New Assassin’s Creed IV Video Shows Off Stealthy Gameplay – And A Lot More

IGN has an Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag video up in which director Ashraf Ishmail narrates gameplay spanning several different locales. The video shows the game’s stealth and free-running action as protagonist Edward Kenway dives, climbs, shoots, and stabs his way through objectives.

The video opens with an optional mission. Kenway sails out to sea before making use of a diving bell to infiltrate an underwater cavern. We see the vibrant underwater life and attention to detail made even more impressive by next generation consoles. We learn that partaking in these underwater missions relinquishes Kenway of his equipment and weapons. The waterlogged hero distracts a guard by whistling before brutally disarming him, taking his knife, hurling it into the back of another guard, bolting to higher ground, and pouncing on one of two inquisitive guards before destroying the other with his own curved sword.

In the city of Havana, we’re reminded of the urban settings of the original Assassin’s Creed games. The map of Havana shows a city teeming with stuff to do. After accepting an optional bounty mission for a bit of cash, Edward easily scales rooftops before executing his prey from afar with only a hint of caution.

After a quick pistol upgrade, we’re taken dockside to the assassination of a sailor who will sadly never again make it out to sea alive. Ishmail mentions the variety of ways in which we can go about completing our mission before choosing the most straightforward of options. Putting those fancy new gun upgrades to use, Kenway fatally dismisses several guards before delivering the objective clearing final blow.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is looking like another visually stunning entry into Ubisoft’s popular series of death in a sandbox. The ability to tag and trace targets through walls is one addition we see here that allows for more carefully planned executions and the aforementioned pistol upgrades are just some of, what appear to be, dozens of incremental improvements made possible for the sake of customization. Black Flag is over-flowing with content and we can’t wait to get our hands on it.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag will be available for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and Wii U in the fall. It will also be one of the launch titles for both the Xbox One and PlayStation 4 when each of those consoles arrive, which will make it easier for Ubisoft to apply their apparent philosophy of more is more.