Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry (2013 Video Game) User Reviews (3)

One of the best Assassin's Creed DLC

[Jordiuly · 6/10 · 1 December 2021]

Freedom Cry perfectly meets the expectations that anyone could have of an DLC. I think that being limited by the concept of DLC, the developers have put more attention on the design of the missions and the game itself. Port-au-Prince seems to me a better designed city than Havana, Kingston, or Nassau. Adéwalé's clothing and weapons have also been carefully designed. Anyway, the gameplay is the same as that of Black Flag, adding a new component related to the liberation of slaves. In fact, the historical context is more defined than in Black Flag and being a more linear story, it is easier to follow and delve into it. Although, once you have delved into it, the game ends. Personally, Adéwalé seems to me a much more interesting protagonist than Edward. It is a pity that the DLC is not immersed in the main game, as it would be fantastic to be able to travel throughout the Caribbean with Adéwalé and his troop.

In short, a DLC that can be one of the best within the universe of Assassin's Creed, and very interesting to play to tie some endings that allow you to better link Black Flag with Rogue.

A Promising - But Hindered - Expansion

[sibulelemvayo · 7/10 · 13 April 2024]

Freedom Cry is an expansion to Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag and a pretty promising one at that. It takes the framework of Black Flag and tosses us into an additional campaign that has a grim and emotional premise. It's a narrative about slavery, liberation and taking back your freedom. And while solid as a premise, the execution hinders the weight and potential of this personal expansion.

The reused framework immediately makes Freedom Cry great on a gameplay level. The mission design is solid, combat is still decent but unpolished and the naval gameplay is a bit more streamlined but still mostly compelling. What takes a hit is the world design. It's fine for an expansion to not have a large or similar sized space as the base game, but the map or world in Freedom Cry doesn't really leave much of an impression. It lacks interesting landmarks and just feels a bit shallow. At least the side content is pretty decent for an expansion of this size.

The story and overall campaign is good, but I feel like it needed more focus on fleshing out certain aspects. The horrific nature of slavery and the themes are there and pretty well done, but the story kind of lacks a compelling arc. The characters aren't all that fleshed out and there's not much emotional connection to them. Most of the plot also focuses a bit too much on the antagonist's escapades - but struggles to make a memorable or compelling antagonist, while also not making any interesting or worthwhile connections to the slavery aspect in this regard.

The pacing of the campaign is also inconsistent as the game will force you to do side content in order to progress through the main story which sometimes ends up slowing the momentum of the campaign. The story also tries to implement other narrative aspects to the story that really don't feel important and rob the potential that Freedom Cry's narrative could've had.

The atmosphere and soundtrack of Freedom Cry is beautiful, though. With slave ballads and hymns, mixed in with beautiful orchestral production. The atmosphere of Freedom Cry is somber, which really gives the world some sort of emotional depth.

Freedom Cry is a solid expansion that feels a bit lost. It's got some great narrative potential and could've done with some tweaks of the campaign's design. For a 3-4 hour campaign, Freedom Cry is good enough as quick slavery tale, but not as good as as fleshed out slavery tale.

100% #15

[ocesarebr · 8/10 · 28 February 2024]

A stand-alone DLC from my favorite franchise. I know that Assassin's Creed has many errors and flaws, but one thing you can't deny is that the stories of these games are wonderful and engaging. I played from the first Assassin's Creed to Assassin's Creed Unity (including Assassin's Creed Liberation) and all of them, with the exception of Assassin's Creed Revelations, have really cool stories to follow. This one is no different, even though it is extremely short, it doesn't take away from the brilliance of this franchise. In this profile I only platinumed Ezio's Assassin's Creed and made the online trophies (including the DLCs) for Assassin's Creed 4. But I still intend to platinum them all here again. And also play the ones I didn't play. 100% #15 Game made 100% on February 24, 2024.