Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced perfectly captures the spirit of the original, but benefits from some much-needed upgrades

Date:
Thu, 21 May 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Description:
After three hours of sailing the high seas, firing cannons, stealthing
through plantations, and giving it to baddies, Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced is on course to be a brilliantly done remake.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Last month, I spent a few hours with Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced in Paris, and even as a slightly skeptical mega fan of the series, I can safely say that the game is shaping
up to be a wonderful remake of one of the best Assassins Creed games .

Lead studio Ubisoft Singapore has elegantly walked the tightrope between keeping the spirit of what made the original game so special while also offering enhancements, modernizations, and sprinklings of the most recent games in the series. However, after reflecting on my time with the game, its not so much a huge, seismic remake thats got one or two major offerings that it lives and dies on, but rather one that offers a whole host of smaller improvements that mean, overall, it delivers way more than the sum of its parts. This combination makes for an excellent new-but-familiar experience, and achieves that in a number of key ways. Latest Videos From You may like Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced will bring the classic game back to life here are 7 new things Im looking forward to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced revealed, keeps 'the original vision and story intact' Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced creative director says the team 'expanded' Edward Kenway's story and the theme of 'greed' in new content 'I won't spoil too much of it for you, but we thought that that was a strong juxtaposition to
who he is' Modern piracy (Image credit: Ubisoft) The glow up is, in short, tremendous. Its wholesale, extensive, and reaches every corner of the game. However, overall looks and feels aside, this glow up, consisting of loads of individual enhancements and modernizations, manifests itself in a number of what Id call smaller ways that amount to something greater.

Some of the largest modernizations are obvious and always would be: the game now appears in the Animus Hub startup screen, for example. Youll be greeted with a new character model of Edward Kenway, and the game slots neatly into its chronological order in the system.

Other changes are less obvious, though. For example, I noticed the
soundtrack, score, and audioscape of the game have changed subtly in terms of literally how it sounds, but it's also being deployed in different ways and
at different moments within the game. For the better, too, as deploying it in a new way helps to paint a refreshed picture wonderfully. It made moments
feel fresh and new, yet still anchored in the original and familiar.

Right from the off in my demo, chasing down Duncan Walpole from the beach and through the tropical forest, it was obvious that Resynced is a proper feast for the eyes. Parkour and stealth are vastly improved, as Ubisoft had
declared when confirming Resynced, but both play very well in real time, too. Parkour is a hugely modernized version of the style weve come to know from more recent games and feels less sticky and cumbersome than the classic
style. Its still not the Unity -esque leap or wholesale change that Im still somewhat yearning for from the series, but as a reimagining of Kenways parkour, its slick. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.
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Stealth is improved too, and among the wonderful social stealth
opportunities, and even the ability to just crouch and hide behind smaller environmental assets like barrels, the insta-fail tailing missions are gone. In play, this means that those missions now have multiple ways of being completed and solved, depending on whether you get spotted or not; the reactivity of the non-player characters (NPCs) and what is demanded of you
now in these situations just feels better.

But some of the biggest modernizations are in other key areas. Combat has
been overhauled, the world has been skilfully revamped, ship combat is improved, and theres even new content to engage with and experience. And
these are all extremely well done, Im happy to say. The high seas never
looked so good (Image credit: Ubisoft) Im not sure an Assassins Creed world has ever looked this good and thats saying something considering the likes
of 2025s Assassins Creed Shadows is an absolutely breathtaking environmental affair. Right from the off in my demo, chasing down Duncan Walpole from the beach and through the tropical forest, it was obvious that Resynced is a proper feast for the eyes. What to read next Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced creative director reveals there is 'probably almost nothing' left of the original code in the remake 'Almost everything had to be rebuilt' Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced creative director says the modernized combat system has been upgraded to make varied tools flow better 'We were inspired by early fan-made combo videos from the original' The rumors were true! Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has officially been announced by Ubisoft 'Some whispers have a little more wind in their sails. Keep your spyglass on the horizon'

Utilizing the latest version of Ubisofts Anvil engine, Resynced shows Black Flag in almost an entirely new light, giving it a glow-up thats a real joy to experience, explore, and get lost in. Everything is more detailed, vibrant, lush, dense, realistic, and gorgeous. Black Flag was a looker back in 2013, but this is something else. As a lover of video game landscapes, plants, and environments, the detail in the vegetation, landscape features, and natural elements is something that I went out of my way to inspect and admire in my time with the game.

This goes for the settlements and cities, too. When I was freeroaming in Havana, there was more hustle and bustle, more citizens present to bring life to the streets and squares, every building had more character and color to
it, and the way that ships gently rock on rolling waves, glistening and reflecting the sunlight from the Caribbean waters, is exquisite. (Image credit: Ubisoft) One of the clearest examples of this in my preview was the underwater parts of Resynced. Notably, you can now dive anywhere you want, which boosts the sense of exploration and freedom that the overhauled world has, but it also looks truly special. Coral reefs and wrecks are vividly reimagined, colorful, detailed, and crystal clear, and even the marine wildlife looks beautiful, elegantly swimming past Edward or through cracks in reefs and shipwrecks. Classic combat meets modern moves (Image credit: Ubisoft) Edward Kenways piratical-cross-assassin combat was something that we all knew was getting a lot of attention in Resynced and the changes are a huge boon to the action.

In theory and style, Ubisoft has ensured that the core character and feel of Kenways combat from the original game remains, but it has revamped it with, well, new touches, moves, finishes, fluidity, and features from more recent Creed games and it really works.

In play, it feels more like Basims combat style from Assassin's Creed Mirage has been injected into Edward Kenways combat, and the two have mixed to
create something wonderfully stylish, slick, and satisfying.

Parries are weighty and feel impactful, with time slowing for a fraction
after you implement a perfect block, making for a gratifying reward to deal more damage or killing blows to enemies. Working on enemies block or guard meters to wear them down adds a tactical layer to combat, too, and utilizing said parries as part of this makes for much more satisfying combat that requires some thought.

At one point, I got goosebumps as the music crescendos when you rush to join Blackbeard in a fight against some red coats on the shores of an island. Perfection. Flowing from one move to the other, from one enemy to the other, and between weapons and tools is such a joy I hugely enjoyed the extra environmental layer to combat too, and nothing was more swashbuckling than power kicking a foe into some empty rum crates and dealing a final blow, or polishing them off with pistols and seeing them stagger into a table behind and have it comically collapse beneath them.

This overhaul of combat that now feels like Mirage has elements of Assassin's Creed Shadows , but keeps the piratical style and flair of the original
Kenway DNA at its core. Its a joy, and one of the best things about Resynced that I experienced.

Eptomizing that was a moment in my preview where the combat, music, world,
and overall action culminated in something incredible: at one point, I got goosebumps as the music crescendos when you rush to join Blackbeard in a
fight against some red coats on the shores of an island. Perfection. Taking the Jackdaw back to the high seas (Image credit: Ubisoft) As part of my preview, I, of course, got some hands at the helm of the Jackdaw. I had free run of a part of the Caribbean sea that fans will remember, and it was such a joy to be weaving between islands, sitting back with the travel camera and listening to the lads sing some classic sea shanties.

Its hard to think how this simple experience from the original can be bettered, but the light touch improvements to visuals, music, vistas, and the ship itself make it just as special as it was all those years ago. Leave Her, Johnny , Bully in the Alley , and William Taylor are the best sea shanties in the game, by the way; no discussion.

I also got to man the Jackdaw in combat and took on one of the Caribbeans forts. The ship combat initially felt very familiar; fire the mortars from distance, take sweeping routes in front of the fort to target each part, and so on. However, as well as feeling overall far more slick, intuitive, and immediate than I remember, the arrival of a few enemy ships out of the blue made things interesting and a bit more tactical, balancing ship combat and fortification destruction while also remembering to brace to limit damage.

Ubisoft Singapores naval combat pedigree really shines here, generally, and the studio's experience from Assassins Creed III s ship action, as well as from Skull & Bones , is clearly on show with the enhanced Jackdaw experience on show in Resynced. New treasures? (Image credit: Ubisoft) A good deal of
the chatter around Black Flag Resynced has been about the new content added
to the game. Some that sound like replacements of existing bits animus glitches that concentrate on Edward rather than the modern day chapters in
the original game and some that sound brand new we know that new scenes
have been recorded and that there are additions to the ending and more with Edwards wife.

However, my preview was pretty light on the new content, which was a shame. After all the chat about new Edward Kenway content, storylines, and chapters, all I got to play was most of one of the recruitment missions for the new officers. Dont get me wrong, I enjoy the fact that these officers are more than just mute NPCs and there are stories to getting them on the Jackdaw and so on, but this was just a regular-feeling Black Flag mission with a small
bit of cutscene conversation dotted throughout and after.

Given how highly the devs, Ubisoft, and Matt Ryan himself have spoken about the new scenes , the change to the modern-day alterations, and the expansions of Kenways story and ending, it was a shame not to see more of what theyve actually done. However, I can also see them wanting to keep their powder dry on such additions. Ill have to be as patient as any other Assassins Creed
fan, and I look forward to seeing more on this when it releases. A glimpse into the future via the past? (Image credit: Ubisoft) All in all, its
already clear how Ubisoft has approached this remake of one of its most popular games. This is no visual overhaul at the remaster end of the scale; its almost a reinterpretation or reimagining of Black Flag and what it can
be. Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced is still the same excellent 13-year-old game underneath all the modernizations and improvements, but it strikes a perfect mix between the influence of those enhancements and that classic AC feel.

As Jack Sparrow said, Not all treasures silver and gold, mate - and it feels like that here too: the overall experience of playing Resynced and revisiting Black Flag in this new guise is much more than the updated aesthetics.

What struck me most is that while this isnt just a new game, totally
rewritten and re-presented, all of the small improvements in Resynced better movement here, more intuitive controls there, enhanced art and environments over here, and improved exploration there genuinely add up to the game being greater than the sum of its parts. It's a remake of a classic 13-year-old game, yes, but it feels like, and plays like, something bigger and better.

If this is a first glimpse into the future of Ubisofts approach to the
classic but slightly ageing games of its flagship franchise, then we could be in for a treat, should the likes of the original Assassins Creed , or the
Ezio trilogy, and even Connors revolutionary adventure be next in line for
the Resynced treatment. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button! The best gaming consoles All the best consoles of this generation

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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/gaming/assassins-creed-black-flag-resynced-hands-on- preview


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