Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

Overview

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It is the sixth major game in the Assassin's Creed series. It is set before Assassin's Creed III, while its modern-day scenes come after III. It came out for PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and Wii U in October 2013, and a month later for PlayStation 4, Windows and Xbox One.

The story is a fictional history of real events. The modern-day frame has you playing an employee of Abstergo Entertainment, a front for the modern Templars, who gets pulled into the Assassin and Templar conflict and the secrets of the First Civilization. The main story takes place in the West Indies during the Golden Age of Piracy, from 1715 to 1722, and follows the Welsh pirate Edward Kenway, grandfather of Connor from Assassin's Creed III. He is looking for fortune and for a mythical place called the Observatory, and he gets caught up in an attempt to found a pirate republic.

The big change is ship-based exploration of a seamless open world. Edward captains the Jackdaw, a brig he takes from a Spanish fleet early on, and the main cities are Havana, Nassau and Kingston, with islands, sunken ships and forts around them. Land exploration, melee combat and stealth are still there, you can harpoon big sea animals and hunt animals on land, and multiplayer returns with land-based modes only.

Development began in mid-2011 at Ubisoft Montreal with a team separate from the one that made Assassin's Creed III, with help from several other Ubisoft studios. The game was announced on March 4, 2013. The PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions were the master versions, and the other versions were adapted from them. Brian Tyler composed the score. Sony paid for content that is exclusive to the PlayStation versions: three missions starring Aveline de Grandpré from Assassin's Creed III: Liberation.

The PS3 version came out worldwide on October 29, 2013. A season pass was sold at launch with the Freedom Cry story expansion and the Kraken Ship pack. On October 31, 2013 Ubisoft announced that the Uplay Passport requirement, which had come with new copies and was needed for multiplayer and the Edward's Fleet minigame, would be dropped.

Reviews were strongly positive, with praise for the open world, side quests, graphics and naval combat, and weaker reactions to the modern-day story and the combat. It was widely seen as better than Assassin's Creed III. It had shipped over 11 million copies by May 2014 and is the best-selling game in the series.

Gameplay

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag - Stealth Gameplay Walkthrough Video, IGDBcom. Watch on YouTube

Screenshots

Game details

Genres

Action-adventure, Open world

Developer

Ubisoft Montreal

Publisher

Ubisoft

Series

Assassin's Creed

Engine

AnvilNext

Composers

Brian Tyler

Designers

Eric Baptizat, Jean-Sébastien Decant

Writers

Darby McDevitt

Producers

Martin Schelling

Directors

Jean Guesdon, Ashraf Ismail, Damien Kieken

Modes

Single player

Yes

Local multiplayer

No

Online multiplayer

Yes

Release dates

Editions

Buy this game

Trophies

Trophies61

Platinum possibleYes

Platinum

1

Gold

2

Silver

18

Bronze

40

Total

61

Points

1620

Online note

PlatPursuit's PS3 list has base-game trophies that need multiplayer, including Committed To The Cause (multiplayer level 55), Personal Bag Of Tricks, Master Of The Caribbean (Wolfpack Discovery Mode), Lab Technician (a Game Lab session in the public playlist) and All Rounder (every mode, ability and ranged weapon).

DLC has trophies

Yes

DLC note

Two DLC trophy groups on PS3: Blackbeard's Wrath (4 trophies) and Freedom Cry (6 trophies). The base group holds 51 trophies including the platinum, 61 in all.

Trophy list shared with other versions

No

Other versions

The 2026 remake, Black Flag Resynced, has its own 50-trophy list with no online trophies, per PowerPyx.

Players with the platinum

0.5%

Grind

• Committed To The Cause: reach level 55 in multiplayer

• Prizes, Plunder, and Adventure! Win every trophy. Platinum 4.58% of players
• Heroes Aren't Born Complete memory sequence 1. Bronze 93.59% of players
• Good While It Lasted Complete memory sequence 2. Bronze 84.32% of players
• A Pirate's Life For Me Complete memory sequence 3. Bronze 75.98% of players
• No Apologies Complete memory sequence 4. Bronze 72.11% of players
• Death Of A Salesman Complete memory sequence 5. Silver 67.58% of players
• Mixing Up The Medicines Complete memory sequence 6. Silver 63.94% of players
• The Hammer Falls Complete memory sequence 7. Silver 62.41% of players
• Adrift Complete memory sequence 8. Silver 59.04% of players
• A New Hope Complete memory sequence 9. Silver 57.5% of players
• My Elusive Fortune Complete memory sequence 10. Silver 55% of players
• Been Down So Long... Complete memory sequence 11. Silver 54.08% of players
• Just Like Starting Over Complete memory sequence 12. Silver 49.96% of players
• Saw That One Coming... Complete memory sequence 13. Gold 49.35% of players
• Routine Hacking Complete present day mission 2. Bronze 75.7% of players
• Getting Weird Around Here Complete present day mission 3. Bronze 63.76% of players
• Bunker Buddies Complete present day mission 4. Bronze 54.86% of players
• It's All Good Complete present day mission 5. Bronze 49.73% of players
• By The Book Complete 100% of all main mission constraints. Silver 9.4% of players
• Hungover Wake up in a haystack. Bronze 27.08% of players
• Silence, Fool! Kill a guard ringing a bell. Bronze 62.02% of players
• Owned Complete every activity in a single location. Bronze 63.95% of players
• Vault Raider Unlock the secret door in Tulum. Bronze 32.92% of players
• Killer Killer Harpoon a killer whale. Bronze 50.58% of players
• Help A Brother Out Complete a Templar Hunt sequence. Bronze 54.53% of players
• Sea Legs Complete all naval contracts. Bronze 26.39% of players
• King Of The Castle Capture all forts. Silver 39.63% of players
• Employee Of The Month Complete 25 Abstergo challenges. Bronze 71.75% of players
• Business And Pleasure Earn 50,000 reales. Bronze 66.09% of players
• Mer-man Swim a total of 1 nmi. Bronze 71.18% of players
• Redingote Up! Craft the Hunter outfit. Bronze 29.57% of players
• Thug Life Plunder 30 ships. Bronze 58.33% of players
• Devil Of The Caribbean Defeat all 4 legendary ships. Silver 17.78% of players
• Destroyer Fully upgrade the Jackdaw. Silver 18.76% of players
• Seven Deadly Seas Explore all underwater shipwrecks. Bronze 27.52% of players
• Barfly Unlock all taverns. Silver 27.3% of players
• Cannon fodder Recruit 500 crew members. Bronze 34.27% of players
• FTFY Fully upgrade your hideout. Bronze 29.68% of players
• Cartographer Visit every location of the game. Bronze 24.02% of players
• Ghost In The Machine Hack 15 computers in Abstergo Entertainment. Bronze 31.35% of players
• Roped In Perform 5 air assassinations from a swinging rope. Bronze 29.44% of players
• Sharing Is Caring Share each type of discovery with friends once. Bronze 34.46% of players
• All Aboard! Board a ship without losing any crew members. Bronze 72.82% of players
• Siren Song Rescue pirate hostages by distracting enemies with "dancers." Bronze 12.4% of players
• Wild West Indies Kill 4 enemies in a row using multi-pistols. Bronze 41.95% of players
• Excavator Find a buried treasure. Bronze 60.99% of players
• Committed To The Cause Reach level 55 in Multiplayer. Bronze Needs online 6.62% of players
• Personal Bag Of Tricks Finish a game session with an ability set that you customized in Multiplayer. Bronze Needs online 21.17% of players
• Master Of The Caribbean Complete the Discovery Mode of Wolfpack in Multiplayer. Bronze Needs online 9.89% of players
• Lab Technician Play and complete a game session of Game Lab in the Multiplayer Public playlist. Bronze Needs online 10.45% of players
• All Rounder Play on every game mode, and use every ability and ranged weapon once in Multiplayer. Bronze Needs online 5.21% of players
• Sacred Land Playing as The Jaguar, be the highest scoring player of a Domination game session. Silver Needs online 10.87% of players
• Queen Anne’s Revenge Playing as Blackbeard, perform an acrobatic kill and a gun kill in less than 10 seconds. Silver Needs online 12.12% of players
• Preemptive Strike Playing as The Orchid, block 10 abilities from opponents with Sabotage. Silver Needs online 10.91% of players
• Elevator to the Gallows Kill a player using a lift that has been trapped with Booby Trap. Bronze Needs online 12.14% of players
• Liberation Day Free your first slave. Bronze 26.12% of players
• Seeds of independence Liberate 500 slaves. Silver 16.48% of players
• Firepower Kill 5 guards at once with a blunderbuss. Bronze 17.11% of players
• His Own Medicine Disarm the Gouverneur and kill him with the branding iron. Bronze 11.65% of players
• His Word Was “Perhaps” Freedom Cry - Complete all missions Silver 18.72% of players
• His Full Attention Freedom Cry - Achieve 100% synchronization Gold 10.72% of players

Space and patches

Update patch01.04

These are the patches Sony still hosts for this disc ID. The game's real history can be longer.

DLC

The PS3 version came with the Aveline missions, and a season pass covered Freedom Cry and the Kraken Ship pack, plus multiplayer character packs.

Items

Name	Adds	Date
Aveline	Three missions starring Aveline de Grandpré from Assassin's Creed III: Liberation. Included on PlayStation versions at launch.
Freedom Cry	A story expansion starring Adéwalé, Edward's former quartermaster, set over a decade after the main story. It has 6 trophies.	2013-12-18
Blackbeard's Wrath	Three multiplayer characters: Blackbeard, The Jaguar and The Orchid. It has 4 trophies. Included in the Season Pass.
Guild of Rogues	Three multiplayer characters: The Shaman, The Siren and The Stowaway.
Kraken Ship pack	Items to customize the Jackdaw. Included in the Season Pass.

Playable today

Reception

Aggregates

Outlet	Platform	Score	Scale
Metacritic	PS3	88	100

Critics

Outlet	Score	Scale	Platform
IGN	8.5	10
GameSpot	9	10
Game Informer	8.25	10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	9.5	10
Edge	9	10
Eurogamer	9	10
Famitsu	37	40
Destructoid	8.5	10
Computer and Video Games	9	10
Official Xbox Magazine	9	10	Xbox 360
Giant Bomb	4	5
Joystiq	4	5
GameTrailers	9.2	10
The Escapist	5	5

Staff and cast

Staff

Role	Name
Director	Jean Guesdon
Director	Ashraf Ismail
Director	Damien Kieken
Producer	Martin Schelling
Designer	Eric Baptizat
Designer	Jean-Sébastien Decant
Artist	Raphaël Lacoste
Writer	Darby McDevitt
Composer	Brian Tyler

Notes for collectors

• The Aveline missions are exclusive to the PlayStation versions at launch. They reached Windows later in the Uplay Digital Deluxe and Jackdaw editions.
• The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions were the master versions of the game, and the PS4, Xbox One and Windows versions were adapted from them.
• On the PS3, BLUS31193 is the North American disc ID. BLES01882, BLES01883 and BLES01884 are European IDs.
• The latest patch, 01.04, is about 800 MB and needs system software 4.40.
• The trophy list has 61 trophies when all DLC packs are counted: 51 in the base game, 4 for Blackbeard's Wrath and 6 for Freedom Cry.
• PETA criticised the game for its harpoon whaling. Ubisoft replied that the series is based on history and does not condone whaling.
• The multiplayer and the Edward's Fleet minigame needed an Uplay Passport on new copies until October 31, 2013.

Credits

Region

US

Time to beat

about 23.5 hours