Developer: Ubisoft
Available on: Steam PC
Black Flag Resynced is Ubisoft’s first major remake of an Assassin’s Creed game, and a well-deserved entry. Notable more for being an excellent pirate game than an Assassin’s Creed game, Black Flag is nonetheless a fantastic open world adventure within a criminally underused time period.
The remake smartly eliminates the frankly boring modern day interludes, while cleaning up combat and adding new quests and characters — though the main story is still a missed opportunity, and Edward Kenway is a cool but endlessly frustrating protagonist.
Read on for our review of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced!
A Pirate Life for He
I’m already frustrated with Edward Kenway as the story begins. He leaves his beautiful young wife for greener pastures, or rather, saltier seas, in the hopes of making a fortune and a better life for them. The story periodically flashes back to Kenway and Caroline, nicely replacing the forgettable Abstergo modern day stuff. But they’re a frequent reminder that somebody needs to slap Kenway upside the head.
And many try!
When he’s cast overboard during a mutiny, Kenway is instantly embroiled in the plot between the Templars and Assassins that grounds the series throughout history. But Kenway is the most reluctant of heroes, brushing off frequent calls to action by his incessant need to amass more wealth.
I get it, it’s a pirate life for him. And yet he clearly still loves his wife, and spends years doing this for them?
Kenway’s search for the mystical Observatory, which dominates the second half of the plot, is fueled by its potential power as a magical global surveillance device, rather than helping the Assassins trying to stop the Templars from taking it to rule the world.
At certain points of the story, Kenway seems to learn his lesson about wealth and greed and power, and his dwindling friendships, only to seemingly reset in the next mission.
It could be a curse of the open world game design, but the main quest ultimately fails to tell a suitably cinematic story beyond perfunctory revenge.
Sailing the Jackdaw is as fun as ever
Thankfully, this is not a 70-80 hour behemoth like the later RPG-ified AC games; I completed the main quest and most side quests, contracts, and activities at under 50 hours, and had a darn good time doing it.
The new officers are fun characters that stick with you for the entire journey (definitely grab them as soon as they’re available!), though one of them isn’t available until the post-game. Lucy’s quest was definitely my favorite, even if it’s yet another revenge tale. The expanded stories and quests with Blackbeard and Bonnet were also welcome additions, giving us nice little epilogues for our favorite allies.
In a World Without Gold
Black Flag’s biggest strength is the awesome recreation of 18th century Caribbean at the height of Piracy and the Age of Sail. English, Spanish, and Portuguese sailors, merchants, and colonists clashed with each other, and with native tribes.
The open world is the perfect size to explore thanks to its relatively large seas filled with ships, and relatively small towns, settlements, and hidden coves.
At sea with our trusty Jackdaw ship, we roam from island to island, hunting down merchant ships, exploring sunken shipwrecks, conquering enemy forts, and sailing through terrifying hurricanes and storms.
Ship combat remains simple yet satisfying, with aiming and weapon types intuitively switching based on the facing of the camera. Sailing the ship is as delightful and easy ever, including the very unrealistic full-stop. And who doesn’t love unlocking new shanties for the crew to bellow — and me along with them, when my favorites come up!
Ship boarding, while thrilling at first, eventually grows tedious and repetitive. It also often breaks the immersion of multi-ship combat — other ships patiently wait while I board and attack a crippled ship, and once seized, choose the incredibly useful bonus of repairing my own.
Searching for loot, raiding warehouses, and analyzing treasure maps to find buried treasure are all fun activities — with the majority of my booty going right back into upgrading the Jackdaw, and my growing home at Great Inagua (turns out, the pirate life is quite expensive).
Stealth and parkour have never felt better, even if it’s all a bit incongruous with being a pirate. I would often change outfits from my flamboyantly red and feathery Captain Morgan fit for ship travel, combat, and cinematics, while dressing in my hooded assassin gear for stealthy missions and encounters.
There’s just enough tools and combos to make combat interesting, and still quite deadly. Stealth and assassinations are still the way to go, and the game world offers tons of hidden hay piles, hanging tree branches, and second-story work.
As a side note, having to hunt and kill animals to obtain basic upgrades, such as increasing health, can be a bitter pill to swallow. I actually refused to do any whale hunting at all. Thankfully, animal skins can be purchased using generic bones looted from any animal, but you’d be hard-pressed to avoid hunting at all.
Shipwright Lucy is a great addition to the cast
The Rating
Like most Assassin’s Creed games, Black Flag Resynced is rated M for Mature. Combat is visceral and fast-paced, featuring swords, hidden blades, and muskets. Melee attacks are accompanied by blood splatter. Finisher combos feature brutal and violent takedowns. Sexual content is limited to dialogue. Despite the appearance of brothels, like Red Dead Redemption 2’s Arthur, Kenway remains faithful to his wife. Players can consume alcohol at taverns and stumble around with a drunken blurring effect.
The Takeaway
I remember playing Black Flag back in 2013 or 2014 and loving it, and I loved it all over again in 2026. Embodying an admittedly odd pirate-assassin combo is just a ton of fun, melding Ubisoft’s stellar open world game design with fun ship-sailing and plenty of treasure-hunting, in a world full of adventure.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is available on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S.
