Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced | PS5 | REVIEW

''BUT WHY IS THE RUM GONE!?''

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Developed: Ubisoft

Published: Ubisoft

Genre: Action Adventure

Release Date: July 9th, 2026

Platforms: PS5/Xbox Series/PC

*Review copy provided to me by Ubisoft

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is the revival of a classic game in the franchise, it is developed and published by Ubisoft. With Assassins Creed Shadows being a hit and miss for people, Ubisoft decided to do what Nintendo is doing right now, give fans a remake of a beloved classic and call it a day. But was Black Flag the right game to remake? or should it have been one of the earlier games in the franchise? Only one way to find out, so lets loot some treasure!

''ONE INSULT AWAY FROM NOT EXISTING''

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GAMEPLAY:

I'll admit that I haven't been as huge of an Assassins Creed fan that I used to be, but... what? what was that? nevermind. Like I was saying. I'm not as big of a fan as I was during the original trilogies run, and not even really because the franchise got ''bad'' or anything like that, but when started to move this franchise into an annual franchise, my love for it... kind of died off. Sure I dabbled into it still here and there in the off chance I either got the opportunity to do so with early previews, reviews, or just picked it up myself cause I was curious about a new entry based off of word of mouth.. but honestly, it just wasn't the same, you know?. Its like when you're heavily into a franchise and then it suddenly changes into something that you just vibe with, that's how I felt and, to be quite frank, its basically the same relationship I have right now with the Tomb Raider franchise, with myself being a huge fan of OG Tomb Raider games and even Anniversary and Underworld, but then absolutely hating what they did to Lara and her character with the survivor trilogy... ugh, makes me want to vomit. I'll leave that disdain for another day though or the next time I speak about Slippy. But even with my favor towards the franchise becoming wilted, a game came a long, on Wii U of all places, that spoke to me personally with things I liked, sailing and pirates. As and huge fan of Pirates Of The Caribbean and having got into One Piece, the premise alone by itself won me and over and made this version of Assassins Creed.... ok what IS that? is it going to happen EVERY TIME I say the word Creed?.... Assassin?..... Pirates?.... Assassin Pirates?.....Assassins Creed. Ugh whatever were moving on. The game much like I thought, spoke to me better than anything has since its release, having been an improvement over what I played with the 3rd entry into the title and instead of going to a big city or crowded neighborhood like previous titles, this time the entire scenery shifts to that of a gigantic sailable Caribbean seas that allows you to explore at your leisure, be your own captain, have your own ship, build your own base and teach would be naysayers that this is the day they shall ALWAYS remember, as the day, that they ALMOST caught, Captain GameNChick Sparrow. Too bad I'm not as smooth as Jack Sparrow though, I just wind up failing and embarrassing myself, comes with the territory really. When the remake was first announced, I got pretty hyped to be honest, cause come on, a remake with a new engine to one of my favorite Assassin's Cr....I mean one of my favorite entries into the franchise. Ha! I didn't say that word Creed that time ya jerk! wait...DANGIT!.

In Black Flag you follow along the ''hero'' of the game, Captain Edward Kenway, a marooned pirate in the Caribbean. After murdering a man because he took the last sip of rum after a brief altercation, our so called hero assumes the mans identity gets involved with Templars. Who could've seen that one coming, right?. As far as murdering the guy, I know it REALLY wasn't over rum, but still, I saw the way he looked at me, so he deserved it anyways. He's lucky this is an Ubisoft game and not a game from Codemasters in 2007 like Overlord, otherwise I would've ended up peeing on him and going ''FOR THE MASTER!!''. Confused? sorry, you just had to be there, that's all I'm saying. If you're expecting this version of Black Flag to have a ton of new content or changes to its story and overall gameplay in a similar manner that Capcom did for the Resident Evil 4 remake, then you'll probably be disappointed considering Resynced is pretty much a one for one remake of the original Black Flag, similar to the way the recent Star Fox remake was about one to one of Star Fox 64... so that may damper people's spirits a little bit if you didn't know that. Throughout the game you will follow the same story beats that you're used to with the, at least for me, slow paced start that may detour new players a bit, but don't worry, the pace is only roughly a few hours of what people could consider a ''slog'' and NOTHING, and I mean, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, like people that tell you ''oh its better after 30 hours!'' when they talk about Final Fantasy 13. Do yourself a favor, find the soundtrack to the game, put it on for a few hours and there you go, you've experienced the best part about the game without having to play it, you're welcome. In relation to Black Flag with my little rant, the slow down doesn't last very long, since soon you'll be making your way through multiple episodic adventures that have you encounter a ton of famous pirates that you have definitely heard of before, which immerses you even further into the games lore because even you too and sit up from your recliner and point to your screen and cream ''I KNOW THAT GUY'' whenever you spot someone of interest. Its pretty damn awesome. Even though I stated earlier that you shouldn't expect DRASTIC or even BIG changes to the story, again, similar to Capcom's Resident Evil remakes, that's not to say there isn't NEW content to enjoy in this remake, but what I more so meant was DRASTICALLY new content that alters the narrative. No force ghosts, so don't worry, Square-Enix's poison won't be falling in to this water well of Assassins Creed this go around. OH MY GOD, DANGIT, OK MAYBE THIS IS WORSE THAN THE FORCE GHOSTS, I TAKE IT BACK.

There are several new side quests to take part in that add to your overall experience if you got tired of just focusing only on Edwards story and I feel these side quests should be mandatory for both newcomers and even people who played the original Black Flag too since not only do you learn way more about other characters in these extra side quests that can make you relate to them, feel for them or even get angry at them, but you get some depth to stuff that maybe isn't present in the main story, depending where you are at in said story. The addition of new officers and side storylines are also a welcomed draw back from the main campaign as well and offer a pretty good chunk of time off the beaten path, should you choose to want to complete them, and if you choose to lose track of time and say screw it, I'm a pirate, I do what I want, then prepare you scallywag for at least 7 to 8 hours of EXTRA content just from these side storylines. It might not be as in depth as the main story with Edward and its advances, but I think a lot of people could find these MORE fun the main campaign itself, due to how well its fleshed out. But uh oh, what about combat? how the heck did they screw it up? I can already hear it now, the loud screeching the halls of social media. Well honestly, they didn't screw it up at all, utilizing both the franchises long standing stealth roots alongside your hidden blades, you still remain a sneaky murderous rampaging jerk face as you've ever been. Using the new loadout systems which now instead of using your traditional skill tree, now in turn takes your abilities and any perks you obtain and instead sends them to your overall equipment or to your swords as you vary your own personal combat between parrying, regular melee and short range pistols in whatever combination of attack you feel like using after you obtain some fun perks and abilities to go along with it. I chose to stick with pistols, swords and blow darts personally because I get to act out my inner Ace Ventura on people in moments of hilarity. But... aren't we forgetting something? I could've sworn there was something else people loved about the original... I feel its important too... I can feel it.... I can feel like its right... IN MY NECK!. Yes I'm referring to good ol ship combat, its back and just as bad ass as ever with assaults on forts, awesome cosmetics, boarding other ships, and blowing shps just in general out of the damn water just because you choose to do so. But I'd also be careful about that as well because if you get a little too cannon happy, just like me, because you get a little TOO into becoming captain as you blast the Pirates Of The Caribbean theme over your speakers, because if you get a little too excited, you'll end up running into some Five Star ships right from the on-set of your adventure and I'll just say it now, you'll soon end up in Davy Jones Locker alongside me, savvy?.

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''PICTURES TAKEN BEFORE DISASTER''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, Black Flag Resynced was still a great time. I won't say it EXCEEDED my expectations and overblow it, but I can definitely say, that very least, it MET my expectations, which is exactly what it needed to do, especially for someone who loved the original version. Is it perfect? I mean, no not really, since the Animus hub is pretty much the same a Shadows, alongside the Battle Pass. Its not mandatory and you can bypass them, but still, as a principle, people will get annoyed by it. Character models outside the main hero is also a bit on the iffy side and if I'm going to be completely honest with you, they aren't very good and some are outright hideous... so I'm not really sure what was going on with some of them. However with all the fun and expansive side quests, intense ship battles that lets you take ownership of the high seas, improved abilities and perks towards equipment, gorgeous environments that make sailing around the world to find both rum AND the One Piece a sight to behold and honestly makes you wonder... why the heck didnt they just do this earlier? why did they even go through the trouble and headache of Skull and Bones when Black Flag is obviously the superior pirate game? who knows. But what I do know, if you're a fan of the original and need a quality game to get your pirate fix with, then Assassins Creed Black Flag Resynced is a definitely must pick up. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.

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