By now every fan of Assassin’s Creed should have played Black Flag (If not, you’re not a true fan and shame on you). That said, your boy just finished a crusade into the hearts of Liberation HD and the Freedom Cry DLC, two “Holdover” AC titles to stem off the agony of waiting for the next game in the series to release. “Holdover”– because, although wonderful to take on the reins of an assassin again — even for a little bit of time — the two additions do little more than salivate the palate before the main course of the series next title. That said, even a small dose of air assassinations can help hold over your withdrawal symptoms until this fall (hopefully and most likely).
LET FREEDOM CRY WITH…A (HAND) CANNON
Assassins Creed IV: Freedom Cry lets you take control of Edward Kenway’s quartermaster Adawale 15-years after the events of Black Flag. Toting around a vicious bloodthirsty machete, ‘Wale slices and dices his way through slavers and French soldiers in the colony town of Saint-Domingue, better known today as Haiti. The DLC starts off with our new hero attacking a Templar ship, killing its Admiral and stealing a package destined for Saint-Domingue. After stealing the package, Adawale’s ship Victoire sinks in a storm and he miraculously washes ashore on the very island the package was destined for.
Right from the get-go, Adawale sees the oppression of the enslaved peoples of Saint-Domingue and decides to take a stand. Having escaped the bonds of slavery himself, he can’t help but feel the plight of the “Maroon” rebels. As an assassin he must try to return to his brotherhood, but in the meantime he decides to have a little fun with the locals.
In this DLC, money is only good for upgrading Adawales ship, the Experto Crede. To get all the awesome weapons and pouches you have to earn a different kind of currency: RESPECT! You earn all your weapons (and let me tell you, some of them are bad ass…can you say hand cannon?) by freeing oppressed slaves. You have the opportunity to free small numbers of slaves all over, but the biggest and most gratifying experience is liberating plantations and boarding slave ships. The more you save, the better stuff you unlock.
The world map in Freedom Cry is roughly 1/6 the size of the map in Black Flag, but that is still saying something when you think of the enormity of the game. Unfortunately, there was only one town and a few scattered plantations in the world. The only real reason to board your ship was to hunt down slavers and dive on the ruins of an infamous shipwreck; and because, hell, it’s crazy fun to blast ships out of the water, especially corrupt French slaver ships.
But what happened to that package Adawale stole? What about hints on the next big Assassin’s Creed location? More on that later…