| Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Release Date | Gameplay & Story | Pre-Order & DLC | Review |
Overview
What is Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced?
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is the remake of Ubisoft's beloved 2013 open-world classic. It follows Edward Kenway, a pirate during the Golden Age of Piracy who is torn between a life of riches and romance.
This remake is a complete overhaul of the original, particularly in its visuals, now powered by the latest version of Ubisoft's proprietary Anvil Engine, the same technology used in their recent entry, Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Gameplay is another major change in the Resynced experience, with more focus on parry-based mechanics as well as using Edward's dirty fighting styles as a pirate to gain the upper hand. As for its naval battles, they remain largely unchanged apart from new upgrades in the form of Officers, each of whom lends their own helping hand aboard the Jackdaw.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced features:
⚫︎ Open World Pirate Adventure
⚫︎ Parry-Based Melee Combat
⚫︎ Top Notch Visuals Powered by the Anvil Engine
⚫︎ A Complete Remake of the Black Flag Experience
⚫︎ The Animus Hub Returns
⚫︎ Expanded Endgame
⚫︎ Extra Story Content for Old and New Characters
For more gameplay details, read everything we know about Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced’s gameplay and story.
| Digital Storefronts | ||
|---|---|---|
 Steam |
 Playstation |
 Xbox |
 Ubisoft |
||
| $59.99 | ||
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Review: The Definitive Pirate Adventure You Always Dreamed Of
Hoisting the Black Flag of Assassin’s Creed
Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag's impact during the early 2010s was monumental. It became one of the franchise's most successful entries, surpassing even Ezio and Altair's adventures in both sales and popularity. Long before gaming's fascination with world-weary protagonists navigating changing times like Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2, Edward Kenway proved that a flawed pirate chasing fortune instead of romance could carry one of Ubisoft's most compelling stories.
When the original Black Flag was released in 2013, it was celebrated for its massive shift away from the series’ traditional stealth formula by placing a heavy emphasis on naval warfare, something not many games had truly captured at the time. This bold departure from the franchise’s social stealth roots paved the way for cinematic encounters across the seas, where players bombarded enemy ships with broadside cannons and mortar fire in exhilarating naval battles. It was so successful that it has been a high Ubisoft has continued to chase ever since, especially with its supposed “AAAA” entries like Skull & Bones.
For many young gamers, Black Flag was their first Assassin's Creed, thanks to the irresistible appeal of Edward's journey and the freedom of living out a pirate fantasy they never realized they had always wanted.
Fast forward 13 years, and Ubisoft would have been doing its fans a disservice by not giving its most prized entry the remake treatment. That's where Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced comes in. It's a complete overhaul of the 2013 classic, armed with a stunning visual upgrade, meaningful quality-of-life improvements, and a handful of new story sequences that further expand its cast of characters.
The result is a remake that has the potential to become the blueprint for the franchise moving forward while making the original largely obsolete, save for a few notable omissions in its story.
The Pyrates of the Caribbean
Black Flag Resynced takes place during the Golden Age of Piracy, a period in history when pirates roamed the Caribbean in search of purpose and, more importantly, gold. Right from the start, you're thrown into some of the era's most bustling locations, including the infamous pirate haven of Nassau, where rum-soaked streets stand in stark contrast to King George I's relentless campaign to eradicate piracy in the open seas.
At the center of this story is Edward Kenway, the fictional pirate you'll be controlling throughout the game's 20-or-so-hour campaign. His life is fueled by adventure, leaving behind comfort and romance for his selfish desires. Series veterans already know what to expect from his tale, as this Resynced experience is a complete 1:1 reimagining of his life as a privateer turned pirate to eventually an Assassin.
Fans of other Assassin's Creed protagonists will likely find Edward to be one of the series' most well-rounded characters, largely because he isn't an Assassin at heart, at least not at the beginning of his journey. Unlike protagonists such as Altair and Connor, who were already deeply rooted in the Brotherhood, Edward has to earn his place in the Creed, making his transformation feel all the more rewarding.
But that’s not all. Edward's journey is complemented by a memorable cast of supporting characters with compelling arcs that unfold throughout the adventure. While the series has always told fictional stories, many of the faces Edward meets in Nassau are based on real historical figures from the Golden Age of Piracy, and each plays a meaningful role in shaping his gradual evolution.
Characters like Mary Read introduce Edward to the Assassin’s Creed, while Blackbeard embodies the reckless thrill of piracy with explosions, chaos, and a whole lot of screaming. Then there's Stede Bonnet, a former landowner who abandons his comfortable life in search of adventure on the high seas and eventually becomes one of Edward Kenway's closest friends. All three receive new epilogues that further expand their stories, something the original never fully explored. These extra chapters are but the first taste of Resynced’s fresh slew of content, with even more additions that I'll dive into later in this review.
What sets Black Flag's story apart from the series' modern entries is its clear focus on Edward and his little band of ragtag companions. Rather than burying players beneath sprawling target trees and side quests that often feel designed solely to pad out the playtime.
The original's Templar Hunts, Naval Contracts, and the many question marks scattered across the map are still here, but they primarily exist to strengthen the Jackdaw and Edward himself, rewarding exploration with meaningful upgrades that make the journey less punishing, especially during the game's tougher endgame encounters.
This straightforward approach is also a stark reminder that Black Flag came from Ubisoft's golden age of storytelling, when the long-running conflict between the Assassins and Templars still served as the heart of the narrative, something the franchise's recent games have struggled to recapture.
A Pirate's Life For Me
One of the best things about Black Flag Resynced is how effortlessly Ubisoft immerses players in its world of rum and booty. From its convincing water physics and dynamic weather that can derail your voyages to the way Edward's coat flutters in the wind, every detail helps make the world feel alive. Even the smallest touches stand out, like the subtitles, which take inspiration from the 1724 book A General History of the Pyrates by capitalizing pronouns, nouns, and other prominent words in the style of the era. If you thought it was a bug, don't worry, you're far from the first to be proven wrong.
With Ubisoft's Anvil Engine taking center stage, there is rarely a bad angle to be found. Even the mere sight of a sunset as I sail across the open sea with my hearty Jackdaw crew singing old favorites like "Leave Her, Johnny" and "Way Me Susiana" is enough to transport me back to the magic of the original. Chances are you'll stumble across a handful of my screenshots scattered throughout the Caribbean thanks to the game's semi-online photo-sharing features, because I simply couldn't resist stopping to capture those moments.
But to be fair, this is still a Ubisoft game, so it’s no surprise there are a few cracks beneath all its beauty, as most games do. The same tired Ubisoft-isms rear their ugly head once again. Even with a brand-new graphics engine in tow, Black Flag Resynced is teeming with frustrating technical issues that left me scratching my head in sheer annoyance.
Collision detection as I make Edward parkour across Havana’s rooftops didn’t always work as intended, ruining my perfect stealth infiltrations. Other issues, like audio abruptly cutting out whenever new encounters began, happened far too often, and the game’s built-in lock-on system occasionally went haywire whenever multiple enemies were on screen. There were even instances I softlocked parts of the campaign by progressing too quickly, leaving me unable to open my map and forcing me to restart the game. These issues can be detrimental to the game’s immersion, and I can easily see them becoming some of the biggest complaints players will have at launch.
Even the new dynamic weather system can become a nuisance later in the game. Rogue winds constantly push the Jackdaw off course, while severe thunderstorms prevent you from using Travel Speed altogether. There was one instance where I had to manually sail toward my objective while relying on the game's pathfinding system, only to have the storm linger far longer than it should have, turning what should've been a quick journey into an unnecessarily tedious one.
Thankfully, apart from these technical hiccups, which should be fixable with a few patches, Black Flag Resynced gets almost everything right. The game runs beautifully on my base PlayStation 5, with barely any performance issues while maintaining a rock-solid 60 FPS in Performance Mode. If this is how well it performs on Sony's entry-level current-generation console, I can only imagine how impressive it must be on a PlayStation 5 Pro or a high-end gaming PC.
Battle Stations!
Combat has also received a major upgrade in Black Flag Resynced. In many ways, it reminded me of the grounded, melee-focused combat from Assassin’s Creed: Mirage, where well-timed parries are fundamental and making smart use of your quick tools can save you from getting desynchronized in an instant.
Take the Rope Dart, for example. While it was introduced much later in the original game, it can now be unlocked much earlier. This tool allows you to yank weaker enemies into melee range like Scorpion from Mortal Kombat before finishing them off with a stylish Hidden Blade takedown.
My personal favorite, however, is still Edward's pair of flintlock pistols, which can trivialize many of the tougher encounters in the later stages of the game. Assuming you have enough bullets to get through longer skirmishes, a well-timed shot will stagger enemies like Bombardiers and Brutes, leaving them wide open for a brutal coup de grace.
Unfortunately, fans hoping for the return of picking up weapons from fallen enemies will be disappointed, as that mechanic is nowhere to be found in Resynced. After spending dozens of hours with the remake, though, I never really missed it. The revamped encounters demand a wider range of combat options, and the new systems are simple to learn for newer players while remaining deeply satisfying to master. But I tell you this now: there's nothing quite like landing a perfect parry and instantly following it up with a stylish finisher.
But you're not limited to your tools alone. As a pirate, Edward is a dirty fighter who can do surprise attacks to catch enemies off guard. Abilities like the Sweep Kick can knock down enemies that constantly hide behind their guard, leaving them vulnerable to a swift takedown. Another skill you can use is the simple Kick that can… well, kick enemies into nearby walls, instantly breaking their posture and setting them up for an execution at a moment's notice.
These are permanent abilities that Edward always has at his disposal, regardless of whatever misfortune comes his way. So even when he's stripped of his pistols and cutlasses, he can still rely on these dirty tricks to turn the tide of battle before finishing his enemies off with the Hidden Blade.
Stealth also has its own fair share of updates in Resynced. If you were someone who disliked Black Flag's tailing missions and instant-fail objectives, Ubisoft has done a great job of reworking them here. Instead, many of these missions now adopt the more open-ended quest design of the series' recent entries. You can sneak around to steal a key from a guard and quietly unlock a gate, or ignore the objective entirely and go straight for your target through open combat or pure stealth. The extra freedom makes these encounters feel far less restrictive while still preserving the spirit of the original missions.
The original's objective-based missions, where you're tasked with taking down targets in specific ways, also return in Resynced. Back in 2013, they were the bane of my completionist playthrough, as getting spotted by a single enemy was often enough to ruin a perfect mission run. Thankfully, that's no longer the case. These objectives are no longer tied to the main missions and instead serve as optional challenges from Assassin and Naval Contracts that reward extra money and resources when completed successfully.
Taken together, these improved combat systems are a major step up from the series' recent entries, which often rely too heavily on RPG-style progression where you're constantly chasing legendary weapons with inflated damage numbers and defense stats. At one point, the series even reached a stage where you couldn't instantly eliminate an enemy with a stealth attack unless your level was high enough. In Resynced, victory comes down to your reflexes, your mastery of the combat system, and your awareness of the battlefield. If you die, it's usually because you made a mistake or ran into one of the game's unfortunate technical hiccups, not because your "gear score" wasn't high enough.
Dead Men Tell No Tales, But Black Flag Keeps You Coming Back For More
Naval battles are largely unchanged, and that's not a bad thing since you can’t fix what isn’t broken. Edward Kenway's Jackdaw remains heavily customizable, and upgrading it into a fearsome warship worthy of the Flying Dutchman still requires plenty of grinding, just like in the original. Much of the gameplay loop revolves around life at sea, whether you're harpooning animals for resources or raiding nearby schooners and frigates for the materials needed to strengthen your ship.
This is where I've always found Black Flag's gameplay loop at its most engaging. There's always something waiting to distract you across every corner of the Caribbean. Even while sailing the open seas, you're constantly tempted by mysterious islands filled with treasure or a passing Spanish vessel carrying the 200 Metal you need for your next hull upgrade. And when you're back on land, activities like Assassin Contracts and raiding plantation warehouses offer just as many opportunities for adventure.
There's rarely a dull moment when exploring the Caribbean, and best of all, almost all of these activities are completely optional. You can ignore them entirely and still make steady progress through the main campaign, though you'll be missing out on some of the game's most rewarding moments.
Overall, these improvements to the game's visuals and combat make the original feel tame by comparison. Adjustable difficulty settings and a wealth of accessibility options also help eliminate much of the tedium that held back the 2013 release. Seeing everything through a modern lens makes for a refreshingly new experience, and I honestly don't see myself going back to the original now that Resynced modernizes nearly every aspect of it.
The Resynced Experience
Most of the brand-new story content arrives later in the adventure, culminating in an epilogue that makes Edward and his crew's journey feel a little less bittersweet.
New to Resynced are Officers, recruitable characters with their own story chapters that further flesh out Edward's journey while enhancing your naval capabilities. For example, Lucy Baldwin, an original character created specifically for Resynced, can be recruited early on and immediately grants access to the Perfect Brace ability, which completely negates incoming damage from enemy warships if timed correctly.
While I can't say much about the new story additions without venturing into spoiler territory, these new features make the endgame grind far more rewarding, especially if you're planning to hunt down every Legendary Ship like Man-o-Wars and British Frigates scattered across the Caribbean.
Once recruited, these Officers become permanent members of the Jackdaw's crew, and their storylines eventually culminate in the game's new epilogue, where Resynced's technical improvements are truly put to good use. On top of that, they even have their own banter aboard the ship as you casually sail across the Caribbean listening to sea shanties, making them feel like genuine members of the crew rather than mere gameplay additions.
This is where the Resynced experience truly raises the stakes. The endgame encounters are challenging enough that you'll need to properly upgrade both the Jackdaw and Edward before taking them on. There were moments when I found myself completely underpowered because my ship simply wasn't strong enough, forcing me to step away from this story and grind for resources before I could take it on again.
And once you've braved the game's toughest encounters, Edward's home base in Great Inagua has also been revamped and now functions similarly to Naoe and Yasuke's hideout in Assassin's Creed: Shadows, allowing you to display your trophies and cosmetic collectibles throughout the estate. They aren't just for show either, as several upgrades improve your resource gathering rates, while hunting down elusive Templars rewards you with the same keys needed to unlock the iconic Templar Armor, just like in the original.
That said, these new “Resynced” additions make up only a small portion of the experience. They aren't particularly substantial, and I wouldn't go as far as calling them an expansion, as they feel more like a collection of small-scale DLC stories. They don't fundamentally change Edward's journey, but instead expand the endgame and give players more reasons to keep coming back.
There are also four super-secret "What If?" scenarios hidden throughout the game that capture the same sense of wonder as Assassin's Creed: Unity's Animus Rifts, but saying anything more would spoil the surprise. But before I get sidetracked, Black Flag Resynced is still very much the same game we remember from 2013, only now it's been given a stunning new coat of paint. However, there's still one big elephant in the room that needs to be addressed...
A Missing Modern Day Story
Being a total repackage of Black Flag, the remake completely removes Black Flag's modern-day storyline, leading to a few odd transitions where certain chapters abruptly jump years and months ahead, making it obvious that something once bridged those moments. The story of John, the IT guy, and your nameless Abstergo Entertainment protagonist has been cut entirely, replaced by the series' newer approach to the Animus.
In lieu of these missing modern-day sequences is one of Resynced's more interesting additions: an expanded collection of lore hidden within the Animus database. By collecting enough data scattered throughout Black Flag world, you'll gradually unlock new entries packed with easter eggs from previous games, like callbacks from previous protagonists like Naoe from Shadows. They also tease new mysteries, such as the Bleeding Effect seemingly spreading to ordinary citizens through Abstergo's Animus software. It's a genuinely intriguing plot thread, and I'm curious to see where Ubisoft plans to take it next.
However, that doesn't mean the modern-day storyline needed to be removed entirely, a decision that longtime fans like me will likely find off-putting. By cutting it altogether, Black Flag Resynced also strips away much of the context behind Edward's journey. Veterans of the original may come away feeling that parts of the narrative are incomplete. Why are we reliving Edward's memories in the first place? Why do the Observatory and the Sage matter? Resynced never fully answers those questions.
New players will likely enjoy Edward's adventure without giving those missing pieces a second thought. But for purists who appreciated the ongoing tug of war between the Assassins and Templars in the modern-day storyline, this is a disappointing change.
Then again, if you’ve been following the series’ lore starting with Shadows, it makes more sense once you realize Ubisoft is treating the entire Resynced initiative as a sequel of sorts, with the events of the original games and their modern-day storylines having already taken place in this new continuity.
But who are we kidding, really? Black Flag has always been remembered for Edward and his crew, not its modern-day storyline. There was never much love for those Abstergo sections, aside from fans like me who genuinely enjoyed the conspiracies and Illuminati-style storytelling that could make even the most seasoned doomsday prepper lose their mind.
Is Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Worth It?
The Definitive Way to Experience Black Flag
There's never been a better time to experience one of the franchise's greatest entries. Edward Kenway's tale never feels rudderless despite the complete removal of the modern-day storyline because everything else works so well, from its massive technical overhaul and refined combat to the countless quality-of-life improvements that make the original feel obsolete.
Whether you are a new or old fan, Black Flag Resynced is the culmination of Ubisoft finally giving players what they wanted. Tedious gameplay elements like tailing missions have been removed or reworked, while newer ideas such as open-ended mission designs have been seamlessly folded into the experience. Everything else is simply icing on a gold-plated cake, complemented by the game's straightforward storytelling, which most modern entries fail to comprehend.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a remake that already feels like the next blueprint for the future of the series. If Ubisoft continues treating its classic entries with this level of love and care, then the prospect of more Resynced
remakes is something long-time fans have every reason to look forward to. I certainly can't wait to see where Ubisoft takes the series next.
FAQ
How Long is Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced?
In my playthrough, I finished the main campaign on Normal difficulty in around 21 hours, including time spent Synchronizing towers across Nassau, Havana, and Kingston, as well as exploring some of Resynced's new content, such as the Officer missions. That said, I still had plenty of side content left unfinished.
Does Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Have New Game Plus?
There is no New Game Plus mode available in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, as you're simply returned to your base in Great Inagua once the credits roll. However, Ubisoft has confirmed that New Game Plus will be added in a future update.
What are the System Requirements to Play Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced on Steam?
The System Requirements as listed on Steam are as follows:
| Specifications | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
| OS | Windows 10 (64 bit only), Windows 11 | |
| Processor | Intel Core i7-8700K 3.7 GHz, AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz | Intel Core i5-10600K 4.1 GHz, AMD Ryzen 5 3600 3.6 GHz |
| Memory | 16 GB RAM | 16 GB RAM |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 (6GB), AMD Radeon RX5500XT (8GB) or Intel ARC A580 (8GB) | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 (12GB),AMD Radeon RX6600XT (8GB), or Intel ARC B580 (12GB) |
| Storage | 65 GB available space | |
| Additional Specs | Direct X12 | SSD required |
Game8 Reviews
"You Can Pet Animals" - 11/10