4/5 ★ – danieleinad's review of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.

Everything naval related is 5/5, but the land missions were so so boring and bog this game down. Land: Tailing missions were a bore and way too long. Towns weren’t compact enough for parkour to flow. They were big but quite empty and didn’t entirely feel immersive. Assassination contracts were slogs because the combat was super easy and saving up to buy a strong sword made it a piece of cake. All those little islands and shores with animus fragments and chests got boring really quickly too, and it was super annoying having to jump off the Jackdaw and swim to and back. Sea: I fast traveled no more than 5 times. Sailing (at 2nd speed) and listening to the shanties was top notch gameplay. Lowlands Away is by far the best song and makes me tear up. Naval combat was also really fun. However, between the excitement of starting the game to being really powerful, the naval fights got just a little annoying. But overall still fantastic. Story: The dialogue was really good and I genuinely fell in love with a lot of these characters and the ending made me cry a bit. Such a bittersweet end. The story itself was alright, but made up for it with its enjoyable cast of characters. Edward’s character arc was fantastic. The present day stuff was extremely boring and I really don’t see the point of it, I still don’t care about it in any way. Mechanics: I respect the more streamlined parkour, but I really liked the more robust version of Ezio’s. But I don’t think one is better than the other. Kenway’s fleet was boring and tedious and I gave up on it after a short while. The darts were super useful and I used them all the time. The rope was pointless imo. 78% synch. 59% side missions. 93% collectibles. 69% side activities.