Let's jump right into it. Assassins Creed 4: Black Flag is quite a step up in my mind. Devout players of the series may disagree with me. I see the game-play (Land battles, assassinations, sailing your own ship, ship battles, etc.) as a way of taking your mind off of traditional game-play. When I first started the game I was in awe like so many others.The beauty of the game was what caught my attention. Now I am 40+ % of the way thru the story-line I see what the developers are trying to do. History and being historically accurate in all situations. The game-play stems directly from this. For example (no spoilers) lets say I needed to kill a few targets in Nassau then a few side activities blah blah blah. Then my next mission was located in Kingston. Along the way to Kingston I had to sink a high level ship. And for shits and gigs or for the sake of the game; sinking that ship was a mission that drove the story to my destination (Kingston.) I see this as a gear driving you to want to be back on land fighting the real fight while keeping in mind the exciting battles and constant fear of losing your ship half way to a hunter ship or battle of some-kind. Basically I feel the game is divided like this to keep you interested in your next location, mission, or discovery and in the end...Freedom! Taking control of the sea and stopping the enemy from holding you back in your quest as a true Pirate!

I prefer smelly pirate hookers, although AC4 is pretty good.