Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review: Returning to the West Indies | Couch Soup
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Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review: Returning to the West Indies
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Thomas RichardsThomas Richards
| August 27, 2026
| Video Games
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Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is my favourite entry in the Assassin’s Creed franchise. I remember getting it for my Wii U for Christmas in 2013 (yes, I got it for the Wii U), and I played that sucker for hours upon hours. I adore that game, and I even ended up buying it two extra times on the PS4 and Xbox One, completing those versions as well. My point is, I know this game inside and out, so I was obviously excited that it would be the first remake in the franchise. Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced looked like everything I wanted from a Black Flag remake (and modern AC in general), but I wasn’t without some reservations. The overhauled combat and removal of the modern-day story had me a bit concerned, but I was still willing to dive back into a new version of my favourite AC game. And after 58 hours of playtime and popping the platinum trophy, is this a worthy remake, or did Ubisoft change too much?
Resyncing With Edward Kenway
The story in Black Flag Resynced is pretty much the same as the original game, with a few changes to make things work as a sort of sequel to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. You once again take control of Edward Kenway as you explore his genetic memories, with the main goals of getting rich, returning home, and potentially taking control of a precursor site called The Observatory. If you played the original, you’ll know exactly how this story goes, but there were some changes made, with some working and others not as much.
The biggest change was the removal of the modern-day story, with it being relegated to side content (I’ll get to that later), which means that you can play through the entirety of Edward’s story uninterrupted. While some might be happy with this, it actually hurt the pacing of the story for me. The original modern-day was placed in order to break things up and make time skips in Edward’s story feel less jarring, and so the removal of them without anything in their place left me feeling a bit disappointed. The story itself is still one of the better ones in the franchise, but this felt like a slight downgrade compared to the original.
What wasn’t a disappointment were the performances: the entire original voice cast came back to reprise their roles, and a few new cutscenes let them better showcase their characters. Matt Ryan as Edward was phenomenal (as he was in the original), and you can tell that he loves this character. I did notice a distinct difference in his voice between the original cutscenes and the new ones, but 13 years will do that to anyone. Mark Bonnar as Blackbeard was the character that got the most attention (aside from Edward), as the new scenes with him were leagues better than what we got before, with a few scenes that could easily be mistaken for scenes from a film. I was pleasantly surprised to see more of Sarah Greene as Anne Bonny, as she didn’t have much presence in the original, and she felt more like a fully fleshed-out character this time around.
A Mix of New and Old
The gameplay was what I was most curious about heading into Resynced, as Assassin’s Creed has changed a lot over the years. The counter-kill gameplay hasn’t been seen in well over a decade, and the franchise has moved more towards RPG-style gameplay, with gear sets, builds, constantly increasing numbers, and enemy health bars. This style of AC gameplay is fun enough, but it would’ve felt odd in Black Flag. So I’m very glad that the gameplay isn’t just a copy-and-paste from Shadows or Valhalla and instead tries to recapture the feeling of the original game.
You still have your enemy health bars and the combat is slower compared to the original, but they’ve introduced a limited version of the counter-kill system that works quite well. Instead of being able to counter-kill enemies indefinitely, it now depends on which weapon you’re using, with a max of four. But you can still pull off long chains by incorporating the various tools like pistols and the rope dart (which you now get way earlier on) to start new chains right after the old one ended. It felt similar enough to the old system, but also different enough that it kept me on my toes. The camera, however, wasn’t changed to fit this new gameplay style, as I found it got stuck very easily in large groups, leading to more than a few deaths and frustrated mission failures.
Aside from combat, the parkour system has also been reworked, feeling like a combination of Shadows and the original game. Most of the old animations return, but there is still that jank from the RPG games, such as Edward having a brief stop after every jump, killing a bit of the momentum. I also found it way more difficult to parkour across ships, with Edward jumping into the water more than I would’ve liked. I did also find the default controls messed with my muscle memory a bit, with sprint set to L3 on PlayStation, which led me to find a custom control scheme that worked better with my aging AC brain.
The stealth in this game was also reworked and feels much more optional than it has in the past. The tailing missions, for example, have all been changed so now you can’t fail them, even if you get caught. Tailing missions were one of the biggest gripes people had with the original, and while I agree that there were too many of them, the gutting of the mechanic wasn’t the way to go. This change also made stealth less important, allowing you to just bumrush the enemies if you couldn’t be bothered. I tended to go for every stealth opportunity I could, especially with the added crouch button making you feel more like a sneaky assassin. Still, I do wish there were more dedicated sections that required it.
One part of the gameplay that was definitely required is naval combat, and it was fantastic. The naval gameplay was one of the biggest positives of the original, and they’ve made it even better here. The bones are the same, but the addition of additional firing modes for every weapon on the Jackdaw, as well as earlier access to strong abilities like the dash ram, made the overall naval experience a blast. I also liked the addition of extra crew members who unlocked special abilities, like parrying enemy attacks with a well-timed brace. The only annoyance I had with them was that the final ability is unlocked way too late in the game to get any proper use out of it, aside from the Legendary Ships (which are a lot harder than the original).
Exploring The West Indies
Black Flag Resynced is a beautiful game; dare I say one of the best-looking games of the year. The West Indies looks phenomenal, with multiple wallpaper-worthy views that had me taking more screenshots than I care to admit. The big cities feel like people actually live there, with lively streets compared to the original. I also really appreciated being able to seamlessly go from the major cities to the open ocean, something that used to be a loading screen. This helps the world feel more alive as you sail your ship into port around the West Indies. Speaking of sailing, the water is fucking gorgeous. I’m a sucker for good water graphics, and the way the waves smash against the hull of the Jackdaw, splashing water onto the deck, just looked amazing.
It isn’t just the environments that have received a facelift; the character models have as well. All of the old cutscenes have been redone with modern motion capture, and they look fantastic and add a new level of emotion to the entire game. This makes it all the more jarring when you experience any of the new side content that is still using the procedurally generated animations from the past few games. The stiff animations and lack of facial expressions in these sections stick out like a sore thumb compared to the rest of the game and make the new content feel half-assed in comparison. Which is a shame, because the new content is interesting, but I just wish they had put more time into it (and I’ll get to that in a sec as well).
What I wasn’t disappointed with was the soundtrack, which was fantastic. Black Flag already had one of the best soundtracks in the franchise, with Brian Tyler crafting some absolute bangers, and Stephen Lukach has kept that same level of quality in the new tracks he’s created for this game. I still get goosebumps when the Main Theme kicks in, or when “Ships of Legend” starts whenever you start a Legendary Ship encounter. And that’s not even touching on the plethora of sea shanties that make sailing the West Indies an absolute delight (with some new ones added in the remake).
A New Chapter
Now let’s talk about the new content added in Resynced, most notably three new crew members: Lucy Baldwin, The Padre, and Deadman. These three are officers you can recruit who provide new upgrades for your ship, such as Lucy unlocking the aforementioned ship parry. You recruit these officers after completing new questlines associated with them, and they’re fine enough. They suffer from lacklustre animations, but they don’t hamper the overall vibe of the game much. Aside from those three quests, you also unlock a new treasure map after a certain part of the game, leading to Blackbeard’s treasure. This was a fun detour that felt like a satisfying conclusion for his relationship with Edward.
Speaking of Blackbeard, the biggest new addition has to do with him as well, so spoilers for a 13-year-old story. So you end up coming face-to-face with the pirate hunter who kills Blackbeard, and he gives Edward an ultimatum: either accept the King’s pardon or be hunted forever. Obviously, Edward refuses, and then a storyline that involves treasure, revenge, and friendship follows; only this unlocks right near the end of the game, when Edward has become an assassin. Having this new content so late makes Edward’s character feel like it takes 10 steps back after having just accepted his new life. If you could play this new storyline a lot earlier, like a mission or two after Blackbeard’s death, it would make more sense, but instead it just feels out of place, no matter how enjoyable it ended up being.
A Modern Interpretation
When it comes to this franchise, I’m one of those who really enjoy the modern-day story. So when it was confirmed that they were removing the out-of-animus sections and replacing them with optional side content, I was disappointed, but hopeful that they could still do something interesting, and they sorta did. There are four missions that have you enter the Dark Animus (a continuation of the modern-day from Shadows), where you are confronted by a program called EGO. This Abstergo program shows you alternative futures the main characters could’ve had if they had done things differently (capitulated to the Templars). There’s some platforming and a boss fight, and some cryptic dialogue about how things are just getting started, and then the storyline ends.
I wasn’t expecting much from these sections, and I did find some of the dialogue and questions interesting, with the broader story now being about fighting the system from the inside (basically what Unity and Syndicate were), but it felt hollow by the end. Maybe I’m just bitter about the abandonment of the Basim storyline from Valhalla, or how these sections were relegated to side content, but I just wanted more. I did appreciate how they gave an in-universe explanation for revisiting Edward’s memories, as well as how things could be slightly different due to EGO’s manipulation. Still, I wish they went further with it or at least had more moments outside of Edward’s story.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a very good remake of the original Black Flag. They took what worked from the original and recreated it with some of the most beautiful visuals of the year. The new combat is fun, if a little janky, and I hope they refine it in future games. While the side content was a bit of a letdown, and the small modern-day sections left me wanting more, I still had a blast playing this game. This is the best Assassin’s Creed game they’ve made in a hot minute, and I would recommend it to anyone, regardless of whether you played the original or not.
Have you played Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced? Did you like it? Do you like the original more? Let us know in the comments where we can talk all things Assassin’s Creed.
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Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Review: Returning to the West Indies
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is the first remake in the franchise, but is it worth your time? Join Tom as he gives his thoughts on this retold pirate adventure.
by Thomas Richards| August 27, 2026
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