'Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced' Review: The Best Pirate Game Ever Made (Again)

Author's Note:The author was provided a PlayStation 5 code by the publisher for the purpose of this review.

It's been nearly 13 years since I played the original Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. I got the game as a launch title for the PlayStation 4, and I remember it being something special. In a lot of ways, it was a course correction for the series after the mixed reception to Assassin's Creed 3, yet at the same time, it evolved the series into a bigger, more open experience with two different halves: the classic experience as an Assassin and the life on the open sea as a pirate in the West Indies during the Golden Age of Piracy.

Needless to say, the series has changed drastically from its humble origins, and eventually became an RPG instead of a classic, action-adventure power fantasy. Returning to a classic-style Assassin's Creed game after the RPG entries (Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, and Shadows), quite simply, is an absolute joy.

Not to say that any of those games are inherently bad, though most of them have their fair share of problems, but Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is not at all concerned with immersion, and feels like a video game, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible.

In an age in which we get game after game that focuses on realism and immersive storytelling, gameplay functions, and environmental design, it feels refreshing to get a video game that has no problem with just being a video game. It's the same feeling I had earlier this year with Capcom's Pragmata, and it's roughly the same end result.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is, plainly, the best game Ubisoft has released since Assassin's Creed Origins. It's beautiful, detailed, and brings an old-school sense of fun that the series has been missing for quite a while. Despite some overlooked areas that may have been due for a tune-up in this built-from-the-ground-up remake, Black Flag: Resynced proves, once again, why the original game is the best pirate game ever made, and this remake does not change that but rather reinforces it.

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life For Me

Black Flag: Resynced is exactly what it has been advertised as: a faithful remake of what many fans consider to be one of, if not the, best Assassin's Creed title. Taking on the role of pirate Edward Kenway, the grandfather of Assassin's Creed 3 protagonist, Connor, Kenway seeks his ambitious fortune as a relatable, morally gray privateer on the ocean, and eventually winds up tangled in the long-standing war between the Assassins and the Templars.

The main story is left almost completely untouched from the original game, and it's still a mixed bag overall. The core writing and dialogue are as strong as ever, with Edward and his companions, like Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, being instantly likable, despite their status as pirates. However, those companions and the numerous antagonists are left largely underdeveloped. Edward is the shining star of the game, while everyone else has their moment or two and then quickly fades into the background.

That is not a problem with Black Flag: Resynced itself. Rather, it was an issue with the original game, too. The story takes place over multiple years in the early 1700s, and months can pass between just two missions, making the narrative lose focus. There isn't a way to avoid that in a video game format, with players sailing across the seas in the open world, but that is back to my earlier point--this game is just trying to be a fun video game, and for that reason, I'm not tied up over the narrative issues that are still in the game.

What unfolds is a tale of ambition, danger, adventure, and the pursuit of fortune by any means necessary. Those major themes still hold up today as well as they did in 2013, and Edward's journey from amateur pirate to skilled assassin is one of the strongest character arcs in the franchise.

One area that has been almost entirely removed is the modern-day Abstergo storyline, and I honestly think the game's pacing is significantly better without the focus on the animus and just focusing on Edward's journey. There are still elements of the Animus in the game, too, so it is not entirely gone, but it is definitely not a focus now.

The showpiece of this remake, though, is the graphic fidelity. Black Flag: Resynced is a gorgeous game, top-to-bottom. From dense jungle foliage to crisp blue underwater pirate wrecks to dark island storms, the game is a technical marvel. Oceans crash realistically, and with the new weather system, which can impact travel, such as high-speed winds, the game's large-but-not-too-large open world is a joy to explore, both on foot and via ship.

One-Half Assassin, One-Half Pirate

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is, essentially, broken into two different but equally important halves: boots-on-the-ground work as an assassin with classic Assassin's Creed gameplay, and a globe-trotting adventure around the world's oceans with high-stakes naval combat.

That distinction is important to make, because while both areas have some issues, combined, they are a match made in Heaven.

As Edward Kenway, you can scamper over obstacles, climb most buildings, and run across rooftops with the game's improved parkour system. It isn't perfect, though. I did notice Edward occasionally gets stuck on objects and refuses to move, especially when climbing. It isn't game-breaking, but it does disrupt the game's flow and can indirectly lead to direct combat instead of taking a stealthy approach.

Edward's gameplay is divided up between exploration, tailing, hunting wild animals, combat, stealth, and assassinations. New for Resynced, the tailing missions do not auto-fail if you are spotted and play out a little bit differently if your cover is blown. I appreciate that change, and it actually encourages more player choice for how to approach the missions.

The exploration is a joy, mostly because of the overhauled visuals. The Caribbean is full of remote islands and three large towns, giving a decent amount of playground variety for Edward. The general "feel" of the game is improved, with less input latency, and the controls feel more like modern Assassin's Creed than the original game, which will be helpful for newer fans.

The game, of course, has a main storyline with required missions, but it also has quite a diverse optional content selection. From Naval battles to claim Forts to reveal more of the sea, to chasing down song sheets to add more shanties to sing while at sea, to harpooning whales, to completing assassination contracts, there is a lot of game to be found in Black Flag: Resynced beyond the roughly 20-hour main story, even if most of it is simply ported over to this remake from the original game.

Long-time Assassin's Creed fans and even open-world game fans in general may notice a sense of repetition after a decent amount of time with the game, as is the case with almost all open-world games, but I didn't mind it too much, because the core gameplay is so solid that I don't mind exploring new underwater shipwrecks for the third or fourth time.

New to Resynced are the Naval Officer storylines. These quest chains are fairly brief; most of them are about three missions, but the short stories offer a lot more insight into the side characters like Blackbeard and The Padre. They also offer unique naval perks and abilities, like being able to perfect guard incoming attacks for less damage and the ability to ram another ship for serious damage. One of these, though, is not available until the final act of the game, but it's the most expansive one, and players will not want to miss it. It's called "A World Without Gold" and results in the recruitment of the final naval officer, too.

The new missions add quite a lot of new content to an already dense game, and while they do not break the core gameplay mold of the game, they are satisfying.

Parrying Is The Way

Black Flag: Resynced's combat is mostly the same as the original game, with a couple of twists. Enemies now have a stagger meter that can be broken with consecutive attacks or special weapon perks. Enemy health is also always visible now. Edward's gun can also stagger and kill. The only weapon type available in the game is Edward's dual swords. Similar to the Batman Arkham games, attacks are executed with one button, and Edward can quickfire his pistol, rope dart, and two different kicks in the middle of combat.

Parrying returns in the game, and it is still as overpowered as you may remember. A lot of the time, it is quicker to wait for an enemy to attack, see the blue glint from the attack, which indicates it can indeed be parried, and then parry it and do an instant takedown. Sweeping the opponent's leg also leads to an instant takedown.

With that information, it probably goes without saying that the game is exploitable and is on the easy side, even on the hard difficulty options. But in all honesty, I don't mind that. All of the classic Assassin's Creed games were like that, and having several broken combat tools gave me the power fantasy of being an experienced pirate. The game isn't concerned with being balanced, and is more concerned with just being fun and stylish.

After years of Assassin's Creed being tied to RPG grind, typical light and heavy attacks, and health sponge enemies, it is refreshing to play a gorgeous, modern Assassin's Creed game without any of the bloat. If anything, Resynced makes me want a new Assassin's Creed entry to expand on the combat that's present in this game, and maybe continue down a Marvel's Spider-Man route instead of its current path.

That being said, I did encounter a few obvious drawbacks to combat. One of those is the enemy AI. It simply isn't very good. Enemies attack one at a time, and the game also bugged out after several alarm bells rang after I broke stealth, and dozens of enemies appeared on screen and just stood there.

Speaking of stealth, the stealth in the game is very basic, like all the other games in the series, though it is nice that the weather, time of day, and pace at which you move all now affect whether an enemy can spot you. Stealth is simply walking behind someone, getting an instant kill, and keeping moving. You can move bodies, but there's no real need to with the incompetent enemies. You can use the rope dart to assassinate from further away, but again, no need to. That being said, the options are there and allow you to create your own pirate adventure, despite not many of them being particularly useful or engaging.

The same problem applies to disguises, crowds, and hiding in plain sight. You can do all those things, but it is almost always more efficient to just tail an enemy from the rooftop, and then assassinate when needed or just open with direct combat.

Again, though, I don't see those things as problems but rather as a faithful recreation of what the original game was. It would have been nice to get an updated combat system like Batman Arkham or Spider-Man, but it's not completely necessary, and does scratch the nostalgia itch for a classic video game experience. As I said previously, this game is not about immersion but more about fun, and that is all you can ask for in a faithful video game remake.

Sail the Seas

The other half of the gameplay is tied to piloting the Jackdaw, the game's upgradable ship, around the large, seamless world. Unlike most Assassin's Creed games, the majority of the exploration in this game is tied to sailing the ship. The bigger difference, though, and also why I feel Black Flag is remembered so fondly, is that there is always something to do on the high seas. Whether it is collecting loot, taking out enemy ships, adding new ships to Edward's fleet, or exploring smaller islands or underwater wrecks, the path across the ocean to your destination has something going on, which is not the case with most open-world games.

The naval combat is also still, to this day, the best ship combat ever in a video game. Using the right stick, the camera auto-selects the Jackdaw's appropriate weapons, and the newly added visual effects, like heavy black smoke, create visual spectacles and chaos. It's fun, often intense, and controls like a dream.

Both Edward and the Jackdaw can be upgraded with new weapons, storage capacity, health, and more throughout the game, and the upgrades come at a pace that you can decide as the player. If you want to go hunt animals for some of the materials needed for Edward's upgrades, you can do so pretty much whenever you want. If you want to go incapacitate ships, board them, and raid them further for more money and materials, you can do it almost as soon as the Jackdaw is available.

While the Jackdaw upgrades are more essential to completing some of the late-game naval combat encounters, Edward's upgrades can be largely ignored if you do not want to participate in some of the game's activities. That option was taken away in future Assassin's Creed games, which required quite a bit of grinding to get enough health and damage in order to complete some missions or side activities. I respect the fact that Ubisoft let the game just be what it was, and improve and add new content, and I hope this is the direction Ubisoft takes for the future of the series.

Final Score: 8.5/10

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is the Assassin's Creed game fans have been waiting for, and a game that will also appeal to prospective fans of the series. It would have been nice to have the original game's multiplayer (because updates to the cat-and-mouse style of gameplay would be interesting to see in 2026, in my opinion), and I do think the game's AI and stealth mechanics needed a grander overhaul, but Resynced is a faithful remake that may not reimagine the magic of Black Flag but instead just lets players re-experience that magic again with stellar visuals, new missions, and a few gameplay tweaks.

It is surprising to me that the game is focused so much on just being a pirate adventure and giving players open-world activities to enhance that journey. I honestly hope we see more games from Ubisoft and other developers that are less focused on doing everything the "correct way" and more focused on doing everything the "fun way." There will always be a place for those immersive, realistic experience games with specific design choices, but it's okay to have two cakes, and with Pragmata and now Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced, it's fun to have video game-y video games again in 2026.

Combat parries may still be busted, and you can still board one ship at a time during ship combat to refill your health and not sink if you are losing a naval fight, and that is perfectly fine in a game that gives players the options to live out their own pirate fantasy around the West Indies.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced is an easy recommendation for both veterans and newcomers alike, and for the first time since 2017 with Origins, I'm actually leaning forward in anticipation of what might come next for the series.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag: Resynced releases on July 9, 2026, for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.

This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Jul 8, 2026, where it first appeared in the Entertainment section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

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This story was originally published July 8, 2026 at 3:00 AM.