Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag - Freedom Cry

Freedom Cry is about hope. It's about hope for a people, even if it feels futile and fleeting. You don't solve the problem of slavery in Freedom Cry. ...The add-on also gives hope for what's possible when blockbuster-driven creators take risks with material. There are missteps in Freedom Cry, more ethical than mechanical, but it hits as often as it misses. That's undeniably an important step forward.

For better or worse, Freedom Cry feels like an entire Assassin's Creed game distilled into five hours. That’s good, but it’s an Assassin’s Creed game that doesn’t include many of the steps forward that Black Flag so recently made. ...But despite this, Adewale's journey genuinely moved me, as it dealt with themes and situations rarely explored in video games. A story unfettered by Assassin versus Templar mysticism keeps it grounded and powerful.

And so nothing feels like it matters. Freedom Cry has an interesting protagonist with an interesting perspective in an interesting time and place, and reduces it all to numbers on a sheet and repetitive tasks, all while playing it incredibly safe with gameplay or storytelling. If all you want is more Assassin’s Creed 4, then Freedom Cry provides that, and there’s plenty to do. The question is, will you really want to do it?