Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced review – a pirate’s life renewed

Ubisoft remake one of the most popular games in the Assassin’s Creed universe but how does it fare when compared against today’s modern titles?

Along with the rest of the business world, video games have been getting increasingly focused on delivering shareholder value above absolutely everything else, the sector’s powerful aversion to risk becoming almost pathological. That’s spurred publishers not only to shutter entire studios, to avoid paying salaries, but also to demand remakes and remasters rather than new games, the theory being that if it was a hit once, it can be a hit again.

In the film industry that’s led to a dispiriting slate full of live action versions of much-loved animated movies. But in games the output has been much more welcome, with everything from Metal Gear Solid 3 to Final Fantasy 7 getting well-received remakes. Disney remakes might have no artistic value but updating the technology and, to a degree, the gameplay of older video games serves a useful purpose.

You can argue whether the remake of Resident Evil 4, for example, is better than the original but it is a quality video game in its own right and not just a thoughtless repackaging. The hit rate for remakes in the video games industry is extremely high, and a proven way to reignite interest in a troubled franchise, so you can easily understand Ubisoft’s interest in raiding Assassin’s Creed’s back catalogue.

Originally released in the Xbox 360 era of 2013 (so long before the franchise was reimagined as an action role-playing game) Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, is one of the best loved entries in the long running series. It tells the story of Welsh pirate Edward Kenway, on his voyage from penniless but ambitious drunk to all conquering Caribbean privateer. His character arc sees him evolve from a primitive, single-minded focus on making money, to realising that there’s a whole lot more to life.

Remade from the ground up in Ubisoft’s Anvil Engine, which was used to great effect in last year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Black Flag Resynced looks and plays like a thoroughly modern game. It’s unusual amongst Assassin’s Creed titles in its diversity, with gameplay that encompasses the usual creeping about stabbing guards and wrongdoers in the back, but also full-on naval battles and an improbably broad catalogue of side quests and asides. It means you’re rarely doing the same thing for long, keeping things remarkably fresh over its voluminous play time.

You’ll find yourself undertaking treasure hunts from maps found in bottles or on dead conquistadors, solving Tomb Raider-lite Mayan stele puzzles, using your skiff to harpoon sharks and whales, taking on traversal challenges, playing Nine Men’s Morris. You also use your increasingly powerful ship, the Jackdaw, to commandeer sea forts, while bolstering your fortune by boarding Spanish galleons and sending entire British naval convoys to Davy Jones’ Locker.

You’ll spend a great deal of the game engaged in combat of one sort or another. On land, or on the decks of enemy frigates, that means using cutlasses and pistols to dispatch groups of enemies. Fights are more tactical and energetic affairs than they used to be, with a new perfect parry that lets you temporarily stun enemies, while Edward’s powerful rope dart arrives far earlier in the story than it did in the original.

That both lets you drag enemies towards you in battle and suspend them from branches or ledges, like an 18th century Batman. Black Flag also retains its Dark Knight style eagle vision, letting you tag distant enemies and, with a click of the right stick, use it to see through walls and ceilings. This takes a lot of the sting out of stealth sections, especially those involving building interiors.

The same spirit of reinvigoration has been applied to sea battles. Along with multiple levels of upgrade for every part of your ship, you can now recruit deck officers to add abilities, letting you achieve faster ramming speeds and unlocking the naval version of perfect parries, making ship-to-ship fighting and taking out sea forts more dynamic and skilful then the old tactic of just spamming mortar and broadside attacks.

Resynced also adds around six hours of extra narrative, which includes more from fan favourite, Blackbeard, and a neat coda to the story of Stede Bonnet, the naive but decent man whose boat Edward commandeers right at the beginning of the game. None of that would make much difference though, if there wasn’t an enjoyable game underneath, and fortunately that remains the case.

Whereas most Assassin’s Creed games eventually suffer repetition fatigue, the sheer riotous variety in Black Flag helps stave it off for a lot longer than usual. You’ll regularly find yourself on a campaign of piracy and ship upgrades, only to stumble across a new town to explore, opening up fresh assassination contracts and land-lubbering intrigue, launching you into a few hours of stealth and sword-fighting.

There are countless collection tasks, each with their own plot justification and series of rewards, beckoning you to try new things and explore unseen areas. Sure, once you’ve stealthily robbed one plantation the next won’t be all that different, but since those two occurrences are likely to be many hours apart, it doesn’t feel like a grind. Instead, it adds to the sense of freedom as you decide what your next priority is going to be.

Importantly, simply playing the game feels good. Glorious Caribbean sunsets frame silhouetted palms, and white sand beaches are lapped by azure waves. Its characters are charismatically voiced and acted, with Edward himself, and historically authentic female pirate Mary Read, being particular standouts. Weather is now also more variable, its regular squalls forcing you to drop your main sail while avoiding ship annihilating waterspouts and steering into rogue waves.

The familiar parts are still great, which of course includes Black Flag’s take on radio stations: getting your crew to sing sea shanties. On the face of it that doesn’t sound like a particularly appealing offer but in reality it’s fantastic. There’s something eternally catchy about those old chants and it makes the opportunity to chase down additional songs, pursuing sheets of music as they flutter across town rooftops, a keenly anticipated optional extra.

Those familiar with Ubisoft’s history of questionable quality control should be reassured that Resynced has no major problems. It’s a vast game with a barrage of contrasting activities, so you can expect the odd minor graphical hiccough, but for something with this degree of scope and complexity it’s remarkably polished, with one single crash in our entire playthrough. It’s quite an achievement.

So too is the artful blend of fresh material and refreshed content from the original game. Towns have been rebuilt with new lines across roofs and treetops, using the game’s more streamlined parkour; menus are simpler to navigate and everything has been thoughtfully integrated with a remarkable consistency of approach.

If you’ve ever enjoyed an Assassin’s Creed game, this plays like a sort of greatest hits, bringing together the combat and more flexible traversal from Shadows, the mission management mini-game from Brotherhood, and its very own naval battles, now with added flair. It’s an inspiring package and one that will last well over a hundred hours, somehow managing as it does so to make that feel like not quite long enough.

Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PC
Price: £49.99
Publisher: Ubisoft
Developer: Ubisoft Singapore (original: Ubisoft Montreal)
Release Date: 9th July 2026
Age Rating: 18

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