I cannot believe how bad the swimming underwater controls & movements operate. Ninety percent of my problems with those missions are the terrible controls. They put a 5 x 5 hole in the side of a wreck then expect you are expected to slip through that holes, but it is just dumb luck in you are headed the right way at the right angle.

BTW: Ubisoft know the controls are terrible, you will notice if you fail the sections the game MOVES you ahead or turns you around, or moves you closer to the objective. They don't backtrack you...they just put your where you're supposed to be to remove the frustration.

That should be the best part, it should be the part where you say, "Wow, how pretty". Instead, I spend the entire underwater mission wishing I was doing anything else.

Well duh!!!!!!!! Everybody knows monkeys cannot swim. Sheesh, what kind of king are you anyways?

I didn't have any problems with how it controlled, however there really weren't enough ways to hide from the sharks.

The handling only became a problem for me when I had to avoid sharks. I hated that. The stealth mechanics in the game (which I think are weak on land) don't translate well underwater.

I'm with you. I totally hate those and I never found anything interesting doing them (just a bunch of generic collectables)... I'll probably just stop doing them.

@natetodamax: The "stealth" mechanics in this game are ridiculously exploitable. Haven't gotten to underwater stuff yet but Ill be interested yo see how it translates.

Never had any problems with the controls. The checkpointing pretty much trivializes the underwater sections, dying didn't make it difficult, just added tedium to the section.

Here's something funny to try though: When doing an underwater section where there is some land to walk around on, fast travel to another location. In the loading screen, you'll have all of your weapons strapped to you, even though you're not wearing clothing that would sheath them.

Worked fine, only annoying part was getting the Abstergo challenge relating to shark attacks since it was a 50/50 of the shark doing the QTE or just biting you.

@monkeyking1969: I agree entirely. Although the thing bothering me the most about the game is the number of eavesdrop/stealth main missions. They are the worst and come up frequently. Otherwise I'm enjoying a lot of the other aspects of the game.

Takes a little getting used to, but ultimately fine,..like..stop fighting it.. man.

@monkeyking1969: I loved the underwater sections. Actually, these are some of the best underwater levels I've ever played. I guess you're just not the type of player who can adapt to watery zones in games.

A disappointing underwater section?

In a video game?

LIES! ALL LIES!

Has there EVER been a game with good underwater swimming? It's not really a Ubisoft or Assassin's Creed problem. The only game I've ever played that had good swimming was The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask when you wear the Zora mask. Amazingly fun swimming.

They'd have been fine as just environments for you to explore. The controls weren't really up to handling the sharks / dangerous shit and having it not become frustrating.

I think it would be much easier to control Edward underwater if he swam at an even speed, streamline style a la MGS2 instead of taking strokes. As it is now if you're trying to swim and maneuver at the same time you have to sort of guess which way he's going to swim next.

I've played through a couple of the underwater sections already and I was really looking forward to this part of the game unlocking. The controls at time, can be a bit awkward and I'm going to try a couple of more sections before I truly pass judgement on them, but as of right now, they are not my favorite part of this great game.

Soul Reaver bro.

Other than that? No.

Underwater is among the final frontiers of gameplay.

I think those sections are beautiful, personally. But I agree, hiding from sharks blows. Luckily, you can pretty much just brute force your way through since your health recovers every time you find a conveniently placed barrel.

The underwater environments look really nice, but I agree; they're my least favorite portions of the game. I usually just look up whatever chest has the plan, grab it, and get out.

Oh boy i haven't reached these sections yet!

You know what it coudl be? The camera... Most controls people can get used to just by doing as long as they stay consistent. But, the camera in AC IV does not settle in behind you quickly or very firmly underwater...maybe. I'll have to play with it some more.

@fredchuckdave: They only outright do the QTE thing where they attempt to bite you if you are close to the shark, they only hit you if they detect you from a far and start chasing you, it won't trigger the defending against being bitten QTE.

Tthe underwater shipwreck missions are actually a bit frustrating but the one's where you go into a cave/hideout though I found to be pretty unique and enjoyable in a way since you don't carry any of your gear when you go underwater so you are forced to either go stealthy or start picking up weapons in the environment or from enemies in a combat encounter.

they're not too bad. it's the current flow avoid objects with awkward swim controls bit that always gets me. So far I have not been killed by a shark.

I've left many a drowned Kenway on the ocean floor just brute forcing my way to the collectibles. The game likes to troll you by filling most seaweed with eels, so you're getting bit regardless.

I do agree that the hideouts are fun since the small area, and the lack of weapons and protection provide a good challenge.

I think Ratchet and Clank did it well. Swimming around Pokitaru in RC1 and searching for treasure was magical at the time.

As for AC4, I think I've figured the swimming a bit better, slowing down to turn and such, but I want a way to at least incapacitate the sharks. The powerlessness is neat, I guess, but even environmental hazards that I could drop on the sharks, something complex but doable, may have made the sections a bit nicer. It's hard to appreciate the environment and beauty when you're constantly stressed out.

Swimming should almost always work like flying and all these problems would be solved.

I didn't *love* the underwater sections, however, they are the one part of the game that changes enough from one instance to the next that it doesn't get stale, so it ended up being my favorite in the end. The problem to me was that with all the sharks, you don't really get a chance to enjoy the view.

Except for that one where every bit of cover had an eel in it. That was some grade A bullshit.

Underwater sections in games usually aren't that great.

I was rather impressed with the swimming and diving in GTA V, I think that is why AC IV makes me annoyed.

Over the years a few games have impressed with their swimming...for their time.
- Jaws (arcade) I'm pretty sure Jaws was the first underwater game I ever played, I think in my whole life I only played that game twice and both times were when I was 8 years old in the 1970s.

- Pitfall 2 That game probably the first CONSOLE game I ever played with swimming in it. The sequences were short, but overall the concept worked well. Pitfall games on the 2600 were always interesting for squeezing out animation from a system that was pretty bad at it.

- Tomb Raider 1996 Those swimming diving sequences took a few tries to get used to, but they settled into a rhythm and control method you could understand.

Those are what stand out. Uncharted 3 was okay in ist few swimming diving sequences, it worked, but it didn't stand out. The Farcry games do swimming okay, but again that's just competence. I was actually rather impressed with CoD MW3, it was competent with the swimming/diving when I thought it woudl be a mess.

@monkeyking1969: I think Battlefield 4's swimming is pretty good.

Ugg, after swimming four more wrecks I'm starting to 'manage' what buttons to press to get around. It really is the worst underwater controls I have encountered, but it is not impossible. I think diving should be without sharks, they should make the diving enjoyable and more about exploration while managing air supply.

The close to land wrecks are best since they add inside a 'hide out' traversal. So, yeah, the swimming in so bad I find a sneaking mission more enjoyable...now THAT is screwed up. ;-)

I'm really glad I'm not the only person that struggled with these parts, I like challenges in games and all but I don't like fighting with mechanics being the part the stresses me out

Most of my problems with the swimming could have been fixed if you had access to a harpoon underwater, or at least the hidden blades. So you could stab those fucking eels in the FUCKING FACE! LIKE UH UH UH UH UH! TAKE IT, EEL!

The underwater locations have potential though. I like the idea of exploring shipwrecks and old ruins. The first time you do it, it's pretty cool. But then all of the locations start to feel the same. I would probably have enjoyed it more without all the enemies as well. The stealth is kind of crap and you're busy fighting the controls. You're not really being punished for dying anyway, since you keep everything you looted. So other than making it tedious, I don't see the point having enemies in these areas.

I couldn't agree more about the sharks. It also made them have so little impact. I would have loved it if the sharks were very rare but then super deadly. As is I pretty much said fuck it and just tried to hurry and I could usually survive their attacks long enough to high tail it out of there.

It has a lot of potential for fun exploring, but they ruin it with the focus on just evading enemies. The eels are just so lame.

I like the idea but it needs reworking.

Yeah, there's a lot of things they could have done with the sharks. Having a few, really deadly sharks would've been cool. The sharks were more like a annoyance than something you had to watch out for.

I still think we should've been able to hunt underwater. Have a few legendary animals to hunt, like the legendary ships. The legendary ships are like the coolest thing in this game, by far. Maybe in the next game...

The game is frustrating in that one way all over. They give you places to explore that look interesting, the traversal (climbing, jumping, running) is fun, but once you get somewhere once you reach that most interesting spot there is nothing there. Because the map shows the chests, fragments, etc there is payoff. I would like if none of the collectibles was on the map, and I would like there to be old time "Tomb Raider" style puzzle pieces to be put together.

The worst part is when I'm taking over a ship, and it requires me to burn their flag. At times Edward just refuses to climb the last bit of pole that get me to the flag, in which case I accidentally end up pressing A for jump (everytime) which cause him to just jump off the freaking mast (?) and fall to his death (and desynch) - resulting in the whole thing being a massive waste of time