14 DAY TRIAL // Assassin's Creed games have always offered a variety of different gameplay mechanics, meaning players could engage in all sorts of activities while exploring the different open worlds seen in the franchise so far.
While last year's Assassin's Creed 3 tried to add even more new elements, most of them weren't that interesting and some were downright confusing, like the trading one.
As such, with Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, Ubisoft and its different internal teams had the tough job of re-examining all core mechanics, tweaking them in many ways, and delivering a new experience that once again showed that there was still life in the long-running series.
Fortunately for fans, the experiment was a success, as Black Flag has the most satisfying gameplay of the series and of the year.
Assassin's Creed is, at its core, a free-running stealth game in which players need to stalk their targets and strike at the best time.
Black Flag brings that same core experience but drastically upgrades the free-running portion to more easily transition from scaling buildings to trees or mountains.
While quite a bit of streamlining was achieved in terms of the basic gameplay mechanics, by far the most work was put into the naval warfare aspect, as exploring the huge open world of the game is achieved by boat, using the Jackdaw, the personal ship of hero Edward Kenway.
Fighting on the sea was a bit hard and confusing in Assassin's Creed 3 but, with Black Flag, different improvements, from ship handling, to enemy AI during battles, were made.
The result is deeply satisfying and I was constantly engaging in battles on the open sea for fun and not just to complete tedious missions.
Throw in all sorts of other mechanics, from the less confusing trading, to the ship upgrade system, and the game is really fun. Even the side-activities, from digging for treasure, to shark hunting, or finding new songs for your crew to sing, are a joy and never felt boring.
Besides the single-player experience, Black Flag also boasts a great multiplayer experience that allows players to go on all sorts of adventures, both cooperatively and competitively.