Yeah, the worst thing about this game was that, IIRC, three main story missions in a row were on-foot tailing/eavesdropping missions with insta-fail. The interruptions of the present-day stuff were annoying a couple of times too. Other than that, it’s a great game.
I don’t quite get all of the love for the naval combat. I thought it was kind of an interesting change of pace, but there’s an awful lot of time spent s-l-o-w-l-y turning around for another pass, or waiting for your cannons to reload.
(It’s still better than having to listen to George Washington blather on about attacking Fort Duquesne 8 times in a row because you keep failing the same eavesdropping mission. Not that I’m bitter.)
A bajillion hours of Sid Meiers’ Pirates! taught me that this is just how it’s done.
I agree that the ship combat wasn’t particularly well done. It resembled the ship combat from Total War from an upclose perspective. The boarding wasn’t that fun and got tedious. I’d often just sink ships instead of boarding them to avoid it even if it cost me half the loot.
Despite that, I still enjoyed it in a way that suggests the basic idea has a lot of potential. It’s like tasting a great recipe that was badly cooked.
How did that compare to ACBF?
Given how completely non-realistic the sailing portions were, complaining about stealth seems odd. Especially given that it was possible to tail a ship given a good captain, the right ship, and the right conditions. Even though theoretically if you can see the ship you’re tailing, they can see you, there are things you can do to prevent that. Such as only using your courses, not your top sails or topgallants, and staying far enough back, so while you’re able to see the other ships sails, they can only see your bare masts, which are much harder to pick out.
Now using swivel guns to somehow detonate the exposed powder store, that was ridiculous. The powder room & spirits room were the deepest, most well protected parts of a warship.
Ubisoft apparently got the message that their pirate adventure was a hit - at some point in 2019, they have a game coming out called “Skull & Bones” which is a dedicated pirate game without the Assassin’s Creed filler that Black Flag has.
I was really excited about* Skull and Bones* until I found out it’s strictly multiplayer. Then I was sad.
I’m currently playing Odyssey, and while the game itself is good, the sailing just makes me miss Black Flag even more. The sailing in Odyssey is just so dumbed-down compared to Black Flag that it’s actually kind of boring. I miss the huge storms, having to worry about wind direction, and avoiding rogue waves.