Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag - Xbox 360

This game is great. I played the original AC years ago but couldn't get into it and shelfed it. Fast forward to Black Flag. I decided to give it a try because of the pirate theme. You spend the game as a ship captain that gets mixed up with the Assassins and becomes part of their order. The traditional "run and climb anywhere" ability is present and the world is quite large and the cities are very diverse and full of items to collect, places to unlock, and side missions to complete. The story of the game is engaging and the characters are entertaining and well played and voice acted. Not having played the other games in the series was not a detriment to either story or actual playing experience. The in game tutorial plays out as the game progresses and isn't forced, but feels like a natural part of the learning process. As for the over arching story itself, you learn a lot about the past characters and the theme of the struggle through in game dialogue and cutscenes as well as through the "present day" Abstergo missions. The characters all have their own personalities and the great graphics of the game help to portray them as individuals with emotions. Controlling your own pirate ship was a great deal of fun. You have the ability to upgrade your ship with reinforced armor, upgraded cannons, and customizable visual features. As you explore the world you can engage other ships in naval combat. This plays out by sailing around, or into, them while firing cannons and dropping exploding fire barells. Once enough damage is done you can sink the ship or board it to fight the enemy hand to hand and capture the ship. Once captured the ship can be used to repair your own ship, the Jackdaw, it can be added to your fleet (which is a mini game in and of itself where you can complete side missions and earn additonal gold/rewards), or it can be used to lower your 'wanted level' in order to keep bounty hunter ships from coming after you. The handling of the ship is not necessarily easy at first, but after some time at sea it becomes natural. I like that the developers have you battling the ever changing sea through large waves and storms, this adds some realism to the time spent navigating or ship battling. While at sea you may come across harpooning location that starts yet another mini-game . In it you are in a small boat trying to take down any number of sharks or whales with harpoons in order to harvest their valuable hunting good. These are used for upgrades to your character or they can be sold. One thing that really made me fall in love with this game are the seas shanties. These shanties are one of the many collectible things you can find and chase down in the game. While at sea your crew will burst into song as your ship crashes through the waves and you speed past the beautifully rendered islands of the Caribbean under a bright blue sky. Being a fan of of folk music and sea shanties in real life I was elated to hear my crew out of no where start singing sailing songs that I myself know. This small touch really cemented my love for the game. This game is a must have in my opinion. It has something to offer any type of gamer and should not be missed.

The best game of 2013. It's AC4 meets Far Cry 3, with a dynamic pirate component. It's a great deal of fun, highly playable. One of the areas of this game that has impressed me is that our hero is not invincible. One of the flaws of the previous AC games is that after a ramp opening, your player becomes nearly invulnerable to nearly any enemy. In AC4: Black Flag, your ship needs a plethora of upgrades, combat skill and simply time to become adept in war at sea. For the exploration and combat portions, the game also has increased the challenge in terms of combat. It's not Arkham City refined, but the combat and action has improved noticeably. For 60 dollars, you get your money's worth. There is a pirate ship game, an exploration game in Mayan Ruins and Shipwrecks, a Captain Ahab hunt for sea creatures along with some jungle hunts for rare animals. All of it works. I am well past 10-12 hours on campaign, and have many side missions and a few more memories to complete. What doesn't work perfectly is the narrative. It doesn't have the romantic component of AC2. Edward Kenway is a badass, but do we care about him. I am 80% through the campaign, and there hasn't been a significant plot twist yet. Considering how his character doesn't have a sexual prowess in a classically inclined setting, I could see his character being revealed to be a priest or something. Also, there isn't a strong emphasis on the war between the Assassins and the Templars in this go round. The visuals are outstanding. It's the best looking AC game ever made. Though it would be interesting to send Edward to Africa, or even the England before the trip is over. I think there is ample room for a surprise, but the story is running out. Ubisoft makes excellent games(Splinter Cell Blacklist, Assassin's Creed Revelations, AC2, AC Brotherhood), and this game is no exception. I really liked how they brought into the series a Far Cry 3 aspect of taking down fortresses, a stronger arc for the protagonist, a lush tropical landscape, and hunting ferocious creatures. You get your 60 dollars worth. I look forward to what UBI delivers for the Xbox One/PS4 in the coming year, Fall 2014. I hope they return to very tall structures and gigantic tombs to explore.

I played both AC1 and AC2, and while I found them fun initially, I found myself tiring of them and casting them aside for other games. The major problem with these two games was that yes, the combat was pretty fluid and yes, it was fun watching your character pull off superhuman acrobatic moves... but neither game ever really got much beyond that. Combat became repetitive and it was easy to begin learning tricks to rig the system that made combat too easy. After all, how many different ways can you tail or assassinate someone. Climbing to reach a synchronization point becomes more of an annoyance as you have seen every impressive acrobatic move 100 times before. Not too mention, while the universe of AC is compelling, the first couple of titles did not do a very good job in telling the story in a compelling way. AC4 fixes much of this. The combat system hasn't changed all that much from its predecessors and the "tail, assassinate, eavesdrop" type missions again becomes extremely repetitive. However, this becomes less of a problem because it is broken up fantastically by your time spent pirating. Similar in purpose is the Kenway's fleet minigame... which, again like the other elements standing alone, does become a bit stale toward the end. However, because you are switching so readily between it, pirating, assassin missions, and even the Abstergo employee hacking it never got me to the point where I just became bored and tossed the game aside. Also, I was surprised by how much detail regarding the AC universe you could gleam from this game. As someone who only got about 50-65% of the way through the first two titles and had a seriously lacking understanding of the plot up to this point, I was able to put the events of the previous games together fairly nicely. Additionally, I thought they did a great job with moving the plot along and pacing in a game where it was very easy to get sidetracked pirating for a while. One minor complaint that I have is that I enjoy games that are very challenging. This is not one of those games (and neither were the predecessors). In this game, the further you progress and the more upgrades you get the more powerful you become. Obviously, it should be this way as it makes you feel like you are truly "making it" in the world, but enemies and situations don't really increase in difficulty as you progress in the main story. As such, the final missions are more of a cakewalk than the earlier ones which is kind of a let down. I am not sure how they can rectify this in future ACs, because the upgrading and collecting aspect is definitely an appealing one. In any case, for those who are like me and never found AC an appealing series before despite giving it a few tries... this might be the game to change your mind. AC4 has made sure that I will be eagerly awaiting to see what Ubisoft has to offer for the next installment of Assassin's Creed.

The only other Assassin's Creed game I had played was the first one and I thought it was a decent enough game. But when I played this, I was just blown away at how much more fun it was. Now, it takes place at the tail end of my favorite period in history, which would be the late 1400s to the late 1600s/early 1700s, which may have affected why I loved this game so much, but it's still a very good game overall. The game takes the naval combat from Assassin's Creed 3 and takes it to a whole new level, making it about half of the gameplay in the game. (the other half being the good ol' fashioned parkour gameplay) I know some people didn't like it, even hated the naval combat. But I for one, really enjoyed it. The open world is pretty huge, but once you've discovered a place, you have the option to fast travel it it immediately. AC 4 also adds a few RPG elements into the game so you can upgrade your ship from only being able to take down the small gunboats and brigs, to taking on the highest lvl Man-o'-War ships in the game. The story is a little unrealistic once you get towards the end, as far as what the treasure the Templars are after, but it's not a bad story in the slightest. Besides the make story, there are TONS of side missions. From "simple" assassination contracts, to diving into the depths of the sea and searching sunken shipwrecks. This game offers a lot of replayablity if you are a completionist. Besides the side missions there are also side objectives in *most of* the main missions, Uplay side objectives and of course the Achievements. Like previous entries in the series, you will encounter characters that truly did exist during that time period, such as Stede Bonnet and Captain Blackbeard himself, which is always cool. My only complaint I have for this game is the loading times can be a little too long for my taste. You'll have to wait up to 20 seconds at sometimes, and it's just annoying. There are a couple of glitches here and there but they're usually just hilarious and don't affect the gameplay. I had so much fun playing this game and if you're an Assassin's Creed fan, you should definitley pick this up.

I'm a big Assassin's Creed fan. Have been since the release of the first game of the series (despite it's repetitiveness). The Ezio trilogy, consisting of 2, Brotherhood, and Revelations are still among the best in my book, and even Assassin's Creed 3, though it's formula was somewhat altered, still held its own; serving as the exciting climax of Desmond Miles' storyline. To me, this series has always been about it's incredible story arc and how it fuses both gameplay and story as one to make for an immersive and worthwhile experience. This is where, unfortunately, Assassin's Creed 4 falls a bit short. I, personally, was never a huge fan of the ship battles in Assassin's Creed 3, but since they were few and far between I didn't mind them so much. But to have fully integrated them in Black Flag? This alone made almost half of the missions seem more of a chore than actual fun. Mind you, I did most of the side missions as well, acquiring all but one of the elite ship plans and upgrading the entire ship as much as possible thus far. What pains me the most is the clunky control mechanics behind it all. It isn't as smooth and seamless as say the character scaling a building. Another irritating factor would be crashing. It was a constant struggle, especially when colliding with a small island when you weren't near one? Perhaps some unpolished coding there. As for the missions, some were okay at best, and others a bit troublesome in terms of actually being able to enjoy what you were supposed to be doing. Tailing & Eavesdropping missions are the absolute worst of the bunch. You have to 'tail' a target for a number of minutes, at times unable to listen or read what they say in the subtitles due to needing to get away from restricted areas, or work your way around a guard, etc. Once the tailing is done, you then have to eavesdrop which consists of remaining within a short radius of the target without being detected all while avoiding guards. All of this takes away from actually being able to listen to the conversations that your target is having, which could be of importance in the storyline. To me, this game left the impression that Ubisoft has strayed from what made this series as incredible as it has been. It feels as though they're trying to tailor it to a much wider audience and because of it they're sacrificing elements of the series that made it what it is today--as if its growing popularity has warranted a change to appeal to the masses instead of those whom have loved its formula from day 1. In short, I'd recommend playing it through if you can find it for $20 or less, specifically for the side missions when outside of the animus in first person view. These missions actually offer more in depth information on previous Assassin's Creed games than when playing as Edward Kenway himself. ***SPOILER*** Lastly, what I'd say irritated me most of all was how the game ended. From what I gather, Abstergo was hell bent on finding out where the Observatory was. Once you find it as Edward, there was no mention of it anymore. Not as Edward, or in first person view when outside of the Animus. Not the vials of blood, nor the crystal skull. Or even what they'd planned on doing with it? If they'd go to its location? Nothing of the sort happened in the main story, and all you were left with was a wave of unanswered questions. I'm aware that Edward inquired about the vials of blood at the end, and where they'd gone since they were missing from the Observatory, and how he'd returned the crystal skull, but would Abstergo go and retrieve it? The storyline was seemingly cut off. If anyone could elaborate on my perhaps missing something in the game, I'd greatly appreciate it.

AC IV: Black Flag has been out for over a year now and chances are you've already heard of it, so this won't take long. Do you want to be, or have ever wanted to be, a pirate? Buy this game. Do you have fond memories of Sid Meier's Pirates from gaming days of yore? Buy this game. Have you ever enjoyed any AC game of the past? Then buy this game. This is easily the best Assassin's Creed game since ACII, and may be the best of the series, period. It's very light on the present-day sci-fi story elements (which have always been a bit forced, frankly), and very heavy on the free-world adventuring elements (which have always been one of the series' biggest strengths). Best of all, the world opens up early thanks to you getting command of your ship, and the only thing that keeps you out of certain parts of the world is the strength of the enemies you find there. Upgrade your ship appropriately, and the (game) world is your oyster. Every AC game is loaded with side quests and collectables, but there hasn't always been a compelling reason to find and complete them (unless you simply wanted to). This time around, many of them add to the core experience, even if in subtle ways, it's very satisfying. Collect a new sea shanty, and you'll hear your crew singing it out on the open seas. Buried treasure may yield a unique plan to upgrade your ship. Hunting creatures will yield the materials for upgrades to your armor and accessories. And a bunch more. It's all optional, but there are real in-game reasons to complete at least some of the side content, aside from collecting achievements and trophies. The world is well realized, and mostly accessed real-time without loading (with the exception of the major cities and a few other key locations). Sailing the open sea is a delight, though instant quick-travel to almost any location becomes available after you've 'discovered' it the first time. You'll play the game for hours and hours before you're tempted to use it though. The sea is chock full of uncharted treasure islands, ships to hunt down and plunder (or just blow out of the water), and forts to capture. Combat is mostly the standard 'counter to win' AC affair, with some twists thrown in from higher-level enemy units or your special abilities. You can still take on crowds of enemies alone and emerge victorious, which can make you feel like a hero or like the combat is just too ridiculously easy, depending on your point of view. Stealth is included in the game, but is almost never required aside from a few baked-in story sequences.

AMAZING GAME!!! Being a solid fan of the Ezio Trilogy, I was slightly nervous to buy ACIII when It was released....and I was very unimpressed with the game. The storyline did not flow smoothly and there was far to much time wasted on tutorials and movies. yes I understand that they used a new game engine, but it shouldn't have taken 3 hours of gameplay to be able to take control for yourself. So i had VERY low expectations of Black Flag when I bought it. at first i was unimpressed. i mean really....its Assassins creed, not pirates creed. and the fact the game is based around ships and water travel, i was not happy. but that all changed the moment i succeeded in boarding and sinking my first Spanish schooner. from the first volley of cannonball volley, to the final lunge with a sword or shot from a pistol, i was in love. This game quickly jumped on my list of favorites and now hovers right next to GTA V and Red Dead Redemption as an all time favorite. with AC games in the past, i quickly grew bored with free roam and instead whizzed through the missions and finished the games in 2-3 days. with Black Flag, i have played for almost 2 weeks every chance i get (2-3 hours a night, on weekends around 5 a night) and im having so much fun battling ships and searching the multiple islands for treasure, im only slightly over 30% through the storyline and still very captivated!!! BUT!! the game actually gave me a headache the first few hours. the camara view shakes and bobs around as Edward runs and walks about and while your on the Jackdaw as the ship pitches with the sea (almost as if it were being shot as a documentary using a hand-held camara or cell phone). at first it was annoying, but after a few hours it began to feel natural and now i hardly notice it, and the few times i do notice it, it feels RIGHT. like it would be weird if the camara was in a fixed position, rather than being shaken around. to conclude this massive paragraph.... i love this game and recommend it to all my friends and family. i am also very excited for the release of AC Rogue on November 11!!!!

Hands down, the best Assassin's Creed game. Rather than hand-hold you through ridiculously tedious fetch quests and relentlessly tie you to the main storyline, Black Flag offers a welcome breath of freedom and variety the game's preceding titles so often sorely lacked. Replete with the parkour acrobatics and impressive, historically accurate locales that made previous entries such robust affairs, ACIV pushes the envelope with a truly open world ripe to be explored and plundered. Within the space of an hour, you'll captain a ship, ferrying across the Caribbean to islands uninhabited and bustling alike. Cities and towns are wondrously detailed and filled with fun distractions from the very beginning. The seas themselves provide perhaps the most enticing draw of all: naval battles. Building off the ACIII's jaunt into ship-to-ship warfare, Black Flag nails a multi-faceted and strategically engrossing combat system that easily overshadows the paltry melee offerings of the first few titles. Controls are easy to grasp, and it never gets old blasting a ship halfway to oblivion before storming its decks and claiming it for your own. While the storyline is still steeped in totally underwhelming, half-baked Templar-Assassin sci-fi mythos, Black Flag's entertaining cast of rapscallion pirates ARRRGH undeniably flavorful and well-acted all around. Likewise, the "meanwhile IRL" subplot about Abstergo Entertainment is a welcome change to the franchise's signature framing device, offering a hearty heap of gaming industry humor to the high-seas yarn truly at hand. The visuals are breathtaking, even on aging hardware like the 360. Both the digital denizens and fauna of ACIV's Caribbean behave organically with the immersive environments around them, and a wide spectrum of locations makes for an unending sense of adventure. In honesty, this game is nearly as rewarding and astounding as any GTA title has ever been: it is leaps and bounds more accomplished that ACIII and should be recognized as a developer's guide to properly evolving an ongoing franchise. Terrific purchase.

Fantastico

Excellent game, best in the series so far

Para quem gosta do gênero, otimo jogo

É um bom jogo e muito melhor que alguns atuais

Obsequio. Les Agradó.