I’ve been wanting to use that witty title for a VERY long time, since I saw this game. Anyway, Dan (aka Nerd3) gave this game high praise, for being on the high seas. So far, I really like it. Granted, the good stuff is when you got a boat and can blow up enemy ships, and sail to islands.
You step in the shoes of one of the famous pirates that ever lived; Edward Kenway. A pirate who wants to live the true life of one; fame, gold, rum, women… all of that good stuff.
So anyway, this is the sequel of Assassin’s Creed 3. Having never played an Assassin’s Creed game in my life, I know nothing about the plot of the series. Only that this game, I’ve heard you don’t really need to know it. You still play as a skilled Assassin(even though I make him look really bad at it).
The crafting system seems eerily similar to Far Cry 3, which is funny as the developer is the same one that made that game. There’s even, shocking, a system similar to WoD’s Garrison followers system. Though of course WoD came out later than this game.. but in this one, eventually you’ll be able to assign a ship on trade routes, based on difficulty, ship type, and what kind of cargo it carries.
You can also set a ship to and from the USA(in the 18th century of course, long before we had the Titanic).
Let’s get to the review, shall we…;
The Good:
-Relive real life history; the hayday of the Pirate Age(the 17th/18th century) in the Caribbean. Command a real life named brig called the ‘Jackdaw’, plunder precious booty, rob people of their money, get into sword fights with the British and Spanish Navies, get into drunken brawls, take over other ships or blow up theirs, find buried treasure…meet Blackbeard, and all other pirate stuff. Yet also staying away from the stereotypical image associated with pirates, such as parrots, Kraken, and plank-walking.
-See the high seas, sometimes quite busy with AI captains. In some areas, you’ll see playful dolphins in the water near your boat. You might also see a whale.
-Sometimes, you have to battle rough seas.. including vicious waterspouts from a Hurricane. Later in the game, they can be accompanied by tsunami-like waves. And the boat uses real physics, and can be damaged if you don’t steer correctly.
-You can choose if you wish to initiate combat with a ship.. but if you’re not an a restricted area, they’ll be actively looking for pirates like you.
-Listen to your crew sing songs(aka ‘shanties’) while you sail, which are real pirate songs(in English too).
-Go spearfishing in the middle of nowhere. But be careful when hunting the now endangered Blue Whale.
-Hire new crew, because you’ll need them for boarding ships. Though if you lose a lot, you can get them back with rescuing more pirates that are willing to go to hell with you.
-Freeplay after the main questline.
-Sometimes having rare events happen while playing, like a Royal Navy convoy or a Blue Whale sighting. Both are only if you’re logged into uPlay while playing.
The Bad;
-Game seems to have some random crashing issues, but they’re only one-time things. Still, quite annoying.
-Crafting system is too much like Far Cry 3. There are two differences. Such as upgrades for sleep darts, both Level 1 and Level 2 have the same buff, yet require different materials. Also, you don’t collect leaves, yet you collect skins to make things.
-Open world, yet also forced to keep doing the main questline to access specific areas of the game, due to what memory you currently have of Edward. In other words, you’re forced to do the main questline to unlock the entire map.
-In parts, I don’t know where the plot is going. But really, the plot is about you trying to unlock Edward’s memories for a special project of this game company(that happens to be in 2014.. last year).
-Camera angle and movement keys don’t like working together, especially when jumping around and/or battling lots of enemies. There’s no ‘lock on’ feature.
-Action key and Counter bound to the same key, often leads to raging moments in combat with the enemy countering your every attempt. The game seems to hate arrow key users like myself.
-The game world doesn’t feel realistic. It feels like half the size of the real thing, yet the game is still pretty huge.
The Neutral(annoying stuff, but not anything bad);
-Storms in the distance, given how small the thunderhead is compared to a genuine Supercell, shouldn’t be producing that much lightning. Yet I’ve never seen a developing Hurricane in real life(except from radar models).
-Don’t captains have compasses in the 18th century? Yes, you get the map, but in reality, a captain has a compass.
-Wish there was a way to get off your boat via a rowboat instead of having to jump off the ship to get to an island. There are Dock zones, but they aren’t on small islands.
-A strange, sometimes funny bug where your ship literally floats up from the bottom of the sea; often happening after a level load. I’ve even had it kill off my crew by ‘drowning’, and one time myself because of it.
-Trying to take out two of the several forts to see that section of the game world, this weird.. almost random storm pops up out of nowhere, with waterspouts and the like. Taking out the fort, the sky suddenly clears up.
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Overall, really like this game, and love the fact I can choose if I want to go into naval combat with another ship, or ships. This will possibly be one of my favs to list at the end of the year.
It also has freeplay after the main questline is completed.