My fortnight with the Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag companion app

Apparently, second-screen apps are all the rage.

Yep, those apps that enable you to use your phone to see extra tidbits of info and content from the game being played on your telly.

Ubisoft is "convinced it's the future". EA says it thinks about these apps from day one of development. And all three current-gen home consoles have second-screen support built in (whether that's through SmartGlass, PS Vita, or the Wii U GamePad).

But I've never used one (other than the Wii U). We've written about loads of iOS and Android second-screen apps, but I'd never actually tried one until recently.

Over the last few weeks, then, I've been playing Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag on PS4 while using the companion app on an iPad. Here's what I thunk.

The Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag companion app is easy enough to set up. As long as both game and app are on the same Uplay account (and both console and tablet are on the same wireless network), they'll automatically be connected and synced.

On the first screen, Kenway's current position is shown on a map of the ocean like some horribly anachronistic GPS. It's updated in (near, stuttering) real time. And if you tap and hold on an item of interest - a treasure chest or some uncharted island - a waypoint will promptly appear in-game.

Ultimately, it's just a time saver - I don't have to keep opening and closing the map screen as I play. But it doesn't feel superfluous like I might have assumed, and having constant access to the map is genuinely useful. Playing the game without the app now makes me feel hampered and a little lost.

It's clear, however, that a second screen will work best in more sedate and slow-paced games. I never have time to take my eyes off the screen during hectic ship-on-ship battles, messy sword fights, and tense stealth missions, for example.

But in Black Flag's more idle moments of lifting loot from some old Mayan ruins or just sailing about in my big old brig, glancing over at the map is a nice luxury.

One particularly good use for the app is deciphering treasure maps. In Black Flag, you'll find dusty old scraps of paper that direct you towards buried treasure but offer little more than some co-ordinates and a crude sketch of the location with an 'X' to mark the spot.

You have to compare your map to the scenery and deduce the location of the treasure. Normally, you'd have to pull up the treasure map screen over and over. With the companion app, however, you can just have the sketch sitting there permanently visible on the iPad.

Because the game and app are both synced with Ubisoft's Uplay servers, you can still use the app when the game is off.

For example, you can while away a few minutes in Black Flag's brainless stat-swapping strategy micro-game Kenway's Fleet. When you nick ships in the main game, you can send them off on trade missions across the Atlantic on your behalf. A few minutes or hours later, the ship will return with cash.

If you play it on your phone, then the next time you load the console game, the money will be deposited into Kenway's long johns.

These time management mini-games have been present in Assassin's Creed since Brotherhood. It always felt a bit boring, though, to be assigning jobs when you could be murdering politicians and leaping into haystacks. But being able to do this busy work from your phone when you've got nothing better to do finally gives this side-quest some meaning.

I do realise that I've been suckered into playing one of those dull free-to-play games - complete with gems and wait timers - but at least I'll get something useful out of it. You can spend cash on upgrades and repairs for your ship; better weapons; extra ammo; and other junk.

You can also use the app away from the game to read all the backstory crap, listen to your collection of sea shanties, and ostensibly track your progress. The amount of info in the app pales in comparison to your in-game stats breakdown, mind.

I like using this Black Flag app, but there are a few nagging sensations that I just can't overlook.

Having an iPad balanced on the arm of my chair (and draining its battery) feels like a clumsy and inelegant solution. Having the screen built directly into the controller, like the Wii U, definitely makes life easier.

I also can't help feeling like a terrible nerd with multiple screens to live out my fake pirate life. Don't worry: I'm fine with that - I've made my peace with dying alone, surrounded by electronic toys - but I can't see the second-screen setup doing much for gaming's reputation as the home of geeks and techies.

Ultimately, second-screen apps have potential, and I'm pleased to report that the Black Flag companion app is more than some trumped-up marketing gimmick. It's a genuinely useful tool.

And while they would only work with certain games (ones that move at a slower pace, and have giant worlds to explore and lots of info to convey), I could see myself maybe, possibly, potentially using a second screen in a game like Mass Effect or Skyrim.

I'm also interested by what I can do with this companion app when it's used away from the game.

Being able to play a mobile-friendly side-quest on my iPad to secure funds in the game is cool, for one. And while I have no real interest in Assassin's Creed's convoluted lore, it at least makes more sense to read that backstory stuff on my iPad than on my telly.

So, while I'm not completely convinced that second-screen apps are "the future of games", I'm left impressed by Assassin's Creed's companion app. We'll be sure to try out more second-screen apps as they emerge.