Adewale deserved more. Honestly, that’s the first thing anyone thinks after playing through Assassin's Creed IV Freedom Cry. While the main game, Black Flag, was busy being a raucous, rum-soaked pirate fantasy about a blonde Welshman finding himself, Freedom Cry stepped into the shadows to tell a story that was significantly more uncomfortable, grounded, and arguably more important. It isn't just a piece of DLC or a standalone expansion. It’s a gut punch.
You play as Adewale. You remember him—he was Edward Kenway’s steady, stoic quartermaster. But here, fifteen years later, he’s a full-fledged Assassin. He’s shipwrecked in Saint-Domingue, which we now know as Haiti. This isn't a game about finding buried treasure or upgrading a ship just for the sake of completionism. It is a game about the systemic brutality of the 18th-century slave trade.
It’s heavy stuff.
Ubisoft didn't pull many punches here. Most games shy away from the actual mechanics of human trafficking, but Freedom Cry forces you to look at it. You see the auctions. You see the plantations. You see the "maroons" hiding in the brush, desperate for a chance at liberty. And because it's an Assassin's Creed game, you use the tools of a master killer to dismantle that system, piece by piece. It's violent, cathartic, and deeply somber all at once.
The Brutal Reality of Adewale’s Caribbean
Most Assassin's Creed IV Freedom Cry players go in expecting a shorter version of Black Flag. They want more ship combat. They want more naval forts. They get that, sure, but the context is shifted so drastically that the gameplay feels entirely different. When you’re playing as Edward, raiding a brig is about loot. When you’re Adewale, raiding a slave ship is a rescue mission. If you’re careless with your mortars, you don’t just lose money; you kill the very people you’re trying to save.
That mechanical shift is brilliant. It changes your "gamer" brain. You stop looking at health bars and start looking at the humans in the hold.
The machete is Adewale’s signature weapon, and it’s a far cry from Edward’s twin sabers. It’s heavy. It’s brutal. The animations reflect a man who isn't dancing through a duel, but someone who is ending a fight as quickly and decisively as possible. There is a specific kind of rage in the way Adewale moves. Jill Murray, the lead writer for the expansion, has spoken in various interviews about the need to treat this subject matter with respect while still making an engaging action game. It’s a tightrope walk. If the game is too "fun," it risks trivializing the horror of slavery. If it’s too depressing, no one plays it.
The balance they found was in the "Maroons" system. As you travel through Port-au-Prince, you encounter systemic injustices happening in real-time. A slave being chased by an overseer. An auction happening in a town square. A prisoner in a cage. By intervening, you recruit these people to your cause. They become your crew. They help you upgrade your gear. Your progression is tied directly to the number of lives you liberate. It’s a rare instance where a game’s "collectible" or "currency" has actual moral weight.
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Why the Blunderbuss Changed Everything
Let’s talk about the Blunderbuss. It’s basically an 18th-century shotgun. In the main game, Edward uses pistols for precision shots. Adewale uses the blunderbuss to clear a path. It’s loud, it’s messy, and it’s incredibly effective at close range.
When you’re storming a plantation at night, trying to take out the overseers before they can sound the alarm and start killing the slaves, the blunderbuss is your best friend. But there’s a catch. The game rewards stealth. If you get caught, the overseers will literally start executing the prisoners. It creates this high-stakes tension that the main series often lacks. You aren't just failing a mission; you’re watching an atrocity happen because you weren't fast enough.
Navigating the Politics of 1735 Saint-Domingue
Saint-Domingue was the wealthiest colony in the world at the time, largely because it was the most brutal. The French "Code Noir" governed how slaves were treated, or rather, how they were dehumanized. Assassin's Creed IV Freedom Cry weaves this into the narrative through the interactions between Adewale and Bastienne Josèphe, a madam at a local brothel who has her own complex relationship with the colonial authorities.
Bastienne is a fascinating character because she provides a foil to Adewale’s directness. Adewale wants to burn the whole thing down. He’s an Assassin; he believes in the Creed, but more than that, he believes in the immediate physical liberation of his people. Bastienne is playing a longer, more subtle game. She knows that if Adewale kills the wrong person at the wrong time, the retaliation from the French will be ten times worse for the people she’s trying to protect.
This tension is the heart of the story. It’s the "Assassins vs. Templars" conflict viewed through a much more personal lens. The Templars in this game aren't just looking for ancient relics; they are the architects of the plantation system. They are the ones profiting from the misery. It makes them some of the most genuinely loathsome villains in the entire franchise. You don’t kill them because of some abstract philosophy about order and chaos. You kill them because they are monsters.
The Sound of Freedom
You can't talk about Freedom Cry without mentioning the music. Olivier Derivière took a massive departure from the swashbuckling themes of the main game. He worked with the Brussels Philharmonic and La Troupe Makandal to incorporate traditional Haitian rhythms and chants.
The soundtrack is haunting. It uses "Petwo" rhythms, which are associated with the Haitian Revolution. It’s aggressive, percussive, and soulful. When you’re sailing the Experto Crede (Adewale’s ship), the crew doesn't sing the same lighthearted shanties that Edward’s crew did. They sing songs of struggle and hope. It anchors the experience in a way that visual graphics alone never could. It’s a vibe that stays with you long after the credits roll.
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Is It Better Than Black Flag?
That’s the big question, isn't it? "Better" is subjective. Black Flag is a massive, sprawling epic with more content than most people know what to do with. It’s a great pirate game. But Freedom Cry is a better story.
Adewale is a more compelling protagonist than Edward in many ways. Edward starts as a selfish jerk and takes 40 hours to grow a conscience. Adewale starts with a conscience and has to figure out how to exercise it in a world that wants to chain him. There is a maturity to this expansion that the rest of the series often struggles to hit. It doesn't rely on "Ancient Aliens" tropes or convoluted modern-day segments as much. It stays focused on the human element.
However, it is short. You can finish the main story in about four or five hours. If you’re a completionist and want to liberate every plantation and sink every slave ship, you might get eight to ten hours out of it. Some people felt cheated by the length when it first launched, but looking back, the brevity is a strength. It doesn't overstay its welcome. It says what it needs to say and then it ends.
The Technical Reality: How It Holds Up in 2026
If you’re booting this up on modern hardware, it’s still surprisingly pretty. The AnvilNext engine was doing a lot of heavy lifting back then. The Caribbean water is still some of the best-looking water in gaming history. The dense jungles of Saint-Domingue feel claustrophobic and alive.
That said, the "parkour" can feel a bit clunky compared to the newer RPG-style entries like Assassin's Creed Shadows or Valhalla. You’ll still occasionally find Adewale jumping onto a fence post when you clearly wanted him to run through a door. It’s that classic AC "magnetic" climbing that we all have a love-hate relationship with. But once you get into the flow—swinging from trees, dropping onto overseers, disappearing into the smoke of a firecracker—it still feels great.
The naval combat is identical to Black Flag, which is a good thing because that system peaked in 2013 and hasn't really been topped since. Taking down a Man-o'-War during a tropical storm while the waves are tossing your ship around is still a top-tier gaming moment.
What This Game Teaches Us About the Industry
Freedom Cry was a risk. In 2013, big-budget publishers weren't exactly lining up to tell stories about the Atlantic slave trade. It showed that AAA games could handle sensitive, "difficult" historical topics without being purely educational or boring. It proved that there was an audience for stories that centered on Black protagonists in a historical setting—something that paved the way for games like Mafia III or even Assassin's Creed Shadows.
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It also highlighted the power of the "Standalone Expansion." You don’t need the original game to play this. It exists in its own space. This allowed Ubisoft to experiment with the tone in a way they might have been afraid to do with a $100 million flagship title.
Actionable Steps for Your Next Playthrough
If you’re planning on diving back into Assassin's Creed IV Freedom Cry, or if it’s your first time, don’t just rush the main markers. You’ll miss the point.
Prioritize the Slave Ships
These are the most challenging naval encounters. They are heavily guarded, and you have to be precise. Sinking the escorts without hitting the main transport is a genuine skill check. Plus, the rewards for your ship’s upgrades are essential for the later missions.
Explore the "Maroons" Side Quests
These aren't just filler. They provide the narrative context for how the resistance was built. They show the different ways people fought back—not just with weapons, but with information and community.
Listen to the Soundtrack
Seriously. Turn the SFX down a notch and the music up. Listen to the lyrics of the songs the crew sings. It’s an immersive layer that many people overlook while they’re focused on the mini-map.
Master the Firecrackers
They seem like a gimmick, but firecrackers are Adewale’s best stealth tool. They distract groups of guards, allowing you to move through plantations without triggering the executions. If you want to finish the game with the "best" moral outcome (saving as many people as possible), you need to get good with these.
Freedom Cry remains a landmark entry in the series. It’s not just a "pirate game." It’s a game about the cost of liberty and the weight of responsibility. Adewale isn't a hero because he can fight; he’s a hero because he refuses to look away. In a medium that often prioritizes escapism above all else, Freedom Cry stands out by forcing us to remember.
Your Next Move:
Check if you own the standalone version or the Black Flag Season Pass. If you're on a modern console, the Rebel Collection usually includes it with all the bells and whistles. Start by focusing on the Port-au-Prince liberation missions early—it unlocks the higher-tier Machete upgrades that make the late-game combat much more fluid. Once you finish the story, read up on the actual history of the Maroons in Saint-Domingue; the real-life stories are even more incredible than the fiction.