Version: Digital retail review code provided by the distributor
Independence & Ethics
Region Free is entirely reader-supported and maintains full editorial independence. For more on my scoring and standards, see the Review Guide.
Just a month ago, I posed the question: How much are you willing to pay for nostalgia? It wasn't meant as a slight, but more of a general rumination on the state of the games industry today.
As game development costs soar and every production needs to be a gargantuan hit out of necessity, more and more studios turn to their past glories for easy victories with remasters and remakes. Some of them are great; others feel like slapdash efforts to cash in a quick buck. Star Fox, released in June for the Switch 2, was a nice middle ground that gave a jolt of serotonin while not doing anything particularly new.
Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced, meanwhile, doesn't settle for a mere remaster. Instead, it updates, reinvents, and even recontextualizes a lot of what made the series work. The results, for the most part, are wildly impressive – even if they highlight all the ways the series needs to rethink itself for the future.
Joonatan Itkonen
Much of what worked in the past is still here, and the plot has undergone only the barest of updates. The modern-day business, always the worst part of the convoluted storytelling, is now gone entirely. Well, mostly. The frustrating Abstergo bits still cling to life, and the MMO-inspired season pass shenanigans haven't gone anywhere. Even when things change, they stay the same.
Luckily, that sameness still works, and the updated mechanics are almost universally great. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced (just Resynced from here on out) works because it smartly knows when to expand and when to scale back.
For example, old-school fans will notice that most of the missions involving following suspects or trailing just about anything that moves are now gone. Thank every holy spirit and their dog for that one. The original Black Flag is a great many things, but exciting in its early ten hours or so is not one of them.
By contrast, Resynced races out of the gate with far tighter mission design and a faster tutorial that gets all the boring stuff out of the way right quick. If you're even tangentially familiar with the franchise, it's less than half an hour before you resume adventuring.
Then, when the game does expand, it is in neat, tidy scenarios that greatly enhance the narrative. I've always been a bit down on the Assassin's Creed plots; even my favorite, Shadows, is a mess, but Resynced surprised me with some genuinely moving writing and great character work I had completely forgotten about. Edward Kenway, our anti-hero, is a tremendously complex mess of a man who slowly reveals himself as an interesting hero.
Other aspects, like sea and melee combat, have been refined tastefully. I'm a little bummed that Resynced doesn't even attempt to break away from some of the more tedious mechanics that plague the series, but that's hardly fair. This is, after all, a remake or a remaster. It has to remain close to the original.
On a technical level, the update soars. Audiovisual elements have all gotten a major facelift, and Black Flag Resynced looks incredible. On a PlayStation 5 Pro, which is what I used for testing, the game runs flawlessly. It's like experiencing everything for the first time, and I loved every minute with it.
What's most interesting about the update business is how it highlights Assassin's Creed's biggest issues. Namely, the map is overstuffed with things to do, and it's quite a chore to get around. Once I unlocked more main places, I rarely used the boat anymore. It is an atmospheric and often incredible experience to sail the Caribbean, but boy does it get annoying when you have to go back and forth for a fetch quest.
Each location comes packed with the typical Ubisoft fare, including climbing towers to uncover new areas with more rudimentary chores. You can, and must, upgrade your gear, ship, and even base of operations. There's an entire town building mechanic that expands your arsenal and even provides new quests. You can hunt for treasure, rare animals, whales, and even explore the depths of the ocean.
It's not that the gameplay loop isn't fun; it is, but Resynced, like almost all other Assassin's Creed titles, would be a far better game if it were smaller. This is meant to be a gargantuan playground, and in that sense, Resynced delivers. But it's also a narrative-driven adventure game, and a lot of the grander beats get lost in the mix.
Consider, for example, Assassin's Creed Mirage, which I reviewed a few years back. That smaller title is one of the best modern Assassin's Creed games yet, thanks to its compact nature. Resynced is great, but after 20 hours of doing the same thing, only to realize I had another 20 ahead, I felt burnt out.
But to complain more would be overkill. When Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced works, it's a joyous gaming experience. There is, quite frankly, nothing as cool as sailing your own ship into the unknown, singing shanties with the crew. It captures the romantic spirit of Treasure Island and other great novels of the era.
Yes, it sidesteps all the ugly business of colonialism and slavery, at most paying them lip service with some side missions. It doesn't, sadly, include the fantastic Freedom Cry expansion, which remains in limbo. But that conversation belongs elsewhere regarding the series and gaming as a whole. If that interests you, I have an entire essay about the topic in the book From Grimm to Control.
Dean Guadagno
Having said all that, is Black Flag Resynced worth another dip? Yes, absolutely. It is still a tremendous experience, and one of the best Assassin's Creed titles ever made. Personally, it ranks up there with Shadows and Part 2 as the finest hour in Ubisoft's sprawling saga.
With a fresh coat of paint, superlative tweaks, and a renewed narrative structure, Black Flag Resynced is a stellar showcase of how to update a classic title.
