The cat has finally come out on what was one of gaming's worst kept secrets, a position admitted by Ubisoft itself, and fans like me are now eagerly awaiting. Assassin's Creed Black Flag resynchronized ahead of its release on July 9.
the original Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is widely heralded as one of the best Assassin's Creed games, taking the series back to the Golden Age of Piracy in the 18th century, featuring wonderful and exotic locations, wonderful ship explorations, and one of the best protagonists and casts in the series' history.
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Having previously watched that stream and presentation that we've all seen now, I've been able to think about the new features, the original game, and as an Assassin's Creed fan, what I'm excited about and what I hope stays true to the original in resynchronized.
No more stealth missions that fail instantly
Praise the god of Ubisoft because instant tracking missions are now a thing of the past in Black Flag!
I could only start with this one, as this generation of Assassin's Creed games, so to speak, was plagued with this, and most of the community was upset about them in every game and every release. Now it looks like one of the best AC games will remove them, and I hope those missions, and therefore the entire game, are much better.
As Matt Ryan says in the stealth portion of the presentation, “The tracking and listening missions have also been revamped. In the original game, being discovered meant instant desynchronization. Yes, this was a pretty big problem. We remember that! Now, the action continues. Your targets remain, but your target will react and you must adapt accordingly.”
No more instant crashes and finally going back to game over screens. This will be a great new feature and I'm looking forward to having to fight my way out when he inevitably gives me away on one of these missions.
Building the Jackdaw crew and adding a cat
As in Assassin's Creed Odysseywhere some sort of crew recruitment could be done, I always thought, in retrospect, that filling your crew with enthusiastic officers and pirates would have been a huge help. Black FlagThe hat. And now it will be.
The opportunity to recruit three named officers who will bring tangible changes and improvements to the Jackdaw is great and helps give more purpose and meaning to the upgrade of your beloved ship. The three new officers, Lucy Baldwin, The Father, and Deadman Smith, will each bring something to the ship and its crew, and each “has a unique narrative quest line that reveals their backstory,” which I'm really intrigued to dive into.
In possibly more surprising news, you can now recruit a Ship Cat or Ship Monkey as a pet for the Jackdaw. I'm a team cat, so I'll head straight for a feline friend.
Add some new sea songs to complement Brian Tyler's soundtrack, which was already a great musical score packed with great tunes, including some of my all-time favorites like 'Stealing a Brig' and 'In This World or the One Below', and exploring the high seas on the Jackdaw will be a real highlight in resynchronized.
More history, more history
Now we know there will be, well, more Black Flag in Resynchronized Black Flagwhich is excellent news.
Paul Fu, creative director of Resynced, said in the presentation that the team has “added new chapters and new missions to the game, including a new scene with Edward's wife, Caroline, written by Darby. [McDevitt] itself.”
I can't wait to see what expanded stories or new narrative threads have been added to what was already one of the best stories in the series. Edward Kenway, as a character and protagonist, is also one of the most compelling and interesting, so I am here to know more about him and his journey.
We also know there will be more stories affecting some of our favorite characters, with the developers saying there will be some “new story arcs involving our old friends Blackbeard and Stede.” While these two are wildly different, of course, they're both engrossingly interesting, and I'd love to see how Black Flag Resynced could do more with Stede – perhaps more about his disappearance? – and the terrifying loose weapon that is Edward Thatch.
Finally, when it comes to narrative content, we know the team has changed it from the modern sections of the game, and I'm looking forward to exploring it. Yes, it's me, an Assassin's Creed fan who likes modern things.
Fu described the changes in Abstergo elements like this: “To Resynchronized Black Flagwe have gotten closer [the modern-day part] in a way that focuses on Edward's journey, while still connecting his memories to the animus. The modern divisions in Resynchronized Black Flag will feature new moments about Edward's internal struggles.”
While I didn't mind and enjoyed the modern parts of most Assassin's Creed games, delving into Edward Kenway and his journey and internal struggles as a human will be much more exciting than playing as an Abstergo IT guy fixing broken PCs.
animated parkour
While I haven't enjoyed a change to the series' parkour as much as the transformational system that Assassin's Creed Unity brought a new generation of traversal to gaming, the incorporation of parkour systems and features from modern games remains a welcome addition to Resynced.
Modernizing parkour and giving players more options, pacing, route choice, and action will only make moving from place to place more fabulous, satisfying, and skillful, whether across rooftops, climbing ship masts, or through treetops and scaling cliffs.
It will greatly improve movement, given Black Flag's parkour, which was the older and much “stickier” type of parkour. Recent additions to companies such as Assassin's Creed Mirage and Assassin's Creed Shadowssuch as free jumping and even crouching, will greatly add additional depth to Kenway's tour of the Caribbean.
New treasures in the form of, presumably, a new trophy list.
I really loved exploring the maps, searching for secrets, and completing fun combat combos and challenges to earn a platinum trophy in nine Assassin's Creed games to date.
The newer games in the series have been fun and relatively easy to complete in that way, and I hope that's the case resynchronized.
Since Ubi confirmed that there is no multiplayer or DLC in Resynced, we can immediately and fairly reliably infer that the list of trophies and achievements will at least be edited from the original, but perhaps added and expanded if the developers had a little fun matching some with the new content.
Older games were notoriously harder or more time-consuming, at least up to the platinum level, so removing the multiplayer itself will be a boon for trophy hunters; Black Flag I originally had seven or eight online or multiplayer trophies, so removing those would make it much more feasible.
Even more beautiful landscapes
The seas of the Caribbean and the islands of Black Flag They were probably the best landscapes and environments in the series when the game was released in 2013.
I loved island hopping on the Jackdaw, taking in the vast seascapes and running and parkouring through lush jungles, climbing trees and sunbathing on the sunniest beaches. Now, powered by the latest version of its Anvil engine from Ubisoft, everything will look even more fantastic, lush, vivid and beautiful.
While the jump from PlayStation 3 to PlayStation 4 was obvious in a game like Black Flag which was released on both platforms, the fact that it was originally developed for the former means that we are in for an absolute treat when it comes to visual and performance improvements. I hope it looks even better on my PS5 Pro too.
Improved pirate combat
Black FlagThe combat was fun, fairly slick, and satisfying to master and get used to throughout the game, but I'm still really intrigued by the changes to Kenway's fighting ability promised by resynchronized.
The inclusion of parries, and perfectly timed ones at that, to open up defenses, the way it slows down time and the clever combos Kenway can use with swords, guns, the appearance of his fists and feet and hidden swords, even in the small clips we've seen so far, looks action-packed and really cool.
The addition of being able to use the environment and breakables deliberately seems like a lot of fun too, and I can't wait to chain together the maximum amount of bad guy takedowns to create a perfect wave of pirate action.
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