Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

It is the early 18th century. The seas are at an endless unrest as ships sail. The crack of thunder sounds from across the blue, yet there is no storm. A black flag is raised, cannonballs crash, and pirates take control of the helpless sailor ships. This is the scene that most think of when pirates are concerned. Of course video games also do their fair sure to help exaggerate this scenario further. In particular one recent game series has taken the mantle of telling the ancient history of maritime crime, and it just so happens to be Ubisoft’s historical fiction series
Assassin’s Creed, in particular the most recent game in the series, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black
Flag. Yet how accurate to pirate culture and history is the game? What creative liberties does it
First off, before getting to the game, it is important to know about how pirates conducted themselves in real life. Most tend to think of the classic image of a swash-buckling sea-dog of the south Atlantic, shouting pirate lingo at all times, while being quite ruthless in nature. This however, is not how they truly acted. In fact not all pirates roamed these future cruise hot-spots.
Pirates actually hailed from all across Europe, whether it be from England, France, Spain, the
Middle East or even Africa. (Wilczynski, K: The Golden Age of Piracy) Yet why is the
Caribbean pirate the most recognized image? Most films look at this breed of pirate, and of course Assassin’s Creed IV is based on the Caribbean pirates. This most likely has to do with their success. Before any counter attack could be done, these pirates brought five empires to their knees by severely threatening their economy. This was possible because many of these pirates had experience before, such as being in the royal navy beforehand, and they relied on their

ASSASSIN’S CREED IV