Edward Kenway pirates some lives in AC4 gameplay demo
The pirate life for thee
After a barrage of CG trailers for Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag, we finally saw some gameplay in action during Sony's E3 2013 press event. The demo opened with Edward Kenway hanging out on what appeared to be a pirate stronghold in the West Indies. His target: some pirate dude(?).
As Kenway stalked his prey through the lush jungle setting, it was astonishing just how good everything looked. The vegetation rustled as he walked through, boasting an incredible level of detail. He crouched ahead, ending an enemy guard with the quick stab of his hidden blade, tossing the body below the waist-high plants. That's when some all-out action kicked in.
He took out multiple guards with his dual-wielded pistols right before getting bombarded by a mortar strike from the sea. The fiery reign looked just as amazing as the soundtrack sounded as he ran toward his own ship, which he used to initiate a fierce sea battle. Cannon balls whizzed by, some colliding with the hull of his vessel, but he returned fire, blasting an enemy ship to pieces. Then he did something only a badass pirate/assassin can do: he lined up his ship with that of an enemy's, boarded their boat, and cut down its crew with a mix of melee and ranged weapons. Alas, the demo came to a stuttering end thanks to some unfortunate technical issues, but what we saw was certainly impressive. Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag will release on October 29 this year.
Sign up to the GamesRadar+ Newsletter
Weekly digests, tales from the communities you love, and more
Ryan was once the Executive Editor of GamesRadar, before moving into the world of games development. He worked as a Brand Manager at EA, and then at Bethesda Softworks, before moving to 2K. He briefly went back to EA and is now the Director of Global Marketing Strategy at 2K.