As the story goes, there wasn’t a whole lot everyone liked about Assassin’s Creed III, but fans were in agreement that the naval battles were far and away the best part of the game. Now with Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag focusing solely on the naval part (though Ubisoft Montreal maintains that the ratio between ground and naval combat is 60/40), there has been a measured amount of enthusiasm.
Unfortunately, despite the increased important of naval combat, it’s unlikely that you’ll be able to engage in the same in multiplayer. Speaking to MMGN, senior producer Hugues Ricour stated that, “The multiplayer is focusing on the ground gameplay that fans are familiar with. The team has come up with tons of new ideas, such as at E3 when we showcased a mode where you can customise your own way of playing, and the reception is really strong, so that’s where the focus is for this year.”
At least the multiplayer throughout all the games has been stellar. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is set to release on October 29th for Xbox 360, Wii U and PS3 with PC, Xbox One and PS4 releases set for Q4 2013.