Edward Kenway Returns: The Black Flag Resynced Review

The Caribbean has never looked this crisp, and stepping back into the shoes of Edward Kenway feels like catching a perfect gust of wind on a pristine morning. This isn’t just a nostalgia trip; it’s a fully realised, modernised pirate playground that grabs you by the throat and refuses to let go until you’ve pillaged every last chest. Whether you’re a veteran of the seas or a new recruit looking for a reason to lose hundreds of hours, this remake sets a new bar for how we revisit our favourite legends.

QUICK NAV: [Specs] [Gameplay] [Performance] [Settings]

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced PlayStation 5 Review

• Developer: Ubisoft Singapore
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Storefront: PlayStation Store
• Download Size: 61.85GB
• Progression: Includes Platinum trophy support.
• Audio: Uses DualSense speaker for sound effects and features excellent voice work and sea shanties.
• Ecosystem: Ubisoft Connect integration with exclusive rewards and challenges.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced PlayStation 5 Review

It is worth noting that our main character hails from Swansea, but he spent a lot of time setting sail from good old Gert Lush Bristol. It gets mentioned a lot, and it is a brilliant touch. The voice work is excellent throughout the game, from the main characters to the sea shanties and even the everyday people going about their business. That said, some of the new recordings feel off, as if the volume was cranked up too high or the sound effects are just plain weird. I must say there is something funny when you people watch, and glitches happen, meaning something as simple as a conversation turns into a guy walking away and then just flying up to God for no reason.

The game feels much better to play than its predecessors; it is smooth, responsive, and has a solid, consistent flow. You play in a fully 3D world from a third-person view, though you can look around in first person whenever you fancy. It feels like a living, breathing world where you can sit back and people watch, and you will certainly witness some hilarious glitches and mishaps playing out in real time. You have tutorial pop-ups as you play, a central help Codex, and plenty of button prompts to keep you on track. On the load game screen, you can see the entire Assassin’s Creed timeline, and if those games are installed, you can launch them directly from there.

The Animus system offers a huge set of objectives and missions that are a massive time sink, but in the best possible way. Finishing them lets you claim keys for unique rewards, and with a whole list of projects to tackle, each with its own final reward, there are loads of unlocks and genuine replayability. You can loot objects throughout the world and set it to loot one by one or grab everything in one go, which is a great quality-of-life feature. Chests are everywhere, and you will find Code Entries on the map; these are collected scripts that give a brief bit of history for the area. Viewpoints are back, but they have more to them now; they are high up with an eagle perched on them, and the noise from those birds can actually alert you to the spot. Once synchronised, they serve as your fast travel points. When you have to follow someone, you can enable the auto follow, which makes the process much easier. You can also dig up treasure with maps, feed wandering chickens, and chase down musical shanties to learn new songs for your crew. You can even display paintings, items, and ships at your home island, and expand the town by building shops and bars to unlock mechanics like better crafting and improved crew morale.

Combat is a refined take on hack and slash; you can lock on, dodge, parry, and pull off crazy combos by mixing ranged and melee together. You can use ranged weapons or melee fighting, using the shoulder buttons for attacking and blocking. Honestly, the rag doll physics are pure entertainment when you take out an enemy; you can carry their body to avoid suspicion or just throw them. They have no weight and fly around like dolls, which is just too much fun. Detection and stealth are a huge deal, but you can just say sod it and go guns blazing if you are in the mood for action. You can see guards responding to noises in restricted areas or use vegetation and crates to hide. Just keep an eye on your notoriety meter, which fills up as you are spotted, caught stealing, or fighting. Eavesdropping is also back so you can get hints and tips on targets, and you can use Eagle Vision to see through walls with enemies shown as red outlines. The climbing is as fast and slick as ever, and you can turn off the quick time events without any penalty. It is a bit of a letdown when you spend time clearing out a castle only to find nothing there or get any acknowledgement, but side quests like harpooning sharks or boarding downed ships make up for it. The day and night cycle with dynamic weather adds to the realism, especially the sea storms that make it hard to see and prevent you from using your sails and your boat can be blown around.

Boat management is the real meat of the experience. You can use the Pathfinder system, which will draw a route to your marker on both land and sea and have it so your boat will follow it, look through your spyglass and get information on ships like their strength or goods on board, all before you attack them, select shanties for your crew and find more of them in the world by chasing the notes, fire cannons and unlock new ones like mortors and different ammo like fire, or leave the wheel to walk around. You can aim your sails to ride the wind for speed and use waves, and hunker down to block enemy fire. You will need to buy and upgrade parts, hire crew, and it’s a shame some of this is locked behind story progression, huge money grinds, but it is worth it ultimately. Take on and build up your new main house of operations, complete with a treasure room beneath it. It is expansive, and there is always something to unlock or an item to place and a great way to always make visual progress. You can hunt animals for crafting, and even have a pet cat on your boat that follows you around; you can find different breeds and colours of cat, so don’t worry. The ship combat itself is solid, allowing you to jump between mortars and cannons. It is a time sink in that you can just go around looting and dropping ships everywhere, but the rewards themselves feel worth it. The only real frustration is the cutscenes, which are a mix of in-game and FMV; some look lower quality, and the fact that you cannot skip them, especially when they reuse the same ones for boarding and rescues, is a real drag on the pacing. Overall its a triumphant update and is an example of how to do a remaster without completely redoing it: keep the main game but build on it in meaningful ways and ways that ultimately make sense. They got it right here, but more content would be great, like loot variety.

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced PlayStation 5 Review: Performance & Fidelity

• Visuals: Amazing graphics with Fidelity and performance graphics settings.
• Weather: Dynamic day and night cycles with weather that impacts visibility and sailing. Storms can happen and will obstruct your view, or at sea, it will drag your boat around with reckless abandon.
• Underwater: Full underwater exploration that looks fantastic, though you’ll have to watch out for sharks, and unless you turn off the effects, the screen can go a bit swimmy. (yes swimmy)
• Cutscenes: A mix of in-game and FMV, though some cutscenes do show their age with lower quality. Oh, and you cannot skip them, but why would you?
• Audio Quirks: Some voices sound like new, louder recordings that don’t always sit right in the mix.

Settings, Customisation & Control Details

• Difficulty: Four categories (combat, stealth, naval combat, activities) each with three options: Story, Normal, and Hard.
• Quality of Life: Loot items one by one or all at once; auto-follow for missions; dock instantly by pressing the button in the docking circle; you can jump off the ship earlier if you like, as you have a cool rope to swing off.
• Ship Management: Pathfinder system, looking glass, and full crew/ship upgrades.
• Photo Mode: Includes filters, focus, and offset camera options.
• User Interface: Clean and barely there during gameplay, but the menus are slick and fast.

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