Initially I'd rank titles on a scale of 1-10. I spoke with a guy at school that I really respect as an intellectual, and I asked him how he scores thing. With out a shred of hesitation, he stated "Scale of one to five, to decimal points." His sheer absoluteness sold me immediately. I like how critical it forces you to be, avoiding that 70-80% range that too many reviews seem to fall into.
In my head, I usually break it down into my reaction as if it were a movie night with friends. If a title ranked 1 and was suggested, I'd strongly argue against it and even suggest doing something else altogether if that was the only option. I'd argue against a number 2 as well, but I'd probably be on my phone through the whole movie. A number 3... I'd sigh and say, "yeah, ok." Number 4? A movie I'd really want to suggest. For a number five, I wouldn't even wait for it to be movie night before I told people they have to go and see it.
In essence, it's a mix of what I'd tell my friends about it and how likely I'd be to willingly see it again (or read, or play, or listen). So with this description there's something important to note: a 5 must be attainable. I don't want to live my life like one of my painfully critical professors that refuses to give an A even if they can't find anything wrong with a project. I want to have things that make me happy, and I don't want them to be absolutely rare. Something rated 5 doesn't even have to be flawless. It just has to be good for me to want to experience for the first time again and again.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag is a beautiful friggin' 5 out of 5.
Is it perfect? Hell no. A lot of the characters, while written well, didn't quite seem to have enough presence in the story. The standard AC plot (both in the future and past) seems to be getting... Diluted or inconsequential. You can tell the writers are stretching it out and padding it as far as they can to accomodate yearly releases. For the record, I hate hate series that do this. The suck all the wind out of a story just because they're making money and want to continue making money until they run the franchise into the ground. Makes the storytelling gutless and unfocused.
And aside from that... It was too easy. There wasn't much of a challenge to it and the stakes for failure were pretty low. While some of the sea-faring mechanics were good (wind gusts, rogue waves), they could've made it a lot more technical and rewarding. For the most part, you just point the ship in the direction you want to go.
I also wish there was more endless sandbox-type gameplay so that there could be more to do. The game felt kinda short -- once the story is done and the main upgrades have been unlocked, there's nothing really to do but sailing around, aimlessly blowing stuff up.
Now let me add, though, that so far I've logged ~60 hours over the past three weeks. I don't think there have been many other single player, story-driven games that keep me entertained for that long. It is a damn good game.
It's criminally gorgeous. Sun rises, sunsets, beautiful moonlit seas. Light passing through the waves, pods of dolphins swimming along side, and morning hazes that give way to ruthless storms. Many, many great vistas that feature tiny islands and inlets to explore and caves to plunder. Royal convoys pop up that you chase down through the fog, while your crew sings a haunting shanty.
Pirate hunters that chase you down, as a result of smashing the convoy. The first time I encountered those guys and tried to outrun them for some time, I had a bit of a Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid moment. Who are those guys? The tension and uncertainty was fantastic.
The naval combat was also great. Broadsides, chase cannons, fire barrels, ramming... AND BOARDING. Whoo boy. Nothing like beating a ship all to hell, then coming alongside to swing across and beat the enemy crew to take the vessel for yourself. Pure, beautiful chaos.
But back to my main issue: I want to play it MORE. Imagine this:
Total ship customization. Choosing the hull type, armour treatment, types of cannons. Not just "Level 1, Level 2, Level 3" like they did, but "long range with low armour penetration" or "short range with large splash damage". Types of ammo. Types of sails. Different configurations that let you fine tune for speed or maneuverability. Let me make the ship my ship.
Then create factions and territories to fight over. Create fleets. Let me acquire (buy or capture) ships, select captains based on their personality traits, and create formations and sail into battle. Give me the opportunity to really build an outpost to house my fleet, with trading posts and accommodations and larger docks.
Let me do trading. Proper trading, where goods are worth more at one post than another. At some, they're even contraband, so I need to create a small schooner to scoot around a harbour patrol in the dead of night to offload my cargo and make a handsome profit to pay tribute to another privateer faction that'll sail into battle with us to take a key trading port. And when I sail up through the middle of the enemy fleet to storm the Admiral's ship, let other ships try to counter-board mine, so I take one ship and then have to retake my own.
This would be a completely different game, and I think it'd be an unrealistic expectation from a developer that already made something brilliant. But if I were to break my own rules of rating, this game could've been a solid 6.5/5.
All I'm trying to say is that this game is so great that I wish I had something to build towards so that I could keep playing.
In the mean time, though, I can enable the cheats to set the sea conditions to constantly rough and send endless pirate hunters after me. Then I can turn off the in-game music and play some Pirates of the Carribbean in iTunes. And the result is joy. 5 out of 5 joy.
-Cril
One man to trike the bell
High-O! cume roll me over
One man to trike the bell
High-O! cume roll me over
Two men to man the wheel
High-O! cume roll me over
Two men to man the wheel
High-O! cume roll me over
Three men, to gallant braces
High-O! cume roll me over
Three men, to gallant braces
High-O! cume roll me over
Four men to furl t'garns'ls
High-O! cume roll me over
Four men to furl t'garns'ls
High-O! cume roll me over
Five men to bunt-a-bo
High-O! cume roll me over
Five men to bunt-a-bo
High-O! cume roll me over
Black Flack Sea Shanties - Hi-Ho Come Roll Me Over
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