Having recently finished AC IV: Black Flag, the latest installment in the yearly Assassin's Creed franchise, I feel as if my faith in this franchise has been restored to an extent after it was severely damaged by the poorly executed Assassin's Creed III. Playing that game was about as fun as watching a turd floating in toilet water for hours on end. OK, maybe that was a little harsh but I'm not wrong either, Assassin's Creed III was a deeply flawed game. Apart from having poor pacing, the story was lackluster and full of holes, the characters were bland with often unclear moativations and goals, the gun/shooting mechanics were terrible and in the end the American Revolution setting turned out to be quite boring and bland compared to renaissance era Italy in Assassin's Creed II.
Having come off of such an off putting experience just a year ago I was reluctant to try out Black Flag but I'm glad that I did because as it turns out it was a major improvement over the previous game in every way and was overall an extremely fun experience right off the bat.Now of course being an improvement over a game like Assassin's Creed III isn't really that big an achievement, in this case I think it would be better to compare it to more successful games in the series like Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood.
Now, in terms of gameplay and game mechanics, I guess Black Flag wins again, it's a much much larger game than both Assassin's Creed II and Brotherhood, with alot more to do, better animations, faster combat, naval exploration and battles and everything else. Ubisoft have been constantly improving the Assassin's Creed formula ever since the first game barring a few hiccups here and there and they've mostly succeeded and of course making Black Flag a pirate themed game set in the Carribbean really paid off for them.
The area where I feel Black Flag can't quite compete with games like Assassin's Creed II is the story. Edward Kenway is a great character, definitely more interesting than his grandson Connor but he's still not as good a character as Ezio, maybe I feel that way just because I've already spent so much time playing as Ezio in the previous game and seen his entire life unfold infront of my eyes, from Birth (In AC II) to death (Revelations). You could say that I've developed a sense of attachment with Ezio. As far as their moativations and goals are concerned, they are both equally relatable.
For Ezio it's his desire to avenge the death of his family which ultimately pushes him into a timeless conflict for the fate of humanity and it's freedom, Edward's goals on the other hand are a bit less noble. Hejust wants to be rich and doesn't really care about anyone else, all he really wants is to obtain enough money to live a comfortable life, a goal that most of us should be able to relate to irregardless of the way he goes about achieving it. I guess it just boils down to personal preference but for me Ezio wins but only by a small margin.
When all's said and done Assassin's Creed IV is a truly amazing experience which expands and improves on the previous games and moves the franchise forward in the right direction, even if it is just a few steps it's still alot better than what Assassins' Creed III contributed to the franchise. However, Assassin's Creed IV is the 6th Assassin's Creed game to come out in the past 7 years (Not counting portable/spin off titles) and it can get a bit old after a while. So whether or not you should actually get the game depends on whether or not you still want more Assassin's Creed. If the answer happens to be yes than Assassin's Creed IV should certainly not be overlooked, it is, afterall one of the strongest if not THE strongest entry in the series thus far.
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