Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced hands-on preview

Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag has long held the spot as my favorite Assassin’s Creed game. While that title has passed to Shadows, Black Flag’s story, naval combat, and unique setting made it special. Today, I got to sit down with a near-final version of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced – a ground-up rebuild of the original, utilizing all of the bells and whistles courtesy of the newest iteration of the Anvil Engine that was showcased in Shadows. Moreover, it’s the beneficiary of the last year of fan-guided feedback that has resulted in some long-overdue upgrades to the parkour, advancements with lighting and shadows, improvements in stealth, and so much more. Let me tell you why you’ve got a lot to be excited about. Drink up, me hearties – it’s our preview for Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resync.

If you’re a newcomer or it’s been a bit since you heard the story of Black Flag, the game begins in the year 1715 – the Golden Age of Piracy. You play as Edward Kenway, a man sick of eating awful food and scraping by. He sets out to join a pirate crew to make his own fortune for his family back in London. Soon he finds himself surrounded by a cast of larger-than-life real-world pirates, including Mary Read, Anne Bonny, Benjamin Hornigold, Calico Jack, Adéwalé, and the biggest personality of them all - Edward Teach, AKA Blackbeard himself.

Blackbeard is fearsome in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

Through a confluence of events, Edward finds himself helming a ship and setting out to make his fortune. He hears about a First Civilization site called the Observatory that, in his mind, would make him filthy rich if he could locate it and plunder its riches. The rest is a story of raids, bounties, trading, piracy, bloodshed, and betrayal that makes Kenway ask how much is enough, and how far is he willing to go to get it?

Kicking off a preview with a list of things that sadly won’t make their return is a bit odd, but stick with me a second. The team recognizes that the story of Assassin’s Creed’s modern elements has been put on the back burner for a bit in recent titles. In keeping with that, this element of the game has been shelved. Additionally, while folks like me absolutely loved the multiplayer for Black Flag, that’s been shed as well. Last but not least, for the dozen of us who absolutely adored the second-screen experience of the original, which allowed a second player to send out ship fleets for loot, could act as a navigator with a map or pirate treasure hints, and more, that too has been cut. Now let’s talk about what we gained in the bargain – it’s a great deal more than this short list.

The team set out to make this new Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake with three pillars in mind – Faithfulness, Visual Overhaul, and New Main and Side Content. Faithfulness meant taking the parts of the game that were jagged and smoothing them into a seamless and cohesive world, while ensuring that anything that was touched was directly in line with the look and feel of the original. Visual Overhaul continues that same thought, as the team wanted to take everything they’d learned from the latest Anvil Engine implementation used in Shadows, and then push it as hard as they could for current-gen consoles and PC. That meant taking a game that had baked-in lighting and retrofitting it to one that has full Lumen support for light sources that can dynamically interact with the world. Similarly, the game didn’t originally support physics, but Resynced would allow for physics-based water, foliage, combat, and so much more. Those two core pillars combined mean that any changes to add those new elements have to still maintain the original’s authenticity, at least where it made sense to do so.

The final pillars, New Main and Side Content, are again about building new elements that would cleanly fold into an already-established world. While the main story is one we know, Resynced brings not just new elements, but entirely new plots and storylines, including roughly six hours of new content. This includes 10 new missions for your also-new recruitable officers, hand-crafted Playas (small islands that reward players willing to explore), a new explorable warehouse in Havana, and even a brand new coda to the ending of the game that expands on Kenway’s story ending. New story content, however, is far from the only thing the team has updated.

Set sail on the Jackdaw in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

The most obvious upgrade is the graphical overhaul. More than just a reskin on top of old bones, the team has overhauled every single aspect of the game. 4K textures, 60fps (or more on PC), revamped controls, and smooth animations are the obvious hallmarks, but there’s so much more than that. Little bits of debris, grass, plants, and leaves that play in the wind, tornadoes that shred chunks off the edges and hull of the Jackdaw, cloth that whips in the wind, be it sails or clothes, and so much more. A tech called “micro polygon tech” makes everything look gorgeous at any distance, without all of the mip-mapping we saw in previous games. Character faces, beards, everywhere you look, it’s a huge visual uplift, but that’s far from the only thing.

Games have gotten a lot more immersive, and it’s easy to miss that until you pop back a few generations. Previously, NPCs were bolted in place for the most part, with little to do. Now, they talk to each other, mill about as they do work, pick up boxes and move them, and much more. To help breathe more life into the game, the team headed back into the mocap studio and added a ton of new dialogue lines for NPCs and main characters alike. Best of all, they pulled in the original actors to record them, ensuring they blend in with all of the existing voice work. That new motion capture, when combined with the newest Anvil Engine, brings scenes to life like never before. It’s a drastic improvement, and when combined with more flavor conversations from NPCs, hustle and bustle on the streets, shipmates taking action on the boat, pets roaming around (and yes, you can pet or feed every dog, cat, chicken, turtle, monkey, and more), and more to fill up the cities, makes Black Flag feel more alive than ever.

On land, Kenway has an impressively large set of new combat moves. The game is not an RPG like the most recent games; instead focusing on action combat like the original, but with a great many improvements. Kenway’s paired swords have damage numbers, yes, but it’s paired with a new takedown and a new parry system. Enemies have a defense meter that must be whittled down, but a perfect parry will bypass it instantly, allowing you to counter with a takedown. Takedowns are brutal kills that destroy an opponent instantly, and as you get new weapons, you can eventually raise that number to four chained kills in a row. You can similarly chain gun kills, but they’re slow to reload and not nearly as fancy or fun. I find they make a good punctuation mark at the end or a capital letter to start the fight, and rely on swords afterwards.

To discourage the player from spamming the same moves over and over, the AI is now keenly aware of your attempt to “sweep the leg” 10 times in a row. They’ll dodge and pull their leg out of the way to stop that move, offering a counter of their own. Similarly, they may dodge, wind up a nasty attack, or otherwise dissuade you from just hacking at them. It’s still possible, but it’s just not nearly as effective. To further push the link with the assassins Kenway is slowly worming his way into, the hidden blade is featured far more often and earlier in the game – a subtle reminder that you aren’t always a pirate.

Meet one of your new mates in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

The new combat system is challenging but forgiving. You have a risk/reward system that carries through to naval combat, where wide sweeping attacks or heavy attacks take longer to wind up and do a lot of damage, but may also leave you vulnerable to counterattack and rapid interrupts. During one sequence, I had hacked at an enemy one time too many, and the guy parried my thrust, then proceeded to roll over the top of my back to stab me in the side. It’s a welcome addition that maintains the feel of the original while updating it and removing the basic combat in favor of one that rewards skill and patience. No skill trees, no upgrade points, just good old-fashioned practice and reaction timing.

Seeing Kenway in action changes over time. In the beginning, it’s a lot of shoulder checks and counterstabs through the chest or face. Over time, you’ll be bouncing foes over ship rails, hilt-smashing the next guy, stabbing a third through the mouth, rolling over the next, and on and on, like a ballet of death. Like Shadows, a great deal of effort has been made to smooth out the jagged edges so animations flow naturally from one to another. You start off as a scrub, become a pirate, and end up as an assassin, and you see that reflected in the movement.

One new element that has been added is a new trinket system. As you explore the Caribbean, you might come across various trinkets (a lock of hair, a wooden eye, a carved animal, etc.) that you can hang from your belt. These bestow things like a small bit of healing if you land a perfect parry, or other similar improvements. It’s very similar to what we saw in Shadows, and that’s no surprise.

Boarding the Jackdaw, your ship and arguably the second protagonist for this game, you’ll find a great deal of improvements. First and foremost, the ocean is physics-based, meaning it rocks and shoves the ship more realistically than ever before. Additionally, the addition of dynamic weather means combat can change on a dime if the weather suddenly turns dark and brings wind shears with it. The Jackdaw is as nimble as ever, but the ocean itself can and will provide some additional challenge on occasion to keep you on your toes.

The Jackdaw’s weapons have received a massive overhaul. Every weapon now has a secondary fire, each with its own tradeoffs and rewards. For example, your broadside shots are effective at around 300-350 meters, but the secondary “heated shots” shot you get during a mission from Adewale, your second in command, will allow you to send flaming versions at your enemies. The payoff is fire and more damage, but the risk is that they aren’t effective until you’re inside of 250 meters – well within their cannon range. Other examples include a double chainshot upgrade, barrels that are full of shrapnel rather than explosives, and more. Even the swivel guns, the small mini-cannons mounted on posts on the ship’s rail, get an upgrade. With the game’s new alternate fire modes and swivel guns, there’s less downtime in combat where you’re just waiting for a reload, making naval warfare faster and more fluid. Your enemies have new weapons as well, so the entire naval combat sequence has been retooled and rebalanced to ensure it maintains the same challenge as the original. Supported by a new streamlined UI, I felt like I had a far better grip on the combat this time around. When we closed the distance to board, I used the new zipline to cross from my rigging to the enemies to seize a tactical advantage. Everything feels more strategic, more fluid…just better.

If there’s one area where video games tend to lean hard into frustration over fun, it’s underwater levels. Jumping ahead to the mission where you need to recover medicine from shipwrecks using a diving bell, I headed to the briney down below. The improvements to movement and parkour extend to the water portions, with Edward’s movements being smoother and easier to control than ever before. Dodging through coral and around jellyfish to avoid the patrolling Tiger sharks was easy to control – something I could never have said about the original.

The undersea moments are gorgeous in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

To help you in your fight against the Templars, England, other pirates, and everything else, you have a few new tools and friends to find. First, the addition of a dedicated crouch button means Edward can try to maintain a low profile even when not tucked underneath leaves. This is now affected by things like lighting, weather, distance, and others, so you’ll have more stealth opportunities. To help on the Jackdaw, you’ll gain four new crew members who each bring something to the table, such as an augment to the Jackdaw’s power or some other bonus. You’ll need to complete their missions to recruit them, but let’s be honest – you were going to do that regardless. Side and back ejects from Assassin’s Creed Shadow make an appearance here, as does a fully refined Parkour system that keeps Kenway moving far more smoothly than before. A new Pathfinder system on the Jackdaw lets you set a line to a point on the map for a bit of guidance, or if you’re inclined, you can even have someone else take the helm to automatically guide you to your destination. In my four hours with the game, I found so many tiny quality of life improvements or upgrades that I stopped keeping track. It’s a delicate balance when you’re tinkering with an already-successful game like Black Flag, as adding to the soup can ruin it, but the team clearly took their time and listened to feedback on this one, and it shows throughout.

After four hours of play, one thing was abundantly clear – Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is no ordinary reskin of an old game, but a more transformative work. From stem to stern, this isn’t a remaster or a remake; this is a total overhaul. More than a coat of paint, this was time in dry dock, a new set of cannons, and a whole new set of sails for the Jackdaw. Frankly, it’s a new ship. Whether you’re a returning player or somebody new to the series, there is a great deal to be excited about, as, arguably, this is arguably Creed at its best, now even better than ever. Best of all, we won’t have to wait long to set sail, because Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced comes to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on July 9th, 2026.