Review Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: One of the Most Effective Remakes We've Ever Seen

Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag, originally released at the dawn of the PS4 and Xbox One era, is one of the most beloved pirate games ever - and now forms the basis of this month's most notable release, Black Flag Resynced. Rather than a traditional remaster, Ubisoft has opted for a comprehensive remake built on the bleeding-edge Anvil engine. The goal? To modernise the classic seafaring experience for current-gen consoles and PC, leveraging powerful new hardware to bring the Caribbean to life in ways that were impossible with sixth and seventh-gen tech.

The scale of this project is hard to overstate, with its lead developers at Ubisoft Singapore describing it akin to building a modern game from scratch. Rather than merely touching up existing assets, the developers have rebuilt the environment from the ground up, incorporating physically accurate PBR properties and sophisticated micropolygonal detailing. This approach allows the game to take full advantage of the increased density offered by modern PCs and ninth-generation consoles, resulting in a world that feels significantly more detailed and cohesive than the original release.

Interestingly, the environmental density in Resynced exceeds that of the latest mainline AC title, the Japan-set Shadows. The developers noted that because their micropolygon technology was still evolving during the production of Shadows, they had to be more conservative with assets to manage performance. With Resynced, they possessed a clearer understanding of their hardware limits, allowing for a much denser, richer world, particularly in the tightly packed coastal city of Havana compared to the wider urban environments seen in Shadows.

Character models have received similar attention, benefiting from current-gen design paradigms, advanced skin shaders and realistic subsurface scattering. The developers also implemented strand-based hair, a feature inherited from Shadows and adapted for the game to work with a wider range of hair colours. While motion capture data from the original game was retained for performances, the team relied on extensive manual work to ensure these animations mapped correctly onto the vastly improved models, shaders and wrinkle maps.

One of the most significant leaps is in lighting technology. The original game relied on blending multiple probe-based bakes based on the time of day, which, while sophisticated for its time, had noticeable limitations regarding directionality and detail. Resynced replaces this with a sumptuous RTGI lighting model, anchored in the same lighting volume to eliminate common issues like light bleeding through walls. The implementation feels anchored and consistent, providing a visually pleasing, high-quality atmosphere throughout the game world.

The most impressive part of the RTGI is its performance, with the Ubisoft design inspired by the efficient RTGI solution id Software showcased in Doom: The Dark Ages. The RTGI here is active across all consoles and all modes, thanks to its relatively low internal resolution, with significant advancements in upscaling and denoising required to maintain the visual integrity of the scene.

Water, of course an essential ingredient in the pirate fantasy, has been completely overhauled. The team moved away from hardware tessellation to a compute-based approach for the sea, resulting in a more convincing, broken surface appearance. Features like foam simulation and improved light scattering make the ocean feel dynamic and alive. Additionally, the game has expanded its use of RT reflections across more hardware configurations, which, when combined with temporal upscaling, produces excellent results even at lower render resolutions.

Beyond the visual upgrades, Resynced introduces meaningful structural changes to bring the game in line with modern standards. The developers have consolidated the open world into a seamless experience by removing the loading screens that previously occurred when docking at major cities. Furthermore, gameplay has been refined with improved parkour, new difficulty options, and combat tweaks. The divisive first-person Abstergo segments have been removed too, which, along with the replacement of tedious trailing missions, results in a game with more modern pacing.

Ultimately, Black Flag Resynced stands as a major technical achievement and one of the most effective remakes we've ever seen. It succeeds in preserving the spirit and art direction of the original game while evolving the technology to meet modern AAA expectations. With stable performance modes targeting 30fps, 40fps and 60fps, it offers a polished and beautiful experience that pushes the console hardware to its limits, cementing itself as an impressive evolution of a classic title.

Stay tuned for more on Black Flag Resynced - including more detailed console comparisons and extra technical insights from the development team.