User Score
8.0

Generally favorable reviews- based on 2658 Ratings

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  1. 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.
  2. 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
  3. Jul 10, 2020
    0
    All Ubisoft games is failure, boring and pointless is not worth wasting hours of your life.
  4. Jul 17, 2021
    0
    I could write a million word essay on everything wrong with this game. However, I think i’ll save us both some time and just tell you everything good about this game. Cons: Everything Pros: It ends.
  5. 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
  6. 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.
  7. May 26, 2021
    4
    This game is a huge dumpster fire. The game has one of the worst par core systems ever. Edward would jump on random things if you are trying to do a chase sequence and then you will loose the person you are chasing. The missions are so repetitive with terrible characters other than Edward. The naval combat is ok but even on 2021 the game has so many bugs its crazy on how Ubisoft releasesThis game is a huge dumpster fire. The game has one of the worst par core systems ever. Edward would jump on random things if you are trying to do a chase sequence and then you will loose the person you are chasing. The missions are so repetitive with terrible characters other than Edward. The naval combat is ok but even on 2021 the game has so many bugs its crazy on how Ubisoft releases games that are unfinished all the time and get away with it. Expand
  8. May 8, 2021
    4
    Great game but not user friendly on Nintendo switch. Love it otherwise. It bugs out allot on switch in my experience
  9. 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.
  10. Sep 2, 2022
    9
    A great game with masterpiece ship mechanics and an atmospheric open world to explore but a boring story and main missions.
  11. Mar 14, 2016
    6
    Main character is terrible bored, badly written with combination very stupid story. After that side this is one of worst game on ps4 what i played yet. Age of pirates never fascinate me. This game not change it.
  12. Aug 25, 2023
    8
    Black Flag is my favourite Assassins Creed game, but it would have bene better if it had nothing to do with Assassins Creed. With the exception of leaps of faith, pretty much every element here from AC has lead me to realize how much I dislike the franchise. Boring tailing missions, annoying sneaking missions, stupid chase sequences that have 0 flexibility…and don’t even get me started onBlack Flag is my favourite Assassins Creed game, but it would have bene better if it had nothing to do with Assassins Creed. With the exception of leaps of faith, pretty much every element here from AC has lead me to realize how much I dislike the franchise. Boring tailing missions, annoying sneaking missions, stupid chase sequences that have 0 flexibility…and don’t even get me started on eavesdropping…hell technically a huge part of the game is about a mcguffin that lets you eavesdrop on anyone…and the MODERN day parts are so bad and boring it reminds me of when they force you to play as Mary Jane in Spiderman ps4…Assassins Creed has always been worse because of its modern day elements and the animus. The series would have been far better without all that because it pulls you out of the moment and makes it far harder to get invested in your character and time period. Seeing all the stupid blue loading lines and even the interface breaks the illusion, or 4th wall if you will, that im a swashbuckling pirate…

    Why do I give the game an 8? Because I love pirates. I enjoy sailing and upgrading my ship. Again, it’s the fact that I loved all these elements so much that I realized how much I actually now hate AC. I enjoyed the first one as it was a new idea, and AC2 as well…but Ubisoft has no idea how to make a fun game…they just throw the same 4 missions around the map 30 times and call it a day. They have no concept of what fun is. I bought this game to be a pirate, but once you get to the island you are searching for the game pivots from a pirates tale to more insufferable ac bs.

    Ubisofts response is to then make skull and bones…a game where you can’t even board enemy ships to sword fight…no wonder its been in development for 10 years. At this point ive lost all faith in Ubisoft, and I won’t be taking a leap of faith with them again. They cant make fun games, and seem to enjoy writing ridiculous stories so they can blow smoke up their buts. My advice? Skip the cut scenes and mute the tv when it gets to the modern day crap. Hidden in here is a good pirate game, its unfortunate its tarnished by AC.

    P.s AC3 I think is contender for the worst big franchise triple A game of all time. Ubisoft, just let go and take a leap of faith on something else.
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  13. Jun 13, 2015
    4
    Black Flag: The Pirate Simulator.

    This game doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game at all. You spend most of your time sailing around shooting ships. The actual story is one of the worst scripted games I've ever played. The character arcs are ridiculous and nonsensical, the characters themselves are boring and uninteresting, the 'twists are predictable and again uninteresting
    Black Flag: The Pirate Simulator.

    This game doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game at all. You spend most of your time sailing around shooting ships. The actual story is one of the worst scripted games I've ever played. The character arcs are ridiculous and nonsensical, the characters themselves are boring and uninteresting, the 'twists are predictable and again uninteresting (e.g Mary).

    The game feels unfinished and abandoned, with bugs and issues such as characters becoming invisible during missions so then you have to restart, or the uplay integration not working at all, and therefore syncing with the much drummed-up Android companion app just not happening.

    Developers literally gave up on the game once it was out the door.

    Trying as hard as I can to forget this was an Assassins Creed game, and to try to enjoying it for what it is (Pirate Simulator) it's still impossible to actually get much enjoyment for this game. Each pointless and dull story mission doesn't seem to really go anywhere, showing 'rate this mission feedback' prompt after every game chapter... note to developers, this is an annoying enough prompt on Android or iOS, keep the crap away from consoles.

    The link from this game to the rest of the series is almost non-existent, the over-saturation of Americanism that Ubisoft have forced on to the series really takes it toll by this game, it was heavy-handed in AC3, but playable, and Liberation at least had a good story to tell, but Black Flag really just has no point being American, the whole world had sailors and pilots, yet it just highlights how Ubisoft were appealing only to the American Market.

    So far this is the worst in the series, and with Unity opened and ready next to the tv, I fear what I am to expect for this game. Such a great series ruined for no particular reason.

    Onto the visuals. Obviously the best looking AC game so far (as technology dictates) but the ridiculous frequency of hurricanes and rain storms outweighs the pretty environments, and the joy of sailing around.

    The mini games are tedious and feel very forced into the game. The Kenwood Fleet battles are repetitive and boring, just select any decent ship you've taken and it'll give you a 100% success rate...so why even bother playing? The diving sub-levels are horribly frustrating, trying to swim around 8-10 sharks when they can easily swim twice the speed you can, with no way to defend yourself, whilst avoiding jellyfish and spiky urchins in narrow passages, while dodging pillars of rock as currents drag you through tunnels... not fun in the slightest.

    Even swimming in the original tomb raider game was more enjoyable than Black Flag, back in 1996. How a game made 18 years later with thousands of games to take influence from - made such a terrible underwater diving sub-game is insane.

    All Animus related levels were shallow, boring and terribly limited. No challenge to the 'computer hacking' mini-levels, just trial and error, and Black Flags version of 'the truth secrets' is just pitiful.

    If this game was released as a new franchise, not linked to Assassins Creed in any way, with a completely different plot, and direction, with fewer bugs and side characters, and no sub-games, this could've been more like Red Dead Redemption: Pirates. An exploitative experience with bandits (pirates) and attacking wild animals. With a stronger character arc, and a somewhat interesting mix of side characters, this game could've been something memorable. Instead it's just a failure. A failure as a cinematic game, a failure as an Assassin's Creed game, a failure as a captivating experience, and even a failure as a pirate simulator, despite being clearly orientated as trying to be just that.
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  14. Feb 10, 2015
    7
    I have never been all that much of a fan of the Assassin's Creed games. I made it halfway through number 2 and quit out of fatigue and never made it back. This is my first attempt since then to give the franchise another shot. Not because I miss the stupid animus **** the painfully awkward parkour system, the endlessly boring and ridiculously finicky eavesdropping/tailing/sneakingI have never been all that much of a fan of the Assassin's Creed games. I made it halfway through number 2 and quit out of fatigue and never made it back. This is my first attempt since then to give the franchise another shot. Not because I miss the stupid animus **** the painfully awkward parkour system, the endlessly boring and ridiculously finicky eavesdropping/tailing/sneaking missions that 95% of the main campaign consists of, but for the pirating stuff. The sailing around and exploring are what make this game fun. Any one of the numerous side missions are much more enjoyable than any of the main ones. Someone else said it in their review, but it is a damn shame a good pirate game had to be stapled to a **** Assassin's Creed game. It probably would have been a 9.5 otherwise. Expand
  15. May 27, 2019
    5
    Not usually a fan of the AC games, but the pirate stuff in this game is awesome
  16. May 19, 2015
    5
    It's really a shame, this is my first Assassin's creed game and I was expecting epicness and wonder. Boyyyy I was soo wrong, combat is extremely repetitively easy, you can easily kill pretty much all the enemies without hiding like an assassin. The ship combat was fun though, it was suprisingly enjoyable conquering forts and legendary ships. Pretty graphics is a plus.

    Story mode was a
    It's really a shame, this is my first Assassin's creed game and I was expecting epicness and wonder. Boyyyy I was soo wrong, combat is extremely repetitively easy, you can easily kill pretty much all the enemies without hiding like an assassin. The ship combat was fun though, it was suprisingly enjoyable conquering forts and legendary ships. Pretty graphics is a plus.

    Story mode was a bore, at some point while playing this game I really didn;t get enough motivation to want to finish the game. I don't normally leave bad ratings, because I strongly believe that each and every game has a "wow" factor. Overall, black flag was very disappointing and I expected more from it.
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  17. 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.
  18. Jan 2, 2015
    5
    A great looking game with a story that pulls you in, unfortunately I had difficulty with the controls, when running through a town I would start climbing when I didn't want to. This game is really hard, I got stuck on a mission where I needed to catch someone running away and after several attempts gave up and haven't played it since
  19. Feb 3, 2015
    6
    AC Black Flag is a good game and you will want to play if you are an AC's fan but it has its flaws.
    Gameplay is better than previous games of the franchise (stealth system and parkour), the graphics are pretty solid and reflect the new generation of consoles. Story wise is interesting but l don't like how they handle the main character on the present time, on the other hand Edward is a
    AC Black Flag is a good game and you will want to play if you are an AC's fan but it has its flaws.
    Gameplay is better than previous games of the franchise (stealth system and parkour), the graphics are pretty solid and reflect the new generation of consoles. Story wise is interesting but l don't like how they handle the main character on the present time, on the other hand Edward is a bad ass and greedy person, it failed to make you feel something about what was happening to him. On top of that the story is not driven on the best possible way, sometimes you just know where you need to go because of the map, otherwise you would never know what is coming next. Open world is cool and the addition of the ship is just incredible, that feeling of sailing is great however even when it's a big map, it is very limited in variants, that's the reason side missions get repetitive over the time. What I hated is that the forced you to repeat side missions in order to improve your ship and be able to progress on the main story.

    Positive:
    + Graphics
    + Stealth/Parkour System
    + World atmosphere (ship, music, etc.)

    Negative:
    - Story/character development
    - Side missions are repetitive
    - Forced to improve your ship by side missions
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  20. Apr 9, 2015
    6
    ♪♫ Who lives in a pirate ship, over the sea? Edward Kenway! ♪♫ Who lives in a pirate ship, over the sea? Edward Kenway, Edward Kenway, Ed-d-dward Kenway! Sea shanties play a huge role in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (such as the one I attempted to make, sing it using the Spongebob theme), mainly because most of the game you will be sailing your ship. At first, this is fun. After the♪♫ Who lives in a pirate ship, over the sea? Edward Kenway! ♪♫ Who lives in a pirate ship, over the sea? Edward Kenway, Edward Kenway, Ed-d-dward Kenway! Sea shanties play a huge role in Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (such as the one I attempted to make, sing it using the Spongebob theme), mainly because most of the game you will be sailing your ship. At first, this is fun. After the first few hours it started to get repetitive for me as I would be doing the same thing; incapacitating a ship, then boarding it. Other than the sea potions, the game also takes place on land. The gameplay is fun for the most part, except for when I started getting bored of sailing my ship. If being a captain of the high seas is your thing, ignore what I said about it being boring. The land portions are entertaining. The story is where this game is weak, you spend the whole story doing something that, for me at least, did not seam very interesting. I had no ambition to play the outside of animus story either as it doesn't really develop into as much as I had hoped. However, the characters are interesting in this game. I was really interested in the lives of Edward's companions, such as Blackbeard; I was also interested in Edward's past. This game rates a 6/10, it is a good game. Expand
  21. Dec 12, 2015
    9
    what the...? how did I miss this game?
    My buddy just let me borrow his copy and he was amazed that I had never played the AC series. I did play the original, back on the XBOX, but I remember getting bored pretty quickly. It was just a bit too linear for my style. I also couldn't get past the Animus thing - it felt like an unnecessary element that kept getting in the way of my fun. I know
    what the...? how did I miss this game?
    My buddy just let me borrow his copy and he was amazed that I had never played the AC series. I did play the original, back on the XBOX, but I remember getting bored pretty quickly. It was just a bit too linear for my style. I also couldn't get past the Animus thing - it felt like an unnecessary element that kept getting in the way of my fun. I know it's "essential" to the story - but couldn't the series just offer up the games now without the whole Animus part now? I mean, the series is well established and I just don't see how that part adds anything to the game. I'm sure hard core fans will disagree....anyhow ACBF is amazing - it feels much more open and free so I'm going to give the franchise another shot.
    Story - 8
    Graphics - 9
    Gameplay/Combat - 8
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  22. Jun 25, 2018
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. For me, I was extremely stoked for the game when it was announced. They advertised so many things that I should love the game when I play it. But, nope, this game is nothing more than foolish game design and blatant FALSE ADVERTISEMENT. They claimed you could FULLY customize your ship, go into taverns and recruit your own crew, sails the seas, all the while playing as an Assassin that is a double-agent of both the Assassins and the Templars. And also boasted that you can now dual-wield weapons. All of that was a lie. The dual wield isn't even dual wielding. Every weapon is just two of that weapon treated as one weapon slot. You can't freely choose what weapon to put in each hand. Let's also add that you CANNOT USE SINGLE WEAPONS ANYMORE. No heavy weapons, no one-hand swords, nothing. Just the genreic paired cutlasses, paired backswords, paired rapiers, etc. The recruitment thing was a lie. All you do in walk in front of the entrance of a tavern (can't even **** go inside) and beat up a few people and they magically join you (historically that's completely inaccurate,, there would be more you have to do other than beating the snot out of them to get them to join you, if anything they'll ttry to kill you from now on). The ship customization was the WORST offense. The double agent was a lie. The man you get your assassin's outfit from was a double agent, betraying the assassins for the templars. All you do is play a privateer who happens to kill him and disguise himself as him. He doesn't work for either side and doesn't care about either side. He just wants 'teh manies'. The worst one they lied about was the ship customization. The entire game you're stuck with using a dainty little, wimpy Brig. Yes, you can upgrade its defense and the like and put plates or parts on the body of the ship or change the figurehead...but that's it. Me, I love ships and this is a huge letdown. My preference is a vessel that isn't small (ie: a ship that doesn't have the deck close to the water). People told me that the Jackdaw is fine once you upgrade it. But that makes it EVEN WORSE. Yeah, it's historically accurate to have a teeny brig take out a bunch of Manowars. TOTALLY ACCURATE. That's like saying a Yacht can sink RMS Olympic..yeah, no. They could have at least give you an option at some point in the game to create a new ship or use one of the ones you captured and able to switch between it and the Jackdaw whenever but restrict the Story to being Jackdaw only. You had a brig in III and again in IV is another stupid Brig. I get it, historically they were the fastest ships during the time, but it's historically unrealistic for Edward to have that dainty thing and go through all these massive powerful ships and having other people use it. Wouldn't it be more sensible to having a more durable and stronger vessel, carry more crewmembers and hell, have a more THREATENING looking ship? Even during that time period Brigs weren't taken very seriously during warfare because of how unresilient they are. More to that, why would a pirate religiously keep to a Brig, why? To be a good pirate your vessel should be, you know, INTIMIDATING. They really dropped the ball with that. The one game they make that focuses on ships, sailing, and naval combat, it's completely RUINED by not being able to customize the ship. I get it, Edward likes the ship, but I don't. The worst part is, early on in the game you have to commandeer a Galleon. After that they say they're going to use it while you are doing your thing. Guess what? Some time later, I found it while sailing...marooned on an island. And I can't use it. So, another lie. And a kick to my face with that. The very fact the stupid Brig can be so durable because of pieces you put on its body and it can take down the most formidable ships of that period by just upgrading her is a complete insult and hilariously historically inaccurate. Might as well call it Assassin's Creed IV: The Little Brig That Could
    The only good points is, the naval combat and sailing is fun. But when I'm restricted to the smallest ship during that time period, it's completely ruined. They really could have added a creatable ship for the PS4 version, the PS4 could handle it, but they dropped the ball on that. I wouldn't mind if I have to beat the game to be able to create a new ship! There's a reason why I think Unity was a vastly superior game to this.
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  23. Jun 19, 2017
    8
    Great AC. The last true great AC we have gotten. Edward is a fantastic character and the ship battles are better than ever. All wrapped along a interesting story that doesn't take you out of the animus too much.
  24. Nel
    Dec 10, 2016
    7
    Classic Assasin's creed game, usually don't disappoint, and this one didn't do it either. The game has several fun and different modes you can do, and is a vast game there is potential to spend several hours just exploring and collecting things.
  25. Jul 1, 2015
    9
    Ok, maybe this game is not for fans of the serie because it adds just so little content to the saga. But if you can abstract from that, the game has a lot of effort, you have combat, stealth, graphics, open world, islands, sailing!! There is a lot to do in this game, a lot of cities to discover. This game is the best AC technically speaking.
  26. May 15, 2018
    5
    The exploration is fun along with the ship mechanics, but the Assassin's Creed stuff was just so repetitive and boring. Constant trailing missions and a messy story kind of ruined a lot of this game, which is a shame.
  27. May 9, 2020
    8
    Its a great adventure game with amazing water and boat interaction, the only thing I dislike is the constant needed upgrade to advance in the game.
  28. Nov 1, 2015
    6
    Great visuals. Great concept with the pirate/assassin story. Would really give this a higher score if I didn't play its predecessors. It got repetitive. Back then, I enjoyed assassinating and sneaking around but now it just made me realize that I have been playing the the games every release and it has bored me. Don't get me wrong, AC4 Black Flag has great visuals, great interactionGreat visuals. Great concept with the pirate/assassin story. Would really give this a higher score if I didn't play its predecessors. It got repetitive. Back then, I enjoyed assassinating and sneaking around but now it just made me realize that I have been playing the the games every release and it has bored me. Don't get me wrong, AC4 Black Flag has great visuals, great interaction between being an assassin and being a pirate. I really do enjoyed the pirate thing. But again it has been repetitive in ways I cannot explain. Would still recommend this if your new to the Assassin's Creed franchise but for people who played the past games I may not recommend this. Expand
  29. Jul 25, 2017
    9
    This game rules! Don't listen to these whiny player haters! Amazing graphics! Super fun game play! Put on some headphones and you're whisked away to the sunny carribean! This game is like a mini vacation. I only give it a 9 for the slightly wonky controls, otherwise it's one of the funnest titles on ps4! Ahoy matey!
Metascore
83

Generally favorable reviews - based on 29 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 25 out of 29
  2. Negative: 0 out of 29
  1. 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.
  2. Ubisoft significantly improved the multiplayer side of things. Also, story takes you places.
  3. Jan 4, 2014
    80
    It’s difficult to imagine Assassin’s Creed ever leaving the sea behind.