Game reviews: Assassin’s Creed IV to Lego Marvel Super Heroes

You may be waiting until the new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One consoles are released. But these recently issued titles—featuring pirates, soldiers, and superheroes—are good reasons to get into gaming now.

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag
(Ubisoft; PS3, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360; rated mature)

Black Flag is actually three games. One is an adventure in which your protagonist becomes a stealthy, free-running assassin; the second is a battle-filled exploration of the Caribbean that owes a debt to Sid Meier’s Pirates!; and the third is a platformer in which you collect items from the environment. The first you’ve played before in the early Assassin’s Creed games. In this one, the protagonist is Edward Kenway, a rogue who happens to be the grandfather of the main hero of Assassin’s Creed III. In Black Flag, Kenway’s main adventure takes place in Nassau, Havana, and Kingston, and it’s an exhilarating rush to explore those places. It’s even more fun to take to the seas in the Jackdaw, Kenways’s pirate ship, which is like a floating, transportable version of the manors in earlier games. In addition to engaging in thrilling battles, the Jackdaw can be upgraded. As can Kenway’s fleet, which can be dispatched on missions to expand his presence throughout the Caribbean. The part of Black Flag that fails to satisfy is the modern-day frame that is a part of the Assassin’s Creed games. Desmond Miles is dead, and without him the mythology of the franchise seems to be adrift. PS4 and Xbox One versions of Black Flag will provide essentially the same experience, but promise to look better. They will be available later this month.

Battlefield 4
(Electronic Arts; PS3, Windows, Xbox 360; rated mature)

Battlefield 4 is all about big. At times it’s the game itself wreaking havoc, courtesy of a new design philosophy and mechanic that developer DICE calls “Levolution”, which can spawn blizzards and hurricanes. At other times, it’s the players causing destruction on a massive scale, often tactically, by taking out a dam to flood a valley or causing the collapse of skyscrapers. But not all Battlefield 4 experiences are the same. The single-player story mode is uninspired when compared to the fun that can be had in the team-based multiplayer modes, though it’s not as unpalatable as the atrocious campaign in Battlefield 3. And the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game are smaller than their PC counterpart (and the upcoming PS4 and Xbox One versions, which will be available when those consoles come out) in terms of the size of the maps and the number of players that can be accommodated in multiplayer. But Battlefield 4 provides an enormous sandbox for gamers to jump into, and the tremendous variety of toys they need to wage war the way they want to.

Call of Duty: Ghosts
(Activision; PS3, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360; rated mature)

With every Call of Duty title, the games are even more “Call of Duty” than the ones that came before. You know what they entail: players take on the guise of soldiers in first-person perspective and either take part in raucous multiplayer battles or single-player campaigns composed of jaw-dropping set pieces. In Ghosts, Infinity Ward creates a near-future scenario in which the United States, devastated by an attack, fights for its very existence. In it, you’ll pilot helicopters and tanks, you’ll find yourself underwater and in outer space, and you’ll control the activities of a stealthy attack dog. Significant improvements in multiplayer include the ability for gamers to create female soldiers, a refined combat balance, and the ability to swap equipment for perks in your load-out. With additional game modes like Squads, which pits single players against computer opponents, and Extermination, four-player co-op play against alien invaders, Ghosts is brimming over with the Call of Duty goodness that you’ve come to expect. PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game will be available when those consoles launch and promise greater visual fidelity.

Lego Marvel Super Heroes
(Warner Bros.; PS3, Wii U, Windows, Xbox 360; rated everyone 10+)

Firmly planted in the Marvel universe that the recent movies are a part of, the latest Lego game is a rollicking adventure. The story, which is set soon after the events of the Joss Whedon film The Avengers, revolves around Dr. Doom trying to collect unique silver Lego bricks. Doom enlists the range of Marvel super villains, including the likes of Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus. There are dozens of superheroes to become too. Most missions start with two characters teaming up, with a third joining partway through the level. Each can be replayed in a “free play” mode using any character you’ve unlocked, which is also an opportunity to find collectibles. Switching between the heroes is simple, and the game can be played cooperatively, although the way the game segments the screen gets confusing at times. Structured much like the top-down Marvel adventure games from Activision, Lego Marvel Super Heroes uses the S.H.I.E.L.D. helicarrier as its base, and gives you access to an open-world New York in between missions. Just zipping around as Spider-Man or Iron Man is a riot.