You don't need to look hard to find a film or TV fan who will say a reboot is never as good as the original. But gamers often beg studios to remake their favourite titles – and some 13 years after its original launch, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been released to cash in on leaps in graphics and gameplay.
The game, developed by Ubisoft, is a ground-up remake of the 2013 hit that many fans – including the BBC's Tom Gerken – rank among the best in the Assassin's Creed franchise, which has sold an estimated 230 million copies across its various iterations.
“Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, a ground-up remake, launches 13 years after the original.”
Players take control of fictional Welsh pirate Edward Kenway in the Caribbean during the 1700s. The game opens with pirate ships in battle, swiftly followed by a lush tropical island on a sunny day. “It all looks good, as you would expect from a big budget game in 2026,” Gerken wrote.
Early on, players are encouraged to dive underwater and are met with a fantastic coral landscape. The developers are keen to show off the fancy new graphics, and here the game holds its own. It is a lot brighter than the original, which suffered from what is unaffectionately referred to as the “muddy era” of gaming, where developers used darker colours to help games look gritty and realistic. Released right at the tail end of this era, the original Black Flag was not the most egregious example – but still suffered somewhat. Now, the new game is filled with bright colours befitting of the Caribbean setting.
Andy Farrant, co-editor of the YouTube channel Outside Xbox, told the BBC he was excited to play it. “I firmly believe Black Flag is the best Assassin's Creed game,” he said. For Farrant, its only downsides had been “the boring modern day bits” which saw a pirate's life swapped out for meetings and water cooler chat in a Montreal office – a section of the original axed in its remake. “The world and the characters of Black Flag is what made it so appealing,” he said. “The chance to dip back into that world with some shiny new visuals and more screentime for Edward Kenway is something I cannot wait to dive into.”
With the remake now available, gamers who waited over a decade can finally see if this reboot lives up to the original's legacy – or if, as with many films and TV shows, the original remains the fan favourite.