Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

 PlayStation 4
User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2658 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2,006 out of 2658
  2. Mixed: 448 out of 2658
  3. Negative: 204 out of 2658
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. Killerpummkin
    Aug 10, 2023
    7
    It's good, but you don't enjoy it, with the money they spend, it could be much better, but it's good enough.
  2. Young__fool
    Mar 9, 2023
    6
    I like almost everything about this game, the characters, the combat and the setting. but to be completeley honest i don't really like the ship combat that much at least i don't like it as much as i really want to. I really want to love it but i just can't. and since the game is focused on ships and that kinda stuff i don't get to experience the parts of the game that i like.
    In my    I like almost everything about this game, the characters, the combat and the setting. but to be completeley honest i don't really like the ship combat that much at least i don't like it as much as i really want to. I really want to love it but i just can't. and since the game is focused on ships and that kinda stuff i don't get to experience the parts of the game that i like.
    In my opinion it's an okay game but if you wan't a lot of good ground combat go play AC unity instead.    … Expand
  3. filip92
    Jan 6, 2023
    6
    Story and some missions overall are nice, but the thing that frustrated me the most is that the game constantly wants you to upgrade your ship so you could be competitive in the naval missions in the game. You must play side missions to do that, and they are very boring and the whole expirience felt like a grind. I come home from the job, want to relax and feel the story (which is good)Story and some missions overall are nice, but the thing that frustrated me the most is that the game constantly wants you to upgrade your ship so you could be competitive in the naval missions in the game. You must play side missions to do that, and they are very boring and the whole expirience felt like a grind. I come home from the job, want to relax and feel the story (which is good) but i get sick when i see ''You should upgrade Jackdaw before starting this mission'' . I think that it is tottaly unnecesary because without that grind, the game is good and fun. Combat is ok, sailing is so immersive,in this game i think you can really ''feel the ocean'' . Also,when pirates start to chant while you sail is music for the ears. But you know Ubisoft, they love to put grinding in their games,especially nowadays. This game could be much better without that stuff, only because of that this game cannot get more than 6.… Expand
  4. goodgriff33
    Dec 24, 2022
    7
    Answer: 75 characters is between 10 words and 19 words with spaces included in the character count. If spaces are not included in the character count, then 75 characters is between 12 words and 25 words.
  5. EKYR
    Nov 21, 2022
    7
    arrrrrrrrrrr m8ty

    this is the best and only pirate game i have played im not sure how Ubisoft made such a great game out of an Assassins creed game ofc comes witih the normal AC game problems boring story rubbish characters other than Edward the dialogue is god awful but i love the feeling that the sea shanties and pirate ship atmosphere makes you so immersed into being a pirate    arrrrrrrrrrr m8ty

    this is the best and only pirate game i have played
    im not sure how Ubisoft made such a great game out of an Assassins creed game
    ofc comes witih the normal AC game problems
    boring story
    rubbish characters other than Edward
    the dialogue is god awful
    but i love the feeling that the sea shanties and pirate ship atmosphere makes you so immersed into being a pirate more than an assassin, Edward is my favourite asssasin ever in this series. i hope Ubisoft makes the next AC game on par with this.
    7.5    … Expand
  6. Justinonye15
    May 29, 2022
    5
    Fun controls and an immersive game with a beautiful open world feel, the main character is fun to play with and the story is interesting asf
  7. Bit_Line
    Mar 27, 2022
    7
    THIS REVIEW IS FOR RUSSIAN SPEAKING PLAYERS!

    Это стала моей первой игрой в серией, и выбрал именно ее, так как вместе с трилогией Эцио называли одной из лучших в серии. Культа вокруг проекта я не понял, и сейчас поясню за плюсы и минусы проекта. Плюсы: 1. Разнообразие активностей. Что в море, что на земле у тебя естт просто куча активностей. В море хочешь - бери на абордаж корабли,    THIS REVIEW IS FOR RUSSIAN SPEAKING PLAYERS!

    Это стала моей первой игрой в серией, и выбрал именно ее, так как вместе с трилогией Эцио называли одной из лучших в серии. Культа вокруг проекта я не понял, и сейчас поясню за плюсы и минусы проекта.

    Плюсы: 1. Разнообразие активностей. Что в море, что на земле у тебя естт просто куча активностей. В море хочешь - бери на абордаж корабли, хочешь - охоться на акул и китов, хочешь - выполняй морские доп задания, хочешь - захватывай крепости и так далее. На земле еще больше активностей - сундуки, карты сокровищ, охота, контракты на убийства, испытания абстерго и так далее. 2. Морские баталии. Морской геймплей намного интереснее, чем на земле. Пиратская атмосфера, много активностей, различные тактики ведения боя, разные погодные условия (туман, водяные смерчи, волны-убийцы). В минусы можно записать только периодически неудобное управление. 3. Паркур. Простой, понятный, эффектный, что еще надо? 4. Графика. От игры 2013 я ждал меньшего, а тут она не просто не вырвиглазная, а даже выдает красивые моменты. Минусы: 1. Наземный геймплей. Геймплей здесь буквально двухкнопрчный - удар саблями/блок. Пытались различными методами разнообразить (дротики, пистолет), но не сделали таким же эффективным, как открытый бой. 2. Сюжет. Он никак не интригует, особенно если идешь не тупо по сюжету, а исследуешь мир. Особенно это видно в моментах, где у тебя должны быть эмоции, но их нет из-за разнообразных причин - от малого экранного времени до нераскрытия персонажа 3. Отсутствие мотивации. Все исследование мира построено лишь на твоем энтузиазме, лишь пара активностей хоть как-то вознаграждается (камни майя в пример). Пропадет энтузиазм - не захочешь исследовать мир, так как кроме как накопления валюты для прокачки оно ничем не прикреплено. Итог. Измененная формула ассассинов с морскими баталиями стала бы успешная, если бы не постный сюжет и скучный наземный геймплей. За небольшую сумму однозначно советую (купил за 400 рублей сам), но за фулпрайс не брать.    … Expand
  8. penmumble
    Feb 21, 2022
    7
    By far one of the more fun AC titles. It's addictive and the world is lush and fun to explore. The sailing mechanics are super fun and there's something kind of special about sailing through the night while your crew sings a sea shanty. Edward is a great assassin; he's suave and cocky and actually pretty funny. His story is surprisingly heartfelt, and this is definitely a memorable AC story.
  9. Flammie
    Nov 9, 2021
    7
    Assassin's creed black flag is a western style RPG / stealth action adventure with a pirate theme and heavy emphasis on sailing and ship warfare on top of typical assassin stuff. It is definitely a triple-A product with high production quality, the plot is well written, the graphics are cool and acting is good. One of the biggest problem for me is controls and the overall experience, thisAssassin's creed black flag is a western style RPG / stealth action adventure with a pirate theme and heavy emphasis on sailing and ship warfare on top of typical assassin stuff. It is definitely a triple-A product with high production quality, the plot is well written, the graphics are cool and acting is good. One of the biggest problem for me is controls and the overall experience, this is the first assassin's creed that I played so maybe it's just not for me, but I find that the game overall is super slow to control. I get it that it's mainly stealth game but e.g. stealth in Batman Arkham series, Spiderman or Metal Gear Solids are all more controllable for me to play. The last straw with the controls for me is that you have to run to do most things and running usually causes the character to jump or climb just the wrong thing, so most failure's are more like problem with controls than my own fault. The sailing part is fun for a while but becomes monotonous way before you have collected all the ports, ships, etc. etc. To summarise I'd say I played first 66,6 % of the game being excited and enjoying myself and then sprinted through the last 33,3 % just to see the ending that I was only half-interested in anymore.… Expand
  10. renatoelyone
    Jan 17, 2021
    6
    Game had enormous potential but the bugs and repetitions take the shine out of that game. The story starts well but gets lost in the course of the characters are charismatic. The biggest problem of this game is to be from Ubisoft, this game needed more than 2 years of development to be a top game and a broken game that lacks polish.
  11. Sr_PuXiToPuiG
    Jan 3, 2021
    7
    Piola. .
  12. Sovietkiller
    Dec 9, 2020
    7
    I think people think AC 4 is the good one, the one worth playing. I totally agree with that, the exploration is better than any other game in the series except maybe Rogue, but AC 4 pioneered it. So why is it a 7. The story's great, Edward is great, the cities are mostly great except for Kingston, and there's a whole Caribbean Fantasy to explore. In my personal and undoubtably rightI think people think AC 4 is the good one, the one worth playing. I totally agree with that, the exploration is better than any other game in the series except maybe Rogue, but AC 4 pioneered it. So why is it a 7. The story's great, Edward is great, the cities are mostly great except for Kingston, and there's a whole Caribbean Fantasy to explore. In my personal and undoubtably right opinion AC4 is the buggiest AC game ever. Forget Unity, which is completely patched now, AC4 got worse! The amount of minor glitches and parkour bugs I experience ruined the parkour experience and going back to AC3 or going ahead to Unity I realized just how buggy this game is. The bugs ruined my experience and no one talks about it. I found one review by a Youtuber named Whitelight which mentions this issue, but it's much worse than you think. Every time you're smoothly walking along the Ancient Temple in a remote part of the Mexican coast or Caribbean your suddenly created with a seizure of weird glitches and Edward sliding off the temple. The combat is also buggy as hell, maybe not as buggy as Unity, but along with the easy combat, which I don't like, the overly wrong tutorial and the most bugs than in other AC right now, it brings this masterpiece of exploration and fulfilling your dream of being in the Pirates of the Caribbean down to a 7. If you read this whole thing and played the game on any device, including the Switch version, I'm sure you'll agree. And AC Rogue don't fix these issues so unless you loved the exploration so much get Rogue for $20 on Amazon instead of the Freedom Cry Dlc for $15 because of the overwhelming amount of locations in Rogue, I think it's almost double Black Flag. Going to the DLC, how did they have time for a full DLC when they didn't finish the game, oh and multiplayer, if they go rid of multiplayer and Dlc and just fixed the game it would be a 9/10 or 10/10, they will probably never fix the game because they didn't fix thew Switch port, but the exploration in this game and Edward was enough to take this game from a 3 or 4/10 to 7/10, I hope this shows you why this is the score it is.… Expand
  13. Sneakyfox
    Aug 28, 2020
    5
    Overall a very tedious experience.
    I've played every other AC game bar Rogue, and I must say this is probably the worst Assassin's Creed game.

    Is it a decent pirate game? Probably.
    But for someone who is looking for an Assassin's Creed experience, I really didn't enjoy this one and quit it after around sequence 8.
  14. JoshTejas
    Jul 25, 2020
    7
    Late to the party here as I played in 2020. Overall it was an enjoyable experience. The sailing portion of this was the most enjoyable part in my opinion. It was fun to have your own ship and upgrade it along the way while taking part in naval battles. The controls were wonky at times as is per the usual in AC games. Free running doesn't always work like you want it to when trying to makeLate to the party here as I played in 2020. Overall it was an enjoyable experience. The sailing portion of this was the most enjoyable part in my opinion. It was fun to have your own ship and upgrade it along the way while taking part in naval battles. The controls were wonky at times as is per the usual in AC games. Free running doesn't always work like you want it to when trying to make quick maneuvers, but that has always been my experience. My biggest complaint here is being basically level gated during some portions of the game. It's hard to progress in the story late into the game if you ship isn't upgraded enough. I was playing for the story missions and I didn't have a lot of interest in going off doing other things just so I could upgrade. I actually didn't finish the game as the game literally told me "Maybe you should upgrade your ship." after I kept losing in a fight on the water. I dislike things like this, which is why I'm giving it a 7.… Expand
  15. danield80
    Jun 28, 2020
    7
    The sailing part of the game is perfect, entertaining, satisfying.
    The part on foot is worse than in other older and newer ac games. Too simple "run from-bush-to-bush" sneaking, easy combat. Uninspiring assassinations. Most of the missions are "tail" and "eavesdrop." The story is being incessantly interrupted by some "I don't care about" present day chapters.
    Pity, considering the on sea    The sailing part of the game is perfect, entertaining, satisfying.
    The part on foot is worse than in other older and newer ac games. Too simple "run from-bush-to-bush" sneaking, easy combat. Uninspiring assassinations. Most of the missions are "tail" and "eavesdrop." The story is being incessantly interrupted by some "I don't care about" present day chapters.
    Pity, considering the on sea missions are awesome, the graphics are great (for 2013). Ubisoft should've made a new IP only about the sailing. But that wouldn't make that much profit as ac game would do.
    7.7/10    … Expand
  16. PaektusanLeader
    Jun 24, 2020
    7
    Quite a decent game, but the mechanics are quite weird. The story is alright as well.
  17. coolwali
    Jun 22, 2020
    7
    While the story is amazing, ship combat gets boring after a few hours. Ship exploration has very little to actually find. On foot, the lack of challenge or varied gamelay hurts.
  18. DinoBeam
    Jun 21, 2020
    6
    It starts out feeling like the ultimate pirate game with a great cast of characters, but falls to overly un-fun dark writing and frustrating missions. If Pirates of the Caribbean is %100 fun and adventure, Black Flag comes only to %25, after feeling like %90 early on.
  19. ToshLichev
    Jun 21, 2020
    7
    A good game that should have never bared the AC logo imo. Not an Assassin's Creed game in any way, shape or form. That aside, it can be quite fun at times, the story and characters are interesting enough and the setting is pretty cool. Major con - ship stealth, the whole ship aspect is annoying enough as it is for me, but ship stealth? Are you f***ing serious?
  20. KasperNyvang
    Jun 21, 2020
    6
    Well it's a really good pirate game, with a bit of assassin tossed into the mix
  21. dayungvinci
    Apr 13, 2020
    7
    Das Spiel ist an sich gut. Doch es gibt sehr viele Sachen die stören: Die Steuerung: JUNGE WIE SOLL ICH DAUERND R2 HALTEN KÖNNEN ICH HATTE NACH 15 MIN SPIELEN EINEN KRAMPF IN DER HAND
    Die Story: ich habe die Story von Anfang an nicht verstanden. Die Story ist keine Story.
    Die Grafik: die Grafik ist gealtert, das merkt man, aber da es ein 2013 Spiel ist sollte man sich nicht darüber    Das Spiel ist an sich gut. Doch es gibt sehr viele Sachen die stören: Die Steuerung: JUNGE WIE SOLL ICH DAUERND R2 HALTEN KÖNNEN ICH HATTE NACH 15 MIN SPIELEN EINEN KRAMPF IN DER HAND
    Die Story: ich habe die Story von Anfang an nicht verstanden. Die Story ist keine Story.
    Die Grafik: die Grafik ist gealtert, das merkt man, aber da es ein 2013 Spiel ist sollte man sich nicht darüber aufregen. Ich empfehle dieses Spiel wirklich nur im Sale, es ist nicht so gut.    … Expand
  22. mrkp
    Jan 14, 2020
    6
    сначало вроде ничего, выход и сражения в море интересны и красивы, но после пяти - шести часов однообразие и скучный сюжет надоедают
  23. alexslork
    Nov 3, 2019
    5
    Самая ненавистная часть для меня. Я ее просто терпеть не могу.
  24. MazrimTaim14
    Oct 16, 2019
    6
    Such as waste that this wasnt solely a pirate game. the mechanics and upgrade of the ship battles were amazing. too bad the pace is all over the place due to the present day (as always) and the assassin story line.Still, a huge improvement over the blandfest of AC3.
  25. bulger_paul
    May 27, 2019
    5
    Not usually a fan of the AC games, but the pirate stuff in this game is awesome
  26. Zeratex
    Feb 11, 2019
    5
    This is where AC franchise started to go downhill, by expanding its open world so much, when AC2 was released the open world was fine not too big, here it got too big so that it makes you lose interest after a while because of its boring side missions and bad combat, it just looks good from graphics stand point, thats it, and the story is also not bad, everything else gets repetitive andThis is where AC franchise started to go downhill, by expanding its open world so much, when AC2 was released the open world was fine not too big, here it got too big so that it makes you lose interest after a while because of its boring side missions and bad combat, it just looks good from graphics stand point, thats it, and the story is also not bad, everything else gets repetitive and dull easily with few hours.

    Average game.
    5.5/10    … Expand
  27. Dark_Huntress
    Jan 14, 2019
    6
    This game would be great if it was only a pirate game, not an AC, but being what it is, it fails as an AC and as a pirate game. The AC franchise had its strongest point on the plot, but Black Flag is where everything starts to confuse you: the brotherhood is secondary and lame, the missions are plain boring and all the present day story is a mess.
    The world is big, but full of repetitive    This game would be great if it was only a pirate game, not an AC, but being what it is, it fails as an AC and as a pirate game. The AC franchise had its strongest point on the plot, but Black Flag is where everything starts to confuse you: the brotherhood is secondary and lame, the missions are plain boring and all the present day story is a mess.
    The world is big, but full of repetitive things, like small islands with only a chest in it or big cities full of pointless collectibles.
    The strong point of this game is being a pirate: naval battles, basically. This part was limited by the fact they tried to make this game look like an AC by putting a "deep plot" other than just... pirate things? The results: a very, very ok game.    … Expand
  28. Leontorres7
    Nov 15, 2018
    7
    A really good game, there are lots of cool things about it and it is a lot of fun to play.
  29. Lewis-Angelo
    Nov 15, 2018
    6
    puedo decir que lo más destacable de esta entrega son un par de temas de la banda sonora, porque la historia va sin rumbo hasta que naufraga al final
    otro intento fallido de crear un personaje interesante, y de seguir los arcos argumentales que ya no dan para más
    el combate, tanto a pié como en barco estaba mejor en AC3, en medio de una batalla puedes ponerte tranquilamente a abordar    puedo decir que lo más destacable de esta entrega son un par de temas de la banda sonora, porque la historia va sin rumbo hasta que naufraga al final
    otro intento fallido de crear un personaje interesante, y de seguir los arcos argumentales que ya no dan para más

    el combate, tanto a pié como en barco estaba mejor en AC3, en medio de una batalla puedes ponerte tranquilamente a abordar barcos, en los cuales los aliados estorban más de lo que ayudan...

    recién terminado y con un montonazo de iconos y cosas secundarias por hacer, un 51% de progresión con el mismo equipo desde el principio, caza y fabricación de objetos desaprovechada, sin un duro para mejorar el barco, y lo repetitivo que llega a ser cada batalla naval

    y en las misiones principales se pasan también con el sigilo, muy poca variedad, la mitad del tiempo con el muñeco en un arbusto siguiendo gente

    está muy lejos de ser un Assassin's Creed como AC2 y Brotherhood
    Brotherhood>AC2>AC3>Revelations>Black Flag>AC1    … Expand
  30. RealMuthaF
    Oct 6, 2018
    6
    So, after roughly 4 years of abstinence, I've decided to go back to the AC franchise where I left off. And, unsurprisingly, Black Flag turns out to be a mere reskin of AC3 that had come out just a year before it.

    The core gameplay is exactly the same as before - parkour, dull combat and expanded ship fights. The ships were already there in AC3, here they just replace horses as a means    So, after roughly 4 years of abstinence, I've decided to go back to the AC franchise where I left off. And, unsurprisingly, Black Flag turns out to be a mere reskin of AC3 that had come out just a year before it.

    The core gameplay is exactly the same as before - parkour, dull combat and expanded ship fights. The ships were already there in AC3, here they just replace horses as a means of traveling between cities. As a result, we get a pretty cool sailor atmosphere, although it's all ruined by the game's repetitiveness. It's pretty great to board an enemy ship and bring its crew to their knees, but on the 30-50th time? Not so much. Same goes for underwater swimming, whale hunting and the rest of the mini-games AC IV offers. The 3 main cities themselves are largely unremarkable, and, what I found very disappointing, are not connected to the main open world - whenever you approach a city, there's a loading screen.

    The story and characters are among the worst of the franchise - Kenway is a dull stereotypical scoundrel type with a heart of gold, who predictably and implausibly changes his ways closer to endgame. All of the side cast are boring pirates who do pirate stuff - drink rum, argue and kill people. It's cool that they're based off real historical figures, but with such poor writing I couldn't care less about the forced drama associated with some of them. And the main plot is also unbearably boring - you start looking for yet another "precursor" artifact, then spend half the missions doing filler sh*t like searching for supplies for your bland pirate friends, then you get back to looking for the artifact. Amazing.

    So, to sum up, this game is a mediocre oversized DLC for Assassin's Creed 3 with a ridiculously poor story, same gameplay and a cool atmosphere than runs out due to repetitiveness. It doesn't deserve a "IV" in its title and I can't believe why some people on the Web would count this as one of the franchise's best. Had I played this right after AC3, my score would've been even lower.    … Expand
prev
Page:

Awards & Rankings

7
#7 Best PS4 Game of 2013
3
#3 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2013
4
#4 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 29
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 29
  3. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. GamingTrend
    Apr 20, 2014
    90
    The PlayStation 4 version of the game is mechanically the same as the PlayStation 3 version, but the new engine is eye-poppingly awesome.
    Read full review
  2. Merlin'in Kazanı (Turkey)
    Jan 30, 2014
    83
    Ubisoft significantly improved the multiplayer side of things. Also, story takes you places.
    Read full review
  3. Thunderbolt
    Jan 4, 2014
    80
    It’s difficult to imagine Assassin’s Creed ever leaving the sea behind.
    Read full review
See all critic reviews »