Now I can say it! “Well, that was quick.”

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was one of the games I bought at launch for the Xbox One, and it was the only game that had any real meat to it at the time. The other games I had were Forza Motorsport 5, which was pretty lean on content, and Call of Duty Ghosts, which was.. well, it was Call of Duty Ghosts. There was also RYSE, and I think maybe even Battlefield IV, but they were all multiplayer focused, or short, linear experiences. Black Flag was the only one that was a fully realized single player game. The single player experience was extremely important at this time, because the Xbox One’s dashboard, multiplayer functionality, and party chat system was completely broken at launch. Remember that? It seems like decades ago.

Black Flag was my go-to next-gen game, and I played the hell out of it. I remember grinding the shit out of that game, scrounging every treasure chest and loot I could find, trying to scavenge for every syncronization point, Animus fragment, and bit of gold I could in order to upgrade my pirate ship. And my pirate base. The pirate base I couldn’t even remember the location to. It all got very tiresome, and I eventually tapered off and put it down for good once more games came out for the system (and once Microsoft fixed the dashboard issues).

So once I finished ACIII and moved on to Black Flag, I had a choice to make. Should I start over, or continue from my save from late 2013? I couldn’t remember much about the game, but loading up the old save and taking a look at the map reminded me of all those countless hours sailing from island to island hunting for treasure, assaulting each fort to capture it and alleviate the bombardment of mortars, the attacks on ships of all sizes for the necessary cargo to upgrade the Jackdaw, the unlocking of all the outfits I had so far, etc. etc. etc. The thought of doing all that again really did take the wind out of my sails, so to speak. I didn’t really have the energy for that again. Story-wise, I had left off in the middle of Sequence 8, of 12, already three-quarters of the way through the game.

I quickly chose to pick up where I left off. The mechanics wouldn’t be lost on me, since they were practically ripped straight from ACIII, so combat wouldn’t have to be re-learned. The only downside was that the characters, aside from a select few, were a bit foggy, as were the events from earlier in the game. As such, I can’t really speak on the story, though I can confidently say that the characters were 100% more likeable than in ACIII. Edward Kenway is a flawed protagonist, doing bad things for the right reasons (to him, anyway. He is a pirate after all). His motivation for the vast majority of the game was personal wealth, and I really did like that he only posed as an Assassin, and was never really part of their order. Which made sense. He was a pirate, by their very nature they bucked against laws and regulations, and seeing Kenway follow some ancient guidelines and conforming to some line of beliefs wouldn’t have fit. So I’m glad they didn’t go there. Some of the supporting cast were both likeable and simultaneously despicable. I liked Blackbeard, despite the fact that he was, ya know, Blackbeard.

The ending showed Kenway, with his daughter and his (I could swear he called him “son”) Haytham, even though I’m pretty sure he was his grandson. We knew that Haytham was Edward Kenway’s descendant, but I would’ve really liked to see how Edward screwed up and Haytham became a Templar instead. He acts and fights like an Assassin. Perhaps there’s some backstory in Unity or Syndicate that will shed some light?

We shall see. It was nice that the epilogue brought back our original two Assassins that helped Desmond save the world. Shaun, and… other.. lady. I can’t remember her name off the top of my head. I’m sure I’ll see them again soon. The whole ending to the Desmond saga left me confused as shit about the whole Juno thing, and I’m slowly but surely zoning out on that whole storyline, just as my eyes are glossing over every time I see the whole Abstergo Entertainment shit. I get it, we’re playing a game about people playing a game. It’s so meta. After six games, I just don’t care anymore.

I’ll be glad when the Juno crap is wrapped up and we can just play as Assassins and be badasses. If I’m not mistaken, that doesn’t happen until Origins, am I right? One more reason to get through these last two AC games as quickly as possible.

If this blog post reads like it was written in less than five minutes, it’s because it was.