Assassin’s Creed® IV Black Flag™

Congrats Ubisoft! You managed to took my money and dont let me even play the f*cking game!
I love playing that loading screen of yours, and your unoptimized PhysX for my laptop with 4070mobile rtx!
This is the worst game I ever 'played' - well, not really.
Idiots.

- had to use a cd key when launching, wtf?
- had to login to ubisoft connect
- Can't alt tab back to windows
- PS5 controller is not supported with windows
- PS4 controller is not supported with windows
- When starting the game " logging in to ubisoft server, please wait" (again, wtf? This is a singleplayer game)
- game launches minimized (can't alt tab back in) 4k issue?
- I have to crash the game manually and reload it everytime I alt tab out by accident
- does not support windowed fullscreen mode
- stuck in a forever loop of the game launching and minimizing and not being able to tab back in.

After about 20 minutes of f-ing around with this no effort port I decided to refund, just to get it out of my library.

F%#$ UBISOFT! I bought this game a decade ago, this whole time they let steam do the handshake with their crappy ubisoft connect third party c*ckhold app. Now all the sudden its asking for my ubisoft password that i havent used in over 10 fcking years. I dont have access to that email anymore. WHY? I bought the game through steam! Ubisoft is rapidly killing itself with braindead moves over and over again.

I can't open the game I bought because your system has detected that I've misplaced the password for your stupid service too many times. I just want to play my game in peace. It's no wonder that the stock of this garbage company is falling more and more, I sincerely hope that Microsoft buys this bankrupt studio soon. JUST LET ME PLAY THE GAME.

Years ago I played Assassin's Creed 1 and 2 and I loved it. Now after years I came back to the series and decided to play Black Flag first, as many rankings indicated that this is one of the best parts of the series. I partially agree. I would recommend the game and it was fun but I expected more - maybe because of this rankings.

However, I got the game on sale and you cannot make anything wrong if you do the same.

autiful graphics
-Huge artistic work
-Vast world
-Naval battles are awesomeeeee!
-Main quest is captivating

Cons:

-Uplay
-Same old basic combat system
-Lack of difficulty
-Little to no changes in gameplay compared to the older ACs
-Uplay
-Uplay
-Seriously... Uplay...

Advice:

Disable Cloud Save Sync. I lost 15 hours of gameplay because of that idiotic setting and you can avoid that by simply disabling cloud sync.

I'm sure this is a fun game but Uplay linked it to random guys account i'm not associated with so i wasn't able to play it at all, Ubisoft is an extremely sketchy company.

Fleet missions are non-functional without 3rd-Party patch, screen freezes and random lag spikes make a great title frustrating to play. Uplay required because we all need yet another bad DRM driven launcher.

This _was_ my favorite AC game.

Unplayable on modern hardware.

Just as Ubisoft added achievements.
It's like some sick joke.

Can't stand the practices of this company.
I can't see myself purchasing another Ubisoft title in the future.

0/10

This game's launcher requires you to input your password each time you open the game and prevents offline play. The game is fun, but I strongly advise against purchase due to its user-hostile interface.

One of the best pirate game so far Really enjoyable but needing ubisoft connect kind of sucks.

The best part of all assassins creed and my personal fav one. Finished it like 3 times already and thinking about 4th attempt. Ubisoft masterpiece 10/10

The game itself is great, probably my favorite Assassin's Creed. Lots of variety in missions, great ship combat.

The install is awful. The third party launcher is garbage, always needing a separate sign in and crashing. The game itself is crashing now too. If there's any game to pirate............

Ubisoft making it really hard to enjoy this game.
I'm sure the game is good but no widescreen support and capped at 60fps.

Also having to deal with Ubisoft connect asking me to log in again every time i want to play the game is annoying.

STEAM PLEASE FIX
The game refuses to boot up besides like twice I've tried a bunch of things to fix it and nothing works.

Thanks, Ubidick, for all your retarded decisions and support for the past several years! Not only have you lost your knack for making good games, you can't even optimize a fucking 10+ year old game without forcing your dipshit launcher. OH, BUT YOU ADDED ACHIEVEMENTS YEARS LATER! WHAT CHARITABLE PPL YOU ARE! ITS WHAT WE ALWAYS WANTED.

I hope your company burns and I am there to pour more gas to the fire, along with your stupid ass launcher. I wish nothing but failure for you. All your little anitics and bullshittery is finally coming back to bite you not only on the ass, but its taking the whole dick as well.

I've looked up multiple guides and everyone is saying "thanks, man! this works!" but the comment next to him says "this didn't work for me, but this other guide did! Heres a link!". It surprises me that there are so many ways to fix your poorly optimized game from fucking 2013, and yet only ONE of those guides MIGHT fix your game. "It JuSt DePeNdS oN yOuR pC sPeCs AnD bLaH bLaH bLah!" FUCK THAT! I'm not spending over 5 hours just to find which guide fixes the damn problem.

I hope that this year is your final breath, and the stain you've left is finally purged from our minds! No one will miss you or your "beloved" games-- CUZ WE HAVE PIRACY TO FUCKING THANK FOR, CUZ AT LEAST THEY GIVE A DAMN FOR MAKING THE GAME WORK AND ALWAYS LAUNCH OFFLINE IN AN "ALWAYS ONLINE SINGLE-PLAYER GAME". There is no layer in Hell that would take you in for your bullshit.

Take your "AAAA games", your NFTs, and your launcher; and shove so far up your ass that it can help you floss at night!

After all this, in the end yall still "Get nothing! You lose! Good day, sir!"

After only playing AC 1 and Unity as a kid, finally managed to get some time to try this game out of after hearing a lot of good things about this and its a really good game, even if its an early iteration of ubislop format. Tho i probably like it more as a pirate game rather than AC and from what ive seen this game still hasnt been topped when it comes to that.

really good for its old age. it has verry addictive combat and amazing parkour. it is clasical AC{not 100%}.the story is ok i havent play much but the ship fighing is exelent the best i have ever seen

Great game, but can't recommend because Ubisoft Connect requiring a log in each time you want to play which is brain dead.

Amazing game, first AC I've ever beat (on Xbox 360). I think being an Assassin Pirate is the best idea they've ever had before and after. I can not recommend it tho due to the absolutely awful Launcher, third party launchers are always a pain in the a** but Ubisofts is especially awful. Steam and other companies have GOT to figure something out with the launchers. Any game requiring a third party launcher is basically unplayable and nonexistent to me. Its really a shame because its such a great game and even runs pretty good on **SteamDeck** but seriously these launchers have got to go, they ruin a perfectly fine game.

F Ubisoft Connect. Not only do you need to have this trash 3rd party app on your system, but it continues to make you enter your password when launch the game, even after you've already done so, and even when Ubisoft Connect is already open and logged in to your account. There's no excuse for this.

I bought this game on steam ages ago, played it for a bit even. Now I'm trying to play it again and can't because ubisoft thinks the game, which I'm launching from Steam, is not owned by myself.

I recommend not paying for ubisoft games. There are sites out there that have all of their stuff available for download for free instead, and that's what I'll be doing since this is how they treat their customers.

5PP-6LLA-F8NR-69NQ-XA4C hey look an useless product key for this game because ubisoft sucks.

Great game ruined by Ubisoft requiring log in EVERY TIME YOU WANT TO PLAY, no just log in, but re enter your entire user name and password essentially making the game unplayable on some devices.

BAD UBISOFT EPIC FAIL!

ubisoft support just fucked me.
i cant even play it.
i know this is a great game but its locked behind ubisofts stupid fucking launcher.

I am going to have to say that I cannot recommend this game for PC users as I just can't get it to play on most occasions. It is a know issue that there are problems running this game on PC. I’ve read and applied every fix I could find and still have issues opening and playing the game. This is not to say it isn’t a good game, actually it’s a lot of fun when I can get it to run. So this non-recommendation isn’t about the game, just the inability of it to run.

Biggest lie we’ve been told in history is that pirates were actual “le evil murderous thieving scoundrels who sold slaves, took from the innocent and violated people.”

The actual truth is pirates stole from the rich corrupt nobles, went on fun adventures, fought skeletons, treated everyone with respect, were free, and sang sea shanties like that one ride. Props to abestergo for doing their research with this game.

Played this on the Xbox when it first came out. No buggy bullshit like what current AAA games are at launch, just pure fun.
Sad to see the multiplayer is dead though, I enjoyed the multiplayer mode for the assassin's creed games so much when it was active on the Xbox, even climbed to top 10 rank for a season. Bought this hoping to play a little on PC but it was already pretty dead at under 40 online players at any given point.
The story isn't as good as AC2/Brotherhood/Revelations trilogy but still well polished, with super fun game play mechanics.
It's an extremely good game for its time, and still a gem in 2025. Would highly recommend getting it.

I loved the ship battle mechanics and the story, this is by far my favorite AC game of the series. Not a big fan of the way they took the new ones and the new mechanics.

An absolute blast to play! I thought the ship sailing might be difficult but once I got used to it, I found myself sailing around with my crew singing shanties just to find ships to sink. I couldn't get Kenway's Fleet to work. However I didn't find I was missing out on anything in the game. A good mix of weapons and loved to play stealth as much as possible.

Great game to kick back and relax while doing typical pirate assassin things like petting cats and sinking enough ships to make woodcutters rich. Nothing captivating about the story and leaves a lot be desired in that department. A lot of emotional beats are missed because they were never truly developed in the first place. The story is still passable minus the missions outside the animus. But they really did nail the game play outside of numerous boring tailing missions. Ship combat doesn't get old imo and sailing while listening to shanties is always a good time. You can tell towards the butt end of the game that they really wanted you to buy the time savers with how much of a grind elite upgrades are, but realistically they are unnecessary. Overall its a 7/10 (very good) more than worth $5 or so on sale.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is an incredibly fun and action-packed entry in the franchise, despite its mid-tier story. The combat, both on land and at sea, is some of the best in the series. The Kenway’s Fleet mechanic is undeniably terrible, feeling more like a tedious mobile game and having 3 chests locked behind it for 100% completion is dodo. Even with its flaws, Black Flag delivers an unforgettable pirate adventure making it a must-play for fans of the series. I'll give a score of 8/10

i like the story line and the free world sailing and pirating, it has a little bit of a lag with their voices going before their mouth moves, but that could just be my laptops problem, over all its a good game

Pretty fun pirate game to play, but it was kind of hard to stay hooked in as an Assassin's Creed game. The story and combat were quite fun, but certain things and more involvement with the brotherhood finally got reached at the end of the game. It was quite a wait for things like rope darts when you can see it in crafting but not use it yet.

I never got to try the multiplayer yet, but they could still be up.

The best Assassin's Creed game. The original formula, perfected.
The new formula, of just packing in as much garbage boring filler fluffy trash as humanly possible, sucks.
The old formula, with the exception of AC2 and Brotherhood, worked, but was a bit flat.
This means I don't even like the majority of Assassin's Creed games.
But this is that perfect middle point where everything was working together in perfect harmony.

• great writing / characters
• great voice acting
• great story (for a video game)
• great pacing (between land and sea)
• great sense of progression
• great moment-to-moment gameplay

Literally the only thing wrong with it is slightly clunky parkour and too many frigging collectables.
The series' second best, AC2 is an 8/10. And the series average is a 6/10.
This game may well be a legit 10/10. It's genuinely that good.

~80 hours for 100% completion of AC4 and Freedom Cry. Probably ~6 of those hours were for Freedom Cry.

AC4:

Great game overall; bugs were minimal. After playing the newer games like Odyssey and Valhalla, it was very nice being able to complete the game in less than 3 billion hours. Freerunning can be annoying, especially in tight spaces like running around on ships. The biggest reason for this is the consolidation of run/climb into a single button that started in AC3 and has been carried through to every AC game since. I really hate it. I find few things as annoying as a video game character not doing the thing you want them to do. But yeah, good game in general.

Freedom Cry:

This one really frrustrates me. Adéwalé and Bastienne are both such cool characters, and their fight for the slaves (and their very different approaches to it) is very inspiring. However, the story as a whole is pretty forgettable aside from a few conversations between these two characters. What really ruined this DLC for me, though, were the bugs. The freerunning somehow got 10x worse, parrying often just didn't work, and the battle music would sometimes randomly cut out.

can't use mods game crashes remaster the game with no fucking logging retarded devs

I just gave up.

This was one of the greatest games Ubisoft ever created, with its story, characters and music (as long as you play in the Animus). But it is literally unplayable now with modern systems. The menu freezes into 0.2 FPS (not kidding) the only way to kinda solve this is to disable 28 out of 32 CPU cores, yaddi yadda, and at that point you can start playing with massive frame drops only occuring every 13 seconds, but if you disable this and that, then only every 18 seconds. I just realized that since I reinstalled it, I played the game for 30 minutes and have been trying to make it decently run for 4 hours. At this point it just simply does not worth it. This was one of the greatest games, and I wanted nostalgia, but no, if you were not one of the lucky people who played it back then, you will not get enjoyment out of it anymore.

One of my favorite Assassin's Creed games, even though it is older with lower graphics. The story is good and combat works well. I especially like the ship combat aspect of the game, which is well done and fun to play. Worth getting, even now in 2025, and worth the play through.

Probably if not the best Assassins Creed game. Get this instead of any of the modern games. Please.

It's a good game, but be warned: this game will really test your patience. You will feel the fury of a thousand storms every time you open this game, and it's all thanks to one mechanic: FUCKING UBISOFT CONNECT. Every time you open the game, EVERY SINGLE FUCKING TIME, IT NEEDS YOU TO SIGN IN AGAIN.

Words cannot describe the amount of pain I would put Yves Guillemot and his brothers through for all the bullshit they've done with Ubisoft over the years. Most say they wouldn't wish something on their worst enemy, but for Yves Guillemot and all the other executives ruining gaming, I wish the absolute worst for them all.

Cannot play this game due to Ubisoft account link, Why the H#ll does Ubisoft need an account to play a single player game?

To hell with you retarded gave dev companies.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag is best pirate game that I’ve ever played (I didn’t play any pirate theme game apart from “Sid Meier’s Pirates!”). To me, this game is the best Assassin’s Creed game in Assassin’s Creed Franchise. However, with all of these positive sides this game didn’t give me the feeling of being assassin when I compare to other games in series. That’s why I don’t consider this game as an Assassin’s Creed game. It looks that Ubisoft thought like us that they tried to make an independent pirate game called Skull&Bones but they sucked whatever. Being a pirate in earlier 18th centuries was a great experience with so many activities, collectibles, contracts, raids that we did for upgrading our ship, creating your own fleet (You need to download a patch for activating this option unfortunately) and also the feeling of exploring the vast Caribbean with your crew. As good as these features are, the story and mission designs are just as bad. Usually the game wants you to follow one NPC and kill them at the end of mission. As a result, every gamer should play this game but not seeing as an Assassin’s Creed game. If you enter the game with these expectations, I believe that this game is going to be one of the best you've ever played.

Everything haters hate about AC games is also present in Black Flag

But it works out of general simplicity with mostly grounded characters

The game doesnt really support modern systems, it constantly tabs out, crashes, and never gets more than 20 fps no matter what you do. Do not buy unless they update it to run better for newer systems.

Otherwise this would be an easy recommend.

requires a ubisoft account. the process of creating an account required me to delete my cookies, create a new email address, and turn on my vpn to get it to work.

Ubisoft has utterly handicapped this game. I've been trying to get this game to play on my steam deck for over 4 hours now at this point. normally you have to sign in every time you launch the game which is a pain but at least i still got to play my game. I think there was a recent update or something but now i get to the login page and enter my info, as soon as the launcher says syncing achievements the game shits the bed and goes back to my library. I've tried every hack and tip out there on the internet and nothing works. I really just want to play MY GAME the way i want to play it. Kudos to Ubisoft for being the shitiest company in gaming.

I played this game upon release back in the day on Playstation.
Now years later wanted to scratch the assassins creed itch in 2025.
This game is even better than I remember. I did not beat it originally. Now I plan to finish and enjoy playing just for the sake of exploring and pirating. As a much older gamer I find pleasure in slowing down and not just rushing to finish a title. A lot of exploring and things to do in this one. And it looks great and runs very well on steam.

One of my favorite in the series, Best story and gameplay experience ever made, this is a real AC game with no RPG elements which is better than recent AC games

Why do I have to jump through so many hoops just to launch a game? Why do I have to verify it's me? If you want to play my game, I don't give a fuck. Play it. Hell, win it. I honestly don't care. I'm just really tired of these dipshit companies making it so complicated just to launch a game I have already paid for.

So Ubisoft ruined the game with "Game linked to a different account" check both accounts and it still says the same thing. Even unlinking and linking my steam account didn't work. Tbh it's just gone downhill another good game ruined by a greedy and lazy company