2. Interesting Side Missions
Do you play an Assassins Creed game to scale the highest buildings and kill Templars or to play boules and walk back and forth across the map to deliver romantic messages? If your answer veers anywhere towards the latter go play Animal Crossing (and thats not a criticism; its awesome in a non-killing way). I'm not saying that more human side missions are a bad thing, but in Assassins Creed III things were pushed a little too far; you could spend hours doing missions you'd only ever think of attempting if you're trying for 100%. It could easily be a case of less is more. Remove some of the lacklustre Homestead missions and repetitive stuff like the Boston Brawlers and the game wouldn't feel any less expansive, but thered be fewer stretches that felt monotonous. Exploring the tunnels to find all the fast travel points was rewarding, but more in relief its over than actually having enjoyed the past couple of hours. That feeling is really emblematic of much of Assassins Creed III. This is the one thing Black Flag could so easily improve on; being a pirate is a lot more interesting than being a native American and with it comes a generally more exciting life and activities.