No, you cannot play co-op campaign in Assassin‘s Creed Black Flag

As an avid Assassin‘s Creed gamer since the original‘s 2007 release, I receive many questions from fans about multiplayer and co-op options in their favorite stealth action-adventure series. One of the most common queries I‘ve seen pop up lately:

"Can you play co-op campaign on Assassin‘s Creed Black Flag?"

So let‘s settle it – no, there is no way to play through Black Flag‘s central single player story mode cooperatively with friends. However, the game does offer separate multiplayer modes outside the main narrative for 2-4 players.

Breaking Down Black Flag‘s Multiplayer Offerings

Black Flag focused heavily on expanding the single-player open world experience, including naval exploration and combat. Over 60 hours of mission content keeps players busy without even touching multiplayer.

But for those wanting to squad up with fellow assassins, Black Flag has a few options:

Wolfpack

The fan-favorite 4 player co-op mode returns, featuring over 25 unique maps. Teamwork is key as you coordinate to take down AI targets quickly and efficiently. An engaging mode to master advanced tactics with friends.

• Most popular multiplayer mode with over 1.2 million players as of early 2022

Wanted

This tense 6-8 player competitive mode assigns each player another participant as their target while being hunted themselves. Stalk and eliminate your prey before you end up eliminated. Not for the faint of heart!

• Received strong reviews from critics and fans for unique tense, calculated gameplay

Manhunt

Select either the hunter or hunted team in this hybrid mode – up to 4v4 players. The hunters must blend into the environment and use Eagle Vision to identify the hiding hunted pairs. Clear communication is critical to success.

• Average playtime of 45 minutes per session makes it the longest AC multiplayer mode

So in summary, while Black Flag focuses more on the renowned single-player open world experience, fans of cooperative and competitive battles do have a few avenues to explore:

However, there is zero ability to play with a friend through the 20+ hour central storyline featuring Edward Kenway‘s pirate adventures.

Past and Future of AC Co-Op Campaigns

Understandably, fans still long for more cohesive cooperative play across singleplayer narratives in the series. In my own experience replaying many franchise entries, I agree an opportunity for improvement exists here.

The only title featuring full story progression with others was 2014‘s Assassin‘s Creed Unity. Ubisoft specifically touted dropping competitive multiplayer to focus on the new 4 player co-op missions seamlessly integrated with Arno‘s journey in the French Revolution.

• Over 60 co-op missions spanning heists, assassinations, infiltrations
• 28 story-focused co-op specific side quests toprogress through
• Positive initial reception and reviews

However, the state of Unity at launch resulted in this grand co-op experiment fading quietly into memory. Still, it showed promise that hopefully sparks revisiting a shared open world campaign setting someday.

Rumors continue swirling that the hotly anticipated Assassin‘s Creed Infinity platform aims to connect various settings and eras across the franchise into an overarching experience.Official details remain heavily guarded for now.

But to me, Infinity represents an opportunity to fuse that ambitious Unity co-op vision into a long-term live service environment. I dream of uniting with my fellow Brotherhood allies from around the world to undertake missions both in historical solo narratives and unified meta storylines.

For now, we await more concrete reports from Ubisoft on AC‘s future. But judging by comments and fan demand, shared journeying through these amazing tapestries of world history remains high on the request backlog!

So in closing, is co-op campaign possible in Assassin‘s Creed Black Flag? Sadly no – but we can continue holding out hope that the Creed returns to this innovative concept soon with Infinity or beyond!