Assassin's Creed Black Flag is getting a remake this July

Ubisoft is releasing a full remake of its 2013 pirate adventure Assassin's Creed Black Flag on July 9. Titled Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, the updated game is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series consoles, and PC.

According to the PlayStation Blog, the development team focused entirely on the core single-player campaign. The remake includes updated graphics and several quality of life gameplay improvements. Ubisoft conducted player feedback workshops to figure out what needed tweaking without breaking the original game's mechanics.

13 years since the original launch

The original Black Flag launched in late 2013 as a cross-generation title. It released on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, followed shortly by versions for the then-new PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. It took the naval combat introduced in Assassin's Creed III and expanded it into a full Caribbean open world. Players control Edward Kenway, a privateer who stumbles into the ongoing Assassin and Templar conflict.

I actually got a great deal on the original Black Flag for the Nintendo Switch a while back, but I never got around to playing it. I am not sure I ever will with this remake coming out. The Switch port reportedly runs surprisingly well, but experiencing the naval battles with modern lighting and water physics is a much more appealing prospect.

Black Flag is widely considered a high point for the franchise. It struck a balance between the traditional stealth mechanics of the earlier games and the massive open-world RPG direction the series would eventually take with Origins and Odyssey. The ship combat was popular enough that Ubisoft eventually spun the concept out into Skull and Bones, a multiplayer pirate game that spent a decade in development hell before finally releasing to a mixed reception.

Upgrading the Jackdaw

A massive part of the 2013 game involved sailing your ship, the Jackdaw, across the Caribbean. Players had to attack merchant vessels, board them, and steal resources like wood and metal to upgrade their own hull and cannons. It was a satisfying gameplay loop accompanied by a crew singing historical sea shanties. Modernizing this system for current hardware could make the ocean traversal feel much more dynamic.

Ubisoft is focusing entirely on the core single-player adventure. The 2013 release included a competitive multiplayer mode where players tried to blend in with NPC crowds to assassinate each other. That mode has been entirely absent from the franchise for years, and it appears Resynced is not bringing it back.

Fixing the trailing missions

The promised quality of life updates will likely address some of the more tedious elements of the 2013 design. The original game relied heavily on trailing missions, where the player had to slowly follow targets through cities without being spotted. Modernizing the stealth detection and movement systems could make those sections much less frustrating.

There is also the question of the modern-day storyline. Black Flag included first-person segments set in the modern offices of Abstergo Entertainment, a fictional video game developer. Ubisoft has confirmed that the modern-day storyline in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced will be streamlined, with less connection to Abstergo and the Isu, focusing instead on Edward's internal struggles through "modern-day rifts."

Ubisoft has confirmed the standard edition pricing at $59.99/€59.99 and has detailed specific graphical upgrades, including ray-traced lighting with global illumination (RTGI) and reflections, reworked graphics assets, and modernized water rendering and simulation. We will likely see more gameplay footage as the July release date approaches.