4. Brilliant Boarding Mechanics
At the helm of your ship, you whip up your spyglass and take note of what cargo a ship in the distance is carrying. Full sail! you holler to your teammates as they all kick into action, propelling your weighty vessel towards the smaller craft. Slowing down upon closer approach and throwing the ship to the side you unleash a barrage of cannon-fire accompanied by one targeted shot to fully disable the oppositions momentum. With the two ships now parallel, your crew start throwing hook-ended ropes across to the enemy, pulling the two closer together, as you ready yourself for whats to come. In what is most definitely The Most Swashbucklingest Thing Ever, you grab a lone rope from your side of the ship and swing across to the other platform, producing dual blades in mid-air upon release, and land straight down on a soon-tso-be-conquered group of soldiers, all in one glorious motion. After taking out a few more enemies, the ship, its cargo and the remaining (now surrendered) crew are all yours to sell on, or feed into the aforementioned upgrade system. Regaining the wheel lets the sails catch a prevailing wind, allowing you to take off towards your next destination, as your now-ecstatic crew burst into song. Needless to say, the first time all this happened made the game for me, and for any who were doubting how Assassin's Creeds core mechanics were going to transfer across into such a setpiece, they need only play one of these scenes for confirmation its the best thing Ubisoft have implemented in years.