Overall, Black Flag is a great game. It plays a lot smoother than Assassins creed 3. Edward is charismatic and fun. Ship play is fun and runs well.

My two biggest issues that made me rate this lower my second time around are the excess of tailing missions. Like, tailing missions were always one of the worst mission types, so why make a game with so damn many tailing missions. And second, the lack of screentime with the side characters.

Edward is a great character and most of the pirates are cool and fun to see, so the fact they get so little time weakens the story considerably. I wanted to see more of Kid, Anne, Blackbeard, and the others. The theme of the story and Edward's character development would have hit so much harder if there was more focused placed on his time as a pirate and his pirate friends.

Cool Pirate Game. The ship mechanics are fantastic! Sailing the seas on the Jackdaw with the crew singing lovely sea shanties while looting merchant ships and battling the Royal Navy truly makes you feel like a pirate. And Who doesn't want the opportunity to role-play as one?

This game probably has the best combat of any Assassin's Creed game. It's not too complex, flows freely, is fast-paced, and is a lot of fun. Although I generally despise Ubisoft, they have yet to disappoint me in one aspect: the music, which is, once again, fucking amazing. Being primarily sea-based also gives kind of a new feel to the open world.

The only criticism I have is about the story. Assassin's Creed 3 ruined me to the point that I can't bring myself to care about anything happening outside the Animus. Inside the Animus, the plot wasn't much better. It could have used better writing, the characters and the plot had too much potential that was just wasted but that's kind of the story of every AC game post Ezio trilogy. The only silver linings were Edward's development, particularly at the end of the game, and the story's conclusion.