10 Tiny Details In Games That Made Them So Much Better

9. Edward Kenway’s Excellent Animations - Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag

There aren’t many AC fans who will argue over the assertion that the game world and features that make up Black Flag represent one of the series’ best.

Plenty of loving detail was clearly poured into the environments, the world design, geography, and vistas. But there were smaller things that made us care about Edward Kenway and his journey, one of which is a tiny little detail connected to the way we watch our protagonist move about the world. In what is another brilliant example of something that could have been done away with and created just as good of a game, the way Edward dynamically moves through water is lovely.

Nobody would have batted an eyelid if the guy just used a slightly slower walking animation to trudge through waist-high water but instead we got this.

In certain situations Edward will trail his fingers along the water which will in turn leave noticeable trails behind him breaking the surface tension. It’s something we see a lot now in games like The Last of Us and its sequel where animations are lovingly nuanced and dynamic depending on the circumstance, but eight years ago this was mind-blowingly cool.

These things may seem insignificant but they really add to your ability to get truly swallowed up by the tranquillity and detail in the game world.