It says something about Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag that, 13 years after it was released, I still remember more about sailing the Jackdaw than I do about its Assassins and Templars. I remember attacking ships that were beyond my level, getting caught in storms and then being distracted by another sea shanty while I was supposed to be heading towards the next story mission. Edward Kenway did eventually become an Assassin, of course, but that was never really the main attraction. Black Flag was a pirate game hiding inside an Assassin’s Creed game, and it was all the better for it.
So, yes, I’ve always thought a remake felt inevitable. Ubisoft has spent years returning to its older Assassin’s Creed games through remasters and updated collections, but Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a much larger undertaking. This is the original adventure rebuilt using the current Anvil engine, rather than the same 2013 game cleaned up with higher texture files – it has completely new character models, environments, missions and gameplay systems
More interestingly for us here in Singapore, Ubisoft Singapore led its development. If you didn’t already know, the studio has worked on the naval portions of the original Black Flag and later went on to develop Skull and Bones (which didn’t end nicely). So there’s something rather fitting about the team leading the game’s remake.
The same pirate life, but with fewer annoyances
Image: Ubisoft
It goes without saying that the first thing you’ll notice is that Resynced looks way better than the original. Everything is brighter and more detailed; the lighting is more natural, and water now behaves like water. I thought storms are especially convincing now too, with rough waves throwing the Jackdaw around while wind, rain and poor visibility make the sea suddenly feel much less inviting.
Edward is easier to move around too, although he’s still prone to leaping at a wall or ledge when I didn’t mean to – Ubisoft still hasn’t quite nail down the accuracy of the game’s control. Stealth benefits Edward from one very simple addition: you can manually control crouching now. It sounds almost ridiculous to highlight this in 2026, but the original did not let you do it freely. Resynced also makes darkness useful for hiding and adds a new Observe mode that helps with reading an area before moving in. Together, these changes give me more control over whether I want to sneak past a group of guards, attack them or avoid the area completely.
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