Assassin’s Creed Black Flag cemented itself as the pinnacle of the franchise when it came out in 2013. It was an amazing title through and through, despite retaining a lot of Ubisoft’s then-established formula it was regurgitating each year.
It didn’t need a remake. It stood the test of time and is just as good now, but boy am I glad Ubisoft made one anyways. Resynced polishes this beautiful pearl into a shiny diamond, stripping away most of what made the original a pain to replay and sprinkling in some new and exciting stuff to boot.
Here’s our full review.
The same, and yet…
Black Flag Resynced follows the same main story as the original. You take control of Edward Kenway, a renegade privateer-turned-pirate who cares for nothing but his fabled fortune that he would make and take to his estranged wife back in England.
Everything plays out exactly the same and in the same sequence, with the crucial difference being Resynced‘s total absence of the real world, something that was quite important to the plot and pacing of the 2013 edition.
However, Edward’s own story, as opposed to those of Ezio and Altair, has nothing to do with those real-world segments, and when we’re focused on just this sailing Welshman we still get all the emotion and storytelling we need.
True, we do not get more insight into Roberts and his real-life reincarnation, nor do we get in touch with the intrigue surrounding Abstergo. But for fans coming into this game without having experienced Desmond’s story, nothing will feel out of place. The initial few “sequences,” as they were once called, do tend to give off rushed vibes at times, but once the story progresses, it all evens out, and we are treated to the best writing in the entire series.
I personally loved the modern-day setting in every AC that had it, but when locked into Resynced late at night, I had a hard time even remembering that it was supposed to be there.
Pure eyecandy
Naturally, the first thing most people will even notice about this remake are the graphics. Everything is cranked up to 11, and even on the base PS5 (using Fidelity mode), the game looks genuinely exceptional and is the first time a non-UE5 game seemed so photorealistic that I can remember.
And not only are the textures beautiful and flashy. The entire world was completely overhauled, with each azure haven bustling with life. Towns feel truly alive, and bustling merchant hotspots like Havana feel like actual metropolises of the time. Nothing was left on the table in regard to the graphics, as Ubisoft made use of its exceptionally capable Anvil Engine to craft and mold one of the most breathtaking worlds in the history of video games.
That also extends to the water, because of course it would, and the general sense of scale given off by ships and large structures. When sailing next to a man-o’-war, the way the scaling works in Resynced easily puts you in awe of just how large and powerful this hulk of a ship is.
Underwater segments are, like in the original, artistic wonders that invite you to explore them and see what sorts of secrets centuries of colonial warfare hide at the bottom of the ocean.
Even shallows are pretty in this game, compared to the original that kept most of maritime nature reserved only for diving-bell missions.
The only caveat here is the lighting doesn’t always feel right, and the weather system isn’t always compatible with the mission you are playing. Realistic lighting and shading come at the cost of atmosphere sometimes, but it doesn’t happen all too often and would only stick out if you were directly comparing with some admittedly better-lit segments of the 2013 game.
I had no PC version to play and test extensively and fiddle with all the settings, so I cannot comment on how the game runs on desktop hardware.
Something for the day ones
While Black Flag Resynced undoubtedly targets a more modern audience that never played the original, returning fans have a good chunk of new and exciting things to come back to.
First and foremost, Ubisoft added a new character, Lucy Baldwin, who serves as a shipwright on the Jackdaw so long as you complete her quest chain. The story is fine—nothing special, but a classic tale of revenge and emotion. It’s a new plot to follow and gives Edward’s tub a new specialist who fixes the ship and allows for perfect braces to be performed while in naval combat.
On the other hand, there’s an alternative diving bell mission that expands the existing one by giving you the option to obtain a bell yourself, rather than being forced to purchase it. It’s also fine, an extra branching path for you to opt for should you so desire.
Both of these are animated using Ubisoft’s new RPG animation rig, meaning they stick out like a sore thumb because the rest of the game is completely motion-captured. They’re usually stiff and not at all realistic, but that’s a small price to pay for new content that is, for all intents and purposes, a plus to the game, even if it’s not its best part.
Of course, a major change to the gameplay revolves around tailing and stealth.
The foremost has almost entirely been done away with, as you can basically kill your tailing targets and find your way to wherever they would’ve led you on your own. If you want to tail them, you still can, but the game won’t desynchronize you if you’re detected. This means each of these has two possible outcomes, and some of them even play out quite differently depending on what you chose, and I’m all here for it.
On the other hand, stealth has received a major update through the addition of the crouch button and was expanded with several systems that weren’t so pronounced in the original. The weather, time of day, and the speed of your character all impact how much sound they make and how difficult they are to detect.
While uncrouched, you are basically not in stealth mode, and that has been a feature I’ve wanted to see in Black Flag for basically 13 years.
Stealth gameplay can now actually be methodical and make more sense, rather than revolving around Edward walking upright without even trying to hide.
Speaking of sense, the game also fast-forwards the time of day to match the mission you’re playing, so there are no longer situations where characters say something happened “last night” when you’ve done both things within the same in-game day. It’s a small change to be sure, but an incredibly welcome one.
A new kind of fighting
While ship combat is generally the same, upgrades feel a lot more meaningful, and when you’re going against a ship out of your weight class, you actually have to face a challenge. In the original game, I had no trouble taking down men-o’-war even with the Jackdaw lacking fundamental upgrades, but in Resynced I had my butt handed to me on more than one occasion.
Forts are significantly more difficult to take, as they should be, and you’ll have to spend quite some time hunting for good shiny things to add to the Jackdaw before taking them on. Of course, each ship has its own difficulty class, as do the forts, so approach them accordingly.
A more significant change comes to the hand-to-hand combat, with the dual cutlasses being your primary weapons now. As far as I could see, you cannot switch to using the hidden blades as primary, since they’re reserved for takedowns and assassinations. That only makes sense, but I always liked using them.
Anyhow, combat is now more inspired by the RPG but retains most of the “classic” Assassin’s Creed system. Enemies do have health bars now, but everything revolves around parrying and taking them down instantly, and even chaining two takedowns after successfully performing one.
Big enemies cannot be so easily overpowered and have to be approached in a different way (I just shot them in the head). There are also special kinds of enemies, some of whom are more nimble than others and can combine gunshots, regular, and unblockable attacks, forcing you to think on your feet in each individual fight.
Most enemies are not sponges, but animals do tend to be, with boars and jaguars being quite annoying to take down in this system.
With Edward also having a proper health bar now, the studio introduced healing remedies, which you can find or purchase. And trust me, you’ll want many of these.
Assassinations are still instant kills no matter on whom, but if you do happen to aggro or be detected by a powerful enemy, it will turn into a boss fight, usually one that is exceptionally more difficult than just, well, assassinating them. Each of the Templars you take down can be a proper boss fight, and they’ve also handed my butt to me several times, forcing me to reconsider open battle.
This thus makes stealth the go-to way of approaching most situations, as fights are costly and potentially deadly. It only makes sense to have this kind of balance in an AC game, where, you know, as the name of the franchise implies, you play as a natural-born killer who, for reasons even unknown to himself, has the drive to skulk, hide, and take people out quietly.
I found the combat to be quite fun and even satisfying when you start perfectly parrying and chaining takedowns, in which case it very much resembled the old AC rather than its RPG descendants.
A faithful remake if there ever was one
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is not merely a faithful remake. It’s basically the same game from 2013, only made better and prettier through the use of modern technologies. We can only argue about the present-day elements, or lack thereof, and how they impact things, but let’s be real: most people didn’t like them anyway.
All the collectibles are there, as well as some new ones. The Templar armor, the legendary blueprints for your ship, the Mayan puzzles that lead to some untold mystery. Every single side activity is still present but refined and polished where needed.
To say this is faithful is an understatement, and I thank Ubisoft for not “reimagining” things that were quite good already.
