As is the case with any open world game, fans want to know how big the world in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag is. While game director Ashraf Ismail refused to go into specifics in comparison to other Assassin's Creed games, he did say it was the biggest game the studio has ever made.
"We don't talk about it in terms of size, that would be a little bit unfair – there is a lot of ocean in the Caribbean. But it is the biggest game we've ever made," Ismail told Eurogamer. Sailing across the open world will reportedly take around "half an hour." Of course, size and time is relative to how fast your ship is traveling, which we don't yet know the speed. So let's focus on something that really matters: how long you will actually spend playing the game.
Exploring the open waters is one thing, but as for actual gameplay, Ismail said, "The story and narrative itself will last 15-20 hours, but we're hoping that people got lost in the Caribbean world, in the toybox we've created."
Now 30-minutes to travel the world may not seem like a lot, but it's not something I'd want to sit through. To help with that, Ubisoft has implemented a fast-travel system. Now you can jump to any sync-point you've uncovered anywhere in the world.
In the same interview, Ismail also explained why the Vita isn't getting an Assassin's Creed title this year.
