Assassins Creed IV ReviewDecember 18, 2013 by

The term “out with the old, in with the new” is one that can usually be applied to many sequels in the gaming industry. Usually a developer will take on board feedback form their previous instalment and use that to make something that is better in every possible way. While that does apply to Assassins Creed IV in some respects, the repetitive mission structure and awkward controls remain and keep the game from being something special.


The games main focus is on Edward Kenway, the grandfather of Connor in Assassins Creed III. With him you get to experience the life of a pirate, the game takes place in the Caribbean with seemingly endless amounts of ocean to explore and plunder. The game also features the standard present day sequences, however the present day sequences in this game put you in the first person perspective which is a first for the series. I found that this worked a lot better than playing as Desmond in the previous games as it really separated my two experiences of the modern and past.

The main focus of the game is of course playing in the setting of the Caribbean, the game throws you into a world that is full of things to do and explore. Before the game launched Ubisoft talked at great lengths about how this instalment would be the first truly open world game in the Assassins Creed series, and while it is a lot more open than the others it still is not in the way that you might think. The main cities in the game take many forms, whether that is Havana or Kingston for example, but you cannot simply get off your boat and go straight into the city, instead the game will have to load the city just like it had to in previous Assassins Creed games. This was disappointing for me as I was really expecting a truly open world Assassins Creed game. Apart from the main cities however the game is open world, you are able to get in your ship named the “Jackdaw” and roam around the Caribbean in the way that suits you. I found that this is where great fun can be had, simply exploring the world is something that occupy hours of your time, and this is never wasted time with the beauty and vast amounts of missions that this world has to offer.


the game adds so many new dynamics and themes that are interesting and fun but there are still so many things that keep this game from being the best in the series

When people ask me if this game is good I always reply “Well the new stuff is good.” That is something that kept coming back to me whilst playing, the game adds so many new dynamics and themes that are interesting and fun but there are still so many things that keep this game from being the best in the series that I cannot recommend it to everybody.

The story of the game starts with you entering Abstergo hearing that they are still able to access the ancestors of Desmond Miles, allowing you to experience the memories of Edward Kenway. As Kenway you get involved in the almost standard plot involving Templars and conspiracies, the story seems to take itself a lot less seriously than previous instalments in the game, for starters Edward has a personality that I found myself growing fond of and the writing allows for jokes to be thrown into the mix to make a much lighter mood than that of AC III. The plot is good in the grand scheme of things and leaves you with a conclusion that will have you wondering where the series will go next. In my opinion the story did not quite reach the heights of Assassins Creed II but it does feature a great cast of characters couples with excellent writing. You will come across pirates such as Blackbeard that all have personalities that bring them to life.

the game managed to impress me with its visuals throughout

I played through the entirety of Assassins Creed IV on the PlayStation 4, the game managed to impress me with its visuals throughout, the setting does wonders to complement the game. From exploring the open ocean to walking along beaches, the game frequently stuns with its visual fidelity. Water is lush and behaves in a way that is almost too reminiscent of real life. Cut scenes are grand with detail located on every part of each individual character. The games scope is also something to behold, not only do cities feel big and expansive but the world around it does as well. With your ship you are able to explore vast amounts of islands filled with wildlife which makes the world feel living. For example aren't just things there that serve a purpose, there are things such as pigs and crabs that you may not necessarily be able to interact with but serve to highlight the much bigger amount of detail that this game possesses. The world is also much more diverse than that of previous games, for example you are now able to find buried treasure in underwater sequences, and here you are able to witness a new dynamic to the game while getting a further taste of how great the game actually looks.


While everything I have said about the game so far appears to be mostly positive, my real complaints come with the gameplay. First of all I have to complain about the controls, for me it is still a fundamental problem when literally everything requires R2 to be pressed in order to progress. There are still many small annoyances that will come in the form of running up a wall that you did not intent or jumping off a building when you did not want to. For me Ubisoft just appears to be adding more abilities to the player but does not take advantage of all the other buttons on the player’s controller. I never felt like I was able to control Edward with much precision at all, the game just never felt refined in terms of controlling him, and for me that is a fundamental problem that really has to be addressed.

While this game does not take you through a tutorial that plagued Assassins Creed III, it does give you missions that are very reminiscent of what you have done in past Assassins Creed games. Everything that has been added in this instalment is for the most part a great addition, when you are allowed to do what you choose then the game can be extremely fun and satisfying. However when you are following the games main story missions, apart from a small number of exceptions I found myself begging for a different type of mission or simply something that was not broken. The story missions that are entertaining are the ones where you are engaged in ship to ship combat, at least in my opinion, I just found it almost funny at how there are now tailing missions that involve boats. So not only do you have the pleasure of doing it on land, but also now in the sea. Missions like these serve as an example as to what is wrong with the series in my opinion, sure this one has boats and the sea but in my opinion that did not make the story missions any more fun on the whole. I’m someone who can usually forgive a game for its problems if it does other things well, but in this case repetitive missions start to creep in quicker than you may think, it almost became the norm to have a stealth mission and tailing mission in the same sequence, the game became predictable fast.

Repetitive missions are also combined with sometimes broken AI

Repetitive missions are also combined with sometimes broken AI in the case of this game, I found it perplexing how there is such an emphasis on stealth in so many missions but the AI is clearly not designed with these missions in mind. The AI is blind for the most part, there were many cases in which I would leap out of a bush, kill someone, hide their body in the same bush right in front of a guard only to have him look at me straight in the eye and do nothing. Its things like these that draw you out of the experience that the game delivers whilst not following the main story and makes you almost laugh at the game in some circumstances. It is also worth noting that during some of the main story missions in the game I would have to restart a mission or a checkpoint due to broken AI, at times it reached the point where I was tailing guards only to have them stop in the street, halting my progress, again this is something that really draws you out of your experience.


However when you are not partaking in story missions the game can be very enjoyable. Simply sailing the open seas at your leisure, discovering islands and loot is something that made me smile on several occasions. As I mentioned before the game is mostly open world, this means that you will have a huge map that will be filling up with all the new activities that you can now partake in. You are able to look through your spyglass to see ships containing materials that you may want, which can in turn be used to upgrade your own ship with things such as mortars and better cannons for example. In addition to upgrading your ship you can now upgrade Edward but you cannot do so in the way of past Assassins Creed games, in past games such as the second as long as you had money you could get everything possible in terms of upgrades. Now you will need to see what items have to be gathered in order to find those upgrades, for example in order to make better armour for Edward in order to increase his health you may have to kill a deer for example, in order to do this you will have to find certain islands that have deer inhabiting them, on your journey to this island you may discover that there is whale you want to hunt. Assassins Creed IV is one of those games that constantly distracts you from the story with its vast amount of side quests, and progression systems that are rewarding and have a practical use within the game.


Assassins Creed IV is at its best when you are doing what you want, when the game sets you free into the world and lets you, the player decide what is actually fun it can be one of the best experiences you can find this year. However when you are following the story you will be dragged into dozens of missions that are repetitive and in some cases broken. I played the entire game on PlayStation 4 and had no technical problems in terms of frame rate or my game freezing. Overall if you are a fan of the series or you just like the sound of sailing the Caribbean and hunting whales this is your game, just be prepared to experience some lacklustre story on the side of all the fun you can have when the game does not try to get in the way.

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PlayStation 4 ReviewDecember 9, 2013 by

When Sony first launched the PlayStation 3 it seemed like a console that was fit for 2007 but not for years ahead, it was a console that was very much reminiscent of the console that had come before it in that there was limited online features and initially there was no sort of achievement type system in place. With time some of these features were added but there were some glaring omissions that were never able to be put into the system such as party chat for example, the system was not built for the future in many respects. With the PlayStation 4 Sony has seemingly identified almost all aspects of their problems from the last generation of consoles and has aimed to try and make things right for the next seven years or so with their new console, the PlayStation 4.


the console is amazingly small, sleek and light

Although the design of the console is usually the least important thing, this was emphasised with the reveal of the console where the console itself was not actually shown off, it is still going to be the thing you take out of the box and place on your cabinet. This is an area where the PS4 shines; the console is amazingly small, sleek and light. It is something that looks like a next gen system with the light bar that glistens along the middle of the console. The console itself is also a feat in design, there is no power brick that you will have to have taking up precious space in your living room, it’s all built into the system, and for something that is already so small it makes you wonder how the system is able to function without overheating. Oh yes overheating, that is something that is seemingly a burden of the past, the PS4 is whisper quiet and after playing the system for several hours on end I felt the back of the system only to be surprised at how cool it was. The system comes with ports that have become standard by now, on the front you have two USB ports and on the back you have a HDMI slot, power slot, audio and LAN slot if you wish to use it. Just like the PS3 the PS4 comes with a Blu-ray slot drive for games and movies, linking to this are the buttons that you can use to turn your system on and off along with the button for ejecting discs, these are actually very small and blend into the system so well that you may not immediately realise they exist. However they are perfectly functional and in most cases will not be used as the controller can be used for both button functions.


Inside the system is where things really start to change, the PS3 was a console that was bound by its cell architecture, the problems and complexities of developing for the system are well documented. However the PS4 aims to change all of this, the PC type architecture in the console is something that Sony have talked about with confidence, the idea is that this will make the console much more developer friendly when it comes to making games. In terms of actual specifications, the PS4 has a custom X86-64 processor courtesy of AMD and it has 8GB of GDDR5 memory, making the console fast and built to last.

Since the reveal of the console in February Sony has emphasised that their vision for their console is solely for that of gamers. They have of course said that you are able to use their new machine for watching things such as Netflix if you so desire, but their primary focus has been to try and win over gamers. One of the ways that they have tried to do this is with the introduction of the DualShock 4. Personally I was a fan of the PS3 controller, I never thought of it as bad and it thought playing games with it was perfectly fine; however with Sony’s latest controller everything just feels so much better. The controller is slightly bigger than the PS3 controller which is not a bad thing by any means; it is heavier also which in this case gives the controller some much needed weight as at times the DualShock 3 felt a little too cheap. However the triggers are where things are really taken to a new level, the triggers on the PS3 left much to be desired, one of my main issues with them was that they were just not built to last. For example I remember when GTA IV came out; R2 was used to drive, after playing the game for hours and hours I remember that the trigger reached a point where it would no longer raise up. This is something that really bugged me about the controller and left me playing games such as GTA V on Xbox 360. However these triggers are bliss, they feel responsive and no longer feel cheap and instead feel built to last, Sony said that they did research into the triggers to try and make them great for first person shooters and they definitely succeeded.


The thumb sticks are also greatly improved, they are no longer convex and are instead concave, meaning that I always felt more precise when moving or aiming whilst playing. The controller also has a great grip, the back of the controller is somewhat textured meaning that whilst playing I always felt comfortable and suits longer play sessions much better than the PS3 controller did. However the most immediate changes to this controller come in the form of the touchpad, this is what will dominate the centre of your controller, this is something that can be used for extra inputs within certain games, for example in Assassins Creed IV you can use it to navigate the map by pinching and zooming. At the moment the touchpad does seem like a bit of a gimmick, but later down the line it could have more practical aspects within gaming. The second most immediate change will have to be that of the light bar, this is the PlayStation Move looking light on the top of your controller, and for me this suffers from the same problem. For example in certain games the light bar may be used to show your health but this is something that just like the touchpad does not add anything significant to your gaming experience.

In terms of actual functionality improvements within games, the PS4 controller now has a headset jack in which you can plug in a microphone for party chat, this is something that left many players rejoicing when it was first announced. Along with this there is now a speaker in the controller itself, this is something that I shrugged at when I first heard about it, but after playing Resogun for example I was immediately struck by the potential of the speaker. It just felt fresh and different to have audio coming out of your controller, and in a game like Resogun where you are constantly moving it adds to the suspense in a way I never thought it would.

However all of these new bells and whistles, whether they add to the experience or not are certainly going to come at a cost of battery life, this is the only real negative about the controller, when playing I usually was able to play for around six to eight hours on a charge. Although that still sounds like a lot, it is very noticeable if you are playing for long periods of time and it can be frustrating to have to keep plugging in a cable in which to charge the controller.

You also now have the option of purchasing the PS4 camera for your console, however besides being able to sign into your console using your voice and being able to do some basic voice commands, the most appealing feature of the camera is that you are able to stream games with your face in the corner, adding to the social integration that the console is trying to promote. You will get the most out of your camera if you are someone who wants to stream your games for others to see.

the PS4’s power really comes into its own when fused with a user interface that is designed to be light and fast

Moving on to the software, the PS4’s power really comes into its own when fused with a user interface that is designed to be light and fast. The PS4 is many times faster than the PS3 when it comes to navigating the store or even just browsing your trophies. The UI has been changed on a PlayStation home console in a significant fashion for the first time since the launch of the PS3. The home screen of the PS4 can be divided into two parts. First of all you have the more familiar looking cross media bar or XMB, and below that you have all your most recently used applications, these range from games to the web browser. The UI as a whole is a lot more accessible than that of the PS3, there is much less digging through menus and more of what matters to the user. The applications are accessible if you press down from the cross media bar, however this part of the UI will show all of the games that you have installed, whether that be from a disk or completely digital. This does not present a problem at the moment as in my case I only own a handful of PS4 games, but looking further down the line it could be identified that if you were to have many games installed at once it could make finding one in particular troublesome.


There is also much more of a focus on the social aspect of things when the system interface is concerned, this is shown from the share button that has been put on the controller, but this translates over to one of the main focuses of the systems interface. There is now a section called “What’s new” in which all activity from your friends will be shown with the aid of pictures and a tile like format, this shows things such as what games your friends played most recently and what trophies they are earning. The share button on the controller allows you to do three options whilst playing a game, it will allow you to take a screenshot in which you can upload to a social media site of your choice, it will let you record gameplay or it will let you stream your gameplay through two streaming services in the form of Twitch or UStream. These are then displayed in the “Live from PlayStation” application on your PS4 in which you are able to watch people playing PS4 games across the globe. All of this can be done whilst playing a game, this opens up the door to multitasking, you are able to have a game and a media application open at the same time which, combined with speed, allows for an experience that really does feel next gen.

However for all of the steps forward there are still some issues with the software, for example you still have to sync your trophies once you launch the trophies application, this is something that I was surprised to find out seeing as the system boasts so much power. In addition to this there are times when watching a stream for example that the system can seem to chug along, sometimes video quality will be great and other times not so. However these are minor gripes on a user interface that makes so many leaps forward, furthermore the software combined with the hardware means that iterating on problems will be much easier than it was for the PS3.

One of the biggest features that Sony has been talking about in the months leading up to the systems launch was remote play, this is where you are able to stream your PS4 games to your Vita via a network connection. When this was initially talked about there were many out there that were sceptical and rightfully so, remote play is not a new idea, there have been a few past iterations that never really panned out the way that Sony intended. However I am pleased to report that remote play is finally something of practical use, in other words it actually works! This means that if you are playing a PS4 game in your living room and another family member wishes to use the TV you are able to continue with your game on your Vita. In real world usage I have found that it is best to make use of remote play via the same Wi-Fi network that both consoles are connected to for the best results. Other than that everything works how it should, of course there can be some compression and games are not going to look as good on the Vita’s lower resolution, smaller display, but it’s a feature that works on literally every game. If you own a Vita then you have no excuse not to try and make the most of this added functionality from both systems.

the PS4 is still only a child, one that still has some growing up to do

Overall the PS4 is still only a child, one that still has some growing up to do, the next generation of consoles has only just begun and with time the PS4 is only going to develop and have added functionality. But for launch the console is literally everything that you expect, it’s fast and fluid and most importantly accessible. The console feels like a giant leap over that of the PS3 because it is something that feels like it can adapt and develop with what the future holds, this is something that the PS3 did not have in my opinion. Sony has stuck true to their word in that they have focused on making a console for gamers, the social integration and the other media content is all there if you want it. But ultimately the console is one that is built for games and that shows with the great controller and power of the console. The launch line-up at the moment is nothing that will make you go out and spend £350 but it can be said with certainty that compelling software is on its way and that for me at least the PlayStation 4 is where I will be playing.

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