Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced Review: A Parent's Guide to the Pirate Remake

There are usually two outcomes when someone returns to something after a long time. Sometimes we realize it is no longer what it used to be: too much has changed for us to experience it the same way as before. But sometimes the opposite happens: you return to something and enjoy it even more than the first time. Circumstances can align so that you only later start to appreciate certain things, or those things simply fall into a better configuration afterward.

This is also true for returning to old video games, whether in their original or remastered edition. In the case of Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, that return to a familiar adventure resulted in an even better game. As the saying goes, Black Flag has matured like fine wine over the past 12 years.

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Oh Beautiful, Oh Dear, Oh Sweet Freedom…

Resynced is the kind of remake that leaves Black Flag's original story essentially untouched, adding only side notes. This is still the Edward Kenway legend we know – a man who, through solidarity with others, breaks free from personal greed and accumulates wealth. It remains one of the stronger stories in the Assassin's Creed series, and Resynced reinforces it with small changes and additions.

First of all, the modern-day portion of the story, where we were Abstergo's guinea pigs, has been removed. I think this greatly helped focus on Edward Kenway and made the story more consistent and clearer. There are fewer interruptions and digressions than in the original, so it's easier to follow the story and notice the overlapping motifs between pirates and assassins.

The Animus plot is still there, but it's carried out through optional missions that serve to "review the material" about Edward and his complexes, or provide answers to questions like "what if things had been different." I don't really think Black Flag's story needed any expansion, but it's there if you want it, and if you're not interested, you can simply ignore those missions.

The same goes for the three new characters added to the game, as well as the epilogues for Blackbeard and Bonnet. All of this content is optional in the main story. The additional captains have their own plots and mission sets, but I'd say they still aren't as interesting as the original content. There's a noticeable drop in writing quality in the added material, and the new characters aren't integrated into the original story. You meet them alongside the main plot, but their stories remain separate. That may be disappointing, but at least it doesn't disrupt the original story's execution.

And as I already mentioned, that original story is definitely among the better ones in the AC series. Edward is a charismatic protagonist and not just another guy with a hood on his head. He's a temperamental adrenaline junkie, a lover of freedom – or at least the pirate interpretation of it. And the best part of all this is that this narrative spills over into the gameplay itself.

All the Silver, All the Gold, All the Human Lives…

I don't think I'd be wrong in saying that Black Flag is still the best action game with a pirate theme to this day, at least in single-player form. Resynced only reinforces that status by adding even more freedom. For example, there's no longer a loading pause between cities and the open sea, which may seem minor on paper but is actually a major improvement. While the original only allowed diving in certain locations, here you can dive anywhere. That works well, because treasure chests are now hidden underwater, and some missions require you to dive to find an underwater entrance.

You also have more freedom in missions themselves, because the game doesn't interrupt you if enemies spot you while sneaking. This is a great change because it avoids sending the player back to a checkpoint and instead adds a different kind of penalty. For instance, in one mission you have to steal something from a man. If you're skilled at sneaking and hiding, you can pickpocket him unnoticed while he's on the street. If he spots you, he'll start running toward a fort and raise the alarm. You can still eliminate him before he gets there, but the mission doesn't fail even if he escapes – you'll just face a bigger battle inside the enemy base. That's much better than being desynchronized the moment you're spotted.

The Gameplay of Black Flag Resynced

As for hiding, manual stealth activation has been added, and visibility is also affected by dynamic weather conditions. However, don't expect a serious stealth system here. Enemies never function as a group; they're mostly static, maximally naive, and deaf most of the time. There is a stealth difficulty option, but it only changes how quickly they spot you. Their behavior doesn't change when you raise the difficulty, so Resynced doesn't really improve in this area. Quiet gameplay is still a less attractive way to play Black Flag.

As for the parkour, I'd say it's closer to the original than to newer installments. You can only climb at certain designated points, not just anywhere. But the movement itself is faster and more fluid than before. And descending has been made easier with the introduction of the parkour-down command, which first appeared in Unity. The only thing that bothered me about the parkour is the often unnatural jumps. In some places, Edward can jump, exaggerating a bit, two meters higher than his own height, as if something in the air lifted him mid-jump. Likewise, he can jump at least five meters forward from a standing position. The game is very generous in that it will give the character "wind at their back" mid-jump, so they land where intended.

The biggest gameplay change is to combat, and it's positive in my view. Combat is much faster, and the camera no longer shifts to the side for better visibility. Here, too, the camera pulls back slightly from the character during combat, but you always have full control over it, and I didn't notice a single situation where it became a problem while playing with a gamepad.

The Combat

Combat mostly comes down to counterattacks and breaking down the opponent's defense, but there's also timed dodging of unblockable attacks. All of this is very readable and simple in the middle of the action. You only have two types of sword attacks throughout the entire game, and both are mapped to the same button. Maximally simple controls to master and remember.

Generally, Black Flag Resynced is reminiscent of the simplicity later Assassin's Creed games lost. There's no experience gathering here, no unlocking new skills, and no need to keep track of enemy levels. But the fact that the game isn't an RPG doesn't mean it lacks depth. You have an unlimited inventory, weapons with different characteristics, accompanying trinkets, and a whole range of upgrades for both Edward and his ship, the Jackdaw. And the ship was and remains Black Flag's special feature, and personally my favorite part of the game.

Ship handling in Black Flag is arcade-like and not entirely realistic. But that's exactly why it's great. Yes, the ship sails and turns faster than any ship in reality, but for gameplay purposes, it strikes an ideal balance between believability and controllability. I still haven't played a pirate-themed game that captures the intensity of ship battles better than Black Flag. From the moment you grab the helm, sail out onto the open sea to the song of your crew, spot a resource-laden ship through your spyglass, and charge it with cannon fire before capturing it in a bloody battle, it delivers a special feeling.

The Sailing Aspect of Black Flag Resynced

This remake didn't move toward greater realism in sailing. So here too you'll notice some illogical limitations. For example, the moment you initiate the process of capturing another ship, all the action around you pauses – other ships and/or forts stop attacking you. But that's how the gameplay works here, and you plan your strategy in battles accordingly. Sometimes, for instance, it's smartest to disable one ship so that, in the middle of a battle with another ship, you can capture it if your Jackdaw takes heavy damage. Because when you capture an enemy ship, you get the option to repair the damage on your own ship.

A novelty in Resynced is that some attacks and upgrades are tied to the additional captains, the new characters you first have to recruit. However, the biggest change is that the remake has much more active maritime traffic, with more ships that sometimes exchange fire with each other. I also get the impression that storms are more frequent, which makes the sailing experience even more interesting than before.

… Nothing Can Match Your Pure Beauty

Black Flag was originally made for 20-year-old hardware, and although the game still looks good enough, it's not wrong to say it's technically outdated. In that context, there's no doubt that Resynced is a much more beautiful and advanced version, across the board. Higher-quality character models help the game convey the genuinely good voice acting performances more convincingly. More detailed locations feel like places where the characters actually live, rather than places where they were merely placed. The view from the crow's nest reaches even further into the distance; the game kills it with its lighting and sunsets…

In short, Resynced is a visual treat. Only one thing bothered me: the cutscenes are locked to 30 frames per second. I know why too – that's when the graphics quality is additionally boosted (but it's still rendered in real time). However, I would like to see an option for 60 fps, at least in the PC version, for those with hardware capable of it.

UPDATE: Ubisoft says the 30 fps cutscenes in the PC version are a bug that has been fixed.

And speaking of the PC version I played, I'm glad to say it is one of the most optimized games in recent times. On a Ryzen 7 9700X and RTX 4070, I ran Resynced at maximum settings with ray tracing at 1440p resolution (DLSS Quality) at a flawlessly smooth 60 fps, without frame generation or any stuttering or slowdown. I get the impression that the game is less demanding than AC Shadows, even though it's the same engine.

Also worth praising is the large number of available graphics settings (including FOV), as well as interface, controls, and so on. The technical state of the game also seems great – I didn't have a single crash, and only once in a cutscene did I run into a character who walked into the frame and briefly blocked the shot. All in all, it's just as it should be – polished, stable, refined. You can tell that in this case Ubisoft wasn't in a rush to release the game as soon as possible.

In Conclusion

Those who played the original Black Flag already know how good that game was. On that excellent foundation, we got a remake that made useful changes, thereby making a great game even better and more enjoyable to play. I wouldn't say this is a perfect remake because the story additions aren't of the same quality as the original. One could argue that a more ambitious remake might have dared to make more significant changes to the gameplay, but I believe Black Flag fans weren't asking for that anyway.

Black Flag Resynced, in this package, is an ideal reminder that simplicity can lead to fun. A game with a pile of different systems isn't necessarily a more fun game. And Black Flag hits exactly the right middle ground: it has enough depth to keep you hooked for hours, without the risk of that depth becoming tiresome. Besides being one of the best chapters of Assassin's Creed, it's also the best action game with a pirate theme. So there's nothing left to do but grab your sword, pistol, hook, helm, hood…

Rating

8.6/10 — Resynced takes an already excellent pirate-action game and meaningfully improves its freedom, combat, visuals, and technical polish, only losing points because the new side content (extra captains, new characters) is noticeably weaker in writing than the original story.

Age Recommendation

Recommended for ages 16+. This is a mature-rated Assassin's Creed title featuring pirate violence, sword and gun combat, blood, drinking, crude humor, and thematic content around greed, slavery-era Caribbean history, and colonial violence. It's not aimed at young children, and even teens should be supervised or given context, given the historical themes (piracy, slave trade references) and combat intensity.

Gemini AI Summary

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced is a remaster/remake of the 2013 pirate-themed action game, reviewed here on PC. The review concludes that the remake successfully improves on the original in nearly every gameplay area — removing the modern-day Abstergo framing story for better narrative focus, adding open-world diving, letting stealth missions fail gracefully instead of forcing a "desync" reset, and significantly upgrading visuals and ship-to-ship naval combat. Weaknesses include shallow new side content (extra captains and characters with weaker writing than the main story), unchanged basic stealth AI, and cutscenes locked at 30 fps on PC (which Ubisoft says is a bug being fixed). The reviewer praises the game's excellent PC optimization, running at max settings at 1440p/60 fps on a Ryzen 7 9700X + RTX 4070 without stutter. Overall, it's considered one of the best Assassin's Creed stories and the best single-player pirate action game available, with the remake meaningfully improving quality of life without changing the core gameplay loop.