00:00So, Assassin's Creed Black Flag re-sync trailer showcase, whatever you want to call it, dropped
00:05yesterday. I checked it out, thought about what I saw, because yeah, I sometimes do that, and I
00:11decided to make this video in order to share my view about the situation. So, for starters, it's
00:17very obvious that the game looks very pretty. It would be a bit weird situation if we had a
00:23remaster or re-release or whatever you want to call it, to be ugly or uglier than what it was.
00:30Problem is, for me, this is irrelevant. Black Flag, when it released, looked amazing, and I went
00:36into it today, and it still looks amazing, so them changing these things, it's not going to change
00:41how I approach the game at all. What I'm mostly curious about, as always, is gameplay. So, what
00:47exactly did they change, or why did they change it, for the next release? Well, let's start from the
00:54beginning. First system that was mentioned was the combat. Apparently, it is much better, crispier,
01:00fluid, whatever the hell they used in order to describe it in that preview. And to that I say,
01:06I haven't saw that. Maybe it's just me not playing the game and not seeing it, or rather, it's harder
01:11to see when they're showcasing it like that. So, I reckon I would have to dive into the game and
01:17check
01:17it out, at least in the beginning, where you have the first major confrontation, either with that
01:22assassin guy or with the guards that are guarding Steve Bonnet. However, the thing that I noticed
01:27were those flashes of white and orange and yellow, or whatever the hell those things were when you're
01:34parrying. I don't understand what the hell is even that. Why do we need a visual indicator that I parried
01:41something, or that I'm going to perform certain move? That never was a thing in the original one,
01:47so I don't understand what is the purpose of adding that shit. Because to me, it looks stupid.
01:52Why do perfect parries need to have this type of a flashing light, or whatever the fuck that is?
01:58It's really off-putting to me, because it just doesn't feel right. I don't know how else to explain
02:04that. Also, when Edward was fighting all the enemies, where is blood? I don't see a single drop of
02:10blood. Is that some kind of a censorship that you can actually turn on and off later in the game,
02:16because they just wanted to be PG-13 friendly, or whatever the hell they were doing? I don't really
02:21know. But I want blood. If I'm going to stab a person through his chest, there should be a gush
02:27of
02:27blood. Again, why isn't that there? So, apart from dumbing down things with these flashes and
02:33indicators and lack of blood, I don't see any difference with combat whatsoever. Again, it might
02:39be that I'm looking at someone else playing, and I need to experience it myself, but from what I have
02:45seen, it's completely same, apart from the things that I mentioned. Same thing goes for parkour. It
02:51kinda looks a bit crispier, but at the end of the day, it's not a huge improvement. For example,
02:57if you put stuff from Assassin's Creed Unity, the way Arno was traversing all the ledges and buildings
03:03and all that thing. Then there was some talk about stealth system, and apparently Edward can now crouch,
03:09and that essentially is a good thing. I reckon there comes some kind of a buff to your character
03:15when you're crouching, as in lower visibility or something along the lines. So in that sense,
03:19that's a good change, and I can totally see why. However, this next change surprised me a bit. It's
03:25all about eavesdropping and tailing your target. They say that in the original game, when you were
03:30discovered, it meant that you were instantly desynchronized, which means that you failed your
03:35mission. And apparently, people didn't like this. But let's think about this problem, shall we?
03:41So the mission is, or the objective of the mission is, that you need to follow a target,
03:45eavesdrop on their conversation in order to gather intel. And if you fail in any moment,
03:51as in you are seen or something along the lines, well, naturally, the mission should fail because you
03:56were caught in the act. And if people who you were eavesdropping on notice that, that means that
04:02they are now compromised, they need to change their plans because someone actually figured stuff
04:07out. So to me, in that particular logic, getting desynchronized was completely justified because
04:14that meant that you failed at your task. So I wonder what happens now when you fail? I've seen on
04:20the
04:20preview that you just go and kill people and the stuff continues as is. And as far as I'm concerned,
04:27that's very fucking dumb. Because these missions require of you to be flawless. Because if you fail,
04:33then you cannot progress and people know that you actually spied on them. And that's the whole point
04:39of gathering intel without being seen. Not to mention the whole mission tested your skills to adapt,
04:45to find blending spots, to disappear in crowd. Because again, the idea is not to be seen by the
04:50people who you were spying. And now this concept or this thing is completely removed. And in my
04:57opinion, it feels like it was dumbed down. Because what happens now when they catch you eavesdropping?
05:02The mission completes is like, ah, you know, oh, well, we caught you. But still, you're gonna kill
05:05us. And we're not going to tell stuff, blah, blah, blah, stuff like that. I don't know, man, to me,
05:09that seems very freaking weird to abandon that concept altogether. It would have been much better if you
05:15gave people more wiggle room in order to find these spaces or whatnot, not to fail the stuff
05:21instantly. But you still need to retain that particular sense of gathering intelligence in order
05:26to get to your goal. So I don't know, to me, this feels like a downgrade. And when you take
05:31into account
05:32the previous changes with parry system, I think we are onto something here. Then the next scene was all
05:37about the jackdaw. The way they improved firepower, flexibility, this and that. And okay, it seems like a
05:43natural thing to do. They also reveal that we are getting these three new officers, which are going
05:49to enhance the ship capabilities when you get them as a part of your crew. And that's an interesting
05:54concept. They will probably add more depth to the ship. But the thing that kind of caught my attention
06:00was having a woman as a naval officer back in the days of the golden age of piracy. I mean,
06:07what the hell
06:07is even that? This woman called Lucy Baldwin. I don't know where they pulled her from, but she
06:14definitely does not fit this particular narrative. I could even understand if she was disguised. Many
06:22female pirates did that. But this woman looks sexy as hell and she's going to be on a pirate ship
06:27full
06:27of men. I don't know what were these people thinking, but they definitely weren't thinking
06:32straight. I'm not hating on women or anything like that, because obviously some people might
06:38comment on this if they actually watch this video. But it's just not natural. And it's a eyesore
06:45because you clearly see that something isn't right. So yeah, okay, more women at the golden age of
06:52piracy. Sure, whatever. I know we have Anne Bonny and Mary Reed, but they're already established
06:57characters and we know everything about them. Because again, established characters means that
07:02they existed in history. But this whole situation with this new officer just feels forced. I knew
07:08Ubisoft is going to do some bullshit. I just didn't anticipate it's going to happen in this particular
07:13way. But okay, whatever. And finally, to conclude this showcase, they added a monkey and a cat on the
07:21ship. It would be interesting to see if cat is going to perform its natural duty on the ship
07:25that is catching small animals like mice. And as far as the monkey man goes, well, I reckon it's
07:31just a gimmick because we had a monkey in Pirates of the Caribbean. So I guess there's that. You
07:36could say it's a nice little Easter egg in that sense. And that's basically it. That was their
07:41showcase. I mean, there were some other things that they were babbling about like this or that
07:45and the workshop and whatever. It's completely relevant. But the point that I'm trying to make here
07:50is that not a lot have changed. And all the changes that they introduced, well, some of them
07:55make sense and others are completely nonsensical. Would I give 60 bucks for this game in order to
08:01play it? If I'm talking from a reviewer perspective, I mean, obviously, I have to. I don't have a choice.
08:07But if I'm looking as a gamer, as someone who wants to revisit Black Flag again, I am still not
08:13convinced that I should give them my money in order to re-experience this whole thing. Because again,
08:19there is the original game. I have it. If I so desire to go into Black Flag again, I can
08:25boot it,
08:26I can play it, I can experience everything again. And in some situations, it feels like the original
08:32game is a bit better in terms of gameplay mechanics and all other things that we were able to see
08:3713 years ago. The only thing I know is that I will definitely play it in order to review it
08:43and tell
08:43to the general population whether or not this is just a cash grab, an overpriced reskin or whatever
08:49you want to call it. And whether or not is it better for you just to go and play the
08:54original
08:55Black Flag or jump into some other game that has this pirate gimmick, the recent one being Windrose.
09:02I would say not great, not terrible, definitely not worth $60. I guess stay tuned for the full review
09:09when the game comes out to see whether or not I'm wrong, but I have a sneaky suspicion that I'm
09:14kind of right in this sense. Anyway, if you enjoy what I'm babbling here, you know what you need to
09:19do. Like, share, subscribe, stuff like that. And also, don't forget to write in the comment section.
09:25I read all of your comments, I'm really interested what you guys have to say, because that type of
09:30interaction is very important to me. Anyway, that's it from me, until the next one.
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