Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag - Under The Black Flag Trailer

Ubisoft have released a brand new trailer for the latest in the Assassin’s Creed series, Black Flag this time featuring plenty of gameplay footage. I managed to sit in on the official reveal back in February and found myself walking away pleasantly surprised. Amidst the costumes, treasure chests and PowerPoint presentations it definitely seems as if the new setting for Assassin’s Creed is a very interesting one. If Ubisoft can indeed keep up to all the promises they made through their presentation, this could very well be a great return to form after the disappointing Assassin’s Creed 3 last year. The main character for the forth in the mainline series will be Edward Kenway, a British pirate and member of the Assassin Order who as you may have recognised by his surname, is father of Haytham Kenway, and grandfather of Connor, the two main characters of Assassin’s Creed 3. What is really interesting about Black Flag, is that you’ll encounter actual real-life pirates including Benjamin Hornigold, Anne Bonny, Jack Rackham, Charles Vane and of course Edward “Blackbeard” Teach. Much like previous Creeds, there will be modern day sections too, with this game having you take on the role of an Abstergo Industries research analyst as they explore the story of Edward Kenway. Assassin’s Creed IV: Blag Flag will take place primarily on and around the islands in the Caribbean Sea during the Golden Age of Piracy in the early 18th century. The area will also be split into three main cities; Havana, Kingston, and Nassau, which reside under very different influence - Spanish, English and pirate. It also seems like the game will be the biggest yet boasting fifty locations to explore, mixing up both land and naval exploration. The game will have a more open world feel with fewer restrictions to the player. This means areas will become available far quicker to you rather than Assassin’s Creed 3’s approach which held your hand and prevented you from truly exploring for far too long. Areas look great and varied including places like jungles, forts, ruins, small villages and even underwater. Naval gameplay will make a return this time integrated seamlessly with land based gameplay. This means you can potentially engage, board, and capture passing ships then swim to nearby beaches and tackle a fort without load times or transitions. It seems your ship; the Jackdaw will play a major role in the game too. It will be upgradeable throughout the game so expect bigger cannons and better defences as you progress on your adventure. What did sound very interesting was the idea of having to decide whether a ship was friendly, neutral or an enemy which could ideally lead to many interesting and tense standoffs in the final game. If there’s one thing that disappoints at the moment, it’s that multiplayer while featuring new modes and options, will only be land-based. You can’t help but wonder how fantastic naval battles would be with other people. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be out November 1st on Xbox 360, PS3, Wii U and PC with a PS4 and next gen Xbox version due… well whenever they get released themselves.