By the time Desmond Miles met his fate, the “Assassin's Creed”
franchise resembled its protagonist. The series looked spent
after yearly iterations that seemed to exhaust the creative
juices of its developers. The endless opportunities that the
property once held narrowed as Ubisoft Montreal and its partners
had to explain and conclude Desmond's story arc.  The franchise
needed new heroes and a fresh focus, and thankfully, it gets
both with “Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag.” There's optimism
for the franchise as it returns to form. This time around,
gamers play themselves — part of the campaign is in the first-
person as they take on the role of a new Abstergo Entertainment
employee. The narrative gets meta as players realize they've
been hired to research a pirate game based in the “Assassin's
Creed” universe.  When they enter the animus, the device that
lets them relive memories of historic figures, players inhabit
the game's main character, Edward Kenway. He's another of
Desmond's ancestors, and he lived th