Ubisoft launches Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake 13 years after original

Thirteen years after it first set sail, Assassin's Creed Black Flag has been reborn. Ubisoft has released Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a ground-up remake of the 2013 pirate epic that many fans – including the BBC's Tom Gerken – rank among the best of the entire franchise. The original game, set in the 1700s Caribbean and starring fictional Welsh pirate Edward Kenway, was by far the most successful piracy game of its era. Now, with modern graphics and a brighter palette, the remake aims to escape what Gerken calls the "muddy era" of gaming, where developers used dark colours to appear gritty. The new version is filled with bright colours befitting the Caribbean, and early underwater scenes show a fantastic coral landscape. One notable change: the modern-day segments, where players left Kenway's world for meetings in a Montreal office, have been axed – a move welcomed by Andy Farrant, co-editor of YouTube channel Outside Xbox. "I firmly believe Black Flag is the best Assassin's Creed game," Farrant told the BBC. "The world and the characters of Black Flag is what made it so appealing. The chance to dip back into that world with some shiny new visuals and more screentime…" The Assassin's Creed series has sold an estimated 230 million copies across its various iterations. Whether the remake lives up to the original's legacy will be tested by players, but early impressions suggest the pirate adventure has been given a new lease of life.