Switch Lights

The lights are on

What's Happening

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

New Screens Show Off The Present Day World

Yesterday, Ubisoft let Assassin's Creed lead writer Darby McDevitt loose on Twitter to answer questions about the modern Abstergo's role in Black Flag, and reveal some new screens.

Ubisoft summed up the Q and A session on its blog, which you can check out here. There are no flat-out, "Here's what happened in the end of Assassin's Creed III!" spoilers, but there is enough there to merit a warning if you haven't gotten around to finishing Connor's adventure, yet.

McDevitt said on Twitter that cluster and glyph puzzles have been replaced by hacking games. There will be a "handful" of present day missions taking place in Montreal, Quebec. They will will involve exploring, sneaking, eavesdropping, and hacking, but no combat. Clay A.K.A. Subject 16 will not be returning, but McDevitt teased something related to Subject 17.

When asked about Desmond and his connection to the main character of Black Flag, McDevitt replied, "You are the main character. Do you have any Miles’s in your family tree?"

The full posting contains more information, so be sure to check it out as long as you've completed Assassin's Creed III.

Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is coming to PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii U on October 29, with PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One versions set for some time this year.

Thanks to Jeury Veloz for the news tip!

[Source: Ubisoft blog]

Email the author , or follow on , , , and .

  • Awesome. I enjoy both aspects in these games really looking forward to Black Flag

  • What's the point of the whole present day stuff when they said there wont be a present day Assassins Creed game anytime soon. Its just so pointless.
  • In the office hub anyone else see the figures on the left side tht will be awesome I see kenway n some other characters wouldn't it be awesome to get altair and ezio figures n I guess one for conner lol

  • Sounds nice enough.

  • Wow this gets me really excited.

  • Christ. The Assassin's Creed fanbase is turning into the CoD kids. Same game every year, but they just keep drinking the water. Ubisoft turned the franchise into their own little Call of Duty by releasing it every years after '09, thus they've gone to ***. And cancelling Rainbow Six: Patriots in favor of AC V? Again, something Activision would do.
  • I really hope the present day missions are not first person missions, I read somewhere that the present day segments are first person.
  • The whole animus thing is retarded. Why can't we just play as a character in a historic time period without all this time travel, evil corporation BS?
  • The screens actually look pretty cool. Let's just hope they play that way.

  • Did they try to make Abstergo HQ like the Citadel from ME?
  • Seems to me that Ubisoft is losing direction with the story. Animus idea is interesting, but only if it's done right. I think the first problem was they involved Ezio WAY too much (I preferred Connor and Altair). Yes, he was a key figure in the world of the Assassins, but it was Altair who made the Assassins who they were for hundreds of years until modern technology came into play. If they had come out with two different time periods for Brotherhood and Revelations then I think it would have been better.

    And don't get upset because I don't like Ezio as much. The only reason everyone likes him is because there were 3 games with him. He only needed one with some DLC or a longer game and then you could have gone with one other Assassin in China / Japan like everyone wanted and another in maybe the Caribbean with Edward Kenway and THEN Connor.

    As for Desmond, I wish we could have seen more from him, but what he was doing what needed to be done. You can't exactly go around killing people in 2012 when there's so much information around you. It would make hiding already that much harder for the Assassins as it was. So for him, it was about where they could have been.

    If Ubisoft had been smart, they could have done what Rockstar did with their yearly releases and put out DLC for $20 that would extend the characters story 10 hours (because it's all about the money for this series) and made more money off AC1 with DLC, then the next with future DLC, etc, etc, etc. We get a little more story out of the Assassin characters for that particular title and we feel like we've experienced enough of them to be satisfied.

    I personally didn't get the Tyranny of King Washington because I thought it was stupid and really I just wanted to know more about Connor's life after the Revolution and what he did as Mentor of the Colonial Assassin's rather than an alternate time line. But hey, I just went back and played AC3's story all over again because I thought it was by the far best. A lot more in depth and a lot more grey area than the simple good vs evil story.

  • Goodluck with this franchise Ubi. Cause I am done with this. The innovation of this game got lost with AC2. While the game was good, the intriguing sci-fi concept and Ezio's character boiled down to a generic Hollywood type tale of from riches to revenge (although the gameplay was still fresh).

    I don't think there is much more they can tap out of this game unless they do a reboot and hire some writers that can make a story. I am wondering why Patrice got fired, is it because he wanted Ubi to stop milking this franchise or did he plan on making it a lot worse than it is now? We all know even the original creator can lose track of their goal with a long sidelined project (D3, Red faction, Ninja Gaiden 3 etc).

  • That is hopefully PS3 screens or else we have a problem. It looks fugly.
  • Google is owned by the Templar!

  • Even though I would very much prefer it if they just ditched the whole modern day thing and focused exclusively on the past assassins, I actually am having a good feeling about this modern day story.  After reading the Q&A Blog, I have to say that I like the direction they are taking with the modern day story.  I might actually like it for once in a long time...

  • Cool, glad to see this

  • This is going to be a very strong opinion that I need to vent on, you have been warned:

    I'm very tired of seeing everyone except a few people QQ their hearts out over the "lack of innovation" whether on a gameplay or story basis with regards to AC. We will actually be able to have STEALTH MISSIONS in the modern levels. Do you people not read?!?!?!?! How many times can you count AC having all out stealth levels? Mostly you can kill and do whatever you want as long as you're not caught in the Animus levels/when you're freeroaming/doing sidequests. AC4 has SO much content to look at, it has a huge upgrade to the naval gameplay with regards to a seamless world, weather, water spouts that can wreck ships, (you can even make your crew sing a sea shanty...) and they are making the A.I. more difficult. I understand we have yet to see the results of that, but no one seems to be looking at the better parts of the franchise. Finally, the player will be able to harpoon whales, and dive underwater for TREASURE CHESTS :D... that's awesome and almost NO games do that, unless we're talking Far Cry 3 but the environments underwater for Far Cry 3 weren't fleshed out nearly as much as what I've seen so far in AC4.

    As for the story, I'm in agreement the modern storyline is Hollywood-esque, however at the same time there are differences, there is a ton of character development from AC2-ACR... people judge Connor off of 1 game, while they hail Ezio as the best without even thinking that he had a massive 3 games just for him. It's unfair and though Connor wasn't your typical hero or even anti-hero, he did what he had his own unique personality.

    Storyline for the Kenway side of things... 1. He's a pirate/Assassin, and they seem to be trying very hard to figure out how to make him the best Assassin yet- they've put emphasis on Kenway and the Jackdaw AND his crew ANDDDDD his first mate in a ton of the trailers and gameplay videos. Also Blackbeard as his mentor... I think that's awesome.

    Disclaimers... I'm in agreement with many that AC3 didn't have a good storyline compared to the other games, so no I don't like every single AC game ever made, however I will say that AC3 did have a decent amount of additions to gameplay- they just needed more content.

    And now I end my rant/venting session. :D

  • AC4 to focus on hacking in the "modern" parts of the game? So how long until AC and Watchdogs turn into the same franchise?

  • The present-day segments have sucked in Assassin's Creed for so long, I don't know how to feel about them now, even with dumb old Desmond gone. Part of me wants to say that simply playing the segments from a 1st-person perspective is a better way to get deeper into the story without annoying backstories, another part of me thinks it won't have much relevance without a well-established, grounded story-arc to attach myself too. I guess it just depends how deep I can actually go into Abstergo's dirty depths. If I'm just milling around and clicking computer terminals and chatting with random passers-by, it won't seem worth it to me. Abstergo sort of looks like Google offices in a Carribean resort.

  • Wow this game is becoming more mysteriously awesome Ubisoft your really are going big.