Review: ASSASSIN'S CREED BLACK FLAG RESYNCHED Sails Into Port Victoriously

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag is one of the most acclaimed games in the Assassin’s Creed franchise and Ubisoft launched a remake of the game for fans to enjoy a couple months ago.

Featuring enhanced visuals, “parry-driven combat,” and promises of improved stealth and parkour as well as deeper naval mechanics, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynched sounds like a perfect (or at least near perfect) game. Ubisoft was kind enough to give me a PC code through Ubisoft Connect so that I could review the game and all thoughts below are my own.

If you want to set sail in the Caribbean and enjoy a fun pirate adventure yourself, you can buy your own copy of the game on your favorite platforms through various retailers including Humble (affiliate link) and Fanatical (affiliate link).

Before proceeding much further, there are two matters I want to address. First, I never got to play the original version of Black Flag other than for about an hour just before loading up Resynched and therefore I don’t feel qualified to talk about differences between the two versions for the most part. The other matter is that since I was given a code through Ubisoft Connect, I was unable to test out how the game functions on the Steam Deck although Ubisoft has said that it is “Verified.”

I want to start with the obvious. Yes, Resynched does look better than the original. The Ubisoft team built the game from the ground up using their Anvil engine and the 2013 title just cannot keep up.

As you would expect. From the minimal time I spent with the original and screenshots, everything was improved upon and the game as a whole looks fantastic. The models look great, the textures are high quality, and the lighting is very well done. I would put it roughly on par with Assassin’s Creed Shadows which makes perfect sense.

As for the story, I know Ubisoft added some narrative elements, but due to my lack of exposure to the original version of the game, I don’t know what is new and what’s not. From looking online, it appears many fans claim that it’s fairly easy to tell when you’re dealing with a new part of the narrative.

It’s possible I just haven’t hit any of it yet, I suppose (I’ve gotten really distracted with side quests). One difference in the story that I am aware of is the removal of the “modern day” aspects of the story.

For anyone unfamiliar with the early Assassin’s Creed games in particular may not understand that for the first several games, there would be portions of the game that had you play as a character in the modern world.

I know that this persisted through many of the games including Assassin’s Creed Valhalla but it became less and less of a feature with more and more of a focus being put on the ancestral assassin character. I know many fans of the series don’t like the modern portions of the story and so it makes some sense that Ubisoft has been fading it out.

In Black Flag Resynched (and even Shadows I believe) the approach was to make it a bit more meta and any references to the modern world are presented to the actual player and not a modern in-game character. I’m not a big fan of this approach personally, but I also really liked the modern day elements of the story in the early games.

I liked that science fiction touch and so I am a little sad that it was removed and changed in Black Flag Resynched although I did hear that after Assassin’s Creed III, the story telling in those sections really declined in quality, so maybe it is for the best.

When Black Flag Resynched was announced and they mentioned some updates, I was concerned that the skill trees of modern Assassin’s Creed games would find their way into it. Since Valhalla, I’ve felt a little burned out on these trees. I was very happy to find that Ubisoft did not bring skill trees into Black Flag Resynched.

As you progress through the story and side quests you’ll unlock new gear and such for Edward and your ship (the Jackdaw), but there’s no minor boosts to stats or anything like that. I really appreciate this personally.

An update I could do without though is the silly inclusion of the daily and weekly challenges. I personally don’t want live-service type mechanics in my single-player games, Ubisoft! They’ve been doing it for years now and I never care for it.

Let’s talk more about the actual gameplay though. Edward’s feel is very similar to the brutish nature of Eivor in Valhalla, but tweaked down a little bit. I would say that about 85% of the time I have no problem with Edward going where I want him to as we run and parkour around the islands.

There are plenty of times though when I get frustrated with him not doing what I expect. Many times he’ll automatically adjust his jump or run if I’m a couple of degrees off, but other times he will not adjust and decide to jump off the building instead of climbing a pole or something like that. It feels like some hitboxes could definitely be adjusted a little bit more.

In combat, the three big actions you can take are dodge, attack, and parry. If you stick with these three actions, combat will probably get stale pretty quickly. It’s very doable to go through the game (or at least 12+ hours into it) doing this and it feels very akin to early Assassin’s Creed games.

Most opponents you can hit maybe once or twice, wait for them to attack with a blue glow, and then you parry and kill them. If you want to make combat a bit more interesting, you will want to work on integrating and mastering the use of skills such as sweeping enemies, kicking enemies, doing quickshots, and using the rope dart. It really does help the game become more engaging.

Should we talk about naval mechanics now? I think the naval movement is pretty solid. For me, the combat is overwhelming. You really have to pay attention to where the camera is pointed to make sure you’re using the correct weapon and even then it is sometimes easy to accidentally not be turned enough for the weapon you actually want. If I’m honest, this is the part of the game that I’m the worst at and it makes me want to avoid naval battles except for the occasional 1v1.

One thing that I think would vastly improve my experience is if there was a button I could press to cycle through the different weapons. If I accidentally end up in the front cannons, instead of exiting the targeting and then turning my camera and then re-entering targeting, I would love it if I could just press a button and it would then cycle through the weapons.

Trying to adjust the camera appropriately, select the right weapon, aim weapons, trying to use the perfect brace to reduce damage, steer the ship, and adjust speed is a little too much for me if I’m honest. I know there are people that do not have these problems though and who love the naval combat system. This is definitely a personal thing, but I’d appreciate a button to cycle weapons.

In terms of story, I can’t comment too much on it since I haven’t finished it yet (there are so many distractions in this game!). I think it’s serviceable for sure. This is the one spot where I’m going to venture a little bit into spoilers so if you don’t want any spoilers for a 13-year old game, this is your warning.

I like the angle for Edward as a character. He’s a shipwrecked pirate who ends up masquerading as a turncoat assassin which in turn lands him in hot water with the templars and warm water with the assassins. I even appreciate that at the end of the day, Edward’s only following along with the assassins and templars because he wants what he believes to be a great treasure.

That said, Edward really doesn’t care about the assassins and templars which fits his character, but is something I don’t like. That said, I could see potential as I progress in the story for Edward to care at least a little bit.

At the end of the day, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynched is a lot of fun to play. I think every complaint I have is a subjective matter that either doesn’t really matter too much or could be adjusted through a future update. If you want to play a pirate game, I cannot think of a better option.