Playing A Game Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag PC

Black Flag has long been "the good Assassin's Creed game*" as well as "the good pirates game" in my memory, so when Our Flag Means Death reignited my child-like (or Stede Bonnet-like, if you prefer) fascination with the pirate life, it only felt natural to dive back into Edward Kenway's misadventure.

(*) Did you know?: Ubisoft has continued to make even more Assassin's Creed games! And, believe it or not, the modern-era Abstergo plot is still part of them. Wow!

The question is: has Assassin's Creed IV aged well? And the answer is, well, kinda.

In terms of technology -- yes, surprisingly, AC4's engine and features feel competitive with modern open-world games. The graphical fidelity of the open sea is pretty phenomenal, dynamic navmesh during ship-to-ship combat is still an impressive feat, and while there are frequent annoyances with clambering (Edward climbs the wrong thing) or melee combat (Edward attacks the wrong guy) ... it's not that much worse than recent titles like Red Dead, Tsushima, and Horizon.

There are a couple notable quirks: a "security measure" requires your Ubisoft password every damn time you start the game, and there's no cloud saving, as it apparently launched with bugs and was "fixed" by turning it off.

Anyway. The in-game tech holds up, and while the story is garbage, it was just as much garbage "in its time." Checking my notes: Edward is shallow, Assassins are silly, the Juno cult... whatever. At least the narrative isn't a let-down, because I already knew it was dumb.

The part of Black Flag that's aged the most is its mission design: there just aren't that many good ideas in here. Sneaking between cover to infiltrate an enemy camp? Dodging cannon-fire and unleashing broadsides on a man-o-war? These templates work great. Others, like chasing a runner, slowly tailing a mark, boat stealth, or flat-out brawling; these missions just aren't very well-crafted.

In retrospect, that's probably why I got so into the side-activities in Black Flag my first time through; because they're "the good part."

But this time around, I left most of the collectibles and upgrade-treadmill alone because - even 6-7 years after Rogue - I am still burnt out on the Ubisoft game grind. I was plenty satisfied with the amount of yo-ho-ho-ing I'd had by the end of Black Flag's campaign.

Black Flag doesn't need a remaster -- it needs a true successor, an open-world privateer simulator but also compelling characters and exciting story missions. In the meantime, though, it's still "the good pirates game" to beat.

Better than: Red Dead Redemption 2
Not as good as: Horizon Zero Dawn
In retrospect, not better than: Ghost of Tsushima; while Black Flag's core gameplay loop is more fun, exploring this slice of the Caribbean isn't as rewarding as Tsushima.

Progress: finished the story, ~60% completion.

Rating: Good