There is a moment, with the Jackdaw emerging from the fog under full sail and the crew singing one of the ten new shanties, when you forget you are playing a game from 13 years ago. It lasts until the first fight.
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launched on 9 July at 59.99 euros on PS5, Xbox Series and PC, led by Ubisoft Singapore with part of the original team back on board. The international press has been kind: an 84 average on OpenCritic, 93 % of critics recommending it across 203 reviews, and a 9 out of 10 from IGN.
We are giving it a 7, and not because the game is worse than everyone says, but because the half that shines really does shine: the sea, the Jackdaw, every boarding. The other half sits exactly where we left it in 2013. At INSERT FUTURE we think that a year from now nobody will remember this remake for its combat, but for proving Ubisoft still knows how to win us over at sea.
The sea: the best thing this series has ever done
Sailing in Black Flag Resynced is the reason this remake exists. Ubisoft rebuilt the water from scratch on the latest version of the Anvil engine, the same one behind Assassin's Creed Shadows, with ray-traced lighting and global illumination. At 60fps, with the sun hammering the Caribbean or fog swallowing the horizon, it is one of the most beautiful things you can put on a screen right now.
It is not just a shop window either. Naval combat has gained depth: there are new secondary weapons, grapeshot barrels and 8-pounder cannons, and enemy ships are redesigned by faction, so spotting a Spanish vessel on the horizon does not read the same as spotting an English one.
Add the new Jackdaw officers, the ten new sea shanties and even a ship pet, cat or monkey, and you have a pirate fantasy nobody has bettered in 13 years, not even Ubisoft, which tried with Skull and Bones and fell flat.
That said, the fact that the industry's best pirate game is still a 2013 title says plenty about the industry. The remake wave already gave us an Oblivion rebuild that slipped onto Switch 2 almost quietly, and the pattern keeps repeating.
The swordplay: clumsy, slow and dated
Then you go ashore, draw your blade, and it all falls apart.
Melee combat is the worst thing about Black Flag Resynced, and this is not nostalgia talking, it simply plays badly in 2026. Everything now pivots on posture bars, with reworked parries and a new enemy archetype, the Demolitionist, but the actual loop is the one you remember: strike, wait for the flash, counter, repeat. Enemies still queue up to attack you one at a time, exactly as in 2013, and every exchange feels like Edward is wearing boots full of sand.
On top of that, Ubisoft made two cuts that make no sense. You can no longer steal an enemy's weapon, and the hidden blade no longer works as a primary weapon. They removed the two things that made a fight feel dirty, improvised, piratical. What is left is a rigid choreography where the game wants you to nail the timing rather than think on your feet.
It stings more because everything else was rebuilt with care, and because we are not alone in seeing it: PC Gamer, which scored it 75 out of 100, calls the result «a well-made but unnecessary remake that loses more than it gains», and GameSpot also lands on a 7. The gap between IGN's 9 and our score is not in the sea, it is in the swordplay.
The parkour, on the other hand, does its job
We have read harsher criticism of the parkour than we are willing to sign. Yes, it is essentially the same as always: Edward climbs fast, grabs everything and does nothing you have not seen in the series. It does not improve, but it works, it responds, and it still feels like Assassin's Creed. Running across the rooftops of Havana with the sea behind you still feels good.
It is not great. It is fine. And next to the weight of the combat, that already counts as a relief.
What they left behind
The Abstergo storyline and the entire modern-day layer are gone, with nothing in their place. With them goes the worldbuilding that lived in emails and voice recordings, the strange layer that made Black Flag more than a pirate game.
You may think it was surplus, plenty of people thought so in 2013, but removing it without a replacement leaves the remake flatter than the original.
So, should you buy it?
If you never played Black Flag, this is a solid recommendation and the best entry point into the series that exists: buy it without thinking twice. If you know it by heart, you are paying 59.99 euros to see it look spectacular, sail better and lose the modern-day plot. And if money is tight, September is packed with releases you may want more.
And if you come out of Shadows feeling tired of Assassin's Creed, this remake will not cure you, it will remind you that Black Flag was never the problem.
If this were a new game, a pirate world this alive would take an 8.5 without argument. We are giving it a 7 because it is not, and because in 2026 it is no longer enough for Assassin's Creed to be beautiful. Next time Ubisoft wants to remind us that Black Flag was the best, it should do it with a game we have not played yet.
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