Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag
From: Ubisoft
For: Xbox 360, Xbox One, PS3, PS4, Wii U
Four stars (out of five)
Just ask the developers of the Assassin's Creed series.
They struck gold with their unique formula of historic setting mixed with stealth/action gameplay and have gone back to that well time and time again.
Black Flag is the latest jaunt and, what do you know, it features much of the structure and gameplay that have made the series so popular.
The setting is the Caribbean in the early 18th century, the theme is piracy, and the protagonist is one Edward Kenway, a dashing and ruthless captain.
As the action unfolds, you are left with two options: pursue the storyline, completing quests and exploring new lands; or wander about the world, working towards achievements, accepting assassin's contracts and generally taking it all in.
It's as open an open-world game as anything not called Grand Theft Auto, and for me, this is by far the biggest attraction of the game.
Some of the action gets a little boring - Assassin's Creed is all about scaling huge buildings with your incredible climbing ability, and killing villains in various spectacular ways - but the exploration never gets old.
Brilliantly, at your disposal in this title is your own pirate ship, the Jackdaw.
Climb aboard and sail in and out of hidden coves, and engage in warfare with other pirates. It's a lot of fun.
Loads of upgradeables and unlockables add to the interest.
The graphics (on the Xbox 360) look great - and no doubt will be even better on the new generation of consoles.
Few quibbles, really, other than there is little here that has not already been done.
