Why Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Is The Best Assassin's Creed
And people said a sequel based on pirates wouldn't work.
By the time 2013 rolled around, the Assassin's Creed franchise was in pretty dire straits.
What was once the most iconic and popular open world series in gaming had been put through the ringer, with the disappointment of Ezio and Altair's bow-outs in Revelations, and the frustrating technical bugs and confused storyline that plagued Assassin's Creed III.
Fans of the series and shareholders within Ubisoft were itching following III's noticeably poor reception, and the reveal that the next game in the series would be based around the early 1700s Golden Age of Piracy did very little to ease the community's concerns.
What followed all of this disappointment however, was one of the most breathtaking and impressive games Ubisoft has ever produced.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag was released in October 2013, selling over fifteen million copies, and should be regarded as the most ambitious and accomplished game in the entire history of Assassin's Creed.
From its awesome mechanics, huge and vibrant open world, memorable characters and clever tone, the game remains one of the most fun titles in the AC library, and continues to stand out to this day.
10. The Freedom Cry Expansion
Assassin's Creed is nothing without its good guys, members of the Brotherhood who stand as the beacons of all things good, fight for the little guys by taking down evil Templars and help guide the main character through their journeys. Perhaps no character personifies the spirit of the Brotherhood quite as well as Adewale from Black Flag, the former-slave turned first mate of Edward Kenway on the Jackdaw.
Black Flag's first bit of downloadable content, Freedom Cry, is set twenty years after the events of the game and follows Adewale and his trials as an Assassin. The expansion follows the story of Ade uncovering a plan to use slaves as a means of chartering the world, but really scores points for taking such an iconic character and blending him into a story revolving around the heavy subjects of slavery and what true freedom really means.
For their work on the Freedom Cry expansion, writers Jill Murray, Melissa MacCoubrey, Hugo Giard and Wesley Pincombe received a Writers Guild of America Awards nomination and the extra content helped the world of Black Flag establish a lore and continuity that would trickle over to Assassin's Creed III and Rogue.