Black Flag: 6 Hours In

I have a lot of games I need to play, and they are all piling up because I can't put Assassin's Creed Black Flag down. The original Assassin's Creed made me ignore the franchise altogether for a while, and then Assassin's Creed 2 changed my mind. This game though, might be one of the best adventure games that I have ever played. I'm 6 hours in, just leaving Nassau for the first time, and holy shit is this game good. 

The sailing in the game reminds me of Wind Waker more than I thought it would, just on a grand scale. Sailing is difficult, especially in the middle of the fight, which makes the scuffles that you do pull off pretty exhilarating. Circle a military ship, pelting it with cannons, keeping them close so it can't ram you, all the while keeping an eye on the tidal wave a mile out and the rock formation you're drifting towards. I love the naval stuff in this game, it's done so well, and with a million ship upgrades to get, you actually want to engage in huge sea battles to plunder needed materials.

So far, Stede Bonnet is my favorite character. His voice actor is James Bachman, a British comedian that I've been a fan of for some time. Black Flag is his first video game role, and if you like the IT Crowd, then you should recognize his voice fairly quickly. All of the characters that I've encountered so far are great, I'm impressed with the dialogue. I usually find pirate-y things annoying, because of all the cliche yarrs and arrgs, but the developers showed a little maturity here, and I appreciate that.

The sci-fi aspect of this Assassin's Creed is fascinating to me. You work for Abstergo Entertainment, digging through the pirate memories of Edward, spending the 9-5 workday inside an Animus. This company records your experience, packaging and selling it to the masses. Real interactive history as entertainment. It's interesting, especially when your boss wants you to start moving dates and times around because it would make things more exciting for the consumer. Changing real history to make it more enjoyable to learn about. I'm anticipating where this will go next.