So I am very early. Just got the Jackdaw. Did the island to upgrade holster. And that is where I have been at for the last hour. Spent the last hour trying to kill a fucking whale, and take out a royal convoy. I can't do either. Am I not supposed to be able to do these things now? Do I have to wait to progress to get upgrades that make it easier? Or I am just super bad at this game? I started getting very frustrated after so many failed attempts and just sailed to Nassau. Got to it and quit.

Also is most of this game more like a pure pirate game? Will I spend a lot of time doing things with the ship, fighting and traveling to islands. Exploring. Or is this still 100% pure Asscreed. I never got to the ship stuff in III because it just wore on me. That game made me so angry I couldn't play it. Plus it got super boring to me. It started really good. I loved the first 10-12 hours. But then it was just terrible chase mission after terrible chase mission. I am hoping this game isn't going to be like that.

Thanks.

Judging by your previous experience i don't think you're going to enjoy this installment as much. It is a lot of sailing and exploring, battling ships and forts. There are quite a few tailing missions (too much imo) and not a whole lot of actual stealthy assassinations. I had great fun though, but to be honest.. It wasnt much of an assassin game.

And yes, you need to upgrade the ship for those missions first :)

It's standard video game protocol I think to quit frustrating side missions or challenges when you're still at the beginning of the game, and try them later when you're stronger and more experienced.. So yes you need better Jackdaw armor and weapons to take out the convoy, and you need a sturdier whaling boat and upgraded harpoons to pull off whaling easily.

However the whaling activity is the sort of activity that sometimes the player either 'gets' or doesn't. It can be that you're bad at timing your shots and countering the whale's charging attacks, so after you upgrade your boat/harpoons you should try again and practice.

I understand from this question that you don't want the tedious AC3 formula and that you hope for pure pirate stuff? If that's the case, you're in luck. As a massive AC fan I was extremely turned off by AC3's lack of fun after the first 10 hours, and I enjoyed Black Flag too much! There's a lot of ship traveling and sea fights, a lot of ship chasing and all that. There's even stealth ship missions. Handling the weather when it gets rough is really fun, and so is using your ship's sail beams as a ladder to jump to high mountain sides or to other ships' beams, etc..

The ground missions are very delightful and tight, a lot more exciting and diverse than AC3's terrible missions. You'll be stealthing your way through tropical island bushes and assassinating all kinds of mofos, it's amazing.

It's a damn good game, just stick with it.

Yeah, you should definitely upgrade the Jackdaw if you want to take on the bigger ships. Upgrade the rowboats or whatever for whaling.

As for the missions, it's more of a pirate game when you aren't on missions unfortunately. Most of the story missions are those dumb "tail this guy, eavesdrop for info, now assassinate" missions, which is a shame since being a pirate is the best part about the game.

I thought the Fort fights would be pretty boring, but then I found myself in the midst of a fort battle, when a massive storm approached. Now I'm trying to dodge mortar shots, rogue waves, and water spouts, Then a pirate hunter ship came in for good measure, because why not.

Capturing that fort was one of the most awesome and intense gaming experiences in a long while. Stick with it a bit. Once you get a few upgrades and start sailing into more dangerous waters, the action picks up.

@singingmenstrual: Cool. The more pirate stuff and the less tedious AC formula with chase missions the better.

I love the open water battles. Boarding another ship. Finding and exploring islands. That shit is fun. And even most of the standard AC stuff is fun still. I just cant stand follow and listen and chase but don't kill missions. Those are the fucking worst. And when it started with two of this I about quit playing right there. But my buddy said it gets way better so I stuck with it. Glad I did now.

@nevalis: That sounds like it was a blast. I would love for them to just spin this off as its own thing. Make a pure pirate game. Drop the AC name from it and everything. Get rid of most of the old AC formula in it also. I would buy that in a heart beat. The pirate stuff is fresh and fun. This is why I loved Risen 2 Dark Waters so much. It was an action RPG on a Pirate ship.

For the Kenways Fleet thing. It says playing with friends speeds that up. Does that mean they have to be actually playing the game at the same time as you? Or just having someone on your friends list that played the game count? Because I have unlocked a bunch of routes, and they are now taking like 16-24 hours per run.

Grabbed this game the other day during a Best Buy 'Deal of the Day' sale for about $13. I was skeptical because I still don't have a PS4 and the crew made it sound unplayable on PS3. I figured, for that price, I might as well give it a crack. Who knows when I'll be able to actually afford a new console anyway.

Man, I'm glad I did. Totally enjoying it. The ship stuff is great. The way the waves toss you around is awesome. I love how it kind of fudges the physics and lets you do hairpin turns if you drop speed real quick. It's not realistic, but it makes you feel like you're a really good captain. I'd rather play a game that lets me have fun and feel good about it at the expense of realism than a game that has real world physics and doesn't let me pull of action movie maneuvers.

Hate some aspects of the missions, but the controls and mechanics feel better and more streamlined than they have ever before. Stuff like keeping in stealth while following dudes isn't that bad here because of the way you're able to just kind of chill in tall grass. And it seems pretty forgiving about letting you slip back out of sight after being spotted.

Also, man, everything Vinny was saying about the character. I didn't actually think that would do much for me. But shit. He's totally right. The good Assassin's Creed games have this kind of apathetic/funny main character. It's just easier to play when it's more about having fun than their grand plots. Then again, the modern day stuff in this one is kind of blowing me away too.

It's a great game to me, after the mediocre game three was. That being said, I'm not a big fan of the ship stuff, and really only cared to stick the land most of the time. I think mechanically, aside from the oversimplified and somewhat boring combat in this one, the mechanics are the best for any AC game (though not enough for me to say it's the best AC game; the Ezio trilogy is still the best, and then this). You do have to do quite a few ship missions, but overall it's a great, fun game that can hold you attention for quite some time. As for your problem, you have to upgrade before you can do those things. The only thing I kind of like about the ship stuff is the fact it gets you around, instead of load screen after load screen (though I usually just used quick travel, which made me go to a load screen...)

Was this on a podcast or GOTY stuff? I don't remember much of any ACIV talk by the guys.

I thought it was a great game.. just got tedious when you had to get the final upgrades. i agree with to many tailing missions..way to mean for my liking never been a strong suit of the game..i mean you cannot see them but you get a count down timer even though your on a roof right above them. Just frustrating in that regard didnt mind the ship battles once you upgrade your ship makes things alot easier

What I think Assassinc Creed games miss that they really should have, is team building missions. I know in teh games you don't 'build a team' like in a Mass Effect, but they stories center around you joining the Assassins or dealing with friends/family/lover/etc. So, why not make those story relationships matter by demonstrating them through game play.

AC IV had a cool hunting system...why can't you hunt WITH people? During teh hunt maybe dialogue could pass between players, maybe more depth is created to teh story in you undertake a hunt with an NPC.

Maybe before you help Black Beard, you go on a mission with him, and during taht mission you kindle a friendship the player has a stake in? Throughout teh game you keep meeting people who "know you" but you are only told you know them and told you shoudl give a shit what they think.

The crew of you ship is rather boring, they have no personality, and despite them thanking you for saving them in some cases they really never come alive. When they die during a boarding you don't care because they were faceless drones. I'd like the crew to have a bit more personality and I'd like teh death of a crew to matter.

AC IV has a cool sailing system and you trade goods you savage to merchants...but you don't get to know them...in fact AC makes than as anonymous and replaceable as possible. Why not create an affinity system where if you trade with one merchant he gives you a better 'rate' over time, or gives you missions, "Kenway, can you get me 200 wood, and 150 metal? If so, I will introduce you to my daughter, at the Provincial Governor's ball..what do you say?"

Speaking of love interests...why they HELL can't you choose a love interest? The story of Kenway and his beloved is BORING! They player has no stake in their romance, and no stake in how it turns you. You as teh player are told you love her, given very little reason to actually like her and then the twist at teh end is supposed to matter too? Its a weak story. The idea with story telling is to SHOW not SAY, show us he lovers her by making some game play around it...give teh player a stake in that crucial part of teh story. Or, as I said provide some romance options so teh player can choose.

Black Flag was the most fun I've had with an Assassin's Creed game since Brotherhood. Hell it's the reason I'm actually excited for the franchise again after the bore that was AC3.

I'm loving the crap out of this game. I should played it sooner. I've been playing sequence (or memory or what ever) 4, for like 10 hours. Just sailing around exploring and doing all the side stuff. I am obsessed with fighting other boats. I'm sure it will get boring after a while. But man is that shit fun. I already have the jackdaw upgraded as far as it will go, minus the last ones that require plans. So I am just destroying everything.

Personally raiding ships never got boring for me.

@sterling: Really? I seem to remember it coming up a lot late last year and earlier this year, but maybe I'm exaggerating that. I'm not sure where he mentioned that. It might have been during the GOTY podcasts? Heck, it could have been on an episode of Unprofessional Fridays.

@sterling: I played it for around 60 hours; was fun the whole way. I wouldn't count on it suddenly getting boring you'll just (eventually) run out of stuff to do.

@hatking: Its actually from the quick look. I am watching it now. And I just got to the part where he starts talking about it. How Connor was more self serious and not as fun to play. And how this game is just so much more fun. And I agree 100%.

@sterling: Me too. The first half of Assassin's Creed 3 that I played before giving up on it, was a totally trudge. At one point I was playing the game and my roommate at the time (who doesn't play many games at all) asked "you didn't sell this yet?"

This game I'm actually looking forward to playing when I get home from work.