The Hidden Blade Assassin's Creed in Depth

I know I have a lot of game left (finished 2 assassination targets) so my final judgement may change, but I must say this. Up to this point, I do NOT think this is one of the better Assassin's Creed games. Edward isn't one of the better protagonists. The side content has been too easy with viewpoints instantly showing you EVERYTHING. The naval is fun, but the core things that make Assassin's Creed Assassin's Creed aren't there. Yes, he's a pirate. And I can see his convictions slowly changing, but they have played too much on the "only do things for money" aspect. We get it. You like money. Nothing against other people's opinions in this thread, but I find Kidd to be incredibly annoying. He's even more rash than Edward. When Edward is the voice of reason and rational thought, there's something wrong. Many of the tutorials felt overly forced, especially when tailing Kidd. "Hey, Edward! Try this! Now try that! Oh, I wonder what this does over here!" At least the tutorials in AC3 were woven into the story through Templar recruitment. So far, the story hasn't engaged me. If your story doesn't engage the audience after 30% of the game, something is wrong.

Also, Assassin's contracts in the open world shouldn't show up until introduced in the story. Makes no sense. (one of many things like this)

I like the story so far, but then again I'm only about halfway through sequence 3. I wonder when I can get started on the present day stuff, because I have tried walking around in the offices and couldn't find anything but un-unlockable doors.

I think Edward's story isn't about money. It's about status, and living a comfortable life. Money is just a means to an end, in a sense.

But, yeah, so far I think it's a fantastic game (InTehVaria is going to LOVE actually obtaining the Jackdaw). It's just not really Assassin's Creed because it's less urban. Havana does a pretty good job of recreating that feel though, but it's only a small part of the game.

I'm surprised you give a positive opinion about this game. Maybe I have to buy it, finally...

You can do present day after 3 then again after 5. That's where i am now.

EDIT: i guess it was sequence 6. Man they run together (and that happens with the severe lack of targets to this point).

Great to have confirmation about stealth boarding. Judging by that detailed breakdown it's a sort of half-baked concept, but it's definitely something I'll be trying once I have the game. I hope the layouts of enemy ships allow you to maintain stealth after boarding, but I'm doubtful. It's funny, some of the most interesting missions in the series have dealt with this exact scenario. The "Wet Work" assassination mission in AC2 and the infamous "Conflict Looms" from AC3 were a couple of the most memorable for me. I was just thinking that taking a ship that would be impossible with a frontal assault with stealth would be interesting, but it doesn't seem like something they wanted to encourage. Thanks for all the experimenting.

James Kidd's character gets better when you actually... Y'know. Find out who he is. There are two "layers" to his character. He's actually an incredibly smart, reasonable individual and much of Edward's character development, especially near the end is as a result of Kidd and Adewale.

That's my current thinking, ITV. Man o wars are daunting... But i think my chances would be better to sneak on and kill everyone rather than risk the jackdaw and my crew. Will check this and report back at some point.

Correct. I used money as an example and wasn't clear.

What I meant was "Yes. We get it, Ubisoft. Edward does things for his own reasons (money, fame, status) and no one else's. You don't need to reference this every memory for 30-40% of the game."

It does get a bit repetitive at some point, which is why it's so heartbreaking to see the losses he suffers because of that same mentality over and over again, and so refreshing to see him change due to certain characters and the things they told him.

MEGA CHARACTER DEATH SPOILERS BELOW, RIGHT UP UNTIL THE END OF THE GAME

To me, this is more repetitive/annoying than Connor asking everyone about Charles Lee. At least Connor might find out different information about where he is from different people. SOMEone might know... But (so far) every other memory has been, "Hey Edward, let's do this thing." "I dunno..." "Would a bit of coin sweeten the deal." "Yes. Let's do this." Every person in the Caribbean knows that it would sweeten the deal. You don't have to ask any more.

SEQ 7 SPOILER BELOW

I want to press those spoiler buttons so much!!!! But then I'm like no, myself, no. No spoilers until you beat the game. Unfortunetly, you need to buy the game in order to beat it. Dammit...

Me too, Flush, me too.

We'll see about that. I'm still not very far in the game.

Don't click my Spoiler buttons unless you're done the game. They detail MAJOR CHARACTER DEATHS, as I said. You will not be ready for these deaths, and knowing about them beforehand will suck for you.

Very true.

I don't plan to... I'm good with not spoiling myself. I'm bad about not spoiling things for other people once I know.

Would totally work... if you don't fall from the highest mast to your death below... oops.

But this would be an easy way to get Man O Wars for your fleet.

Oh my god, this is why I LOVE TheHiddenBlade. Thinking like this. Cleverness. Trying crazy stuff with AC games. This is the reason I joined this site to begin with (Ian and Stab I'm staring hard at you both.)

Alright. I'll give it a shot when I get home and report back. I'm not very good at saying what I DIDN'T try, which is a problem because I'm not as experienced of a glitcher/AC thinker as most people on this site, and my ability to find Exploits is not yet Master Assassin-level. I CAN say what I did do though, so that should help you with covering any holes in my thinking without needing to retrace stuff I've done.

one thing that would be good to know is the radius at which point the fight triggers.

I'll mark it with a Custom Marker, then travel at the Slowest Sailing speed (Half Sail) while I inch toward it, keeping an eye on the Distance indicator. I'll also do this for all four, to make sure the Distance-To-Trigger is uniform. If it's not, I'll record that too.

Oh shit! There are 4?!

Clearly, I need to progress in the story some more if other people here are saying the story is great.

The most compelling characters and stories I've run into are the "Templar Hunt" storylines.

Of course, I'm still in sequence 7, I think... But that's still half the game, and I don't really care about Edward's story yet...

I honestly didn't care about Edward's story until sometime around mid-Sequence 8. And that just comes down to the tasty word consequence. Consequence is probably Edward's biggest Theme Word. It really, really changes things, and all in a few short moments. I was honestly broken at one point. The greatest/worst part is when he himself does the whole Realization thing because of reasons and it's just like wow man, why you gotta hurt me like dat.

Also, yeah, Templar Hunts were incredible and I'm glad you did them as early as you could because that's going to make you enjoy lategame so much more due to the way certain things fit together chronologically. It just makes more sense and everything is smooth if you do them all beforehand.

I've done 3 of the 4, and I don't know where the other one is...

Believe me, I'm the worst at finding cool stuff and exploits. When I first watched Stab's videos, I was like "what... where.... how.....?!?! Who would think of that?!?!

Believe me, I'm the worst at finding cool stuff and exploits. When I first watched Stab's videos, I was like "what... where.... how.....?!?! Who would think of that?!?!

Believe me, I'm the worst at finding cool stuff and exploits. When I first watched Stab's videos, I was like "what... where.... how.....?!?! Who would think of that?!?!

Believe me, I'm the worst at finding cool stuff and exploits. When I first watched Stab's videos, I was like "what... where.... how.....?!?! Who would think of that?!?!

Believe me, I'm the worst at finding cool stuff and exploits. When I first watched Stab's videos, I was like "what... where.... how.....?!?! Who would think of that?!?!

okay okay! WE BELIEVE YOU!

Holy fuck, quintuple post.

I'll get to glitching out this game when I finish the storyline. Also, "you should upgrade the Jackdaw for this mission", my ass. I (spoiler)

There are probably some interesting things you can do, but right now I just want to finish the story (I think I'm on sequence 07).

The first time I saw this, I sh*t my pants, because I accidentally accepted the mission when I was trying to slow down my ship. But You don't really need to upgrade very much in the main story. You just need to learn how to properly fight against other ships. Now you DO need upgrades when doing side missions.

I think the Templar Hunt opener you're missing is on one of the Cayman islands on your World Map. They're pretty close to each other, one is to the left and bottom of the other one. I forgot their exact names but they both have Cayman in their names, Cayman Sound and Grand Cayman or something.

So is the spyglass available in the game as a tool or something, or were they not planning to ever put it in the game?

Reminds me of the first time seeing a stunt assassination. I thought, jump behind the target so you could assassinate without having to worry about it being blocked? Why didn't I think of that?! I was such a noob chasing after those fleeing targets.

As far as I know, Spyglass is just the Naval equivalent of Eagle Vision. Don't think it's selectable on Land.

For the most part I thought they do a pretty good job of making sure main story naval combat is doable without a fuss. It's getting to the point where you can take down man of wars and get the supplies for upgrades that's challenging.

I saw a post further up about how the viewpoints show everything. That's true, but I feel like that's more than compensated by the treasure maps, which give you nothing more than the coordinates and a sketch that is sometimes very specific, sometimes pretty vague.

With everything easily marked by viewpointing, it just takes out the dumb hassle of combing the map in a grid pattern or whatever, and the designers have been able to make the real challenge more about free-running optimally to catch music notes, or getting to a tricky to reach data fragment.

After 47 feathers in AC2, I just went and looked up a guide. they know people will do that already, so why not just make it part of the game and add challenge elsewhere?

One problem with the collectibles: they said that the whole map is unlocked after a few hours. That's not strictly true. There are several places that you can't get to until the story takes you there, or at least they're unmarked on your map, I'm not sure. Those places hide the final mayan stele puzzles. So once you get 13 stele, don't break your eyes combing the map for more. you'll hopefully notice when you arrive at locations that weren't marked before.

I can kinda see why, since the mayan reward is immensely powerful, almost ridiculously so.

Edward is not really what I was expecting. The whole way he gets involved in the templar/assassin conflict was totally unexpected for me, and it sets the tone for his motivations throughout the game. See the story through though, and you'll probably end up liking him and pretty much all of his supporting cast. Writing is fantastic.

I still like and miss Connor, but Edward is now my second favorite.

And really, no AC game has handled its ending phase better than Black Flag. Continual escalation towards a extremely satisfying conclusion. Overall it feels like they really thought about and understood how to make a story that jived with the mechanics of a game, wheras some previous games have structured themselves in ways that work better for non-interactive mediums.

They also did a lot better with all of the linear action moments. Feels engaging, doesn't feel like it could break at any moment, doesn't last too long, there aren't too many of them and is often transitioned into or out of with actual stealth gameplay.

Assassin tomb-style platforming is mostly integrated into the world or story missions, there is no side activity dedicated to such things.

Optional obectives are far less obnoxious on average, but there are times when they get a little too specific. All pretty doable, though.

Game looks prettier and loads faster than it has any right to on current gen, and overall it gives me hope for the future of the series. Which you can possibly glimpse if you do enough hacking and reading : 3

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
Fully Synchronized in under 50 Hours
Ashraf Ismail (Creative Director) had previously stated Full Synchronization would take around 100 Hours. I’m happy I was able to score under half that. I feel so good. That was fun all the way through.

Favorite Weapon: Hidden Blades
Favorite Tool: Standard Wheellock Pistols

Remaining Content:
- Unlock all Kenway’s Fleet Destinations (To 100% Abstergo Challenges)

- Reach 55 in Multiplayer
- Play/use every Mode, Ranged Weapon, Ability Once in Multiplayer
(Both for Platinum/1000g)

Dude, you've even already done the multiplayer? Badass

I played it for quite a while, yeah. I had to do SOMETHING while waiting for 16-hour time chunks while Fleet brought stuff back. I really enjoy it, it's wonderful and very clever as always. The Cutthroat is my BOY! Can't wait for that awesome, thief/rogue-looking Prestige Cutthroat.

I finished the game about 5 or so days ago and I'm nowhere near ready to start trying to finish everything! I've been in that game for more than 30 hours over a short period of time, I need a break!

Oh my God, one of the Cheats is "Hardcore Mode". Edward and the Jackdaw do not regenerate health.

I actually really enjoy playing with that.

Wait, where do you find your statistics? I couldn't find them.

Pause > Database > Statistics

Sorry for the spamming guys, it was an accident. After writing the comment I pressed save, and it wouldn't move. So I pressed it ton of times... I hope it won't happen to me again with this comment.

I'm in sequence 11 and have 6 memories left in the main story of the game. Still, I couldn't care less about Edward as a character or his story.

Spoiler tags missing /, DAZ.