Steam winter sale + pirates = here’s my wife’s money.

I played AC 1&2.  Then it got into a money grabfest of terrible proportions. AC3 looked stupid (apparently played that way until you completed the game) and I skipped it.  But my heart has always been with Pirates!  I played the heck out of that game and anything that allows you to loot and plunder while steering a giant ship in the seas has my vote!

AC4 does away with a  bunch of the crappy stalking missions (still a few mind you) and concentrates on open water warfare and parkour assassinations.  Rather than just a few towns, there are dozens of areas to find.  Islands, towns, forts, shipwrecks.  I unlocked one of the 9 areas on the map (by taking down a fort in a 10 minute battle) and it cleared my map to see all the various objects.  I swear there were twenty things that popped on my screen.  I saw a whale and decided to take a stab.  Poor pun.

Well worth my money.  I’m what appears to be less than 50% complete with 20 hours in.  And being a completionist isn’t some boring affair either.  Collecting even the tiny things, like shanties, is a fun romp through town.

Plus there’s the ship battles.  Plenty of videos of that.  There’s something to be said about taking down 5 ships, a fort, 2 captains, a flag, 3 officers and a war officer.  Tons of fun and highly recommended.