Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review — The Golden Age of Piracy

Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag was, for many fans of the franchise, one of, if not the best, entries in the Assassinverse. The groundbreaking title not only introduced us to open-world sailing and ship-to-ship combat that improved upon that of Assassin’s Creed III and would come to define the core mechanics of pirate-themed games to come; it also gave us a story never before seen in the franchise, showing us the growth and redemption of a truly complicated antihero and turning many of the storytelling norms of the franchise on their head. It is certainly my favorite in the genre, just ahead of Assassin’s Creed III, and I was excited to get the opportunity to review Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, a full-blown remake of the title.

I was excited, but cautious. I’ve played a lot of remakes and remasters since I started reviewing titles, and not all of them were very good. I’ll admit that Ubisoft, given the company’s recent history, wasn’t one I had much faith in when it came to its ability to remaster a game. Though the argument could certainly be made that Ubisoft had a solid foundation to start with, I was still surprised by just how much I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced.

The bare minimum a remake of a game needs to be is a graphical recreation of the original; something to bring often supremely dated graphics up to par with modern technology. The original Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag doesn’t look too bad by modern standards, but Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced certainly succeeds in this area. The game looks great, and I’m happy to say that the graphical upgrade doesn’t come at the cost of performance, either. The game ran incredibly well on my machine, without the unnecessary performance hiccups many AAA games seem to release with these days.

Far beyond just a graphical remake, however, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced goes the extra mile to actually improve and expand upon the original. If you don’t view graphics as enough of a reason to buy a remake when you already own the original, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced actually provides an argument for upgrading, with loads of content that isn’t available in the original game.

And I do mean loads. Eight new story missions were added to the late game, along with tons of side missions and activities, new combat mechanics like a heavy slash and perfect parrying, the ability to crouch, improved parkour mechanics, and new gear and tools. The list of new things present in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is surprisingly massive, setting a new bar for what a remake of a game should be: not simply a graphical remaster, but something that actually delivers a new experience you can’t get in the original.

One of the biggest surprises in the form of changes was the removal of all modern-day segments, the areas in which I can certainly say I had the least amount of fun in the original. Your immersion is no longer broken by trips back to the Abstergo entertainment industry, or whatever it was called. In their place are new challenges and immersive missions, making up for the cut playtime with content you would actually enjoy spending that time with.

Beyond the additional missions and the removal of the modern-day segments, I can’t say that there is anything missing from the original experience. The story has not been cut or edited in any way that I was able to notice, still being the exact same narrative experience it was back when the game first released. There’s just more to it now, and it looks way better. Donning Edward’s iconic pirate gear for the first time during the slave-ship escape made me grin as I admired the frankly awesome outfit in all of its remastered glory.

I did experience a few bugs here or there, but nothing that really got in the way of my ability to play the game or progress in the story. The most noticeable bug I experienced happened early in the game, during the mission where assassins jump Edward and the governor of Havana in the streets, where a fleeing civilian ended up clipping into the ground, running in place with his head just above street level. It didn’t stop the mission from progressing, but occasional clipping errors of the same kind happened at various points in the game.

If I were to really criticize anything about the game, it would be how Ubisoft has decided to tie its online features into the experience. Nothing broke my immersion like getting a pop-up reminding me to enhance my experience by purchasing cosmetic items in the Ubisoft Store. Again, this didn’t interrupt my gameplay in any meaningful way, but I don’t think we should be so aggressive with our microtransaction marketing as to throw up blatant advertisements in the middle of gameplay.

That aside, I was genuinely impressed by Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. It does everything I expected a remake to do and more without, as far as I could tell, compromising the original experience. It has set a new bar for remakes for me, one that I hope future games follow: not just enhancing the looks of the games being remade, but adding new content to make them truly stand out as new experiences.

Try Hard Guides was provided with a Steam code for this PC review of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. Find more detailed looks at popular and upcoming titles on our Game Reviews page! Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is available on Steam, Ubisoft Connect, PlayStation, and Xbox.