Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013)

After a respite, I have returned to Animus to live the life of Edward Kenway in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. This title picks up after the events of Assassin's Creed III, but has a very different setting. Instead of being a modern day Assassin, hiding from the Templars and delving into the past via an Animus, your character works for the Templars, or rather their Abstergo Entertainment Company as an analyst for the Sample 17 project. The goal of the project is to produce a video game, set in the Caribbean during the golden age of piracy, based on the 'donated' memories that comprise Sample 17.

As the games before it, Black Flag is a third-person, open world, action-adventure title with a heavy emphasis on stealth. As pirate captain Edward Kenway, you stalk the Caribbean for the biggest prizes, and remove any obstacle from your path, typically with a sharp blade. Of course, a pirate would not be much without a ship, and yours is the Jackdaw. It is not the biggest ship sailing the seas, but given the proper resources, it can become the fiercest. Black Flag has an M rating from the ESRB for blood, strong language, violence, and sexual themes. If you should not be exposed to such content, then you likely should not be reading this review.

Should you set sail under the black flag or scuttle this game? Time to find out.