Assassin's Creed 4 PS4 Gameplay Video Finally Shows Challenging AI

A new video was released for the all-access Assassin's Creed IV week that rolls out new videos each and every day of the week to showcase new elements, gameplay mechanics and play options in Ubisoft's upcoming next-generation sea-faring pirate game, Black Flag.

The video comes courtesy of Dualshockers who picked it up from the PlayStation Access channel on YouTube. The video is nearly 19 minutes of pure Assassin's Creed bliss and one of the rare times Ubisoft's open-world assassin game actually looks like it provides a challenge.

Usually the AI in Assassin's Creed games are lower than third-rate goombas inebriated after a Jack Daniels binge. I mean, when you look up “Easy” in the dictionary, next to Paris Hilton you'll see the Assassin's Creed symbol.

In a short word, the AI in Ubisoft's hitman-for-hire-who-fights-aliens series is atrocious.

Thankfully, we finally get to see an enemy who hits back... yes, there is an AI who actually fights back in an Assassin's Creed game! Why, I haven't seen that kind of gumption from an AI in an AC game since Brotherhood. Not only does a beefy, axe-wielding ruffian refuse to lay down and die like a scripted extra in an explosive gun-fight from an Arnold Schwarzenegger film, but he also challenges the status quo of AI by counter-attacking the player as if he were actually paid to win.

The fight was still quite one-sided and the regenerating health is such a piss-poor gameplay mechanic that I'm not even going to waste words on how casual and easy that makes the game (literally, a blind, deaf, handless geriatric could win the game with such a mechanic) but I am glad to at least see some element of challenge from the AI. Heck, Ubisoft could put that in their launch trailer for Black Flag: “Now features AI that might sometimes attempt to fight back... maybe”.

If you want to play the easy-peasy Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One (even though Ubisoft hasn't let loose one video of the game on the Xbox One, which is absolutely worrying) you can look for the game to drop in mid and late November. If you're poor and can't afford a good game console or a decent gaming rig, you can buy the sup-bar edition of the game for the sub-30fps consoles that have a '3' in their name.

For more information feel free to pay a visit to the official website. Also, seriously, they need to release some footage of Assassin's Creed IV for the Xbox One because I'm pretty sure those getting Xboned will at least want to see what the supposed next-gen games look on the supposed next-gen console from Microsoft.