Assasin's Creed IV: Yes or no?

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

It's on sale for £8 on Steam.

I've never played an AssCreed game, bar the first one for about an hour. Is IV any good? Am I right in thinking it is the best of them?

How does it play? Is it GTA style roaming plus missions, or more linear? Is it more Dragon Age in mission structure?

Do I need to know what has gone on before to follow its story? (I know the gist of it).

Thanks

[CheechFU]

The answer is simple
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8ju_10NkGY

[radiator]

I've never played an Assassin's Creed game before and I bought AC4 purely because I've long wanted someone to make an open world pirate-themed game. And at that it's a partial success, if not a triumph.

I kinda hated it at first - for such a high profile series I find the fundamentals - controls etc to be very janky and the stealth gameplay frustrating, inconsistent and twitchy. After sufficiently levelling up my character and unlocking a pirate costume I basically stopped playing it as a stealth/assassin game completely and as more of a brawler. The first person sci fi future segments that happen occasionally to totally pull you out of the game are tedious and irritating in the extreme.

However, it eventually grew on me. The pirating is by far the best thing about the game. There's nothing quite like just cruising around in your ship on the open sea, your crew signing sea shanties as a storm rolls in. There's tonnes of stuff to do - taking down fortresses and claiming them as your own, diving for sunken treasure, harpooning sharks, discovering a smuggler's cove and sneaking in to steal their loot... In general the open world pirate stuff is great, though the game world - despite it's immense size, can feel a little cramped (I commented back at the time that it can sometimes feel like pushing a trolley around a busy supermarket)- I'd have appreciated a lot more open stretches of ocean to sail my ship around, and if anything the game is too big with too much to do. Subquests are fun but quickly get very repetitive.

So all in all it's a very flawed game with moments of genuine greatness that you often have to overlook a lot of inherent problems to see. I paid £30 for it and definitely felt I got my money's worth, but I certainly wouldn't buy another AC game - I get the feeling that if you've played one you played them all and I really only care about the pirate stuff anyway. If you liked The Wind Waker and want something broadly similar I'd recommend it.

I completely ignored the story elements because I just don't care about narrative in games, especially ones as pretentious as Assassin's Creed. All I remember is that one of the main characters is voiced by Finchy from The Office.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Thanks. I'll say "no". I already have GTA IV, and V, to play through and both Prototypes from an old Steam sale.

If you need to second guess and impulse purchase then I guess you know the answer.

[radiator]

I'd start with GTA V. That game is absolutely phenomenal.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

I'd start with GTA V. That game is absolutely phenomenal.

Yep. Got that for the xbone ans Starcraft 2 on PC, both waiting on me finishing Skyrim. No more need be added to the queue.

[CheechFU]

PC

finishing Skyrim

It's impossible to finish skyrim on PC, there will always be more mods and once you do "finish skyrim" it will be time to upgrade your PC and then you have to see how many more mods you can run in 4K.

Also you should have bought Homeworld instead of Starcraft

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

PC

finishing Skyrim

It's impossible to finish skyrim on PC, there will always be more mods and once you do "finish skyrim" it will be time to upgrade your PC and then you have to see how many more mods you can run in 4K.

Also you should have bought Homeworld instead of Starcraft

When I have no more quests to do, there is no chance in hell that I will seek out more. And, yes, I know some quests repeat. They can go and get to.

[ThryllSeekyr]

I brought the very first game for just twenty dollars a few years after it's initial release when it was being sold under the Nice-price label and played the game on  and off until I got his mission that was corrupted. Either my game as broken in the first place or a file went missing or got damaged and I couldn't progress any further in the game. I could still run around and do stuff and travel to all the previous areas, but not any further into the game. I though house riding mechanic was not bad, as well as what passed for fighting, but this pales in comparison to the close quarter combat in Batman : Arkham Asylum.

I brought the AC - Black Flag and enjoyed the improvements that have been made and extras that have been added on since the first and thought pirating options were close to brilliant once I got that far. Yet, I never made it to my first port of call before I had to remove the game due to problems with the new computer at the time. I haven't had the hard drive space cleared to play it since. Looking forward to reinstalling this one and perhaps purchasing the earlier instalments I missed. If Steam ever have a AC sale. 

Both game are tops, but it's hard to swallow how easily he can hide amongst the call girls and other drunks or pirates when he needs to. The original trailer demonstrating how easily he evades his pursuers after attacking some guardsman or other official on the dock before ally was about to be executed and then running away before  camouflaging himself by marching in step with some priest or monks wearing similar clothing.

This could only happen in a video game and this was what helped it sell in the first place.

[The Enigmatic Dr X]

Free in July via Xbox Gold. Yay!

Or, rather, Yo Ho Ho!

Looking forward to playing this.

[Pete Wells]

I love the assassins creed games and this is by far the best of them. Enjoy Dr X!

[shaolin_monkey]

I don't particularly enjoy the AC games due to the fiddly controls and finding myself climbing  tall towers then accidentally leaping off them due to pressing the wrong button.

While Black Flag still annoys me in this respect I give it a massive thumbs up due to the piracy stuff.  I've always dreamt of an Errol Flynn type free-roaming swashbuckler, and this really satisfied those itches.

You have to play through a lot of the story to unlock the fun stuff, but it's worth ploughing through.  I bought it on the 360, and then had to get a cheap copy for the PS4 too- the quality of graphics and framerate improvements on the PS4 make it an absolute must-buy.

[Devons Daddy]

AC
i like them, but the black flag screamed out loud,
WE NEED A PIRATE OPEN WORLD GAME,

are you listening rockstar?

all of the games are progressively better, and worthy of your hard earned groats/credits.