ThespianHunter's thoughts on Assassins Creed: Black Flag

Hello Ladies and Gentlemen I'm ThespianHunter, Your guru of everything we call entertainment.

So it's now circulated news. There will be a new Assassins Creed game. Not only this, but it will be from the perspective of a pirate. 

The following is my face after reading this news.

Now I love Pirates and, as some of you well know, I do have a tendency to like Assassins Creed games. But a combination of the two? 'Very interesting indeed' I say. Yet I'm still worried. I'm still worrying whether or not it will be a good game.

So. What do we know about the game at the moment

• It's called Black Flag
• It will take place in the Caribbean
• The main character will be Ratonhnhake:ton's grandfather.
• There will be a metric ton of ships

What we don't quite know about the game at the moment (and the questions I am asking)

• What is the ratio between ship combat and standard Assassins Creed game play
• Will there be multiplayer
• If there is multiplayer will it be just the standard formula or will there be ship to ship multiplayer
• Will my problems with ship combat (lack of freedom to do what you wanted, where you wanted how you wanted) going to be addressed
• Will the modern story line be in the game, or will it change point of view
• If so, what fucking more could they add to an already pretty shitty story line
• Will the game be harder (probably the biggest problem of the previous games so far was how mind blowingly easy they are)
• Who will be the bad guys
• Will there be eye patches
• Will stealth finally be important, or will it be another mass murderer simulator
• If it will be important, how will this be implemented

For a good example of how the Pirate simulator experience can be implemented not only correctly, but also in a way that makes a fun and enjoyable game is  Sid Meier's Pirates, one of my favorite games of all time. But why was it so good? You could do what the hell you wanted, how you wanted. Wanted to just trade. You could do that. Wanted to capture battle ships and be a military force you could do that. It also tied in ALL of the different main-stays which we associate with pirates. Such as Treasure hunting, heroic boarding actions and ship to ship battles. These are things that Assassins Creed IV Black Flag needs to nail down. Which leads me to...

The Top 5 things Assassins Creed IV Black Flag needs to include to be an awesome Game

•  5. Interesting and intractable ships. A Pirate ship is more than a vehicle of bring plunger and destruction to the Seven Seas. It's a home, a mini society and a base all at the same time. And the ships need to capture this. If the game doesn't let you explore your own ship and do interesting ship like stuff aboard it (much like the intro section to Assassins Creed III) then it will fail incapturing what is awesome about being a Pirate.
• 4. Everything that Is Pirate-y. This includes trades, capturing ships for their loot, hidden treasure, hiring the crew, paying the crew and keeping them happy, finding maps,  encountering other pirates, ship to ship battles and the ability to go WHERE EVER YOU WANT.
• 3 Yargh, ye Filthy Land Lubber. Pirates are not mermaids. They do need to go on land sometimes. And these sections on land should be just as good. BUT and a huge but at that. You're a pirate. And Pirates are at home of the sea. Thus the majority of the game play needs to be on the ship. Otherwise it will fail at being a good Pirate-y game.
• 2 Don't loose what's good about the Assassins Creed games. We still want to be killing machines, (and by what the trailer tells us this will still be a part of the game) we need to Assassinate people when on land. And obviously, there needs to be a good connection to the other Assassins Creed games. I for one would love to know how an Italian family made it's way to England.
• 1.YOU MY TAKE OUR LIVES BUT YOU'LL NEVER TAKE OUR FREEDOM. FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM, FREEDOM. I can not say it enough times. Ship missions in Assassins Creed III were SHIT. Fun, but shit. They were a linear mess made slightly difficult only by annoying mission objectives. That is not what is needed here. What is needed here is the ability to go where ether the fuck you want on your ship. You want to take your ship into dangerous places, sure go ahead. You want to board every ship you see, sure go ahead. The more 'the player can't do this' signs you put up in your game the more restrictive it is. Pirates have no restrictions. They're Pirates. They're only limited by their skill and THAT is where the difficulty comes from. Not from not being able to go to certain places, Or take down a ship how you want. It comes from actual skill difficulty, Finding one on one ship combat too easy? Here a French fleet, good fucking luck. Oh, finding the fleet too easy, here's a Kraken (as much as I would love a Kraken, best not to put it in) Still too easy? Well there's something wrong with our game. 

If these are followed this game will be easily the best Assassins Creed game, possibly even the best RPG of the last 3 years, in my opinion. If it fails. Well. Ill write a review saying how shit it is.

PLEASE UBISOFT. DON'T MESS THIS UP!

My name's been ThespianHunter. My Nickname is Red Beard. And I'll hoist your flag next time