Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag was an excellent reinvention of the franchise, milking the pirate shtick for all it was worth. One of the game's key elements is being Captain of your own ship, the Jackdaw, at which point you're able to scour the seas to procure supplies, and crucially, take down other ships in epic battles. One thing I came to learn late in the day is that it really pays off to collect resources and build your ship up early on, because I failed to do this, wanting to just beast my way to the end of the game, and as I approached the last few missions, I found myself struggling to win story-based ship battles due to my ship not being strong enough. As a result, despite being just a few missions away from completing the game, I had to spend a number of hours participating in countless ship duels in order to obtain the materials necessary to turn my ship into a killing machine, and the sheer laboriousness of it made it something I struggled to actually persevere with. It's a shame, as the rest of the game is so well balanced. Granted, the game does warn you prior to starting a mission if your ship isn't sufficiently upgraded, but the drudgery of having to farm resources introduced the grind into what was otherwise a snappily paced adventure title.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
