Assassin's Creed IV: Freedom Cry's Slavery Was to Shock You

Greg Tito

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Assassin's Creed IV: Freedom Cry's Slavery Was to Shock You

The narrative designers at Ubisoft Montreal wanted to make a game about something that matters.

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WashAran

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But isnt making people uncomfortabel with games a big "no no"? at least that's what I got from reading gaming websites for the past two years.

Hope there will be more games that adresse thinks like this. Looking forward to "This War of Mine".
 

Eldritch Warlord

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Jun 6, 2008
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WashAran said:
But isnt making people uncomfortabel with games a big "no no"?
I don't really think Freedom Cry makes one uncomfortable, unless you've got some cognitive dissonance about the whole slavery thing. You feel more motivated to improve things in the game since they're so bad for the slaves though. I think "uncomfortable" is the wrong word for Ubisoft to use.

One thing I do really like is how Adéwalé and the Maroons fighting to liberate slaves makes the Assassin's more than just anti-Templars.
 

Sniper Team 4

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Is this out? I'm guessing it is, but I've heard nothing about it until now.

This is a game I would want to play, with a hero I would want to play as. I've never felt a real connection to any of the assassins in any of the games. I never felt like I shared their desires or their motivations. But this? Yes, I believe I would be behind this all the way. This guy needs his own game I think.
 

Charles Phipps

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Oct 12, 2013
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It's been out for quite awhile.

Indeed, my only problem with the game is that Edward Kenway is about a free-spirited life of fun and adventure so the switch to Adewale and how utterly selfish/disgusting such a man's behavior is when there's things like slavery going around is a bit of a shock.

Freedom Cry doesn't remotely touch on the darkness of RL slavery but it's still probably one of the darkest games there is.
 

Charles Phipps

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If video games are to be considered a form of artistic expression then they need to be able to carry artistic meaning beyond entertainment.

As a result, Freedom Cry is art.
 

SporkySpork

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I really liked Freedom Cry, it felt long enough to justify the price point, had a character I liked just as much as Edward, and had a strong bridge between the story and the gameplay. I only hope we get to see more of Adewale and Aveline.
 

Grabehn

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WashAran said:
But isnt making people uncomfortabel with games a big "no no"? at least that's what I got from reading gaming websites for the past two years.
Which is why a lot of games tend to be stale, and those that attempt something other than "here blow stuff up" are usually praised when they actually succeed in doing that, much like Spec Ops the line did that to a lot of people.

Although I'm just talking of what I've heard/read, since I don't usually get any of that from games/movies/books due to a highly engrained "this is just a game/movie/book" thingy in my head.
 

Falterfire

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WashAran said:
But isnt making people uncomfortabel with games a big "no no"? at least that's what I got from reading gaming websites for the past two years.
I would say it's more accurate that making players uncomfortable with the actions of the character they control should be avoided where possible. If the player was controlling a slaver trying to amass a fortune by buying and selling slaves and gameplay, that would probably be a step too far for quite a few players. (Obviously even that is subjective though - The point of games is frequently to put players in a situation where they do things they would never do in real life) Freedom Cry has you freeing slaves, which is what most players would like to imagine they would do when put in such a position.
 

softclocks

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Mar 7, 2014
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Who would feel uncomfortable freeing slaves? Isn't that like the ultimate dream of the white-guilt beta?

And why is fighting slavery more important than fighting tyranny?

Can't build nations witout slaves, as history's proven a million times over.
 

Machine Man 1992

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So you're playing as a black pirate ninja trying to free Caribbean slaves?

I'm so down with this!

Aren't many games out with slavery as the main theme, is there?
 

Klagermeister

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softclocks said:
Who would feel uncomfortable freeing slaves? Isn't that like the ultimate dream of the white-guilt beta?

And why is fighting slavery more important than fighting tyranny?
You don't feel uncomfortable freeing the slaves.
This is immediately after trying for a while to free the slaves. Ultimately you fail, and the ship begins to sink.
So you're left to escape with the knowledge that there's nothing you can do to save them as they hang from their legs screaming for their lives.
It's way more uncomfortable than you may think. Give it a play to see what I mean.