You probably already know that we got to play a bit of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. Specifically, we got to spend two and a half hours with a curated slice of the Caribbean, on a fairly high-end machine that was capable of giving us the remake’s new visuals in all their glory.
So, what do we think? Is this one going to be worth the long wait and all the hype? We’d say yes, and say it without hesitation. Resynced balances the original title’s best features with innovative flourishes that change it for the better.
What’s made us as happy as we are to talk about this one? Let’s set sail and discover that together!
The Assassin and the Pirate
One of the issues we had with Black Flag was that its combat was too easy, focused on spectacle and bombast rather than depth. That’s probably the biggest change we noticed during our time with the game’s preview build. The developer hasn’t tried to reinvent the wheel here, but it has woven in the best features from its recent RPG-focused titles, refining them to make Edward an absolutely devastating combination of a pirate and an Assassin.
He’s as agile as you remember, but your foes are harder to stagger this time around. While you had fairly generous parry windows in Black Flag, Resynced tightens that part of the combat loop, making you earn those defence breaks that were otherwise so easy to pull off. A perfect parry comes with a visual cue, and a generous window to initiate a takedown, which you can then chain to other enemies in a combo, just like it was before.
The parry mechanic is a perfect showcase of how Resynced finds a very viable middle ground between the old and the new. It doesn’t diminish Edward’s ruthless efficiency with his dual cutlasses, but it does force you to pay close attention to the battlefield and be more cognizant of what your enemies are doing in relation to you.
The new animations for takedowns are top-notch, while the addition of environmental interactions throws another wrench into the mix, giving you more options in a way that’s both fresh and in line with what a pirate and scallywag like Edward would do in such situations. Of course, it’s all helped by the Anvil Engine handling everything you throw at it with ease, with silky smooth performance making the action very readable and easy to respond to.
Edward’s skills are brought out so darn well, and every time you draw swords is an opportunity to display his ferocity. Black Flag was quite solid on the former, and Resynced has built on that momentum by making the latter a crucial part of the equation.
Of course, you’re going to run into situations where going in all guns blazing isn’t a recommended approach, especially given the new skill-focused system. Thankfully, Edward’s stealth capabilities get a superb dose of player agency in Resynced. Crouching isn’t automatic anymore, and you can trigger it by clicking a button. It’s quite a nifty addition, given that it does reduce detection speed based on your proximity to an enemy.
But that leads us to the one gripe we have with the game. The enemy AI doesn’t seem to have improved at all, and whistling at a lone enemy to lure them into a trap is still going to be the bread and butter of stealthing in Resynced. Of course, your darts are a major part of that, and they’re still as useful as ever although nothing’s new on that front. As in the original, Edward can use his rope to pull enemies toward him and perform specific melee attacks to take down his foes.
Nevertheless, there’s enough that’s new about Resynced’s combat to make it the highlight of our time with it.
Let’s Set Sail, Lads!
We’ve gushed about how naval combat could steal the show this time around, and that was without the new additions that the developer is slated to add to the Jackdaw. Our preview build didn’t have the secondary applications of our default loadout, and the new Shrapnel Rounds and 8-Pounders weren’t around for us to test out.
But we were oddly fine with that, despite our excitement to see them in action. That’s because battles from your ship were always among the main draws in Black Flag, and getting to take on enemy ships was a very welcome blast from the past. However, we must comment on how boarding enemy ships has become a tad more challenging thanks to the new combat system and the sheer number of enemies you’re going to be dealing with.
Not too much has changed (yet) on the Jackdaw front but there’s enough there to keep us interested, and we believe Resynced could be a definitive pirate experience once all of its new bells and whistles make it to the naval combat system.
We must appreciate the new wagon wheel for shanties, though, since it makes getting to your favorite ones seamless and quick, letting you get back to enjoy the sights from the upper deck of your ship.
Speaking of the sights, it’s time to get to what’s changed the most around the Caribbean islands since our last visit nearly thirteen years ago!
Exploration Has Been Improved
The exploration aspect, essentially the free-roam portion of the game, is a blast. Just like in the original, you can use the Diving Bell to descend underwater for exploration, but these sections feel far more engaging now thanks to the added environmental detail beneath the surface. Another welcome improvement is the ability to place multiple markers on the map, which wasn’t possible in the original.
One of the coolest additions to exploration is the inclusion of micro-lore moments that can help uncover secrets or quest items. For example, overhearing a conversation between two soldiers might reveal extra information about a quest. Small details like these were absent in the original and add a lot more depth to the overall experience.
Some islands that previously felt empty now feature stores and NPCs, making the world feel more alive and serving as a nice quality-of-life improvement. Just like in the original, you can still hunt sharks, and you can also explore caves to uncover hidden lore or take on assassin contracts.
A Tropical Stunner
We’re going to just come out and say it: the visuals in Resynced are a marked upgrade from the already gorgeous take on the open seas that Black Flag brought to the table. The water is among the first things you’re going to notice (duh), and the way the waves gently reflect light from the skies, and move with such a natural rhythm is spellbinding. In storms, raindrops batter the Jackdaw’s deck, or hammer away at you while you’re on land, while the threat of storms is all the more pronounced in Resynced thanks to the new weather system.
A great touch is making the Jackdaw a tad harder to pilot in rough weather, making exploring the world more immersive thanks to the notion that the seas are as treacherous as they’ve ever been, and perhaps even more responsive to your presence on their waves. We’ve already seen how Shadows made great use of dynamic weather and Resynced is a great way to showcase all the learnings from that effort.
Of course, the star of the show is the new lighting system, and the way ray tracing gives every environment a layer of polish that’s such a joy to behold. Maybe that’s because Black Flag is the source of so many fond memories but seeing all those familiar scenes with their current-gen glow up had us grinning from ear to ear, a mix of nostalgia and excitement forming an almost palpable part of our time in the region.
The character models are another highlight, and it’s awesome to see what Edward looks like on current-gen systems. The draw distances and level of detail are also quite noticeable and we think that they’re going to do just fine even on lower-end systems with a bit of tweaking, and on the base PS5 and Xbox Series X. That said, certain areas are far too dark, to the point where it becomes difficult to see anything. This is definitely something that needs to be fixed.
Aside from a visual makeover, there are additions like a new pathfinding function for the Jackdaw that took us back to sailing along England’s rivers in Valhalla. You get to hang back and just watch the world speed by as you make your way to a map marker, and the fact that it’s quite effective just as it was in previous titles makes it something you’re going to default to just so that you can peer into the distance in your search for fame and fortune.
An Evolution, Not a Revolution
While you might think that Resynced is doing so much to change Black Flag for the better, we’d caution you against getting your expectations so high you miss out on the improvements that do turn up. It’s still Black Flag, but with enough to differentiate it from Edward’s original outing.
All of the changes we mentioned make the gameplay and core experience feel more refined and polished, but they’re nothing groundbreaking. Resynced takes a safer approach than that, but manages to make the entire thing look and feel like it belongs with the franchise’s crop of current-gen titles.
You’re likely going to love it if Edward is among your favorite Assassins, or if his story spoke to you in a way that even Ezio couldn’t manage. Overall Resycned feels more like a drastically refined version of the original, and it doesn’t switch up the core experience simply because it doesn’t have to. There’s still a lot for us to see on that front, though, and our opinion might change based on that but things are looking pretty good at this point.
Our hands-on time was a blast, and we will have to wait and see how the final version shapes up. So far, Resynced feels like an intelligent remake that brings weight to the parts of the game that matter.
This game was previewed on PC.