Debauchery and Seduction to Play Key Roles in Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag

While the pirates in the Caribbean theme — which reminds us of something — of Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag may have caused some mirth and casual mockery when the game was unveiled earlier this year, there's still little doubt that the title will earn yet another mature age rating. The first trailer showed plenty of violence and even some semi-nudity to remove any doubts about the game being a serious affair rather than, say, a child-friendly hunt to obtain treasure from ghost pirates.

In all seriousness, the setting promises greater use of the naval gameplay found in Assassin's Creed III, as well as a decent number of hub environments through multiple islands. We also know that we'll be playing as Edward Kenway, the father of Haytham Kenway from the most recent release.

In an interview with Polygon, lead scriptwriter Darby McDevitt has explained a little more about Kenway as a character, while indicating that sexual themes, and the use of female NPCs to seduce enemies — an idea that's already appeared in earlier series entries — will be a part of Kenway's story and his tactics in-game.

Edward Kenway is a raucous and bawdy chap, but he's also a married man, and one of his primary motivation in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is to get rich and prove himself a ‘man of quality' to his family and betters. So there is a special woman in Edward's life, but there are also other not-so-special women as well.

...While this scene [of Kenway with two women] in the reveal trailer was clearly [a] designed hint at the pirate lifestyle, there is a gameplay element here, to show that you can use certain NPC characters to more effectively achieve your goals. You might have noticed that the woman in the foreground seduced his target at the end of the trailer (eagle-eyed fans have already pointed out that they are the same woman).

We're sure the actual pirate lifestyle actually featured a lot of illness and less glamorous depravity than shown in the trailer, but perhaps that'll be reflected in the final game. In any case, you can see that launch trailer again to see what McDevitt's talking about, below — what do you think of this return of female characters being used to seduce enemies?