I’ve sunk legendary galleons, sailed across the Caribbean procuring plunder, and I’ve experienced Edward Kenway’s redemption arc from start to finish. But upon rolling credits on Ubisoft’s nostalgia-fuelled remake, I came to a realisation: almost everything good in Black Flag Resynced exists in the original game.
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Sure, it’s prettier and quality of life changes do help sand away the rougher edges, but removing all friction from a game isn’t necessarily a good thing. Take stealth sequences, for instance—Black Flag Resynced now allows you to crouch anywhere, but it also removes all fail conditions from stealth missions, making the system somewhat redundant.
This give-and-take is something I experienced frequently with the remake. Resynced makes climbing far faster, but this means you no longer have to think about movement as you zoom up the side of almost every structure in sight. And don’t even get me started on removing hidden blade combat, fisticuffs, and temporary weapons. The new cutlass-only fighting may be slightly harder, but it’s ultimately bland thanks to fewer options.
Sean Martin
Black Flag is one of the few Assassin’s Creed games I 100%-ed back when it originally came out, so this past week I’ve been diving into Resynced, reliving Edward Kenway’s redemption story and completing many of the side activities and collectible hunts. Afterwards, I hopped back into the original to compare and suddenly realised how well it still stands up.
I’ve now spent 40 hours with Black Flag Resynced, but I find myself unconvinced it ever needed a remake, especially one which more often chooses to change core components over retaining the feel of the original. It’d be a lie to say Resynced isn’t good, but almost everything good in it is still good in Black Flag. Better, in fact, if a fond nostalgic adventure be your wish and you’d prefer not to toss a handful of dubloons in the sand for a game you likely own.
Hopping into the original Black Flag after playing Resynced, I was shocked by how remarkably well the game has aged. The combat still feels fluid (albeit easy thanks to chain finishers) but it benefits from the classic high profile, low profile control scheme that came to define the first three Assassin’s Creed games—something the remake also does away with.
Even 13 years later, Black Flag’s story is still first-rate
The movement and climbing also feel far more grounded. Instead of zipping up the sides of cathedrals, you’ve got to route yourself somewhat, especially since Black Flag includes a bunch of tailing sequences that require you to keep a target in sight at all times. Many players despised these, but after playing Resynced where stealth never mattered and I could murder my way through every situation, the challenge felt positively refreshing.
Alongside the visual upgrade, one of the few unequivocally positive changes is that ship combat feels far more dramatic in Resynced. The Jackdaw (Ed’s ship) has new firing modes and officer upgrades, but naval battles are also significantly harder. Where, in the original, you could feasibly defeat a legendary ship without a fully upgraded Jackdaw, that feels almost impossible in the remake—ships fire fast, accurately, and use mortars more.
If you found naval combat in Black Flag too easy, this is definitely a good change. For my part, I found that the tough ship battles came to revolve around Lucy Baldwin (one of the new officers) and her Perfect Brace ability, which all but mitigates damage when you time a brace appropriately.
Even 13 years later, Black Flag’s story is still first-rate, exploring, as it does, a man driven by greed and personal ambition, qualities that still make him a breath of fresh air by comparison with Assassin’s Creed’s usual goody two shoes protagonists. It’s so well-written, in fact, that the new quests Resynced adds can’t help but come off poorly by comparison.
The same goes for retaining the in-game shop that lets you purchase cosmetics that look like they’re right out of Skull and Bones, or even buy the locations of in-game collectibles for real money. And don’t forget the inexplicable addition of the weird Animus projects from Assassin Creed Shadows. I’m not sure who thought adding a battlepass mechanic to the remake was a good idea, but honestly, it sucks.
Ubisoft added many of these elements to modernise Black Flag, but ultimately creates a juxtaposition between old and new which really doesn’t reflect well on either Ubisoft itself or the state of our industry. Black Flag was a formative game for me, arguably the beginning of open world bloat for the series, but a fun, well-written adventure with some of the best side content around—no wonder it’s one of the few Assassin’s Creed games I 100%-ed.
But Resynced ultimately doesn’t feel like the same game to me. I thought it did, but then I went back and played the original Black Flag and remembered what it was actually like. I suppose it depends why you’re playing a remake. If your goal is to revisit your past experiences and nostalgia, the original will serve you far better in that endeavor.
