Apologies to those of you who've followed my writing on Assassin's Creed over the last couple of years as I'm going to repeat myself a little bit here, but for those of you coming into this review in need of a little context, here's the beef: Assassin's Creed III was a sprawling, clunky,...

Huge; enormously detailed world; Filled to the brim with things to do; see; kill; and collect; Stealth is back in a big way; Naval sandbox is fantastic; Freeform assassinations YAY; The cohesion and progression make for a truly rewarding experience

Huge; enormously detailed world; Filled to the brim with things to do; see; kill; and collect; Stealth is back in a big way; Naval sandbox is fantastic; Freeform assassinations YAY; The cohesion and progression make for a truly rewarding experience; Combat seems to be worse than before,...

An ambitious start for Assassin's Creed on next-gen. The vibrant Caribbean world and bloody piracy shine brightest, while the only sour notes come from contrived series story beats and repetitive missions--both need rethinking for AC5.

Beautiful; vast open world; Edward Kenway is an excellent rogue; Top-notch side-missions

Main missions suffer from repetition; Assassin's Creed lore has devolved to nonsense; Very few actual assassinations

We take to the high seas with our hands on preview of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

The amazing world of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has kept me gladly occupied for longer than any other game in the series, even though its story isn't the strongest. At no point in my dozens of hours was I ever at a loss for something to do.

Epic scope; Great side quests; Lighter tone; Beautiful moments

Disappointing main story

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag has little to do with assassins, but is the perfect direction for the Creed series. The pirate styling and naval setting are a perfect fit for the stealth meshed with free-running and pure combat.

+ An awesome world to explore; + Great balance of naval and land gameplay; + Searching for treasure; + A rewarding progressions system

- Forced stealth is rubbish; - Story loses its way a little

The year is 1715, and lawless pirates dominate the Caribbean Sea. Neither land nor sea is safe from these rapscallions, and the biggest hellraiser of them all is a young captain named Edward Kenway, who explores the waters during piracy's golden age.

Exciting stealth-based action; Beautiful next-gen graphics; An expansive open world; Dozens of hours of gameplay on land and at sea

Difficult to control player character at times; Unrealistic NPC movements and interactions

I've played all the assassins creeds and I've enjoyed them all but this one is by far the best one yet. Not just because it's next generation and the graphics Etc are much better, but their seems much more to do in this game.

I have always loved the fiction that Ubisoft created for the Assassin's Creed games. The war between Templer Knights and a brotherhood of assassins that has raged over the millennia within history's shadows is extremely compelling.

-Pirating at sea; -Huge but intricate world; -Incredible visuals; -Edward is a great character; -Hunting sharks is as cool as it sounds; -Love those sea shanys

-less options in combat; -a few free running hiccups

I had to do a double take when looking in to the history of the Assassin's Creed series as a whole in advance of writing this review. With no less than fifteen games released in the six years since the first Assassin's Creed game a certain term inevitably comes to mind.

The overall game is as good as the rest of the Assassin's Creed series, but does little to improve itself over the previous editions. The game does a good job at balancing between the number of sneaking land missions and the aggressive sea missions.