The game mainly revolves around a pirate by the name Edward Kenway who is the grandfather of previous titles main protagonist Ratonhnhaké:ton in Assassin’s Creed III. It is developed by Ubisoft Montreal a subsidiary of Ubisoft. The main attraction element of the game is open world map exploration and ship fighting.

In the beginning Kenway is a soldier in the navy but converts to a pirate. He is trained to combat with templars. Kenway is attracted by the observatory which is a mysterious device that can spy any person worldwide by just sampling their blood. The allure of the observatory leads to Kenway finding the only person who knows the location of the observatory. A sage called Bartholomew Roberts. Kenway kills an assassin Duncan Walpole to take his place at the meeting in Havana for templars. Kenway helps fellow pirates Edward thatch and Charles vane to capture Nassau as they fulfill their desire to live in a pirate utopia. This plan fails due to lack of governance, crippling economy and outbreak of malady. Afterwords Kenway finds the observatory amid being imprisoned. Game play returns to present day john encouraging a player to investigate the truth by hacking animus terminals.

The game got positive critical approval with Game Rankings giving all versions of the game over 80% approval rating and hardcoregamer ranking it on position 70 in its list of greatest gamest of the seventh generation.