Can you start with Black flag?

[spuddy1981]

Not really played much assasins creed but liked the look for this one, is it a good place to start or do you need to work through them?

[Lucy.ow]

Nope, just go for it u'll enjoy the main story of edward kenway even doe the abstergo missions will be a bit confusing

[Dushi]

I would suggest you to start from the first one, not the best graphics in the first one but you will enjoy the story. After that you will get to play the second one(also Brotherhood and Revolution) , which for me is the best AC. Ezio is such a great character you will fall in love with his style.

[Atom.Little]

If you ask me, I'll say you can start with Black Flag just fine. It doesn't matter that you haven't played the previous AC games in the series because basically only the first two AC games were really - I mean in every way - about Assassins and their cause and battle for a free world by fighting against The Templars who swore to a world of control and supervision. You could say that the Assassins represented the positive in man, they believed in mankind's ability to raise above their limitations and weaknesses, while the Templars didn't trus mankind to be able to do anything useful or to be good unless a hidden leadership made sure they had no choice but to do what the leaders = The Templars - wanted them to do. And they would accomplish this by the use of propaganda and deceit and by keeping the individual person in the dark about the truth.

After Assassin's Creed II the story kind of derailed, the game company changed it's ways and were more interested in competing with other game companies about being the first with the newest next gen tenchnology, and that meant releasing each new game before any other company could beat them to it. Thus they had to release games that weren't really finished and which were full of bugs and glitches, and there was also no time to go in depth with what the game series originally was all about, so the story about the Assassin's and the Templar was left behind while battle was the main focus... which might have been all good, if it had worked. But too often the company didn't have the necessary time and couldn't wait with releasing games until they were finished.

They also needed a lot of money in order to remain at the top, so they pressed even more for game material to be made and released. The games are now loosely based on Assassin's Creed, but especially Black Flag has little to do with Assassin's Creed at all.

The main character, whom you play, is not even an assassin. He's a pirate and only once in a while crosses paths with Assassins and Templars, but the main gameplay is about piracy and going to battle at sea.

And in that respect the game delivers - at least enough so for most people to like playing the game.

So I will definitely say that Yes, you can easily play Black Flag without having played any Assassin's Creed game before. - Besides, there are so many expansions and so called DLC (which you have to pay for), that you would have to spend a lot of money if you had to play them all before trying out Back Flag. (Personally I didn't even finish Assassin's Creed III and have only spend an hour or so on two of the expansions, never bothering to finish them).
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Just one thing you might want to check out before you get Black Flag: How is your computer and internet connection with Uplay? If you have problems with games that must be played through Uplay, I would recommend you read some of the many posts about the problem people keep reporting (and no, it's not going to be fixed; Ubisoft is far into the process of creating something new and doesn't bother with Black Flag anymore). You might be lucky and find a solution, who knows.

But whether or not you launch the game from your Steam library or from a disk doesn't matter, you Have to go via Uplay or you can't play the game, there's no way around it - that I know of, anyway.

Seriously, you should make sure how your computer is with regard to Uplay for it's just a shame to buy something and then find you can't play it.
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This game is a game about a pirate and pirate life, the main character meets some historical figures which is fun, and both graphics and battle mechanics - especially at sea - are well made. I think, since you haven't played AC previously, that you'll also find the main story quest line interesting and perhaps challenging. The game has a lot of gather this and that content, but much of this you can ignore if you want to as it only has consequence for possible achievements.
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Good luck with your decision, pal. ;)

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P.S. I forgot to suggest that you watch a few gameplay as well as review videos about Black Flag on Youtube. That way you can get an impression of what the game looks like and about the gameplay styleand feel is.

[Atom.Little]

Originally posted by No.odle:

Nope, just go for it u'll enjoy the main story of edward kenway even doe the abstergo missions will be a bit confusing

True, but then, they're fairly short and doesn't make up much of the game. I think he can probably just follow the instruction he gets when he's in modern time Abstergo and otherwise ignore these parts.

Originally posted by Dushi:

I would suggest you to start from the first one, not the best graphics in the first one but you will enjoy the story. After that you will get to play the second one(also Brotherhood and Revolution) , which for me is the best AC. Ezio is such a great character you will fall in love with his style.

Oh yes, if what he wants is to play an Assassin's Creed game, he should definitely get AC-I and AC-II (the best of them all) plus the expansion to AC-II. These are without question the best games in the series and dates back from when it Was about Assassin's Creed and the time when they came to know more about who the Templars are/were.

A propos the parts that take place in Abstergo... Abstergo is basically Ubisoft's department in Montreal which is where the Assassin's Creed games are made. They're playing on the fact that the Templar's identity throughout history - except from the isolated cases that we see in some of the games - is still unknown to the player, and since they have issues with keeping this part of the story alive (it's a demanding and philosophical aspect of the game that they no longer have enough time to research in depth), so they've decided to let us believe the Templars may have hidden their true identity behind what is known as a firm under the name Abstergo, which - as kind of a joke - is also "maybe" Ubisoft.

[spuddy1981]

Thanks for the answers, very helpfull + a lot of information ;)

[Assassin Aria]

There's a LOT of lore you won't understand if you start off with this one. It's a GREAT game, don't get me wrong but there's like 2 different storylines taking place at once and a lot of past events that doesn't directly impact the game but knowledge of these past events will help you understand what is going on.

[Douka]

Never played an AC game before this one..GREAT game , especially if you love the pirate life

[vesprit]

Ok

[Darth Burger]

There was a story? Was that the part where Abstergo kept interrupting the pirating with tons of reading material about sages and precursors? They could've made the game world bigger instead of wasting time writing that drivel.

[Regime]

Originally posted by spuddy1981:

Not really played much assasins creed but liked the look for this one, is it a good place to start or do you need to work through them?

Wouldn't recommend it.

The Assassin's Creed series is linked by a rich backstory that spans the history of humanity. Real shame that people shouted down 'aliens and Desmond nonsense', leading to the post-Black Flag games as being an empty shell outside of the core game.

[ドラザラー]

Though I wouldn't recommend it. However, I don't think the previous titles are absolutely necessary. You would have a better appreciation and understanding as to what is going on, who people are, etc. I do think you would still enjoy this title even if you didn't play the others before it.

[Neslie Lielsen]

Originally posted by spuddy1981:

Not really played much assasins creed but liked the look for this one, is it a good place to start or do you need to work through them?

So I like Black Flag as a Open World-Game, but not as a "good" Storygame. It makes fun to be a Pirate with an own crue :). Also you can do sooooo many things there. Find treasures, swimming with your ship.. BUT the performance is not the best. If you will have some bugs turn Anti-aliasing "off" and this fog.things :)

[Jecto]

ac4 is a game for people who want to play a pirate game, if u like that its awesome.

[Atom.Little]

Originally posted by Aria Darabi:

There's a LOT of lore you won't understand if you start off with this [AC game].

There's some truth to this. If you want to know what AC originally was about, and which it still uses as basis for the conflict the whole fight centers around, I would recommend plaing AC-II. That's all you need. If you want to go really in depth, play AC-I as well, it gives you the whole foundation of what this is about.

My personal opinion is still that the first two Assassin's Creed games are the 'Real' Assassin's Creed games, after them it became more of an exploration in next gen technology and new historical settings, but game lore wise I have seen nothing new. The focus has been on making the game play itself as fun and satisfactory as possible while keeping graphics and audio uptimized as well though this part doesn't hit home as quite as much, probably due to the time pressure of being among the next gen Best Games.

Originally posted by Aria Darabi:

It's a GREAT game, don't get me wrong but there's like 2 different storylines taking place at once and a lot of past events that doesn't directly impact the game but knowledge of these past events will help you understand what is going on.

I agree. In the first two games the two time lines intertwined in a very exciting way because it seemed that actions in one time line could influence and change things in the other, and that was at least a big part of what the game was about. Now, the modern time line seems mostly to be there because well, it's tradition, people expect it. <-- Mind you, I may be wrong because since I haven't played the game to it's conclusion, so I can't know for sure that this is how it is.

Whatever the case, it's definitely a great game, particularly the graphics and the music is astonishing. I just wish there weren't so many issues and so much quirkiness with the movement and controlling it as intended.

Side note: I think you can also say that it's not so much about lore anymore, it's focusing on giving the player a fun gaming experience. This, with good graphics and audio, is the focus and seems to work because when the game play is good enough in and on itself, many players care less about lore. And after all, a lot of game use the same formula successfully and still makes it fully possible to play their games in different successions while still finding them fully satisfactory.
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Originally posted by jecto34214:

ac4 is a game for people who want to play a pirate game, if u like that its awesome.

Actually, this probably gets the closest to how I think about it too. That said, as a pirate game it's pretty damn good (if you ignore the glitches and the quirky movement mechanics that doesn't seem to like following your orders very much, lol).