Exploring Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag’s new underwater sections

http://media.edge-online.com/wp-cont...-3-610x343.jpgWe’re not sure at what point Ubisoft finalised the script to Assassin’s Creed IV, but Edward Kenway couldn’t be a better antidote to his grandson if he tried. Connor’s dour attitude and whining tone have been replaced by the cocksure swagger and confidence of a man who just can’t wait to rip his vest off and start harpooning sharks. Connor’s irritating habit of taking orders from people he didn’t even trust, in support of cause he didn’t fully believe, meanwhile, has been swapped out for a story propelled by its star, chronicling Kenway and his allies’ attempts to establish a piratical republic in the Caribbean. Edward’s everything Ezio di Autidore was, and everything his own grandson wasn’t, in short, and should make an excellent protagonist for what seems to be a swashbuckling yarn.Still, the best stuff from Assassin’s Creed III, namely, its more organic, tree-based parkour and naval gameplay, has been retained, with the latter, of course, increased massively in importance. We start our hands-on behind the ship’s wheel, and it’s the same arcadey yet just weighty enough experience as before. The chief difference, of course, is that we have a whole archipelago to explore: with a gorgeously sparkling ocean inviting us to head off course. We will, later, but for now we’re obliged to kill lizards on a tiny island as in introduction to Assassin’s Creed IV’s crafting mechanics. We already know them, however, since they’re also Far Cry 3′s crafting mechanics – three dead lizards later we’ve got ourselves a brand new holster for Kenway’s guns.On foot, then, this is a familiar game to anyone who’s ever played an Assassin’s Creed. The Caribbean setting does allow for tighter level construction than a city’s urban sprawl – or at least, it allows for islands clearly themed around whatever aspect of Assassin’s Creed’s broad social stealth mechanics you’re supposed to employ during them. A slave plantation provides patches of sugar cane to flit between while eavesdropping on conversations and snatching the owner’s keys, for instance, while a small town filled with soldiers and a oppressed populace provides perches to drop from and violently liberate more crew for the Jackdaw, your vessel. It’s interesting to note the way the resources flow here, and its implications for Black Flag’s priorities: your actions on land feed into you escapades on the sea.

http://www.edge-online.com/features/...naval-systems/