Without a doubt, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is one of the franchise’s most significant entries, even if I only experienced Ezio’s installments and Altair’s portable spin-offs among its many titles. Back in 2013, the series hadn’t yet ventured into expansive RPG maps like Odyssey and Valhalla. Consequently, 13 years later, the Caribbean might feel limited in landmass and exploration scope, as the true pirate focus lies in its naval navigation and combat. Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, the latest remake announced and developed by Ubisoft Singapore—following the unsuccessful Skull & Bones—should be an expanded reinvention of the original game with greater freedom. Instead, it opts for fidelity.
Receiving remakes faithful to the original product isn’t necessarily bad. However, as Square Enix and Capcom have taught us with their “reimaginings” of Final Fantasy VII and Resident Evil, offering a new gameplay style is a better idea. Veteran players will feel they are treading fresh ground inspired by the classic, while newcomers won’t complain about a potentially outdated formula—for them, of course. As seen in its reveal trailer, Resynced does little more than give Black Flag a facelift for current-gen consoles and other quality-of-life improvements. Its proposal is clear: it’s not an RPG but a faithful single-player title (farewell to online multiplayer).
This leads me to consider that, as it wasn’t precisely explained, the Jackdaw’s navigation method and the exploration of islands and islets in the Caribbean may also remain unchanged. You see, in the 2013 game, we could reach the fourth sequence with an “open sea” blocked by invisible walls, as is tradition in Assassin’s Creed games with their watchtowers as synchronization points. I understand it’s part of the mechanics, but in this specific game, it only makes the experience feel extremely limited. It would be a very different matter if Kenway’s ship couldn’t venture into dangerous zones without succumbing due to lack of preparation, but that should be the player’s decision.
For a long time, Black Flag has been the closest we’ve come to an open world—or more accurately, an open sea—pirate simulator at sea. This is more due to its realistic touch than the cartoonish style of other games. Coincidentally, it’s part of the Assassin’s Creed family, but the sentiment remains, and we already know what happened with Skull & Bones, which aimed to be a massive online multiplayer spiritual successor. So, while in the same year of 2013, Rockstar Games gifted us GTA V with a completely open map from the start, Ubisoft preferred to stick to geographical limitations. As of 2026, we still don’t know if they will maintain these limitations in favor of “fidelity.”
Ideally, the terrestrial portions should also be expanded, as what the map depicts is somewhat different and more scaled than what is truly explorable. This includes cities, towns, ruins, and more Caribbean jungles. Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag is a good game, and Resynced is playing it safe by using it as a base. I just wish it would broaden its horizons, but that would bring it closer to Odyssey or Valhalla, which seems to be what Ubisoft doesn’t want. Nor do many other players tired of so much ground to cover.
This isn’t to say that Resynced looks graphically bad—quite the contrary, given its development environments which appear to be final versions, considering its release on July 9th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. Incidentally, its lack of a version for Nintendo Switch 2, a console that will receive AC Shadows, causes bewilderment towards Ubisoft. However, the lack of freedom in what should be a renewed way of playing Black Flag continues to raise more questions that we will only be able to answer when the game becomes available. Based on what has been presented, I wouldn’t hold out much hope.
For now, we know we won’t suffer from loading screens between navigation and on-foot traversal, which brings the experience a bit closer to its recent predecessors. We’ll see if it’s enough to justify setting sail again on this extensive adventure for the completionists of the assassin brotherhood.
