I still remember where I was when Assassin’s Creed Black Flag was announced. Then again, most people probably didn’t watch the E3 Ubisoft conference in a Ramada, having just helped their friend move all his stuff out of his house after he was thrown out. Nor did they watch it with a friend who fell asleep at the drop of a dime, and snored like a wilderbeast once they did. Either way, I couldn’t have watched it at my house, so this was the best it was going to get. I miss the Ubisoft E3 conference, weirdly more than all the others. It was comfortably familiar with the best and worst aspects of any conference during the summer event on full display.
A lot has changed since that first showcase; it has been over a decade after all. What hasn’t tempered since then, as it seems, was my desire to return to the gorgeous Caribbean. Hitting up a small town on some island in the middle of nowhere, starting a bar fight, downing seven glasses of pint, then setting course for more adventure! I swear, those seven other naval ships crashed into me. That sense of wonder that the game offered is still there.
For the first time, with Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, I finally get to have it again. The promise of a game steeped in nostalgia that looks as good as I remember it. Now, I never replayed the original, so I don’t remember what it originally looked like without my rose-tinted glasses. Everything is here, though, more or less, so why would you need to? The seas are gorgeous with waves that shift and change, thrashing at you and pushing towards the shores of beautiful islands that scatter the waters around you.
The weather system, which was even good back in 2013, sees a massive overhaul to make every journey exceptionally dynamic. When you hear your crew yell, “The winds are picking up, captain!” you might not even have the time to reach before the rains start. With the rains come the towering waves that push you back as water floods the deck. Then the water spouts start to form, a treat in their own right, all of which are so magnificent that the splendor could lead you to be blind to the danger, and they will kill you.
No matter where you look, the Unreal Engine 5 upgrade is everything you want it to be, and on the PlayStation 5, the entire experience runs great. Seriously, at one point, I got into a naval fight; it was one ship. Then, apparently, three saw me from around the cape and started sailing at me through the fog. Then it started raining, leading to a raging storm. Not a single framerate dip during this conflict on performance mode, as more and more elements populated my screen. I am sure I have probably had one or two in the experience as a whole; in most cases, it’s unavoidable, but if so, they are barely noticeable.
The one issue in the upgrade that I would point out is facial capture, which lacks much of the personality the voice acting does. The game doesn’t really do a lot of tight face sequences, but the narrative is pretty long, so you will notice this more than you might want. The character models, like everything else, look great in their updated form, but the faces can be slightly off-putting, and it is really the only thing of note that could have benefited from the hose of improvements on offer.
The story, for the most part, also remains unchanged, opting to add a few things that don’t alter the trajectory. This was the game that followed the final act of the Desmond Saga, something that is slightly lost in translation, with one of the biggest changes overall. Similar to Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, this title uses the new animus system, which means that while the game is still clearly a digital recreation of the era, the portions of the original that were set in the present day have been fully cut.
In place of these are some backend glitches in the system that connect you to the present day, or the overall plot of aliens that came to earth, then became the basis for religions. There is SOME implication that while cutting this content, they replaced it with something that could be happening now, rather than in that initial context overall. This said, these elements are done vaguely, slightly confusingly, and through a few rather annoying stages that cut you off from everything else.
It’s not like anybody really liked the present-day elements of Black Flag, though. You played an unnamed character who didn’t talk or really do anything. Actually, previously established characters popped up, serving as almost the entirety of forward progression in between walking from point A to point B. Now, the argument could be made that there was an opportunity to fix these elements, going over there and crafting something new that covers that same point, but I’m not going to mourn the loss of it.
In its place, you simply spend your time with Edward Kenway, sailing the oceans blue and constantly stumbling into the war between Templars and Assassins. Honestly, it’s the moral ambiguity of Edward that keeps this Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag memorable up to this point. We have gotten a few villains we play as in the series, but deep down, Ed wants to be good. He isn’t as morally pure as other protagonists, acting on selfish wants and desires, but he is willing to alter the trajectory if being his best self also benefits him. Thankfully, they brought back Matt Ryan, who gives his performance with the nuance befitting a complex character.
The mission structure itself can be slightly disjointed. There are a few that stand out, usually sending you to a small out-of-the-way location filled with enemies that you can sneak past or swashbuckle your way through… Or a combination of the two. I really loved these contained experiences. There are a lot, though, that involve a multi-setup of several missions that just involve you going to a place that completes the mission. Since a few follow-up missions will literally spawn halfway across the map, it becomes slightly annoying to chase down the next task.
Thankfully, there is an insane amount to do on the map. This includes the new content that allows you to take on board as officers offer entire quest lines you can chase around and get lost in. If you don’t need new stuff in your life, returning elements like board games and Assassination missions offer worthwhile distractions to enjoy before heading off to the next location. Since ships carry most of the supplies needed to upgrade your ship, there is a serious case to be made for just sailing around. Edward also has a board for additional missions he can send his fleet on, so capture those man o’ war ships and become an unstoppable armada!
The biggest improvement in the experience, though, is the combat, which feels phenomenal. First and foremost, Edward wields two blades in a fast flurry of hack and slash action that can get intense as everybody in an area finds out you are there and rushes you. The thing here is, taking out the level mechanic of the more recent action RPG titles in the Assassin’s Creed series, the fights feel balanced and fair but still steeped in challenge. The big two additions are a parry flash and a dodge flash, added to it, dictating quick reaction to get the upper hand. Since there is no leveling, different weapons carry perks like alternate moves or buffs, which just makes for a better system.
A quick parry instantaneously puts an enemy into a takedown state that only lasts a moment, but it is an instant kill on almost every enemy. Say you are surrounded, slapping blades against a stagger bar, then an enemy goes for the slash, so you parry and quickly change the flow of the fight for a moment before the combat resets, or you open up some additional chains. It particularly feels great during ship raiding when you have a hoard of British soldiers, your crew at your back, and you are bouncing around the railing, flowing between enemies as you slash them down.
The gunplay added on top of this bolsters it even further. They are fast and quick to blend in, so you can step back from the melee combat to start blasting before jumping in. The only drawback is that they can have a lengthy reload, which I wish were one of the many elements you could improve, but it doesn’t hurt too much. On top of all that, you also have additional attacks like leg sweeps to even further deepen the combat.
Stealth also feels pretty well improved for the most part, but it never hits the highs of frontal combat. Sneaking around is satisfying, and you get plenty of tools to utilize. Personally, I abused the sleep darts. There are locations I literally just kept hitting people with them as everybody else freaked out. Then I rushed through and cleared every sleeping enemy in one fell swoop. Great news, you will typically get everything back that you used while looting enemies. Some tools in this kit, though, like the distracting whistle, feel less useful because they can attract an entire group of enemies, making the kill you are trying to set up a one-way trip to a massive brawl. Thankfully, the combat is so good.
Getting discovered in general can be frustrating. Getting discovered and seen can lead to large chases and be rather hard to undo the exposure, even when you lose the person who saw you. Heading to the rooftops is the traditionally best way to escape from enemies, but even that will see you get seen every two seconds. There are literal points where it feels like they can instinctively look across the map to the exact spot I will be, making escaping more of an exercise in frustration. Since you can’t interact with certain spots because of this, you can be free and clear and still want to wait to interact. I’m fine if they look up more than past games, but they REALLY look up now to an absurd degree.
The biggest, hardest thing to defend in the game is just how glitchy everything is. Some of these range from water effects on the deck of your ship during a cutscene, to a monkey dying, then getting stuck in Edward’s head. I laughed at these. If it stopped there, I probably would not care, but there are far worse. Assassinating an enemy only for them to freeze, spasm, and then start attacking. At one point in an underwater area, I clipped through a wall and died, or got stuck climbing a wall. These constantly serve to temper the experience, and typically occur right around the time I am having a ton of fun and feeling confident that nothing can ruin it.
This isn’t to be confused with parkour, which got a bit of an improvement, though it can still be problematic. The update is for the most, on par with Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, which I criticized in my review of that title. Is it horrible? Not really, you can get into a flow as you traverse just fine, but it’s easy to run into something that blocks you when it shouldn’t. Logs, in particular, were easy to loop yourself into the process of jumping on, accidentally jumping off, then jumping back on, and on, and on.
During chases, though, I never had this issue, which I remember getting annoyed running past a building only for your character to want to run up a wall. I am happy to see that the issue isn’t as prevalent. They removed the auto-fail of tailing, which was a major selling point of Resynch, which amounted to something I wasn’t really sure how much I cared about overall. So often would these missions start with me two feet away, and I would walk an inch without even realizing and now I am sorta just dropped this. You can let yourself die, which is my usual solution in any stealth game, but a few missions are spotty with respawns and can drop you back one or two portions.
Enemies will also notice you for no reason, even from a distance away. It can also be very fast to fill the gauge and have them rush you. This said, going through a base filled to the brim with enemies has never been more fun to sneak into and clear out. You can move between areas pretty quickly and with much more fluidity than I was familiar with. Maybe I just got better at playing stealth games, but I doubt it. Climbing walls, though, can be frustrating as enemies can again almost instantly lock onto you if they have some range of sight with little recourse.
The ship play hasn’t really seen a massive overhaul like these other systems, but it was arguably the least in need of one. Sailing is satisfying, which is good because you are going to want to seek out every spot on the map, which obviously necessitates the use of a ship. What has been changed are the switches in abilities based on the officer you have on deck. It’s a minor tweak, but it does improve combat in a way that, while unnecessary, is fairly welcome. Upgrading the ship forms much of the progress that players need to do, with there not actually being levels in-game, the areas have ranks based on the type of ship you will encounter there.
Thankfully, there is an autosail function built in there as well, though it can be a bit unpredictable. It is a little annoying to access, needing to turn on a path to a marker and then set your ship to follow it. This then becomes somewhat structurally unsound when the weather ships and sea battles creep up to close to you, as these can knock you off path or worse, stop progress altogether. It is still great, though, to kick back and enjoy the journey.
And why might you want to do this? Well, the sea shanties, of course! They are back, there are a lot of them, and they are just as awesome as you remember. The game has a soundtrack, and it is solid, with Brian Tyler returning to lead and Woodkid composing some new tracks. The battle music at sea is among my favorites if I am being honest. All this said, the sea shanties are an experience, one baked into the gameplay, the way music should be. You can quickly shift between them, too, allowing for total immersion in them.
Verdict
It is always weird talking about a remake, especially of a game I love, because it partially feels like cheating. Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Rysnched is building on the bones of an experience that has everything going for it, so how could it go wrong? Then you remember it very well, and you need a team that understands the source material to translate it just so. I can stomach glitches and bugs for a great game, and Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced is the definition of a great game. Everything added elevates the experience, while everything left in feels purposeful. Returning to the Caribbean has never felt better, and Ubisoft has not felt this in control in a long time.
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Reviewed for PlayStation 5, Also Available on Xbox Series and PC
*A code for this title was provided by Ubisoft for the purposes of this review
Developer: Ubisoft Singapore
Publisher: Ubisoft
Release Date: July 9, 2026
Pros:
+Altered combat is a welcomed inprovement
+Narrative remains one of the best, with new additions to it
+Naval combat remains engagine and fun
+Some of the most welcomed exploration the series offers
+Music and Sea Shanties
Con:
-TONS of bugs and glitches
-Stealth can be occasionaly frustrating
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Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynches
