Edward’s adventure returns after 13 years
Unlike Assassin’s Creed II, Brotherhood, Revelations, III, Liberation, and Rogue, Black Flag is getting the full remake treatment–this is the first re-release of an Assassin’s Creed game that isn’t just a port or remaster. As such, Resynced makes several changes to what Black Flag is. The remake seems to largely be the same game as the original–Ubisoft describes Resynced as a “faithful remake” that is “not an RPG,” so it’s not putting, as examples, Odyssey or Valhalla’s ability-focused combat, choice-driven dialogue, and character-driven romance options into Black Flag’s story. But there are several clear-cut differences that should drastically change how it feels to play through Edward Kenway’s story, which we’ve detailed below.
As a quick refresher–it has been 13 years, after all–Black Flag sees you play as a nameless employee of Abstergo Entertainment in the present day whose job it is to use a futuristic machine called an Animus to relive the memories of people in the past and capture those experiences so they can be turned into movies or games. Your first assignment is Edward Kenway, a Welsh privateer-turned-pirate who–between 1715 and 1722–accidentally stumbles upon the hidden war between two millennia-old secret societies, and does all he can to take advantage of both sides to become as rich as possible. It’s superb. To this day, Black Flag remains one of the best Assassin’s Creed games ever.
Rebuilt with Ubisoft Anvil
The game engine that Ubisoft has used for Assassin’s Creed has gone through several iterations over the years. Back in 2013, Black Flag was made with AnvilNext–which was first used for 2012’s Assassin’s Creed III and continued to be the default for the franchise until 2014’s Rogue.
Resynced has been completely rebuilt within Ubisoft Anvil, the current iteration of the game engine first utilized in 2020 for Assassin’s Creed Valhalla before going on to be used for 2023’s Mirage and last year’s Shadows. As such, the visuals for Resynced are pretty different from the original Black Flag.
This is most clear in the character models, especially when it comes to facial details like Edward’s beard and Anne Bonny’s blush–everyone in Resynced seems prettier than they did in Black Flag. I’m not a huge fan of this stylistic choice, especially with how much it makes the “twist” involving James Kidd pretty much nonexistent. If you know, you know. If you don’t, take one look at James in Resynced and you too will wonder how anyone back in the 18th century could have possibly been fooled by a man that goshdarn pretty. Even looking beyond James though, everyone looks too clean. It’s cool to see the already stellar vocal performances of Black Flag be informed by facial expressions that can match the nuance of what’s being said, but it’s now harder to picture these characters as the filthy sailors that they definitely were.
I’m a lot more positive on what this change in game engine does for the environments in Black Flag, especially the three major cities of Havana, Kingston, and Nassau. The locales are brighter and filled with more details to bring more life to each and help further differentiate each of the three as vastly different power structures.
Faster combat
While the gameplay reveal for Resynced is filled with Ubisoft employees repeatedly saying that this remake is not an RPG and is faithful to the original title, it’s clear to see how the shift to the new engine has informed aspects of Black Flag to look more like what we got in Valhalla, Mirage, and Shadows.
That’s especially clear in combat. In sword duels and firefights, Edward moves a lot faster than he did in the original Black Flag, and there’s a stricter emphasis on utilizing parries to break an enemy’s guard. It looks like a hybrid of the original Black Flag gameplay and how Yasuke and Naoe fight in Shadows, which feels like a solid change. As awesome as it was to go on a rampage in games like Assassin’s Creed III and Black Flag, it did make combat mind-numbingly easy even when you were outnumbered by dozens of enemy soldiers. This new take on Black Flag’s combat seems like it adds a tinge of strategy to the formula.
More ways to get around
Resynced adds parkour moves to Black Flag that exist in some of the older Assassin’s Creed games, but largely don’t in the newer titles–they are only in Shadows because of post-launch updates, for example.
Ejects are the major additions: manual inputs that let you command Edward to leap to the side or straight back off a wall to more easily reach ledges that are normally difficult (or impossible) to clamber to based on where he’s standing. Mastering these moves lets you look cool as hell while freerunning and better express yourself through movement.
Dropping those f**king tailing requirements
Hallelujah, the absolute worst part of Black Flag–by a wide margin, too–is finally being addressed in this remake. Every fan of Black Flag has one or two things about the game that they’re not a fan of, but everyone I’ve ever spoken to about this game agrees on one thing: Black Flag has way too many missions that require you to tail a target and avoid being spotted–losing track of your foe or being identified causes immediate failure, forcing you to restart. It even has tailing missions in which Edward has to secretly follow a ship while he’s sailing in his ship! One or two of these would be fine, but Black Flag has more of these than any other Assassin’s Creed game in the entire series, and they suuuuuck.
These are thankfully addressed in the remake. While these tailing missions still exist, Resynced is taking the Shadows approach–if you’re spotted or lose your target, the mission doesn’t automatically end. Instead, you’ll have to find an alternative way of progressing forward. Maybe the target Edward was trailing runs away, and so you have to scour the city to find them again. Or getting spotted might lead to a fight, and killing the target lets you loot a note off the body that informs Edward of where to go next to continue the mission.
A sneaker Edward
Speaking of stealth, Resynced addresses the strange omission of a crouch mechanic in the early Assassin’s Creed games. Despite being a mainstay of stealth games for years, Assassin’s Creed didn’t get a manual crouch until 2014’s Unity–previous franchise protagonists Conner, Edward, and Shay could crouch but only by moving slowly in bushes.
Now, Edward can crouch at any time, much like every other Assassin’s Creed protagonist since Unity’s Arno. This makes it easier for him to hide behind certain terrain and move stealthily through environments where it was previously impossible in the original Black Flag.
Giving the Jackdaw more character(s)
Perhaps the most surprising changes for Resynced are coming for the Jackdaw, Edward’s ship. The way it moves and fights are augmented with some of the improvements that came to naval combat in later games, notably Rogue, but the ship is also getting a whole lot more character. Or, er, three more characters.
Three brand-new characters are being added to Black Flag’s story: Lucy Baldwin, The Padre, and Tobias “Dead Man” Smith. Each of these three fulfills a function on the Jackdaw, similarly to how Adéwalé is Edward’s quartermaster. Recruiting them unlocks perks for the Jackdaw, each of which can be upgraded.
Brand-new storylines
Resynced is adding new arcs to Black Flag’s story. One sees Edward interacting with both Edward “Blackbeard” Thatch and Stede Bonnet, whose relationship has gotten a bit more attention in a post-Black Flag world, thanks to the likes of media like Our Flag Means Death. Their connection is touched on very briefly in the original Black Flag, and it seems like Resynced is planning to flesh that out a bit more.
In addition, the three new characters joining the Jackdaw each have their own loyalty missions, which add even more story to Black Flag’s overall tale.
It remains to be seen how substantial each of these storylines are, though Black Flag has some of the best side quests in the series (and just one of the best main campaign stories period) so I’m hopeful that trend continues here.
Furry friends
Edward will be able to adopt a pet in Resynced, which will join him on the Jackdaw and keep him company as he sails the sea. You’ll have a choice between a cat and a monkey. Frankly, you can’t go wrong either way.
Keeping the spotlight just on Edward
Sadly, Resynced solely focuses on Edward’s story. That means the multiplayer isn’t returning, which is surprising considering the multiplayer for the original 2013 game still has a fairly dedicated community. Admittedly, it’s not nearly as active as it was over a decade ago, but I could see this remake revitalizing that.
On an even worse note, Resynced doesn’t include Freedom Cry either. The fan-favorite, post-launch DLC to Black Flag that then went on to release as a standalone game, Freedom Cry takes place 13 years after the events of Black Flag and sees you play as Edward’s quartermaster Adéwalé after he joins the Assassin Brotherhood. The short, five-hour story is fantastic and has one of the best-composed scores in all of Assassin’s Creed.
Evolving the modern-day storyline
How Black Flag’s modern-day storyline works is the big change that we don’t know much about because Ubisoft didn’t really talk about it or show off what it would look like, mostly just saying that it’s “evolving.”
Given how Ubisoft described it and considering so much of Resynced seems built on Shadows’ formula, I assume the modern-day storyline is going to work as it did in Shadows. In Shadows, Naoe would reach certain points in her story, and that would reveal secrets of her past, including the origins of the Assassins coming to Japan and how Naoe’s mother joined the Assassin Brotherhood.
These glimpses into the past would be accompanied by a mysterious voice (which is a whole thing that we simply don’t have time for), talking to the unnamed user of the Animus. It was very surreal, and kept the modern-day storyline brief and largely disconnected from the rest of Shadows. Given how divided people were about Edward’s journey being interrupted to role-play as an unnamed corporate spy in the original Black Flag, I can see Shadows’ more limited format being the main inspiration for how Resynced handles its modern day.
