longer.blue

The original Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag from 2013 remains one of my favorite games of all time. Ever since I was a child, the Golden Age of Piracy was one of my favorite periods of history to learn about. So when murmurings began popping up about a Black Flag remake, I was very intrigued. I had dropped off the series after Unity, having only played about half of Syndicate and Origins, and never touching Odyssey or Valhalla. But the announcement of Black Flag Resynced did inspire me to try Shadows, which I thought was fine but nothing special (I got my money's worth but I got the game on clearance, let's put it that way). Surprise surprise, I still love this game! I 100%'d the original version twice, and now have 100%'d the remake including all achievements. All said and done, I sank about 70 hours into the game. Steam reports 110, but I have an awful habit of letting games idle. Anyway... I enjoy the world, I love the characters and the world building and the ship combat, and this remake does enhance a lot of that. There's more depth to the ship combat, plus an upgrade in difficulty, and a lot of the characters get more to do this time around. Anne Bonnie's stint as quartermaster in the original really only amounted to replacing Adéwalé, but here she actually has things to do. The Assassin's Bureau characters really only existed within the context of their side quests in the original, but in the remake they're actually given things to do in the endgame and it adds to the payoff of having done those missions during the main story. Rhona giving Edward a hug at the end made me smile, and that just didn't exist in the original! It helps sell Edward being accepted into the brotherhood in a way that the 2013 game didn't really fully realize. The combat and stealth additions are welcome changes from the 2013 game too. The combat is still a bit too easy, but back in the 2013 game it was effectively just RPS. And the stealth has crouching! Plus with the overhaul in the combat system, you have more reason to want to play stealthy since getting ganged up by multiple enemies can pose an actual threat now (well, at least until you master the counter system). That said, some of the new content is... questionable. The three new officers are fine, and their stories are inoffensive, but it does make them awkward during their integration in the main story because these "major characters" that are "integral to the story" simply didn't exist in 2013. And the Blackbeard treasure hunt and the Robert Maynard stories are both just bad imo. Edward is sent on a treasure hunt because he happened to read a note addressed to him that happened to be in Blackbeard's hat that happened to address him in the event that Blackbeard died, and the end result of that storyline is... Edward Kenway gets some gardening tools and it shows the origin of the flower from the end scene? Like... okay? And I love 'Ezio's Family', and I'm fine with them utilizing the song in this game but... what the fuck does Blackbeard have to do with Ezio????? That was so out of place. Then with the aforementioned Robert Maynard storyline, the actually story is *okay*, but within the context of when it happens in the story, it doesn't make any sense. I understand wanting to give Anne Bonnie a large quest, but for Edward to keep getting the runaround because he's falling for the promise of gold at a point when his character is supposed to be past the desire for material objects. It was just really out of place. What's good about the original's narrative is intact, and I still do believe this is among the best (if not the single best) narrative in any of these games. And I do think the elaboration of existing characters is well done. But the addition of the new characters and the additional plotlines are mediocre at best and actively detrimental at worst. Oh, and I guess I should mention, the Sage twist simply doesn't work without the modern day segments. But I don't necessarily miss them. So, is Resynced the definitive version of Black Flag? Probably! Is this the perfect way to play Black Flag? Ehh, no. Because with either version, you are going to have compromises. But alas, the game is good.