Ubisoft has unfurled their latest big Assassin’s Creed announcement, confirming that Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced will launch on 9th July across PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC.
At long last, after rumours, jokey acknowledgements, and full blown leaks, Ubisoft has given us what we desire: a remake of Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag. The game has been built from the ground up in the latest rendition of the Anvil engine by a global team led by Ubisoft Singapore – the studio behind Skull and Bones, and who originally developed the naval combat for this era of Assassin’s Cred game.
This promises to be a broadly faithful remake, so it retains parry-based combat instead of going all-in on action RPG shenanigans, but is has been sped up and made more fluid. That’s alongside stealth that now includes crouching anywhere you want, and parkour that’s been refined, and deeper naval mechanics that give the Jackdaw new weapon upgrades. There is some new narrative content being added in for the three new crewmates that you can aquire – Lucy Baldwin, The Padre, and Deadman Smith – and to expand existing story lines and characters. Other missions have been tweaked too, so tailing missions don’t just desync if you’re spotted and just fold over into combat.
Most importantly, you can now have a cat or a monkey as a pet on the Jackdaw.
On the visual side of things, there’s then things like a renewed dynamic weather system, new lighting, wholesale model and texture replacement, and more. Check out this set of comparison stills:
Oh, and there’s newly recorded music, both with the in-game sea shanties (there’s new ones in addition to the old) and Woodkid is returning to the franchise and will collaborate on a reimagined track.
The game comes in three editions, starting at €59.99/$59.99 for the base version:
- Standard Edition – Includes the base game.
- Deluxe Edition – This digital-only edition includes the base game plus the Master Assassin Character Pack and the Master Assassin Naval Pack.
- Collector’s Edition – Includes everything in the Deluxe Edition, plus premium physical collector’s items: Edward’s Figurine, Edward wearable metal brooch, exclusive SteelBook®, cloth map, and more.
If you’re looking to get the game on PC, Ubisoft has already released the spec sheet.
Black Flag is a beloved entry from the series’ past, arriving as a cross-gen release alongside the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One. After AC3’s sluggish story, Black Flag took a left turn and embraced the naval combat that was an aside in AC3 to go all in on piracy. It was something that was explored again in turncoat tale of AC Rogue (initially just for PS3 and 360), and saw Ubisoft Singapore embark on the decade-long folly of making Skull and Bones.
In our original review, we said, “Black Flag is more than just a return to form for Assassin’s Creed, it is an overall improvement and probably the best game in the series yet. Wherever Ubisoft take us next, it will have serious difficulty living up to this instalment. It has taken the gameplay of the previous games, refined it, and combined it with a huge open world that is packed with enough content to literally last for days. If you have ever wanted a proper pirate game, this is as good as it gets.”
