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The DLC also suffers from too many tailing and eavesdropping missions, which were probably the least welcome activities in Black Flag. Freedom Cry forces you to either embrace an eternal cycle of slave liberation, or become a total prick. Maybe there’s some sort of meta-philosophical point being made about moral complacency here, but the upshot is you eventually have to turn into the guy who’ll breezily wander past a beating and give a weary sigh to yet another escapee who needs your assistance.
ASSASSINS CREED BLACK FLAG FREEDOM CRY FREE
By reducing the concept of slavery to a never-ending game mechanic, there’s a point at which the player will eventually begin to just ignore the opportunities to free captives. It’s a clever way to integrate narrative theme with gameplay, but it does have one substantial drawback. Each one a monument to human misery, hammering home the idea that Adéwalé, no matter how hard he tries, cannot save everyone. As a result, there are endless numbers of respawning auction blocks, jails and plantations spread across Port-au-Prince. There will be no puns made about this map, I Haitian to add.įreedom Cry takes this theme into the changes it makes to Black Flag’s methods of progression, tying upgrades and mission unlocks to the number of slaves Adéwalé has liberated. The long-term implications are bleak, which is just as it should be for a story centered around slavery. As protagonist Adéwalé the conclusion is pre-determined, and (one climactic moment aside) any repercussions are left ambiguous. Of course that’s a choice the player can only really observe, rather than make.
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The rest of the plot proves to be muddled and of little consequence (don’t get too set on finding out what’s in that Templar package,) but the moral crisis of how best to aid enslaved people without invoking further French tyranny is a strong one. Both approaches are shown to have serious flaws the former prevents any meaningful change, while the latter risks even more violent repercussions from the French overseers. The growing tension between Bastienne’s pre-existing methods of appeasement and Adéwalé’s drive to take direct, violent action is Freedom Cry’s most interesting narrative thread. Following his only lead (a mysterious Templar package,) he falls in with brothel madam Bastienne Josephe and a brewing slave revolt headed by a group called the Maroons.