So my initial thoughts after starting AC3 were that I'd not bother getting this one at all. AC3 was such a pain to play at first. Needless gameplay (just walking to a point) followed by a cutscene, repeatedly, in the opening couple hours of the game. It was infuriating!
After further play and finally upon completion of the game, I'm now lookin forward to this. AC3's story eventually won me round but I still thought it a pain to play.
I just hope that Black Flag does away with a lot of the nonsense that AC3 was plagued with (walk to a point, cutscene, walk to another point, cutscene... rinse and repeat).
Also, the setting does look gorgeous!