Assassin's Creed 4 dev walkthrough shows seven minutes of gameplay
Shark stealth, tagging foes and blow darts.
Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag game director Ashraf Ismail has shown off seven minutes of the upcoming open-world pirate adventure in a new developer walkthrough (via IGN).
This time we get to see new protagonist Edward Kenway explore the seafloor by using a diving bell to access an underwater cave. Along the way he needs to stay out of view of a shark, but unfortunately this doesn't involve him wearing a novelty shark fin on his head. In fact, it doesn't involve him wearing much of anything as he needs to strip down to his drawers to go for swim.
This seems like it might make his exploits at a nearby enemy encampment more dangerous, but some new "improvements" have made it so the advantage remains clearly in the player's court. The biggest addition is that you can now "tag" enemies ala Far Cry 3, so you can continue to see them through walls. You can also keep your throwing knives in your skivvies, so you're never really stripped of your gear.
Neither of these things will be a problem so long as the game is designed with these new tricks in mind, but the series was never known for its difficulty and I'm a little concerned this will alleviate what little challenged remained. Being able to blow up a target in broad daylight via an explosive barrel and remain undetected only adds to the worry. I could be wrong, though. I hope I am.
On the plus side, Havana looks incredible and the new "blow dart" weapon that causes enemies to attack each other sounds like good, mischievous fun - even if it only adds to my concern that this will be easy to the point of boredom. But make up your own mind by watching the new footage above.