Ready for Assassin's Creed? Aye, aye, captain

"I once sailed for a king. I obeyed men of privilege and wealth. Now, I bend my knee to no man. My only oath is to my crew and together we will take back what is rightfully ours. With blood and steel, we shall stand up to the powerful. Captains will curse our flag, and kings will fear it. As long as empires generate wealth and riches, we will be there to bleed them dry."

Edward Kenway, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's "Under the Black Flag" Trailer.

After the disappointing instalments of Assassin's Creed: Revelations and Assassin's Creed III, I didn't have high hopes when I started playing the latest in the series. But, I swear by Blackbeard's bushy mane, Black Flag is the best.

You play as Edward Kenway, a pirate who loves rum. In a confusing fight, he kills a rogue Assassin and takes his robe and wrist-blades. Soon after, he finds himself in the midst of a group of Templars looking for the Observatory. It is a tower from where you can spot anyone in the world. Kenway wants the Observatory for himself.

Unlike his predecessors, Kenway is not interested in the Assassin's cult too soon. The game offers a lot of fun before it gets into the usual Assassin-Templar feud. You play alongside legendary pirates like Blackbeard and James Kidd, killing Spanish and English troops.

Black Flag has on-foot and naval gameplay and signature parkour moves and assassination techniques. Kenway's ship, the Jackdaw can be upgraded, fortified and decorated.

The Caribbean seas are dotted with cities like Kingston, Havana and Nassau. Secret caves, archipelagos, sandy islands and jungles are all over the map. You are free to go anywhere you wish to. All the locales offer distinct treasures and rewards. Much like Far Cry 3 and AC III, Kenway has to hunt animals and use their skins and bones to craft weapons, armours and outfits. Sailing in the open seas brings its own set of challenges. If the ships won't destroy you, the moody Caribbean climate can do extensive damage to Jackdaw. So, steer clear of rogue waves and water sprouts.

The Black Flag visuals are stunning. Whether you stand on a tropical beach as the sun sets or perch atop your ship's crow nest as a wild storm approaches, few sandbox games have been able to offer such visually rich worlds. To get the best experience, you need a strong machine.

The multiplayer mode has nothing new to offer. There is the usual eight-player predator-and-prey match, where the players engage in hide and seek with murderous outcomes. The Wolfpack mode divides the players into groups of four. The aim is to kill others before time runs out. Compared to the single-player campaign, the multiplayer is dull and wears out soon.

Though in the solo campaign, one will probably miss Desmond Miles, the iconic protagonist of the parallel Abstergo storyline in the previous games. Here, Desmond is replaced with a first-person character employed by Abstergo Entertainment and soon immersed in a hacking company database to dig out dirt on Desmond's death. It's boring, tedious and fails to make a mark.

Kenway's story is well-scripted. The climax is probably one of the most-emotionally charged endings.

Black Flag offers much more than the player can handle. In the middle of the game, I had to sail from one island to another to start a mission. Usually, the travel would have taken me ten minutes. However, I reached my destination in two hours. On my way, I looted half a dozen Spanish and British ships; harpooned a great white shark; explored an Aztec ruin; ravaged and captured a naval fort; went for an underwater swim in search of buried treasures and stopped over a small island for a drink at the tavern. Aye, 'tis a pirate's life for me.

ASSASSIN'S CREED IV
Name: Black Flag
Developer: Ubisoft
Platform(s): Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U,
Xbox 360, Xbox One
Genre: Historic Action-Adventure
Game modes: Singleplayer, Multiplayer
ESRB rating: RP (Rating Pending)