Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced
Gamers are usually justified in rolling their eyes when the terms “remake” and “remastered” start getting tossed about by publishers. As most of the time, it is a cash grab that can be spotted a mile away. But, this scepticism is misplaced this time round at least, as the new Assassins Creed Black Flag Remake, termed a “Resycned” (cute), is an absolute gem of a game!
Ubisoft have taken the 2013 PS3/360-era Assassins Creed game, and fully remade it. It has the same story, overall world design, characters and voice work- but the graphics, gameplay and audio have had a total remake to 2026 standards.
Simply put, it is gorgeous and still amazing fun…
The protagonist Edward Kenway was always one of my favourites from the peak mid-2010 AC days, and in 2026 he is still the same charismatic scoundrel, with dreams of riches and fame. His voice actor Matt Ryan delivers such a ‘lovable rouge’ performance, improved no end by the new motion capture he did for Kenway’s cutscenes and the new missions not in the old title.
The story, gameplay elements and sailing are pretty much known entities, and the main reasons Black Flag was always a fan favourite. So, I won’t rehash it all here, go back to our review of it in 2014, to get that in-depth assessment! What I will mention though, is how good the uplift that has occurred is. Taking this old PS3/360-era game and making it one of the best-looking games in 2026.
Textures and environments have had a massive uplift and the ocean…oh the ocean, looks great. The only graphical weirdness I got was reflections on the sea, when there is a solid structure or object in the foreground. The edge backscatter effect, to highlight the contrast between the foreground and the sea in the distance, seemed off. I couldn’t tell you what the cause was, just seemed to be bit of a graphical anomaly I couldn’t fix with settings.
Importantly, Resynced runs flawlessly on my AMD9600X/RTX5070 PC. Yes, surprising for a Ubisoft PC game at launch, I know! I was running DLSS4- Quality on a 4K TV and had a solid 100fps no problems. No freezing, no lock-ups… nothing. For a real tech run-down though, I would suggest checking out Digital Foundry.
Back-end changes abound with resynced too. Combat has had an update to make it more fluid and approachable, similar to AC: Mirage. Unfortunately though, instead of using Mirages full combat experience, Black Flag now relies on a ‘Parry and Takedown’ system. Think Batman: Arkham, but not as fun. I personally didn’t like it, as combat felt like it had become a two button QTE experience. Where I just waiting for the attack and glint, then I hit the auto-kill button. Combat is the weakest part of the whole experience. Something to be endured, not something to be sort out. Unlike the sailing and ship combat, which is still awesome!
The rest of the changes are welcome upgrades though. The faster character movement speed, quick roll, updated parkour with side ejects etc.. crouching in stealth, no old fashioned “desync fail-states” in missions, and a sweet of other accessibility options in the menus, has just dragged this game into 2026.
The pirating, sailing and general skulduggery on the seas of the Caribbean is still the massive draw card, just as it was in 2013. Setting sail, while the crew belts out sea shanties just never gets old. It is the ultimate 30mins spare, let’s do something fun, type game. That also offers a full, numb-ass, been at it for 10hrs gaming session experience too. Black Flag was an outlier in the Assassins Creed series, but generally considered one of the best in the Ubisoft catalogue, mainly…because it wasn’t really a AC game. Its a pirate simulator!
I’m going to upset some people here, but it feels like a “Red Dead Redemption: Pirate” in a lot of ways. Not as refined or deft in its design or story-telling, sure. But there is just so many gameplay elements to choose from, all deep and importantly fun to play. Ubisoft really were ahead of the game in 2013! Has to be said, it has been a long time between drinks for Ubisoft to have a hit, and this, if we are being honest, is just a reskin of a very old game. ‘Ubis’ inspiration barrel is low and they have had to polish up the old stuff to get gamers attention. But it has worked on me!
But I digress, Ubisofts poor game delivery calender of recent years aside, I cannot say anything but Assassin Creed Black Flag Resynced is a total stand-out game in 2026 for me. It is a massive toy-box of gamer magic. A unique experience, still not available in any other modern game out there. Buy it!
