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.