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. Using an expanded version of the sailing mechanic from Assassin's Creed III, Black Flag sees Edward journeying from Jamaica to Cuba to Spanish Florida to the Bahamas on his ship, the . Conway, as he searches for treasure, also finds his place within the ancient, series-defining Assassin/Templar conflict. Meanwhile, in the game's overarching meta-story, players take on the role of a video game programmer at the Templar front company Abstergo and search the cloud for the uploaded genetic information on the Kenway family line. It's a game within a game. Gameception, if you will. And it's quite fun. Raising the Black FlagBlack Flag's game world isn't as sprawling as Grand Theft Auto V's($16.88 at Amazon) Los Santos, but the environment...

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag puts the franchise back on track with a gorgeous huge open world that's ripe for exploration. It's a must-buy for stealth-action fans.

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

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

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 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

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

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,...

To say the internet has a big thing for pirates, it's quite amusing that we have never had a fantastic pirate video game. Sure, we have had games that use a theme around piracy, say Skies of Arcadia 's sky pirates or the pirate theme of The Secret of Monkey Island , but there's never been one game...

Fantastic game, have loved it from beginning to end. The combat both melee and ship is excellent, typical AC leaping, running and jumping. Probably only a couple of criticism's which I will state up front don't detract from the overall game for me, the characters could be a little more fleshed out,...

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

Meet Edward Kenway, the son of AC3 's Haytham Kenway and the grandparent of Connor. Edward is a pirate that loves to be free, sail the seven seas and loves to live life by the pirate code. Deep down he is just a mere man, that just wants an easily (ish) life and to provide for his loved one.

A fresh uncomplicated & gripping story +Edward Kenway is likable & charismatic +Gameplay has been simplified for the better +Naval combat has also be improved +Huge open world +Tons of replay value +Beautiful Visuals

Running up the wrong wall/tree unintentionally can be very irritating; Still no crouch button