Summary
Developer – Ubisoft Singapore
Publisher – Ubisoft
Platforms – PlayStation 5 (Reviewed), XBOX Series, PC
Review copy given by publisher
Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced is a complete rework of one of the more popular entries of the Assassin’s Creed series that improved a lot of the common elements we see in the more modern entries. Black Flag sailed so that Origin, Odyssey, Valhalla, and Shadows could run. The chance to play a pirate to such an extent has been quite a rare opportunity in gaming, growing up I played Sid Meier’s Pirates which was amazing and other games since then like Skull and Bones and Sea of Thieves have tried to capture that salty sea in a bottle, but weren’t able to do it for me.
I tried playing Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag a few times many years ago, but never fully beat it. I honestly can’t explain why, but I was in a much different gaming headspace during its initial release. However, I am very happy to say that this time I became hooked. Everything plays so smoothly, the environments look fantastic, the combat is snappy, and living the pirate life is great!
Right from the beginning I loved stumbling into the Assassins vs Templars storyline that our protagonist Edward finds himself in. It kind of lends itself to swashbuckling high adventure tropes of a man who wants to better his life through risk and danger and just so happens to trip right into the opportunity of a life time of becoming an Assassin.
After washing ashore on an island and taking on the identity of an Assassin who had a map and list of targets, he decides to deliver that information himself and in a case of stolen identity (it’s not funny Jim) he is given Assassin’s wrist blades and is basically a freelancer working at times with the Templars and the Assassins as a pirate lives by his own rules. You meet a lot of great characters in your time of ruling the high seas and the story is fun and engage and sometimes sad as well lending to quite the adventure.
Gameplay wise Black Flag really shines! Of course as with any Assassin’s Creed the movement and climbing can be a little spotty, but in most cases the parkour works well in Black Flag. Little irritations like pieces of wood in shallow waters that you can’t climb over or swim under so you have to go around causes the biggest issues.
Ship sailing is reactive and fun however, I personally didn’t like having to aim from specific sections of the ship in order to switch guns. I think that the combat could have been made a bit smoother if they allowed a full 360 weapon swapping by rotation from the ship. There would be times that I would want to aim a specific gun in a high tension fight but wouldn’t be looking far enough to the side to switch to the cannons. This coupled with the very tight camera while sailing made combat unnecessarily challenging in some cases.
Other than that I found a lot of joy in managing the ship with upgrading weapons and features, crew sizes, and deploying my fleet of ships around the map to gather resources and treasures.
In melee combat, Edward has a pretty solid move set with kicks and sweeps, stabs and slices of your swords, and surprise pistol stuns. Parrying enemy melee attacks or perfectly dodging at the right time was satisfying especially when you chain multiple take downs at once to clear enemy clusters.
You can take a more stealthy approach with assassinations, sleep darts, and hanging people with ropes and the animations were satisfying to watch as Edward easily dispatches his foes. Personally, I loved swapping between different approaches to the quests and felt like the game was perfectly balanced in either method.
Another thing that I love about Black Flag is the weapon selection and pirate outfits. Each weapon has slightly varying effects like one particular sword might have a healing on heavy hit while another might allow you to takedown an additional enemy in a chain.
Pistols also came with similar abilities like chaining shots or using gold to have explosive rounds. Most of the weapons felt similar in power, so if you prefer a particular bonus passive of the weapon even though it might have less overall power it really didn’t feel like a huge difference. In terms of looks you could also transform the weapon appearance into any other weapon you have found so far.
For your outfits, this is purely cosmetic so you can always be fashionable when conquering the seas. Edward also has accessory slots that provide passive bonuses as well and they show up in his belt which as a nice flair to his outfits.
You can also upgrade different aspects of Edward’s gear by skinning animals that you find and use the materials to increase his health, ammo count, and others. Not only can you upgrade and customize Edward, you can also customize the ships hull, sails, wheel, crew outfits, and even find pets that will sit with you while sailing or hang out in your manor house.
Your manor house can also be decorated with furniture, paintings, weapons, portraits, and you can upgrade both the main house and the local facilities. It was cool to have my island come to life with pirates and dancers as I fully upgraded all the island features.
The story of Black Flag isn’t just a copy and paste of the original either. There is a new chapter of several missions that can be experienced slightly before the end of the game.
Some of the quests for other characters have been expanded to get more growth from those individual stories. Finally the entire real world portions of the game have been replaced with Animus segments that more fully explore Edward’s story.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced is an excellent re-entry to the Assassin’s Creed series. A lot of the quality of life changes that have been made to combat allows for a more engaging and fluid system, the expansion of the story line to see deeper character growth, and obviously the complete graphic overhaul bridges the gap between Black Flag’s original release and the more modern entries allowing a new generation of gamers to dive into Black Flag.
