Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced review for PC, PS5, Xbox Series X

People love and swear by the original trilogy of Assassin’s Creed, but there is one that gets the level of singularly beloved Smegel level of precious beholden attention from fans of the Assassin’s Creed series: Black Flag. I can only imagine the level of overwhelming nerves that must have been felt company-wide at Ubisoft’s various studios that put their hats into the ring in developing Black Flag Resynced. Imagine knowing that you are working on updating something that’s not uncommon to hear people say is one of their favorite video games ever, let alone adding things to it. That’s a level of responsibility almost too risky to bare, but the scoundrels at Ubisoft apparently took the path of Edward himself and decided that they will risk it all, if it means a chance at a better life at the end (for all of us, for we get to all live in a world with a modernized Black Flag).

I don’t know for certain what degree of the original dev team were involved or hands-on with the development of Black Flag Resynced, but… it does ultimately feel like, to me, that this is simply “What the original Black Flag looks like in your head to think back on”. I’ve already stated to myself several times over the past few days that this really just feels like what they wished the original game could have been, if they weren’t limited by the hardware of the time. Open world exploration with no loading screens, the ability to let go of the wheel and hop off at any time, and the ability to dive anywhere do everything to bring the world to life in only the way you (and Ubisoft) could have wished it was like to experience in the 2013 release of Assassin’s Creed 4. That’s not to say all’s merry and dandy, singing shanties into the void, but where it doesn’t land perfectly, it simply does at the fault of seeming loyalty to staying true to what the original was.

The original game was, like for many, also one of my favorite games of the past. I hold many fond memories of playing AC4, fresh out of high school at the time and all the free time in the world. Sailing around the Caribbean and getting to just be a pirate was good enough for me to be ecstatic, but pair that up with an Assassin’s Creed storyline and *mwah* chef’s kiss. This was the only thing I could have ever dreamed of. I played it a ton, and it remains some of my fondest gaming memories for a single player release. So I, like probably many of you, was very wary about what this “Resynced” version was going to do to the game. Well, as I mentioned above… it’s great! They really do seem to do everything that I could have hoped for with this re-release, and the liberties taken to inclusion of additional content is non-intrusive and mixes into the game almost flawlessly. New combat, parkour system, quests (side and main), ship weapon alternate fire modes, dialogue, it’s largely all brand new under the hood while still feeling entirely familiar. My review is going to largely address the biggest elephant in the room: how it feels being different, rather than an objective analysis on the overall game beneath it. Blag Flag is one of my favorite games of all time, and whether it’s this release or the original, I’m going to recommend you play it. This review is more just to help you decide which release is better for you (New players, just get Resynced).I’m going to start this in order of what I was most concerned about not feeling right and work my way down the list of changes as I continue on.

So first and foremost: what needs to be kept right in a good AC4 remake? The ship combat, of course. Many games, including Ubisoft’s own have tried and failed to do what Black Flag made feel so right with ship combat. Unsurprisingly, really: it can’t be easy to make a tank that barely steers and can only fire in largely straight lines in any one direction on a very slow reload feel engaging. But Black Flag made it happen, and luckily despite being a full remake, Black Flag Resynced made it happen too. Like I mentioned above, I don’t know the extent of the team on board that helped develop Resynced, but it feels like, if not the original team, then surely a team of people who also adored and beheld the original Black Flag under the same mystical light the rest of us do were on board. They nailed the ship combat to still feeling as good as it ever did in the past, and honestly? It feels better. It’s mostly the same, but modern upgrades and an increased arsenal breadth allows it to shine through more heavily than ever.

Each weapon now offers an additional fire mode on top of everything they already had. Broadside cannons get heated shot which fires way more cannon balls at a shorter range, effectively offering the “shotgun” alternative to firing, if your default cannons are the rifle. I will admit that the heated shot feels a tad overly powerful, to the point that it all but negated my desire to use the standard cannons pretty quickly, and even the heavy shot (which should be “the shotgun”) felt like I barely used it. Not that it was missed, mind you; the heated shot was beautiful and feels great to use. I think I’d just like to see the standard cannons and heavy shot get a buff of their own so they feel nearly as fearsome as the heated shot. Most ships are easily overcome by them, but they’re not the only tool in the arsenal, and as I got further in, I’d say they weren’t even what I used the most.

What I did use the most is the mortars. The new “Deadman’s Cohort” alternative fire mode allows you to adjust the handling of the rain of shot coming down to instead precisely land each individual shot that comes out rather than the wide rain done by the standard mortar. The tradeoff being that each shot does less damage, but… I’m usually only concentrating on a single target, and care less about collateral damage in the meantime, so the Deadman’s Cohort was by far the most damning weapon on my vessel for my enemies. Followed up by the “Double Shot” alternative fire mode for the bow chaser cannons, converting your front cannons from chain shot to something a little more deadly (Spoiler: it’s more flaming cannonballs) means that you can be much, much more aggressive in your assault. Not to mention how one of the officers available alters your ability to ram to being something that charges forward heavily, front tackling enemy vessels is extremely viable this go-round.

Lastly on new alternate fire modes, they’ve added in the shrapnel barrels, which claim they shred sails and cause enemy ships to slow down, but I’m playing a damn pirate, I’m not running away! The chain shot that did the sail shredding effect was for the purpose of getting them to slow down so I can have what they’re having. A real captain goes down with his ship, I’m staying in the fight til one of us is sinking. Oh, and while it’s not an alternative fire mode, they did also update the swivel cannons. Now, they operate more like they did in AC: Rogue rather than the lock on slide-in fire that existed prior. If you’re not familiar with what that means, just know that you can free aim the things now. They still only fire at locked on targets like barrels, mines, and weak points, but it’s much more simple and clean now.

Ship combat does also get some mechanical changes by way of the officers you can unlock. These changes do affect the overall difficulty pretty heavily, I’d say. The one that does the least to offset balance is probably the ram upgrade from Padre. This allows your crew to hunker down and bare all to slam into an enemy ship with much more force. Lucy’s enhanced brace ability allows you to take much less damage from enemy fire by timing your braces to be more aligned to the damage being received. Lastly, Tobias’ ability is the above mentioned Deadman’s Cohort, but also he gives you the ability to fire each broadside twice per reload, and reload more quickly. This ability is the real killer, since it effectively doubles your damage output on the broadsides, probably even more than double since you’re reloading more quickly too. But that’s okay, because they certainly made the legendary vessels match their difficulties to your new abilities, it feels…

Second thing on my list of “worried about how it would be changed” is the on-foot combat. This is… entirely different in Resynced when you compare it against the original release of Black Flag. Whether that’s better or worse is probably more down to individual preference, but I would implore you to give it a legitimate shot. At first I found myself struggling to accept it in handling and was messing up quite a bit, attempting to do old habitual muscle memories, but after a few hours of playing, I finally got it through my thick skull to get things flowing smooth once again in combat, and by the point that I wrapped up the main questline, I was entirely pleased with it. If you’ve played AC: Mirage or AC: Shadows, it is to my understanding that the combat mechanics in Resynced are very similar to the way it is in both of these.

Enemies in Black Flag Resynced are now given a sort of “poise” meter that allows you to push offensively into enemies that are guarding and break their defense in order to go in for the killing blow. Kick and leg sweep are mapped to very simple controls thanks to the move away from holding RT for counters, and heavy strikes on all sword types allow for a different approach to combat from what the original offered. It is very different, but I’d honestly say it might be a bit more in character overall for Edward, because it favors being a brutal offensive force to overpower your enemies rather than relying solely on counters for quick takedowns.The rope dart is also now given a quick combo button to turn yourself into Scorpion from Mortal Kombat momentarily, and pull your enemies in closer to you.

For me, the only real downsides to combat changes I’ve experienced are the now non-existence of things I’d consider mostly extraneous, but that doesn’t mean I don’t miss them. The biggest one being the removal of the ability to just put your swords away and engage in hidden blade only combat. It’s not very practical if you think about it, but it was cool. But now it’s gone, so you can only experience that in the original Black Flag release. Also missing is the ability to pick up enemy weapons. No more muskets, no more heavy axes, no more single swords. If you are engaging in melee combat, you are using your dual swords, pistols, and rope dart, and that is it. Again, I will miss this, but ultimately… it’s just something nice in memory and the combat overhaul overall feels like it was worth the trade-off to not have the random pickups.

Next up, and certainly by no means something I wasn’t worried about is the addition of new story content, both on the main and side mission fronts. It is admittedly pretty concerning to hear that a remake of something is intending to add new story content, but I will admit, they’ve also successfully pulled this off. Most changes are minor adjustments to flesh out the world rather than adding new threads to the story. For example, when you get to the point in the story where you’re required to get a diving bell, in the original release, you were told to just go buy one. Now, you are still offered to do so, but Edward remembers that he’s actually a pirate and can just take what he pleases. So an alternate path is offered: just go steal one, scallywag. Why would you spend money? So it branches out into a mission with actual content rather than “go to the store” and makes it overall feel much cleaner.

I don’t know how much of Edward’s lines are re-recorded, but any new ones, even if it’s all of them, are still the original voice actor (Matt Ryan), so it all sounds completely in-line with the rest of the game. I will say though, I don’t know if I was placebo-ing myself or not, but I did sometimes feel like his voice in the new content didn’t sound like it was exactly the same cadence and expression as the rest. Maybe something for someone with a better ear for audio to judge. I will say though that all of it comes together really well, and at least the audio quality is consistent, whether old audio was reused or not. Nobody’s oddly clearer than anyone else because of 13 years worth of recording booth microphone upgrades or anything.

There are at least five new side-quest lines, per documentation I’ve received from Ubisoft, not including the four other side-quests that unlock the new officers on board. I will not spoil any of these, but at least one of them is a rather lengthy one that you don’t unlock until you reach the end of sequence 11 and have all the officers unlocked. I did not get a chance to engage with this longer one before I ran out of time in my playthrough leading up to the first embargo, having sacrificed my side mission time in exchange for making sure I got through the main missions overall.

For other changes and new content, like the parkour… honestly, it feels fine. I think I remember AC4’s parkour to be a bit more slow, as Black Flag Resynced’s parkour does seem very very fast at times (sometimes Edward can grab the top of a two story building in one leap), but it feels good in motion, and probably a bit smoother overall with 13 years of engine upgrades behind it. The ability to crouch anywhere helps a lot to assist in stealth, and the manual jumps are nice for getting around more smoothly once you get used to them. You don’t have to get used to them, the old way you’re used to still works, but… they are helpful if you try.

Last thing to mention in notable changes is the complete removal of the modern day storyline. There’s actually an in-world story reason for this, which I will relay in the way I felt I was to understand early on. The “modern day” behind the game is actually still being kept as the way all of them have been and it’s 2026. The original release’s story already happened and now you’re at the point in time where the animus has become available as a consumer product and whoever you are outside is playing their copy of the “movie” that your character in the original release was working on. This also gives in-lore reasoning for why Edward suddenly has more gear and story content that wasn’t present before. You aren’t playing the original game again, you’re playing Abstergo’s version of it as they released it to the general public for entertainment reasons. They’ve also added the Animus rifts that Shadows had, to showcase some “what if” storylines around alternative possibilities to the timelines of various characters in the story, and these also feature some in-lore meta commentary that gives insight into the world and your character outside of the animus.

I’m running out of things to mention here in regard to change, so just to give a last little bit of what I’d like to say: I stand by my early statement. Black Flag Resynced feels like what Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag wanted to be, if only it weren’t limited by the hardware of the time. Black Flag remains a holy piece in my memory of gaming, and Resynced is doing that memory justice. It brought the game out in a format that suits what I’ve grown accustomed to over the 13 years since the original release, and it is giving me a mirror to show me that my rose-tinted glasses are actually clear. This is how I remember the game, and it’s now going to not only exist in my head through nostalgia.

Note: Ubisoft provided us with an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced code for review purposes.

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