PLATFORM: PC, PS5, XBOX SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: JULY 9TH
Often considered as one of the top-tier entries in the long-running Assassin’s Creed series, Black Flag felt like a breath of fresh air when it was first released in 2013. The sixth game to be released since the series’ inception in 2007, it took the now-familiar formula of exploring historical settings across large open worlds and spread it over the West Indies, adding a game-changing naval combat element to keep players occupied as they hop from island to island across the Caribbean Sea. Stunning at the time, and featuring Edward Kenway as one of the most endearing lead characters in the entire series, Black Flag was well received by pretty much everybody but does admittedly feel and look more than a little bit dated today. Resynced aims to rebuild Black Flag from the ground up in the latest version of Ubisoft’s Anvil engine, preserving the gameplay of the original while bringing it more in line with modern Assassin’s Creed titles.
The first thing you notice is how beautiful the game now looks. New lighting, more detailed locations and new facial animations make the world feel so much more immersive than before, while a host of gameplay additions give returning players even more reason to return to Black Flag‘s world. Aside from a few hours’ worth of brand new endgame content that expands Blackbeard’s storyline, there’s also a handful of crewmates that add new perks to naval combat, extra quests focused on your other companions, new Animus rifts that give more depth to some of the central characters’ motivations, and a host of new trinkets and perks that elevate the 2013 experience. Mission layouts have been tweaked to allow for potential mistakes (tailing missions, that ask you to follow characters without being seen, will automatically fail if you’re spotted), and the game’s parkour elements have been refined even further, making Kenway more nimble and agile than ever before. Elsewhere, you’re able to swim underwater more often, crouch on demand (a huge boon when it comes to stealthily infiltrating enemy camps), and combat has shifted to a parry-based system that updates 2013’s slightly clunky swordplay.
Remaking what is undeniably a classic title can often be a bit of a risky move. If you do too much, purists will complain that what made the original has been lost, but do too little and the entire endeavour can end up feeling a bit pointless. Black Flag Resynced walks the line pretty much perfectly, building on an already great game with additions that only serve to improve the original. There are a few bugs here and there, though, like ships mysteriously teleporting around the ocean, Edward getting stuck in a combat state and being unable to sail his ship until you backtrack to find the one enemy that’s somehow managed to stay alert to your presence long after vanishing from sight, and icons remaining on your map after they’ve been collected. They’re all things that can be remedied in future updates though, of course. As it stands, Black Flag Resynced is an excellent remake of an undeniable classic, and one that will only improve even further with a little bit of extra polish.
