, you’ll still be able to vote for Splinter Cell: Blacklist and Battlefield 4, with two new entries in the form of Ratchet & Clank: Nexus and Gran Turismo 6. We’re not quite going next gen only just yet, but we’ll get there soon.