Ubisoft has revealed some new details for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag which include engaging side missions and seamless combat.
Despite its engaging revolutionary setting, many players didn’t particularly enjoy Assassin’s Creed III with ho-hum side missions being one of the more glaring complaints. Ubisoft is hoping to change that with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag however according to creative director Jean Guesdon.
Guesdon understands that many of the side missions and activities in ACIII felt disconnected from the main story and, overall, weren’t that fun to play through. But in Black Flag, every side activity will not only fit in with the game’s Pirate-themed setting, they’ll also help to flesh out the world and make it seem truly alive:
“We have a huge Caribbean open-world that is full of activities and side-missions. We have forts to raid, shipwrecks to discover, smuggler caves to infiltrate, ally ships to escort, trade routes to disrupt, animals to hunt, collectibles to find, etc.
“The key thing here is that all of these activities make sense in the context of the open-world—you will never feel like any of these activities are superfluous, they are all present for a reason, and they are all fun to complete. You are completing these activities to become a stronger pirate and a better assassin.”
Guesdon also touched on how the Black Flag team is aiming to make combat even more seamless, especially in terms of how long-range combat is handled:
“The combat plays very similarly to AC3’s combat, but those extra additions that you mentioned really take it to a whole new level. The multi-pistols mechanic enables you to shoot any enemy mid-combo, so it gives a whole new dimension to how you approach a combat situation. Free-aim enables you to pick off some enemies before the fight even starts, which also helps a lot.”
Fans won’t have to wait much longer to find out for themselves just how much of an improvement Black Flag is over its predecessor when it releases on October 29 for Wii U, PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 (with next-gen versions also slated for Xbox One and PS4).
