Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag Bedtime Story or Legend?

Now, those of you who have found your way to this article are quite likely Assassin’s Creed fans. And it’s safe to assume that the prospective Assassin’s Creed IV storylines and gameplay enhancements are eating away at your soul. Many would say that Assassin’s Creed 3 was a disappointment. Then again, others wouldn’t. Likewise, it would be wrong to expect everybody to hold high hopes for AC 4. But those of you who have watched the trailers and after the news have definitely formed opinions about how you would like the story to progress. And if so, you most definitely harbor great expectations from the game.

The ending of AC 3 was unprecedented to say in the least. Juno always looked like the wicked witch of the west, but then again, anybody who uses excess eyeliner and garbs themselves in flimsy translucent curtain sheets wouldn’t be entirely palatable to the eyes. Desmond gets knocked out cold (or so I hope is the extent of the damage that has been done to him), Minerva chickens away, and Juno is out to make Prada designers weep. So, planetary destruction has been averted, (though whether planetary dominion at the hands of a deranged futuristic yet ironically ancient psychopath is a debatable price to pay,) we don’t know who our new protagonist in the present is going to be (more about Edward Kenway in a minute), and Abstergo’s lead scientist was shot in the head by underpaid security ( they need to upscale the graphics this time, the guards really looked quite happy when they shot the old man in cold blood under the apple’s influence).

Have the other “Gods” truly died out? Or is it another ruse fabricated by the cunning Juno? Will the assassins (or what remains of them) unite with Abstergo to battle a greater evil (evil is a strong word to use, but that‘ll have to suffice until stronger motives behind Juno’s actions are disclosed)? Will we be seeing more of Connor (Like we played Altair in flashback sequences in the previous installments or in any way possible since I really want to see more of Connor and I’m certain a fair deal of you guys want to too) ? If a much segment of the game is going to be based in the present (which it has to be unless they want to end up making 5 more parts), will the game still stick to classic AC third person action or will the studio resort to an FPS style HUD (switchable perspectives like in Star Wars Battlefield would be mind blowing)? Or will our new Sea Scoundrel be enough a treat to avoid making the present sequences very immersive? A lot of unanswered questions, but we’ll have to wait for the game to answer them.  Right now though, I am excited about just the one new toy we’ll be given: Edward Kenway.


“A pirate trained by Assassins” is what he allegedly is. According to what the trailers show, he is much like Ezio, only without the restraint and the honor. I suppose that makes him all the more classy. Ed’s (if I may be permitted to discuss him so,) outright disregard for his opposition and undeterred resolve are blatantly clear by the way he swings over to his victim vessels and mercilessly executes enemies with his duals (tomb raider inspired?).  He has Black Beard’s respect (so much for having to build a reputation in the game). He guts templars in plain sight and walks away with their women (I won’t use the politically correct designation to be given to their female companions since this is public). He does a threesome and keeps the women waiting for a minute or two until he boards another ship and slaughters every living thing he sees under his hood, and then he goes back to amusing himself. There is no confirmation of him being an assassin himself, though he has clearly been trained by the creed.  So, here are a few words to describe Edward Kenway: killer, idol, scoundrel, playboy, kleptomaniac, pirate, stud and most importantly (I really want to term him this, though I have little credible information to back my assumption), Assassin. This guy’s going to drive fans nuts (Even newcomers to AC for that matter).

But is the stud act just a veil to hide a dark and tormented past? We know that Edward’s son is Haytham. But who were his parents? Were they assassins too, or just innocents caught in the crossfire, slain at the hands of the templars… or perhaps the assassins themselves? Edward is evidently against the templars, though it is still unclear whether he gives a bilge-rat’s fart about the assassins’ motives. Perhaps he is simply pursuing a personal vendetta of some sort against the templars. Or he simply knows the joys of freedom being a pirate and so wants everybody else not to be deprived of it at the hands of the templars either. But if so, how did his son end up as the leader of the templars? I must agree with the templars’ notion of “order through control”, it’s promisingly much more efficacious than “prosperity through freedom” (if only the templars consisted of fewer murderous bastards). But liberty, as said by George Washington, is a plant that once takes root, grows faster than a weed. Which is ironic since that should rally many to the cause of the assassins, though we discover in AC3 that the brotherhood is nearly gone. In the very least, one could hope for Ed to be hopelessly love-struck by  a woman, in spite of his affinity for magnetizing women (It’s been too long since AC last saw real romance, not bed activity). Well, I hope for the sake of the folks up at Montreal that they manage to answer these questions and plug in all the holes in the plot. Or they’ll have another “revelations” to answer for.