Recs.
Updated
SpecsUpdate
Pros
Pro Cool naval combat against other pirates out on the open seas
Naval battles with your own ship and crew are expanded here in Black Flag after they were first introduced in Assassin's Creed III. You're a pirate this time, so you get to explore the open world with your ship as much as you want.
The bread and butter of the game involves you as the captain of your ship, navigating out in the open waters to get from place to place, as well as getting hands-on with the full mechanics of steering while firing off cannons at enemy ships. There's a full crew aboard with you, helping to give plenty of liveliness to your surroundings as they shout in anger, sing shanties, and cheer in victory as you go along, along with dynamic weather like raging storms that adds to the realism and intensity. It's a lot of fun and serves as a nice way to break things up from the usual stealth missions on foot.
Pro Intuitive stealth gameplay
The stealth mechanics feel natural and fluid in how strategic they are.
While tracking your targets, you blend in with each city's citizens or climb up to the tops of buildings to perch there and avoid getting spotted by the templar or their guards. You can either wait for the perfect opportunity to strike with a hidden blade up your sleeve that silently assassinates your target, or you can go all-out and have a sword duel with them if you'd rather take a more aggressive approach. After they're dead, you make your escape and become incognito again.
Everything goes together nicely in a way that feels satisfying.
Cons
Con Dull story that rehashes the same old conflicts
There's nothing new here, just the usual war between the Assassins and the Templars. This was okay in previous games where the writers at least cared enough to put in more in-depth modern day scenarios that kept the war relevant, giving us a reason to explore these historical settings in the first place. Instead, the past portion with Edward would be completely boring without his entertaining personality, and the modern day stuff is so phoned-in that the devs shouldn't have even bothered in the first place. This game is great for the gameplay, but not at all for the narrative.
Con The setting isn't that great for climbing around on top of buildings and exploring
Getting to play on and around the islands of the Caribbean setting sounds cool, but it's not all that fun from a gameplay perspective. The wooden buildings and huts are quite small and basic, with only some taller churches in the bigger cities like Havana. Scaling them doesn't take much effort, and it doesn't reward you with a huge, beautiful view comparable to previous locations like Florence and Rome during the Italian Renaissance. Despite the unique history and culture in these places, they're weak settings to play through.
Con Multiplayer is pretty much dead
Unfortunately, the multiplayer is all but abandoned by the player base. Even though the multiplayer itself is really cool and fun, you won't find too many people playing it these days. Since the game originally came out in 2013, it's quite old now, and it doesn't help that the devs don't actively update it anymore. The Assassin's Creed multiplayer base in general is also splintered between this game and the other installments with online play. So if you're a new player trying to get into things, don't be surprised if it takes a long time to find a match.