Following three hours of playtime with the Assassin's Creed franchise's first full-scale remake, there's equal parts new and familiar to enjoy.17:00, 21 May 2026Updated 17:19, 21 May 2026Assassin's Creed Black Flag is set to return by way of an in-depth remake, one that knows where to iterate and where to be delicate with the original 2013 source material.‌Ask anyone which game in Ubisoft's historic, stealth-fuelled series is their favourite and they're sure to provide one of two answers: Assassin's Creed 2 or Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. Given that it's been nearly two decades since the former's release, you'd think it’d be Ezio's beloved origin story that'd be the first candidate to receive the ground-up remake treatment. However, likely due to the Skull and Bones of it all (at least if Ubisoft is being totally honest with itself), it’s actually Edward Kenway’s sea-faring open-world adventure that’s being adorned with new sails as early as this summer.‌But does 2013’s pirate adventure need a full-scale remake? Probably not. And yet, after going hands-on with the game for roughly three hours of playtime, improved visuals and select mechanical tweaks already appear set to ensure that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced will be the definitive version.‌In my preview for Resynced, I was able to sample three mostly familiar sequences. The first dropped me right at the beginning of Edward’s jaunt through the Caribbean, with the dashing young rogue quickly washed ashore following a sea battle gone wrong. It’s here where I got my first taste of Resynced’s marked step up in graphical fidelity - and boy, does it impress.Would we expect it to given that Black Flag Resynced is now running on the latest version of Ubi’s Anvil engine, the same that delivered Feudal Japan’s innate beauty in Assassin’s Creed Shadows just last year? Sure, but there’s something to say about how breathtaking and colourful a setting such as the West Indies can look when rendered in this upgraded way.From here I quickly got to grips with how Kenway now handles, and I must say it’s a lot smoother than expected, and more similarly to how new Assassin’s Creed protagonists like Odyssey’s Cassandra and Shadows’ Naoe and Yasuke control. For one, there’s actually a crouch button present in Black Flag now.‌It might sound like a small change, and it is, but with this one addition alone suddenly stealth is more viable, which is exactly what you need when it comes time to sneak kill or skulk around Spanish soldiers using the nearby environment. Before Black Flag made you beholden to littered-around leaf piles to get around quietly, but in Resynced stealth feels a lot more natural.Similar improvements have also been made to the act of exploration itself, with climbing made much more fluid thanks to the inclusion of side and back ejects that helps offset a lot of awkward falls. Then there’s the complete removal of the mini-map featured before, which I was certain prior to getting hands on with Resynced would annoy me more. However, by implementing near enough the same compass and focus system featured in more recent AC titles, picking out areas and activities of interest in the likes of Havana and Nassau is made less immersion-breaking.‌Speaking of locations, I got the impression while exploring Havana especially, which I was able to do in free roam, that the studio at Ubisoft Singapore have had great fun implementing more impactful world activities. Whether it’s singers belting out a tune along the dirt path, a flurry of women cooing as Edward walks by, or just the general hustle and bustle, Resynced is going out of its way to make these familiar West Indies locations feel like lived-in areas.Sometimes this even rears its head via actual optional emergent events, separate to each map’s raft of collectible locations, shops, and side activities. One that popped up had me trying to rescue prisoners from a nearby firing squad, while another challenged me to pickpocket a guard and steal from a local warehouse. I didn’t need to do any of this stuff, but I felt compelled to due to how much the natural life of Havana wound up calling to me.READ MORE: PlayStation Plus to get more expensive from tomorrow, unless you act fastREAD MORE: Logitech G512 X review - a feature-packed, innovative gaming keyboard that looks and feels enthusiast-gradeA pirate's life for meThe other big mechanical changes come by way of combat, of course, which has now been tweaked to be a bit more involved and engrossing than the simple countering and defense breaking of before. Rather than infinitely spam the attack button, Kenway is now equipped with a perfect parry, which, when pulled off successfully opens enemies up for an instant takedown. And gosh darn, is this satisfying.‌Combined with the need to dodge whenever a foe flashes red, bobbing and weaving like this is the best Edward Kenway has ever handled in combat, doubly so when you throw in a handful of special attack abilities like the leg sweep, rope dart pull, and the new Cassandra-inspired spartan kick. All of which operate on a cooldown and saved my arse on more than once occasion in my preview demo whenever enemies started to surround. Overall, Resynced isn’t the most sophisticated Assassin's Creed combat system ever, but it is satisfying in a less repetitive sense.By comparison, battling out on the open ocean while aboard the Jackdaw plays and looks just as solidly as it did back in 2013. And I say this as someone who by and large has only ever tolerated ship combat in Assassin’s Creed. It’s why I love Origins so much, since being set in Egypt ensures there’s barely any water in sight. However, peppering rival ships with chain shots and mortar fire has always been core to the Black Flag experience, and here manoeuvring the Jackdaw to pull off said ranged attacks can still be thrilling, even if very little has been done to advance it. In other words, it’s a case of ‘if this old ship ain’t broke, don’t fix it’ - at least from what I could tell in my preview demo.‌For the most part, mechanical improvements and upgraded visuals aside, Resynced doesn’t do much to outright reinvent Edward Kenway’s journey to discover the mysterious Observatory or the way it’s told. New chapters and optional mission quests relating to three new naval officers will make an appearance to add some new flavour for returning pirate fans, but what I got to experience of this during my preview was a tad limited. Dropped into a later sequence with very little context, I found myself rescuing one of Edward’s new comrades from a prison ship in the form of Lucy Baldwin.Strong-willed and capable, what followed was a fairly moving conversation between her and I back at the Hideout on Great Inagua where she shared her personal reasons for turning to piracy, but I wasn’t able to see where it would ultimately lead to. However, if the other two new naval officers’ intros are as strong as Lucy’s, I’ll have no trouble wanting to pursue them. Though likely not game-changing, new narrative trimmings such as these are in line with all the other small (but hopefully meaningful) ways Resynced is aiming to enhance the original Black Flag story without outright disrupting the fan-favourite sacred text from 2013.Overall, I came away from my three hours playing through select parts of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced hopeful and optimistic that Ubisoft Singapore will pull off what appears to be a fairly delicate balancing act. On the one hand this is the story and setting Black Flag veterans know, prettied up with a handful of extra mechanical and graphical changes. But on the other there’s a definite desire to try and make Edward Kenway’s sea-faring journey through the Caribbean the most definitive version.Article continues belowAs such, even though the original 2013 iteration still looks and plays great by today’s standards and Resynced doesn’t technically need to exist, this is set to be a remake providing several excuses to want to don the assassin pirate gear once again.Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is set to launch on PS5, Xbox, and PC this July 9, 2026 .