Edward Kenway returns in ray tracing, with Blackbeard, a photo mode and zero loading screens. Gorgeous, respectful, and yet shadowed by a doubt: was it necessary?
Alexandrosse
InsertCoins.press Score
8/10
Verdict
Recommended
There are games you don't need to remake because they never really aged. Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag is one of them: thirteen years on, it's still the best pirate game ever released, and probably the finest memory Ubisoft gave a generation. So when Black Flag Resynced arrives to bring it up to date, you're torn between the thrill of boarding the Jackdaw again and a nagging question: did we really need this?
Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is the remake of the iconic 2013 pirate adventure, developed by Ubisoft Montreal and Ubisoft Singapore, available on 9 July 2026 on PC, PS5 and Xbox Series for fifty-nine euros, with a Deluxe edition at sixty-nine. You find Edward Kenway again, a social-climbing privateer turned assassin despite himself, during the golden age of piracy. This isn't a simple remaster port: Ubisoft speaks of a faithful but enriched remake, with redone visuals, modernized gameplay and brand-new content. In other words, the parent company attempts the most perilous exercise there is, touching a game its fans consider untouchable.
On the technical side, there's no debate: it's sumptuous. The remake runs the whole thing under ray-traced lighting and micropolygon rendering, adds a detailed dynamic weather system, and the result is quite simply the most beautiful pirate game ever made. The sunsets over a raging sea, the light catching the sails during a boarding, the rain sweeping the Jackdaw's deck in a storm: these moments that already made the original's magic reach a level of spectacle never seen in the genre. Just sailing becomes a contemplative pleasure again.
The work doesn't stop at the postcard. The open world now streams seamlessly, the loading screens at the entrance of major cities have vanished, and immersion gains enormously. You move from the open sea to the alleys of Havana with no break, and that fluidity changes the very texture of exploration. It's the kind of invisible improvement that won't make headlines, but that's felt every minute of play. Technically, Resynced is flawless.
Where many remakes settle for repainting, this one dares to retouch the mechanics, and rather well. The tailing missions, that rigid nightmare of the era, have become less punishing thanks to more flexible game design. Stealth gains freedom, with Edward now able to crouch anywhere to blend in. And combat has been reworked to be more dynamic, more modern, closer to what you expect from a 2026 action game than to the somewhat dated 2013 system. These are targeted, respectful adjustments that smooth the rough edges without distorting the experience.
To that add real new content, and not filler. The remake unfolds new storylines devoted to beloved figures like Blackbeard and Stede Bonnet, a tasty nod to the recent craze for these pirates. You also get new sea shanties, pets and a photo mode cut to immortalize all this beauty. Ubisoft didn't just polish its classic, it fed it, and these additions give a real reason to board again even for those who know the adventure by heart.
And yet, despite all that shines, an unease lingers, and the international press shares it. Black Flag was already a masterpiece, and a masterpiece that still ran very well. Remaking it, however well done, raises the question of necessity. Some purists feel the remake, by over-modernizing, loses part of the particular touch and warmth of the original, that 2013 atmosphere no ray tracing replaces. You gain in sharpness what you sometimes lose in soul, and it's a legitimate debate you can't wave away.
It's the paradox of any remake of a recent, beloved game: it has to justify its existence beyond a simple facelift. Resynced ticks nearly every box, but it never completely sheds that whiff of a commercial exercise, of a safe bet pulled from the cupboard because it's sure to pay. It's not a lazy cash grab, far from it, the care taken forbids that charge. But it's a remake you can legitimately wonder whether it brings enough to exist alongside an original that hadn't disgraced itself.
Black Flag Resynced nails the essentials: it treats its model with rare respect and gives it the finest possible setting. The visual overhaul is a marvel, the loading-free world is a joy of immersion, the gameplay retouches modernize without betraying, and the new content around Blackbeard justifies the return of connoisseurs on its own. Above all, beneath all this, there's still Black Flag, that is, one of the best adventure games and by far the greatest pirate game ever conceived. You can't go wrong playing it.
There remains that doubt keeping it from the absolute summits. You don't remake with impunity a game that didn't need to be, and Resynced drags that faint scent of a marketing operation despite all its talent. For the newcomer who has never raised the Jackdaw's sails, it's an ideal doorway, gorgeous and essential. For the veteran, it's a magnificent rereading you savor without shaking a small voice whispering that the original already held the sea very well. In both cases, you board again with pleasure.
The most beautiful pirate game ever made, a respectful and sumptuous remake of an untouchable masterpiece: essential for newcomers, superb for the rest, despite a persistent doubt about its reason to exist.
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Tested on PC.
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