Freedom Cry takes someone we already know from Black Flag and gives him his own story. Adéwalé was Edward’s quartermaster, but here we follow him as an Assassin in Saint-Domingu…

Freedom Cry takes someone we already know from Black Flag and gives him his own story. Adéwalé was Edward’s quartermaster, but here we follow him as an Assassin in Saint-Domingue, in what is now Haiti. His fight against slavery is central to the whole game. This isn’t just another pirate adventure with a different man at the wheel. His own history gives that fight a personal weight, and the story puts the people living under that system at the center of what he’s doing. It first came out as Black Flag DLC in December 2013, then received a standalone release in 2014. Those are two ways of playing the same story, not separate adventures. That matters when talking about the game and its achievements because the version you’re playing changes how it sits alongside Black Flag. There’s still sailing and combat at sea here, so that connection to the original Uncharted Waters on the SNES comes back into it for me too. That older love of ships and being out on the ocean is part of what draws me to this stretch of Assassin’s Creed. But Adéwalé’s reason for being there changes the focus. The people he helps are part of the story, not just scenery around another hunt for treasure. His own adventure lets the series spend more time with someone who could otherwise have stayed in the background as Edward’s quartermaster. It also gives Adéwalé room to exist beyond his role in Edward’s journey. Black Flag introduced him to us as part of the crew. Freedom Cry makes him the person whose choices and purpose carry the story.