I'm a few hours into Black Flag Resynced, playing on the Xbox Series X with an HDR-capable TV, and I have a few quick thoughts on my time with it so far.
1. Too Dark
2. Light Weight
The characters and the environment feel oddly weightless. I’m not sure if it’s the sound design or just the visual translation, but something feels off. I just finished Guardians of the Galaxy and started playing Cyberpunk 2077, and both of those games do a fantastic job of making the world feel grounded and heavy. Here, that presence is missing.
3. It's Fun
Once you finally get to the Jackdaw and hit the open sea, it starts to feel like the game it’s supposed to be.
4. A Different Game
This is a fundamentally different game from the original, and that’s okay. The core story is there, but the overall experience isn’t the same. Parts of this new version, like the menu system, feel incredibly stiff and robotic. The original felt hand-crafted. Yes, it had flaws, but those flaws were part of its charm; when you played as Edward Kenway, it felt like you were blazing a new trail, both literally and figuratively.
With this remake, it feels like the developers simply answered the question social media always asks: "What if that old game I like had modern graphics?" Your answer to that question might be more enthusiastic than mine. I see a lot of incredibly successful games these days that rely on basic or stylized visuals. I'm just not convinced that making a game "look real" is always an upgrade.
5. Dolls vs. Art
The character models look more like dolls than artistic representations of real humans. If you look closely at Edward’s head, it’s perfectly round and his hairline is pulled back like a Ken doll. It's as if the character designers modeled their humans after marionettes rather than real life.
While it doesn't entirely break my immersion, it feeds into my theory that modern digital artists don't draw from life anymore, they are completely tethered to computerized mediums. In other words, they are letting the technology drive their creative output, which ultimately makes the art feel like a copy of a copy.
Detail for Detail's Sake?
None of this means the game looks "bad." In fact, it looks fantastic. The sheer level of detail on Edward is incredible, honestly, it must take the guy two hours just to get dressed in the morning! But it looks so detailed that you have to wonder if all of it is actually necessary.
Ultimately, I think I would have preferred a simple upgrade to the original Black Flag, something optimized and polished for modern consoles, rather than a game completely transplanted into a different engine. Gamers have always chased realistic graphics, but now that we have them, we're discovering they aren't required for a wonderful experience. In fact, sometimes they actively take away from it.
The Assassin's Creed series has always leaned into realism as a core part of its time-traveling concept, but you can really feel the weight of a hyper-detailed obsession in this remake. It feels like a hundred people worked on a single main character, and nobody stopped to ask if it was necessary, a mindset that likely delayed this project for years.
Anyway, those are my thoughts this morning. It’s just critique, not hate. I’m still having fun and looking forward to jumping right back into the game!