Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced

Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced was provided by Ubisoft for review. Thank you!

First, I want to address the elephant in the room. Why are open-world, single-player pirate games so rare? It's one of the most-loved settings in gaming, yet I can't remember getting a proper AAA pirate game aside from Black Flag in the last 15 years.

I honestly think a big reason why Black Flag became so popular was that it was the only game giving players that experience. Don't get me wrong, it was a great game, but let's be honest. In many ways, it was Assassin's Creed III with a pirate theme and a lot more content. The combat felt almost identical, to the point where Edward still had Connor's awkward tomahawk animations while using swords. Naval combat was already introduced in AC3, and the controls were basically the same, just with more ships, weapons, and mechanics.

Even so, it became arguably the most beloved game in the franchise. That's exactly why remaking Black Flag was such a smart move. The foundation was already there; it just needed to be modernized.

When it comes to remakes or re-releases, the first thing I always look at is the new content and the overall changes. And Resynced absolutely delivers in that department. Instead of just modernizing the engine, combat, and visuals, Ubisoft took a risk and added an insane amount of new story content, character progression, weapon variety and upgrades, ship customization, and combat improvements.

I'll go into detail about each of these later, but I was honestly surprised by how fresh this remake feels. With the sheer amount of new content and quality-of-life improvements, Resynced makes most other remakes feel like simple remasters. Ubisoft genuinely deserves a round of applause for that.

The game's main story stays exactly the same. We play as Edward Kenway, a cocky, greedy pirate whose path crosses with both the Assassins and the Templars. Interested more in money than ideology, Edward finds himself caught between the two factions while chasing fortune across the Caribbean.

Even though it lacks the emotional depth and dramatic moments other entries in the series excel at, this kind of carefree and adventurous popcorn story fits the pirate theme incredibly well and lets us focus more on the fun of sailing through the Caribbean instead of the main narrative. In Black Flag's case, less is more.

Don't get me wrong, though. Edward's moral transformation and character arc are written masterfully. They're simply not always in the spotlight. The main story isn't constantly gripping enough to make you rush to the next mission, and I think that's intentional. Instead, it encourages you to slow down, explore the Caribbean, and enjoy the incredible open world between story beats. Personally, I love that direction.

Then we have the most important addition: the brand-new story content. The biggest highlight is the Officer Quests. These officers, along with everything surrounding them, are completely new to Resynced. They serve as key crew members aboard your ship, taking on roles such as master-at-arms, shipwright, and more. Recruiting them requires completing surprisingly long and exceptionally well-written questlines that, at times, sometimes surpass the quality of the main narrative. The Officer Quests alone add a whopping three hours of brand-new story content and unlock unique naval abilities such as Perfect Bracing and Charging Ram. It's an incredible addition that feels perfectly integrated into the experience.

There are also tons of new NPCs, side quests, and dialogue that weren't present in the original Black Flag. If Resynced had simply been a one-to-one remake with improved visuals and gameplay, I would have been satisfied. Instead, Ubisoft clearly went the extra mile by adding genuinely memorable characters and meaningful new content that never feels forced, blending naturally into the original experience.

Side quests, on the other hand, are a bit disappointing, especially the Templar Hunts. While each one introduces a different supporting character, they all follow the exact same formula. You help them, they help you, we need a key, they ask you to kill someone or collect something, and that's about it. I honestly think they had the potential to be fantastic side stories, but their repetitive, uninspired structure makes them feel more like chores than meaningful adventures.

When it comes to gameplay, I have some pretty mixed opinions. First of all, the parkour, on-foot movement, and naval exploration all feel extremely similar to the original. They barely changed the way Edward or the ships move, and for a complete remake built on a brand new engine, I expected at least some modernized animations or more realistic physics. Instead, they chose to stay faithful to the original, and honestly, I was okay with that. At times, the movement can still feel a little clunky and visually awkward, and I do wish they had trimmed out some of those long-standing issues. Still, the overall movement flows naturally, and those issues are only minor complaints.

There are also countless smaller additions and quality of life improvements, such as free diving anywhere, plenty of new places to explore, greater enemy variety, the removal of the notoriously hated eavesdropping and tailing missions, the ability to crouch anywhere, new collectibles, pets, gear, and so much more that I honestly couldn't even keep up with it all. I genuinely loved every single one of these additions and design choices.

The most important part is definitely the combat, and I have some pretty mixed feelings about it. Overall, the on-foot combat was a disappointment. Ubisoft essentially copied the combat system from Shadows and sprinkled in a few elements from Mirage, resulting in something that feels surprisingly generic.

Combat revolves around light and heavy attacks, a familiar blue indicator for parries, and a red one for dodges. That's pretty much it. We have four active abilities in total that aren't upgradable. You can instantly fire your ranged weapon at a locked-on target, perform a Spartan Kick, sweep enemies off their feet, or pull them in with your rope dart. These abilities are almost identical to the ones in Shadows, sharing the same HUD, cooldowns, and even many of the same animations. The biggest issue is that you unlock all four abilities very early, and since there's no meaningful progression or room to customize your playstyle, the combat starts to feel extremely repetitive long term.

The situation is not that grim, though. I absolutely fell in love with the takedown and finisher animations. They have an incredible amount of variety and feel satisfyingly impactful. Most encounters revolve around breaking an enemy's guard in one way or another before finishing them off with a stylish one-shot takedown, staying quite faithful to the original Black Flag. That gameplay loop does a great job of masking the otherwise simple combat system and somehow keeps it consistently fun.

Stealth has also seen a few improvements, though nothing groundbreaking. You can now crouch freely and interact with more environmental objects, but overall it still feels fairly basic. Black Flag was never really a stealth-focused game, and that has always been one of its biggest criticisms. But let's be honest, when playing a pirate fantasy like this, we are here for the brutal sword fights, epic naval battles, and the satisfying "Arrrrrrr" of it all. Also, the weak AI of the enemies hurts stealth dramatically. The stealth system is there for those who want to use it, but don't expect anything revolutionary.

Naval combat, on the other hand, is incredibly fun and exceptionally well designed. Even the original Black Flag's naval combat still holds up by today's standards, so it didn't need to be reinvented. Instead, they expanded on it with Officer abilities, a massive selection of new upgrades and tools, and dangerous environmental hazards, making every naval encounter even more exciting and satisfying.

That brings me to the upgrade system. We have plenty of ways to improve both our equipment and our weapons. Just like in the original Black Flag, you gather materials, hunt wild animals, and craft upgrades, but the system is much more detailed this time around. We also have a proper inventory, allowing us to equip different weapons and trinkets that provide passive bonuses. None of them drastically change your playstyle, but for a game that tries to move away from the franchise's RPG direction, that's perfectly understandable. Still, beyond cosmetic reasons, the gear progression can feel a little underwhelming, as there isn't much incentive to grind for new equipment. Despite that, I enjoyed the system.

The massive amount of content in Resynced was one of the biggest reasons behind the original Black Flag's success as an open-world action-adventure game. The map was, and still is, packed with an incredible variety of activities, including Assassin and naval contracts, warehouse raids, hunting wildlife, looting chests, collecting Animus Fragments, solving Mayan statue puzzles, harpooning legendary sea creatures, liberating slaves, battling legendary ships, conquering forts, diving bell expeditions, following treasure maps, disrupting naval convoys, countless mini games, and much more. If you're someone who loves completing games 100%, you'll rarely find a better open-world sandbox than this.

One of the biggest improvements in this regard over the original Black Flag is your base of operations on Great Inagua. In the original, it was little more than a place to purchase a few upgrades and collect some passive Reales(gold) every now and then. This time, however, it has been expanded so much that you genuinely feel like you're the mayor of your own island. Upgrades are expensive but provide meaningful passive bonuses for combat, stealth, and naval gameplay. On top of that, the island is now filled with side quests, collectibles, and other activities that make it feel far more alive. Great Inagua finally feels like a place worth investing your time in, and I'm all for it.

I was going to talk about the game's graphics, but as I was writing this section, I realized something important. Back in the day, developers had to work incredibly hard and come up with creative solutions to make games visually impressive with the technology available at the time. Nowadays, however, we've reached a point where most modern AAA games look gorgeous. Even relatively low-budget titles like Gothic 1 Remake or Fatekeeper can deliver worlds that feel remarkably photorealistic. Because of that, I think our expectations should gradually shift away from raw graphical fidelity and toward art direction, atmosphere, and environmental design.

With that said, it's probably no surprise that Resynced is a beautiful game. The ocean, lush vegetation, rocky coastlines, colonial cities, and overall environmental detail all look fantastic. Ubisoft has done an excellent job modernizing the Caribbean while preserving everything that made the original world so memorable.

However, once you start paying attention to the finer details, a few issues become noticeable. Character models are probably the weakest part of the presentation. Facial models look surprisingly dated, especially given that even their predecessor, Shadows, featured more convincing, modern-looking faces. It almost feels like facial lighting and wrinkle detail went a little too far, resulting in characters that sometimes look slightly unnatural.

Nighttime could have also used more attention. Overall lighting becomes surprisingly flat, making the world lose some of its visual charm after sunset. Stronger global illumination and more impactful natural light sources, such as the moon, lanterns, and candles, would have gone a long way toward preserving the atmosphere. They're all there, but they rarely have the visual impact they should.

Other than those minor complaints, sailing through the Caribbean and exploring its lively islands is simply breathtaking. Every island feels handcrafted and full of personality, making exploration just as enjoyable as it was back in 2013, only now with visuals that finally do the world justice.

Everyone who played the original Black Flag knows just how exceptional its audio was. The soundtrack, voice performances, environmental audio, and unforgettable sea shanties all came together to create one of the most immersive soundscapes in gaming. Resynced not only preserves everything that made the original so special, but expands on it with an even larger soundtrack and a greater variety of sea shanties. It somehow manages to improve what was already close to perfection.

To me, the audio is the single biggest reason the game feels so immersive. Whether you're peacefully sailing across the Caribbean or crossing swords with enemy pirates, the sound design constantly pulls you into the experience. Even something as simple as parrying an attack feels incredibly satisfying thanks to the powerful sound effects and excellent feedback. It's top-notch work from start to finish, and honestly, I have nothing to complain about.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced - Steam Deck Performance

Important Disclaimer: All performance testing and recommended settings below were conducted using a pre-release build of the Ubisoft Connect version. The Steam release may perform slightly differently due to Proton compatibility and platform-specific differences, like the shared shader cache. If we notice any meaningful performance changes or discover better settings after the Steam version launches, this section will be updated accordingly.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is yet another great example of handheld optimization. On the lowest settings with FSR set to Performance, the game generally fluctuates between 40 and 60 FPS depending on how demanding the current area is. This also gives us a surprising amount of flexibility. If you're aiming for a 30 FPS cap, you can afford to raise several graphics settings without sacrificing stability, because the default preset looks extremely blurry and muddy. On the other hand, if visual quality isn't your priority and you are highly against certain frame generation shenanigans like us, you can simply stick to the lowest settings and enjoy a nearly locked 40 or even 45 FPS experience. Just be prepared for a noticeable hit to image quality. Here's a direct comparison of the lowest possible settings at FSR Performance at 45 FPS and our recommended 30 FPS DRS settings.

One setting I highly recommend using is Dynamic Resolution. Black Flag's world is incredibly inconsistent in terms of performance. One moment you're sailing across an empty ocean where the game uses barely any resources, and the next you're walking through a busy island filled with NPCs and much heavier terrain. If you lower the graphics enough to keep those demanding moments smooth, you'll end up spending most of the game looking at blurrier visuals for no reason.

Dynamic Resolution fixes that by only lowering the resolution when the game actually needs the extra performance. As soon as you're back in a well-lit area, the image automatically becomes sharp again. I've seen this feature done poorly in other games. Horizon Forbidden West, for example, can become so aggressive that it almost looks like you're playing through cloud streaming. Thankfully, Black Flag Resynced handles it surprisingly well. I rarely noticed it while playing, and I believe it's the best way to experience the game on Steam Deck.

The single most important graphics setting is Hair Strands. No matter which preset you choose, hair looks fairly outdated without it. Enabling Hair Strands, even on the Low setting, makes a massive difference, especially for Edward's hair. The best part is that the performance impact is surprisingly small compared to other games. Resident Evil: Requiem, for example, suffers a much heavier performance loss with a similar setting.

I also experimented with injecting FSR 4.1. As much as I love the technology, I can't really recommend it here. While FSR 4.1 dramatically improves image quality and can make even the lowest settings look comparable to Ultra in many games, the performance hit is simply too noticeable. In demanding areas, frame rates frequently dropped into the 24–30 FPS range, making the experience feel sluggish. It also forces you to disable Hair Strands, meaning you're stuck with noticeably worse-looking hair anyway.

Here's a comparison between the lowest settings with FSR 4.1 and our recommended graphics preset.

Overall, the game looks absolutely gorgeous once you remember that you're playing it on a four-year-old handheld. More importantly, it delivers a rock-solid 30 FPS experience no matter where you are or what you're doing. Moments like sailing across the Caribbean at sunset or watching storms roll in genuinely make it hard to believe all of this is running on a Steam Deck. Ubisoft has done an outstanding job with the optimization.

Conclusion:

At the end of the day, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is a fantastic remake. Ubisoft could have simply updated the graphics and called it a day, but instead, they added a surprising amount of new content and improvements that make the game feel fresh even if you've already finished the original. Sure, not every change is a winner. The on-foot combat is a bit too simple, and a few visual details could have used more work. But with its incredible pirate atmosphere, outstanding naval combat, gorgeous world, and endless amount of content, it's still one of the best open-world pirate games you can play today.

As for the Steam Deck, there's really nothing to complain about. The game looks gorgeous, runs at a perfectly stable 30 FPS with the right settings, and offers enough flexibility for players who prefer either better visuals or higher frame rates. Ubisoft has done another fantastic job with the optimization, making this an easy recommendation for anyone looking to experience the Caribbean on the go.

Our review is based on the PC version of this game.

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