Man, I just can't get over how much I love this game. I hated ACIII so, so much. Was pure torture playing it for 30+ hours. So tedious and unfun. And for me story is pretty important in a game, which is why I love ACII so much for the grand tale it tells.
Yet even though ACIV doesn't have much of a plot, I don't even care. The game is just one of the best sandbox games I've ever played. The world is so much fun to explore and mess around in. This is the first AC that finally hits that GTA sandbox fun the series has always wanted. It's so much fun to find some plantation island, sneak around stealthly killing all the guards in any way you want (not because you have to! But because you actually want to stealth it and get that satisfaction) while cutting all the alarms and then looting the wharehouse and getting actual useful loot (useful upgrade system helps a lot!) and exploring the island for collectibles and hidden mysteries and skinning a few animals to upgrade something new on your character. Not because you had to do any of that at all...but because...why not? It's fun and you just had a great 10-15 mins of gaming.
The main missions are definitely the weakest link because unlike the above situation, you're still forced to play scripted missions where they want you to play in scripted ways and if you go for 100% sync it can be tedious and a lot of trial & error.
But thankfully the game is 20% main missions/story and 80% awesome sandbox world. There's so many assassin's contracts that give you free reign to assassinate someone any way you'd like! Stealth onto an enemy ship and kill the target? Get in your ship and tail his ship and sink him to the sea? Fight his ship and board it and air assassinate your target from the mast and loot the ship? Sure! The assassination contracts + exploration + warehouse islands give the free-form PLAY YOUR OWN WAY sandbox AC game that I've always wanted gameplay-wise. Absolutely love it.
And on top of that Naval stuff is fun, the upgrade system is fun. The world has so many nice touches to make it feel alive. The music is SO GOOD. The singing while fast sailing was an incredible decision as it adds so much to the ambiance and makes it a perfect pirate sim. Love the shanty songs. And the music players in taverns playing good music...awesome! And just little stuff like a guy fishing on a rock on an island and ships sailing around fighting each other. Waves affecting the boat movement. Scoping out things with your scope. Treasure maps, etc... it's so well done and meaty and fleshed out.
Also turning off everything on the HUD besides SSI & updates (so you know what's in the chests you get and see objectives) makes the game so much better. I love going to islands and instead of just running out collectible icons, I get to high ground and use eagle vision to scope out the enemies, the treasures, the animals and then I make my own path. Sailing is nice just using the main map to point in the direction you want to go and look out at islands as you pass them to see if you want to check them out or scope out the ships you pass to see if you want to fight them. Even the forts are way more fun when you make your way to high ground and use eagle vision to spot the commander and stealth take him out. Just makes it a far more enjoyable experience for sure.
And I'm only like 1/3rd through the game now! (top 1/3rd of the map clear). Even if the story ends up being weak, they've made such a fantastic sandbox game that any story is all icing on top and the frustrations of sub-objectives in the story missions are annoying but a one hiccup on an otherwise fantastic game. I haven't even touched the MP, but it looks deep with a lot of content and even though I'm not an MP person I'm looking forward to messing around with it after I finish the SP game.
Oh and even the Abstergo challenges are great this time around. They remind me of Saints Row 3/4 challenges where they reward you simply for doing cool stuff you normal do in the game so as you explore the world and do your own thing you're constantly seeing "gj, challenge complete! Here's some rewards!" which is really satisfying.
They knocked this one out of the park. Even Revelations wasn't bad (just under-budgeted and rushed), so I have a lot of trust now with this director and look forward to any future ACs he makes.
Oh and I think they've got one more Pirate AC left in them (maybe next game will be ACIV: Subtitle?). Because with the talks of social gaming for the next AC I can totally sea an open world pirate adventure like ACIV with 64 player free roam on a map while you're doing the SP stuff. Would be cool to see actual people sailing around and you can fight and loot them or start up an MP game of cat & mouse on an island. There's so much potential here.
Definitely favorite AC behind AC2 and totally for different reasons. AC2 for great story adventure, AC4 for Saints Row 3/4 type awesome sandbox fun. I think you'll like this one demi if you don't expect too much out of the story.
