I’m not the biggest fan of the Assassin’s Creed games but there are two games in the series that I love with all my heart, they are Syndicate and Black Flag. Don’t get me wrong, I just love the gameplay and mechanics. Plus all the parkour elements and being able to climb with such fluidity is such a good element.

But it only really gets me in games that have a lot of modern buildings and structures, with places to explore and climb close together. I tried to play Origins in the past and the whole dessert vibe just didn’t really speak to me. But on the other hand, I played Syndicate with so many cool buildings to climb, and I tried Black Flag which had a decent town to explore near the start of the game.

Both were able to hook me near the start because of that kind of gameplay and I ended up really liking both throughout the entire game as a result. While Syndicate is my favorite of the games and is far ahead of Black Flag in my opinion, I still really enjoyed Black Flag and got so much entertainment and value out of it.

Before playing Black Flag on the Switch, I never had any experience with the game, but one day I was at a closing Gamestop and I was able to get my hands on a copy of the Rebel Collection for like $15. The Rebel Collection came with a physical copy of Black Flag along with a download code for Rouge, which is one of the few Assassins Creed games that I have yet to play, because like some of the others, it just didn’t really speak to me.

But personally, just getting Black Flag alone was well worth more than what I paid, even more than what the full cost is, so getting a bonus game for basically free was a nice deal and in the end I was really glad that I picked this up.

GRAPHICS: 9/10

Black Flag on the Switch isn’t just a port of the original game which came out 8 years ago, but it’s also a remaster in some ways. The original game looked pretty good and this version has a couple enhanced features that were implemented for the Switch version which at times make it look a bit better and play smoothly.

The thing that I like about the way the game looks is how smooth and fluid gameplay is. Near the start of the game you’re introduced to Havana and while it’s not as big and bustling as what you’d be hoping for, there’s so much to do and explore in the city. There’s also a bunch of small houses and buildings to climb and jump over. It all looks so good and it works well, it’s very fluid and everything moves nicely.

The same thing can be said about when you’re piloting your ship across the ocean, everything is relatively smooth and the whole area around you doesn’t look too bad. The graphics of everything else looks pretty good too. All of the characters have a decent amount of detail as does the buildings and environments when you’re on land. When you’re on the waters, not so much, since it’s you know, just water.

Overall, it looks very good, especially for a game that’s technically 8 years old already and can be compressed onto such a small screen. My grade for graphics is going to be a 9 out of 10.

SOUND: 9/10

Do you ever have the feeling that every time you play a pirate based game or watch a pirate movie, show, or YouTube video, that they all sound like Pirates of the Caribbean now? They all use the same style of music, and that doesn’t bother me at all, you know, since it’s all good.

When it comes to the music, half of the time it’s okay and then the other half of the time it’s pretty good so overall, I’d definitely say that it’s a good soundtrack that fits the gameplay and story nicely. Though I wouldn’t really say that there’s any tunes that are iconic or catchy.

Beyond the music and sounds, the voice acting is one great aspect of the game. Not only did all the actors do a great job with their roles, but it was also some pretty big and well known actors who were involved.

For example, Laetitia England was voiced by Amy Landecker and Desmond Miles was voiced by Nolan North. Landecker recently starred in shows like Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts and Trollhunters. North had a role in more than 200 video games, including Tony Stark in last years Avengers game and the one and only Nathan Drake in the Uncharted games.

Plus the game features Roger Craig Smith. He voiced Ezio in 3 other Assassins Creed games and worked on more than a hundred games, movies, and shows. The game is packed with voice actors that know how to do their job and it really shows.

Put everything together and you get a decent soundtrack with some great sounds and voice acting. Altogether, the sound aspect is really good and gets another 9 out of 10 from me.

ADDICTIVENESS: 10/10

I already mentioned a little bit of how much I love the gameplay mechanics of the game, but even that was an understatement. The game is just so much fun and it features and infinite amount of replayability because of its gameplay and combat mechanics, and it really shows throughout the game.

For me, the addictiveness aspect of Black Flag is broken into two categories, which at their foundations can be described as just land and sea. When you’re on land, you can do all sorts of epic parkour and it never gets bored. If you’re in Havana, which is by far my most favorite area in the game, you can pretty much go from one part of the city to the other without ever touching the ground.

You just climb up one building and then you just have to run across the rooftops until you’re ready to jump down. This aspect starts off fun and only gets better the more you do it. You can pretty much run and climb anywhere you want and it never gets boring. Then you have the sea aspect. You get to pilot your boat, which is just as fun.

Explore the ocean or fight other ships. I wouldn’t personally say that it’s as fun as the on land parkour elements, but it’s still so much fun. Then, beyond that, you also have the stealth and combat of the game. You can be all sneaky and fight so many different kinds of people, not never gets old.

Once you beat the entire game and there’s nothing left to do, it will be easy to get right back into the game whenever you want just to do some parkour, or to fight, or to just sail away. If you run out of things to do, doing the same things over and over won’t get boring for a long time. Personally, this feels a lot like the Spiderman games for PS4, where once you do everything, you still can have a blast just going from place to place.

Black Flag is so much fun and as a result, my score for addictiveness is going to be a perfect 10 out of 10.

STORY: 8/10

Personally, I’m not well versed enough in the Assassins Creed world to fully understand what’s going on when it comes to the story. Like I’ve mentioned multiple times, I’ve only ever liked Black Flag and Syndicate, so I have very little knowledge of the series as a whole, who half these people are, or why they’re doing what they’re doing.

It’s a good story, but I can barely follow it half the time, especially when things switch between the past and present, and I mostly focus on the gameplay and combat, which is what I love most of all about the game.

In Black Flag, you’re a pirate and there’s this big conspiracy that you get roped into. But you’re not really a pirate since it’s a memory. There’s lots of different characters throughout the game that will unveil bits and pieces of what’s going on, who they are, and what they’re after. It’s hard to explain what’s going on to someone who isn’t already a fan of the Assassins Creed games, but someone who is and played all the games before, they will easily be able to piece together what the heck is going on.

In its own right, it's a good story, but when pieced together with all the overarching series stuff, it can get even better. My overall grade for story is going to be an 8 out of 10.

DEPTH: 9/10

There is just so much to do and there isn’t really much else to talk about since I pretty much hyped everything up already. There’s so much to do on land, whether it’s all the parkour stuff, the stealth stuff, the upgrading and combat stuff. Then there’s also so much to do in the ocean between exploring the map and fighting other ships, plus you could see sea life too, which is a nice touch.

Speaking of the map, it’s massive. The entire ocean area that you get to explore and features dozens of islands, if not close to 100 for you to navigate around, including some big ones like the entirety of Cuba. There’s also a ton of places to explore on all these islands, a ton of cities and forts, and even some underwater locations.

If you try to do everything and you keep going back to explore and play, you’re going to easily put 50 to 100 hours into Black Flag. Not only that, but the Switch version of the game also comes with all the DLC, so you can even get more out of your experience. Overall, I’d say that the game gets an easy 9 out of 10 when it comes to depth.

DIFFICULTY: 4

The game can be super easy if you know what you’re doing and focus more on the story aspect instead of the combat aspect. If you have trouble with the combat, then you can just leave the situation that you’re in and come back later on. The only area that might be a bit challenging will be the sailing parts, especially when in combat. I’ve had a couple encounters when I would miss a lot or I’d get attacked too easily but the only way to succeed there was trial and error.

OVERALL: 9.1

Overall, the game is a blast, and whether or not you have fun has nothing to do with whether you’re a fan of Assassins Creed or not. If you’re into the series, you’re going to love everything about the game, whether it’s the gameplay or the story. But if you don’t really care for the series or the story, you can just skip past that stuff and focus on the amazing combat, parkour, and gameplay.

You can easily get 50 to 100 hours out of this game and there’s been quite a few times where you can get the Rebel Collection which comes with this game and Rouge for only $20. That’s a steal even if you only got Black Flag for that price because of how good of a game it is. Even if you can only get the cartridge for Black Flag by itself for $20, it’s something that you should definitely consider.

Overall, I love the game. Like I mentioned earlier, I don’t like it as much as Assassins Creed Syndicate, but I still think it’s amazing and my overall grade for Black Flag is going to be an impressive 9.1 out of 10.

Great review of one of my favorite's in the series.
One thing I wanna say though from your review

"Personally, I’m not well versed enough in the Assassins Creed world to fully understand what’s going on when it comes to the story."

I've played most of the games in the series and I can say without shame, neither do I.

baileyface544 : I tried watching the movie once and I could barely understand any of it.

I've always wanted to play this, I'm glad it gets such a good rating still. Pirate games are my thing, I only wish the One Piece games were more consistent.

pennylessz : This one definitely has a lot of content, especially if you can get it for cheap.