Coming Around To Assassin’s Creed IV

I’ve talked in the past about how I’m tentatively excited for Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag. While Assassin’s Creed III was, personally, very unimpressive I still hold out hope that the next installment will knock it out of the park. From what Ubisoft showed us this week, I’m beginning to feel somewhat more confident in the next installment of this epic series.

This week at Sony’s E3 press conference, Ubisoft showed off some of the first bits of gameplay from Black Flag. The gameplay footage starts off by showing Edward Kenway chasing down an enemy. He uses several stealth mechanics found in the previous games, like blending into the crowd and hiding in bushes as he tails his prey. This is fairly exciting for me because I’ve felt that Assassin’s Creed has been sorely missing the assassination style missions that made the series popular to begin with.

Once he finally corners his prey, as well as several other guards, he strikes fast. He starts by using his double hidden blades to kill two enemies and shoots four guards in quick succession. The combat was fairly fast and looks like it could be a lot of fun.

Then, the demo takes a fast turn, putting Kenway onto a ship, similar to what we saw in Assassin’s Creed III. These sections were a personal favorite from the previous installment and Black Flag looks to continue that. The addition of the ability to board enemy ships is a fairly cool addition and will hopefully keep you on the high seas a bit longer.

While I’m not completely sold on Assassin’s Creed IV, I sincerely want it to be awesome. I still miss much of the city parkour present in previous titles but hopefully the new found emphasis on ship combat will make up for that. I’m putting my trust in Ubisoft once again, now I hope it pays off big time.