Xbox One 14hours of ac4:

[sc_shark]

i really didn't mean for it to happen... i just played ac4 from 12(lunch time) till 5:10am... now please dont think that means i got super far lol.... oh my matties.... i die quiet often and figuring out the puzzles can really take a tole on ones mind with this long of playing... i am just putting controler down to write this..


so let me start with what i hate:
the holy spit,truck, bam parkour style of runing and bouncing around like an idiot... it gets hella annoying.

still has a stupid back story about future people and enamius(sp) or whatever. honestly this game could do without all that.. it could honestly work just as well following the life of a pirate from a kid to a feared pirate and do without the odd back story. you could than chase the fountain of youth,go to Davey jones locker,fight the kraken and about every other thing this game does not have as a "pirate" game

but lets gt past those 2 things.

the game is good. the open world is huge... like wow big... and yet manageable unless you wan to sail from one end to the other but that could take time honestly.
sailing is a absolute blast. the naval warfare is odd but once you get the hang of it... you can spend hours fighting on the seas and get lost in this alone...
harpooning is interesting.. i have killed 2 big sharks but have not done much else.(i recently upgraded my harpoon and how many i can hold.
i have not gone diving(air bell) i was unware you had to buy/upgrade your boat to do this. (my next modd) minus more hull/gun upgrade.
the scenery is top notch.. its beautiful the islands,water,animals.. i have only encounter a few areas where shading is crappy or the trees look blocky(most on walls stopping the map with cover)
going full sail is cinimatic... its 3rd person view from away from the ship at full speed looks great..(love going full power to see this)

little annoyances:
knowing when you can upgrade your outfit/health ect ect.. i can craft stuff but says not at this time.. but i have more than enough goods of that to complete it. gets annoying.
the fight sequence after you board/destroy a ship(cute scene) gets annoying.
the amount of enemy ships... you can be in a battle and pull in 2 ships to battle and have to fend off 3... they seem to be in sets.. (lets not talk about pirate hunter ships)

all in all i enjoy the game.. it frustrates me but i just keep playing. it really has some lasting power at this point. at 14 hours i dont know where i am at as far as story line completion but i enjoy it.. i am not sure what all a dlc could add to the game or a season pass but i may get it...
i have had to pull up youtube so i can figure out how to stealth certain areas... a few missions really are long as 1 mistake can make you start all over. i am getting the feel for stealth although with the parkour running and jumping i sometimes react to fast and blow my cover...

i have yet to touch multilayer and probably wont.

 

[spark_777]

I've been watching a friend of mine play this game on the PC and yes, I must say, I can agree with you on some points here, especially the part of the future. Nothing much adding to the whole lore anyway right? And other than that, yeah, it's a good game. You know, when I saw the majority of the gameplay, all I could think of is, "Pirate's Creed" XD jhaha

 

[andrew172]

Wow that's a very great review! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Yeah I suspected many of those things to be the case, there's only so much repetitive parkour style movement one can take from an entire series of games. I was hoping this game would mix it up a bit, but sadly not I guess.

 

[sc_shark]

Wow that's a very great review! Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Yeah I suspected many of those things to be the case, there's only so much repetitive parkour style movement one can take from an entire series of games. I was hoping this game would mix it up a bit, but sadly not I guess.

it really gets annoying with the fights and general movment. or when your facing a wall that is un scalable. he basically bounces off it.. i have actually got into a battle and lost horribly(take over a few forts) where he would bounce off a wall and i would get axed by 2 people with no way to fight back.. if they took the fighting structure of batman and put it towads ac4 it would make the game a ton better.

batman has gadgets that for all intensive purposes could be similar in ac4 and the general fight controls on the 360 were great.(proably the best stealth/fighter game out).. a grappling hook for scaling walls. or generally the ability to scale some walls(damaged or ladder's or something).. but the whole him bouncing around jus dosnt fit. most pirates were drunks lol or slow and injured.

 

[jstep]

Thanks for the review. That sounds like me with AC2. I played for like two days straight until I beat it. I was literally dreaming about the game I was playing it so much. So...Is Black Flag better than AC3? I still haven't beat it. I'm having a really hard time getting into the story and didn't want to buy Black Flag and have it be the same way.

 

[sc_shark]

Thanks for the review. That sounds like me with AC2. I played for like two days straight until I beat it. I was literally dreaming about the game I was playing it so much. So...Is Black Flag better than AC3? I still haven't beat it. I'm having a really hard time getting into the story and didn't want to buy Black Flag and have it be the same way.

the good thing about bf4 is the open world and navel warfare... this part alone you can get pretty addicted to(or i did)
tonight november 26 is the first night i have not played ac4... tonight was bf4(battlfeild night)

i am so so with the story line. like mentioned before i could really do with the the 20th century back story. with the enemus or whatever it is.(the start leaves it wide open for other ac series games) its a good story line but it seems long so far.. i am only 15% done with the game and have logged some serious hours. again i try and take on ships above my level on occasion to see if i can get that money lol.

i think the first say hour of the game you will feel structured(like previous ac titles) once you get to the ship and open sea stuff the game open up. once you start taking forts over and see how much it opens on the map you will start to feel the amount of stuff you can do away from the story line...


hear are 2 pictures i took of my game. the full map is around 4 full screens i have only shown 2 to give you an idea on size.




if you notice the top picture looks a bit bare as far as all the white dots and treasure chests.
the bottom pic is littered with white dots,treasure chesr,sharks,and landing stuff.

once you take over the forts it open you up to allot more in the area.. and stay the f away from those red ships on the top left lol they are legendary and are made to whoop that @$$ i have tried a few times to see and well yea not even 3/4 damage was done.. way out gunned.

i am not even far enough in the story line to get the diving bell so some of he stuff is still not even open. quite a few things are still not available to me to be honest.. upgrades to the ship,cloths..

all honestly the areas marked hard well i tend to not sail into. even the sloops(small ships) are like level 17 which can put a hurting on you.. its not your out gunned they just have a stronger hull and can stay in the fight long enough. once your in a battle it tends to attract other ships.. a normal navel battle ends up being 3 ships..

 

[sc_shark]

so with my above post i will get into the navel warfare stuff a little more.

general warfare can take a good chunk of your playing. i am 22:40 hours of gameplay and only 15% thru the game(story line)

its always best to get the first hit in. i tend to take the rear on a 3/4 steam charge and take the shot(front cannon) than back it down to 1 sail see which way the ships turning... take your second front cannon shot. at this point you can see which way the ship is turning.
(anchored is fastest) (1 sail is ok) (2 sails lol yea) (3sails you cant shoot/fight in)

at this point you are going to be in close combat start taking side shots(cannon) in calm seas aim just above hull and below masts.. if you are equipped with short rang cannons(y button hold down till locked) it should open up a few good double shots.(you may have to unlock the close combat cannons. you want to be close enough to get the side cannon shots off(if to far you wont be able to close cannon bigger damage) you can make short work of sloops and privater pirate hunters with this..

my first upgrades are to the hull (this will be your saving grace) for a good while.. next would be cargo storage( the more you can pirate and sell the better) rum and 1 other commodity can be sold with 0 affect on your upgrading... cloth,metal,wood you just dont sell at this point. all your upgrades require these 3 things.. as you are sailing around pick up as much of the cargo(free) that has been dropped.. its free goods.

the spyglass becomes your friend fast.. 2/3 sloops can be taken easily if they are clusted together with the right combo of upgrades(without boarding) just sink them and pull the cargo.. you cna spy glass and see what cargo/goods each ship has.. also shows the level. once yo get below 1/2 hull damage its ideal to board(anchor up and battle) the ships.. you can repair the jackdaw and get hull strength back.. this can save you when the bigger ships are protecting them.. the bigger ships dont go away tho.. so be ready to be in battle once you get back on the sea lol.

 

[sc_shark]

Hull Armor
The Hull Armor is the primary defensive upgradable part of the Jackdaw. It directly determines how much damage you can take before your ship sinks. Because of these reasons, this should be your first priority in upgrades.

Upgrading your Hull Armor will be an extremely expensive process though, with the requirements of plenty of money and metal. Make sure you get the intermediate upgrade before getting any of the others, and when you can afford to, come back and get some reinforced, followed by advanced armor.

Broadside Cannons
Ah, Broadside Cannons; they’re the most well-known weapons for a ship, and it’s no different with the Jackdaw. These medium/close-ranged weapons are located on both sides of the ship. While using them, you want to avoid enemy ship’s broadsides, so sometimes it’s useful to use a different angle of attack.

There are two upgrades that are associated with the Broadside Cannons. One upgrade is called Broadside Cannon itself, while the other is Heavy Shot, explained next.

Upgrading Broadside Cannons won’t increase their power, it will only increase the number of cannons on both sides of the ship. This will mean more shots fired – think of it something similar to ‘attack speed’.

I recommend upgrading these along with the Heavy Shot, as the two go hand-in-hand. Broadsides are your most powerful and most reliable medium to close-ranged weapons.

Heavy Shot
The Heavy Shot is a very powerful upgrade to the Jackdaw’s broadside cannons. While the previous upgrade increases the number of cannons on both sides of the ship, Heavy Shot significantly increases the amount of damage each individual shot would do.

You should get the first upgrade immediately alongside the Broadside Cannons upgrade, because it’s fairly cheap. However, it’s a steep road from here onwards, as the prices jump to ridiculous numbers.

Consider acquiring the second upgrade for the Heavy Shot only once you manage to get your hands on 13 broadside cannons and reinforced hull armor to strike optimum balance between defense and firepower.

Getting this too early will mean that you are either very powerful and fast but lacking in defense, or you have good defense and power but lack attack speed.

Mortars
Although many would rate Mortars as optional bonus weapons, but they are an absolute must-have if you are serious about taking on Naval Forts and Naval Contracts.

Mortars are long-ranged, powerful weapons that rely heavily on aim. They’re more or less useless when within broadside range, but there’s nothing more rewarding than making enemy ships sink from a distance.

Mortars are excellent initiators, and most enemy ships have no ways to counter their harassment (except the man o’ war, which can strike you back with mortars). Thus, they give you added dominance and make things much easier, especially when you’re aiming for Naval Forts and Naval Contracts.

I would recommend acquiring intermediate mortars after investing the first set of upgrades into the Hull Armor, Broadside Cannons, and Heavy Shot. Leave it till that, invest more in the previous three, and then come back to Mortars again once you can afford another upgrade.

Round Shot
The Round Shot upgrade is a critical hit based feature added to the broadside cannons. It allows you to inflict critical damage after a successful volley from the broadside cannons.

There is a reloading delay after each round of shots from the cannons, between which you can land a perfect round shot and inflict more than double the damage the enemy would be expecting. The stronger the round shot is, the more critical damage you can inflict.

The first round shot upgrade is cheap, and worth the money. However, after that, there is no real reason to come back to this, unless you’re done upgrading each and every other component.

Powerful Mortars, Heavy Shots, and loads of cannons with a preliminary round shot upgrade are more than enough for the most part of the game.

Chase Cannons
If you’re having a bad time getting chased all around by enemy ships, you might want to consider this upgrade. For most of us though, it’s just a bonus, and not even one of the important ones.

Chase cannons are cannons mounted on the rear of the Jackdaw, shooting from its behinds (giggity). You will actually start off with fire-barrels for this purpose, but you can quickly upgrade to the more reliable cannons, make the barrels completely redundant.

It’s unlikely you will find yourself using these often, so there is absolutely no need to go further than the first upgrade. Consider saving up for the more expensive and more essential upgrades.

Swivel Shot
Swivel Shots are just mean. You pound a ship into near non-existence, and then you destroy its crew with swivel guns. It’s harsh, it’s fun, and it can really save up time. Sometimes Swivel Shots work so well that you won’t even need to board the enemy ship you just crippled.

However, they have one major problem: swivel shots only work with ships with decks that are lower or the same height as yours. Higher positioned decks won’t be effected by swivel shots, which means they don’t serve much purpose against man o’ wars.

If you are boarding from a tighter angle, you won’t be able to aim the swivel guns enough to harm the enemy crew. Thus, it can be said that swivel shot upgrade has less perks than it should, which is why it isn’t an upgrade with high priority. Enjoy the other upgrades before you consider it, and even if you do, just invest for the initial bit.

Chain Shots
Chain Shots latch on to enemy ships from the front of the Jackdaw. It’s a pretty useful upgrade if you’re in the habit of chasing as if you were driving a car, but even then you won’t have much prolonged use of this weapon.

Upgrading the chain shot is more or less useless actually, because even at maximum upgrade, it doesn’t to as much damage as the broadside canons or mortars would. Thus, just ignore it for the most part of the game, and get yourself into the habit of aligning the Jackdaw for broadside cannons, and maybe even shooting from a distance with mortars.

 

[andrew172]

Ohhh this is great to hear. I've been really looking forward to the naval warfare side of the game!

 

[sc_shark]

so i am not 25-28% done with the story line.. at this point. i feel i have gone ahead in the game a good bit past the story line and am now working my way back.

so basically i have spend a good bit of time in game on the sea/warfare aspect of the game. i have the jack daw upgraded quite far. i have 1 hull upgrade left and am 2 or so from the end on the side cannons. i need to start working towards my heavy shot.. i am straight deadly at this point even in high seas... i can take on 1-2 man of war at level 36 and loot the living crap out of them.(without boarding) i can take on 2 pirate hunting ships and put in work... what i cant do yet is legenry's(the ultra high end red ships on the 4 corner of the maps... i could proably take on the easy legendary but med/hard im worried about.


so on to the story line.. ive gone to area to get treasure and now im going back to do mission stuff. 9one you capture a fot in the area it shows the treasure all over(showed this earlier) oncei go back and do the story line i can than go back and recapture the chests... which adds to money(not allot) but still goes towards progression. i have killed/skinned enough animals that i cant craft things or upgrade areas because i am not far enoug in story line to carry or have the blueprints on them.

i still hate and proably hate the fighting/parkour more now than ever. the harder forts have 3/4 generals and you can kill people but it dosnt clear the map of them so its a waste trying to kill them as they will gang up on you and once 3 are around you.. you basically have no way to counter or protect yourself. i have gotten to the point i try and take high points and use the beserk darts to limit my fighting.. it does no good to fight. they die ater the beserk darts are finished.. its just hard to find areas you can gt a shot off and not be attacked.

boarding ships becomes a pain.. the jackdaw never grows up.. it looks the same with upgrades.. only real thing it does is takes the ugly planks and replaces with canons. once you get higher up and are fighting the high up ships if you board the side cannons do nothing you are stuck fighting... usually 20 crew members plus 2 captns and or scouts and take a flag... this usually takes time. sending the ship to your fleet can help a bit.. if you get in an area with 5 ships and a blue hip(sent to your crew) is in the area.. it can help.. sending man of wars and such is where its at..

i have yet to get my diving bell. i want to start diving.. and getting further in the game... i guess its where you get the elite upgrades. i have gotten quite a few treasure maps but cant figure out how to use thme or when it says a treasue is in area i can find it.. and you tube videos are no help

 

[andrew172]

so i am not 25-28% done with the story line.. at this point. i feel i have gone ahead in the game a good bit past the story line and am now working my way back.

so basically i have spend a good bit of time in game on the sea/warfare aspect of the game. i have the jack daw upgraded quite far. i have 1 hull upgrade left and am 2 or so from the end on the side cannons. i need to start working towards my heavy shot.. i am straight deadly at this point even in high seas... i can take on 1-2 man of war at level 36 and loot the living crap out of them.(without boarding) i can take on 2 pirate hunting ships and put in work... what i cant do yet is legenry's(the ultra high end red ships on the 4 corner of the maps... i could proably take on the easy legendary but med/hard im worried about.


so on to the story line.. ive gone to area to get treasure and now im going back to do mission stuff. 9one you capture a fot in the area it shows the treasure all over(showed this earlier) oncei go back and do the story line i can than go back and recapture the chests... which adds to money(not allot) but still goes towards progression. i have killed/skinned enough animals that i cant craft things or upgrade areas because i am not far enoug in story line to carry or have the blueprints on them.

i still hate and proably hate the fighting/parkour more now than ever. the harder forts have 3/4 generals and you can kill people but it dosnt clear the map of them so its a waste trying to kill them as they will gang up on you and once 3 are around you.. you basically have no way to counter or protect yourself. i have gotten to the point i try and take high points and use the beserk darts to limit my fighting.. it does no good to fight. they die ater the beserk darts are finished.. its just hard to find areas you can gt a shot off and not be attacked.

boarding ships becomes a pain.. the jackdaw never grows up.. it looks the same with upgrades.. only real thing it does is takes the ugly planks and replaces with canons. once you get higher up and are fighting the high up ships if you board the side cannons do nothing you are stuck fighting... usually 20 crew members plus 2 captns and or scouts and take a flag... this usually takes time. sending the ship to your fleet can help a bit.. if you get in an area with 5 ships and a blue hip(sent to your crew) is in the area.. it can help.. sending man of wars and such is where its at..

i have yet to get my diving bell. i want to start diving.. and getting further in the game... i guess its where you get the elite upgrades. i have gotten quite a few treasure maps but cant figure out how to use thme or when it says a treasue is in area i can find it.. and you tube videos are no help

Thanks for the in depth update! I see what you say about the parkour element of the game being a drag. Granted it's a fundamental part of the Assassin's Creed series, I feel like this game removes itself from it's roots enough to be done with some of them.

 

[sc_shark]

Thanks for the in depth update! I see what you say about the parkour element of the game being a drag. Granted it's a fundamental part of the Assassin's Creed series, I feel like this game removes itself from it's roots enough to be done with some of them.

it really comes down to how fluid it works. technically u have 4 ways of facing. so lets say your aimed at a climable tree but your 25% turned towards a wall that is un scalable. when you go into your climb mode/parkour he will automatically go after the wall and do a jump and bounce back. and if your holding that buttom and pushing forward he automatically re tried to scale the same wall and same end result.

now lets say your on building and your trying to jump to an outpost if its not within a very short range and 100% under you odds are he is going to jump 5 feet off the ledge and drop straight down.(mostly on forts) where if he jumped out he could land or swing from said height. this also plays into the your on top of a building and are trying to jump down he will either jump or fall to his death.. but he can do the same jump and land on his back in brush with 0 damage and jump from 150 stories high yet from 5 he can die by not landing or not jumping to an outpost.

the whole fighting goes into same principle you can be mid fight and have 2 guys hitting you with no way to defend because you are mid combo. but you cant turn to hit someone. this is where batman shines.. that gae has the fighting dynamic down. if ac4 had the fighting dynamics of batman and left the slight bit of parkour like batman it would be more realistic. batman u can do some cool stuff but for the most part it takes a gadget or something/a reason to be climbing. where in ac if your not mid flight and swinging from every tree your doing something wrong.

i just try and eep this updated with what i see as i play.. and the more i get comfortable with the game somethings seem to stick out more than others.

 

[DarthNeeko]

Just did the diving for the first time tonight. Takes a bit getting used too. Watch out for sharks though. Game is addicting. Spendng time between exploring and story line.

 

[andrew172]

it really comes down to how fluid it works. technically u have 4 ways of facing. so lets say your aimed at a climable tree but your 25% turned towards a wall that is un scalable. when you go into your climb mode/parkour he will automatically go after the wall and do a jump and bounce back. and if your holding that buttom and pushing forward he automatically re tried to scale the same wall and same end result.

now lets say your on building and your trying to jump to an outpost if its not within a very short range and 100% under you odds are he is going to jump 5 feet off the ledge and drop straight down.(mostly on forts) where if he jumped out he could land or swing from said height. this also plays into the your on top of a building and are trying to jump down he will either jump or fall to his death.. but he can do the same jump and land on his back in brush with 0 damage and jump from 150 stories high yet from 5 he can die by not landing or not jumping to an outpost.

the whole fighting goes into same principle you can be mid fight and have 2 guys hitting you with no way to defend because you are mid combo. but you cant turn to hit someone. this is where batman shines.. that gae has the fighting dynamic down. if ac4 had the fighting dynamics of batman and left the slight bit of parkour like batman it would be more realistic. batman u can do some cool stuff but for the most part it takes a gadget or something/a reason to be climbing. where in ac if your not mid flight and swinging from every tree your doing something wrong.

i just try and eep this updated with what i see as i play.. and the more i get comfortable with the game somethings seem to stick out more than others.

All in all, it sounds like Ubisoft should maybe have spent more time trying to polish the parkour and fighting system, I get that it could be great if it worked, but buggy system or one that doesn't work in the way that you want it to can bring the whole thing crashing down for some users.

 

[sc_shark]

the diving controls are just poor... i have seen a few reviews that mentioned it but i had yet to unlock the bell.. i finally got back on the story line and unlocked it. i also unlocked the elite hull(which i upgraded to)..
i am pretty deep into the black beard aspet.. i am in charleston(sc) which is not in the carrabean. which is very odd how and where it ties in the story..

i will proably grind out some diving missions to see what loot can be had.. right now after 2 dives i dont like it tho.. enough unless its worth it i will proably avoid the diving stuff. i do have a feeling some of the elite upgrades will involve diving as the hull upgrade was on the first dive.