Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review: prettier, smoother, but still feels like it's 2013 at heart

The original Assassin’s Creed Black Flag was, in hindsight, a kind of reset for the series, landing after the Ezio trilogy had become burdened by its lore and ACIII labouring under its historical weight. Back in 2013 what we really wanted wasn’t more complexity, mechanics or dense lore, we just wanted something that felt fun again, something bold and a bit brash, something that didn’t feel like it was trying to eke out fun from a history lesson, and what we got was Black Flag, a pirate fantasy first and foremost, a historical backdrop second, wrapped in just enough progression to keep things ticking over without drowning it in bloat. It worked; it really worked, and it still does.

Black Flag Resynced doesn’t try to reinvent the classic game, and instead of dragging the whole thing into modern RPG territory of Shadows and Valhalla or overloading it with systems and sub-games in the name of content value, Ubisoft has chosen to just sharpen what was already there, polish it, tighten it, and let it breathe a bit more. So you’ve still got that same core loop of sailing between sandy islands, boarding ships, raiding convoys, slipping into colonial cities for stealth assassinations, then heading back out to the open sea to do it all again. It’s just now prettier, smoother, and with just enough new content and tech upgrades to warrant sailing these waters again.

The sea itself is one of the biggest changes I felt straight away, because the new real-time ocean and weather system makes things feel more random. The original had some pretty advanced physics shifting its oceans, but in Black Flag Resynced, storms roll in with newfound bite and physicality, with visibility dropping, waves start throwing ships around like they have weight, and cannon fire lights up through rain and spray in a way that feels almost painterly, thanks to some fancy ray-tracing. It means naval combat now has a messy, unpredictable feel, and improved handling lets you shift tactics mid-battle more fluidly than before.

Black Flag sharpens its swords

Combat on land has had a similar refinement. It’s not completely revamped, and the slow, deliberate approach of new entries like AC Shadows isn’t forced here. So while sword fights aren’t rebuilt, they’re smoothed out and made less stiff, with animation that flows into each other more naturally, meaning you can cancel strikes without feeling locked into a routine. Parrying feels tighter and more responsive, too, and linking in quick shot pistols, rope hook drags and making use of the environment – Spartan-kicking enemies off ledges or into burning debris just feels too good to overlook – gives combat encounters a brutally fun haphazard, reactive feel.

The game's melee system is built around Assassin finishers: whether large or small, enemies can be knocked off balance and left open to one-hit kills, highlighting the deadly nature of being an Assassin rather than a stat-sponge. But this sits somewhere between the original's cinematic hold-counter-to-win approach and the newer entries' RPG design, so it's not really appealing to either group – not traditional enough to be authentic, and not complex enough to win over fans weaned on ACs Odyssey, Valhalla and Shadows.

The same approach is applied to traversal, which was always good and ahead of its time, but now it’s smoother, easier, and snappier. Edward just moves better; he’s quicker across rooftops, darting deftly through jungle routes, and he’s more confident when climbing rigging or diving off masts. That said, it’s still very much early-era Assassin’s Creed parkour under the modern tech; the animation blending makes it feel less like fighting the controls for direction, but occasionally there's that old Assassin's Creed automation popping through; Kenway randomly veers off to bounce to a new route or backflip from a ledge I never asked him to do.

The structure of Black Flag Resynced, though, is still very much Black Flag, for good and bad depending on your tolerance for Ubisoft’s open world design, because the loop hasn’t changed: you sail somewhere, you infiltrate or observe or assassinate a target, you loot what you can, you head back to the Jackdaw to upgrade the ship and unlock better cannon, hulls, cosmetics and ammo. You do it all again, and yes, there are still one or two tail missions (some have been redesigned), fetch quests, and bits of padding that feel dated, but still, the difference is that ocean, which was always there as an escape, but is now further developed with more deep sea treasure hunts, micro-islands for exploration the impressively physical swell and improved ship tactics, so what you do sailing between missions has never felt better.

Also, while some mission design can feel dated or overfamiliar because, frankly, Ubisoft has been rehashing it for over a decade, the Black Flag story and writing hold everything together and will keep you playing. It's still engaging because it’s built around Edward Kenway, a privateer turned pirate who stumbles into the Assassin–Templar conflict almost by accident, with a cheeky wink, a tankard of rum, and the pursuit of riches; he’s not here out of belief but out of greed and ambition. Charming and bawdy, trapped by his lot in life, and mournful behind the eyes, if nothing else, Black Flag Resynced cements Kenway as one of the series best protagonists.

This framing is still one of the better stories in the Assassin’s Creed series, because it keeps the lore and ideology at arm’s length while still letting them bleed in over time. Across the Caribbean, he crosses paths with figures like Blackbeard, Anne Bonny and Charles Vane – not just cameos but real character anchors for different versions of freedom and survival – and the arc of Nassau, the so-called Pirate Republic, gives everything a sense of collapse underneath it all: this brief, messy experiment in self-rule slowly falling apart as pressure builds from outside and fractures form inside. Edward’s own shift away from self-interest into something more grounded is still one of the cleaner character arcs Assassin’s Creed has managed.

New stories to tell

There is extra content around the main campaign too, with new recruitable characters Lucy Baldwin, the Padre, and Tobias Smith adding additional stories and gameplay perks for the Jackdaw, and while the missions are similar discovery-leading-to-assassination quests, the characters are engaging and unique – Baldwin’s revenge arc lands nicely, and the Padre brings a teeth-gritting, Clint Eastwood spaghetti western vibe to the Caribbean.

Elsewhere, new content builds on and develops what was already here; for example, Kenway’s Great Inagua island hideout could always be developed to a degree, but now it visually changes and grows: it bustles and thrives, and spaces like the store, harbourmaster, and tavern can be upgraded to new levels. The mansion now features a new NPC, Bernard Woodhouse, whose own story can be plotted as you find and dress your home with newfound and looted artwork.

So there’s a healthy amount of new content, but once again, the Caribbean is the main draw and demands exploration, especially with Ubisoft’s visual makeover. Built on the current Anvil engine, which pushes lighting, water physics, and environmental detail into a different league compared to the 2013 original. On PS5, you’re looking at either a 30fps ray-traced mode that leans into atmosphere or a 60fps performance mode that trims some of the shine but keeps the world running smoothly.

Whichever way you go, the Caribbean is a wonderful, colourful place to roam, because it genuinely feels alive in a way that holds up in 2026: sun breaking through cloud layers, storms rolling across the horizon, jungle interiors thick with colour, towns beset by blustering winds driving swirling leaves across the streets, and the sea constantly shifting between calm sparkling glass and violent churn. It’s such a wonderful space to wrap yourself in; I actually never missed the removed modern-day Abstergo office email-rummaging missions, a decision that sets Kenway’s Caribbean free to simply be a blue-sky Pirate fantasy with a tease of the series deeper lore hidden in its jungles.

What’s nice is that despite the tech and fidelity upgrade, and it does run well on PS5 despite the occasional texture pop-in, the original art direction still holds up, because Black Flag Resynced was never aiming for strict realism; it was always slightly stylised, almost romanticised, and that balance is still here. The character models, for example, are more detailed but have that bulky, confident Xbox 360-era silhouette, and even the underwater sections keep that sense of adventure-first design, with coral caves, broken wrecks, and hidden treasures to be discovered, all set in the game’s crisp blue waters. Oh, and predatory sharks – here be sharks, complete with a riff on the Jaws theme – as well as some other nasty creatures you may discover.

Later Assassin’s Creed games have smoothed out some of the series’ fantasy in favour of realism, but Black Flag was always the game that embraced the larger-than-life fun historical settings offer. It’s a game that blends history and myth wonderfully, where real pirate captains are allowed to be their storybook selves while lifelike but compressed recreations of Kingston, Havana and Nassau rub shoulders with hidden jungle ruins that would get Nate Drake twitching.

The pirate fantasy remade

That’s really the appeal of Black Flag Resynced: it is essentially the 2013 game, the good and bad, the old and the new, rebuilt to feel smoother and look prettier, with some added content where it was always wanted and new, brief missions that add colour to Kenway’s story. A dividing line for many will be the removal of the 'present day' missions, but for me it's a design choice that improves pacing at the expense of authenticity. Yet, this, along with the approach to combat and open-world structure, means Black Flag Resynced sits in a strange place, where it can feel new and fresh but also dated and familiar, which perhaps is par for the course with remakes, but some may want more.

Ultimately, for me, all the improvements and additions don’t overwhelm the original design, or indeed change it drastically, and so while it does still repeat and dewell on its open world loop, it also reminds me why this particular Assassin’s Creed worked so well in the first place, because it never tried to be everything at once; it just gave you a manageable world, a clear fantasy, and a loop that supported its setting. And, of course, Black Flag Resynced lets you be a pirate again, in a more playable way, and honestly, that's still a lot of fun.