An Assassin's Creed veteran who directed Valhalla and served as lead designer on the OG Black Flag and more has returned to Ubisoft as the series' game director.

Eric Baptizat spent almost 16 full years at Ubisoft between 2005 and 2021, during which time he was credited with lead roles on the two aforementioned games, as well as Assassin's Creed: Origins and Unity, before moving to EA's Motive Studio to direct Battlefield 6 and the Dead Space remake. Now, as announced by the Assassin's Creed series' head of content Jean Guesdon, Baptizat is back.

"After an incredible professional journey, including 16 years at Ubisoft and then leading the critically acclaimed Dead Space remake at EA Motive, Eric Baptizat is coming back to the Assassin's Creed family as our new Game Director for the brand," Guesdon announces in a new LinkedIn post.

"Éric needs no introduction in this universe. 16 years at Ubisoft, key contributions to Black Flag, Origins, and Valhalla as Game Director, his passion for gameplay craft and his deep connection to this franchise speak for themselves," he continues. "Seeing someone with his expertise, his rigor, and his collaborative spirit step into this role fills me with confidence and honestly, a lot of excitement, for what's ahead for the brand."

Baptizat isn't the first veteran Ubisoft has rehired like this – ironically, the same happened with Guesdon himself. He spent 17 years at the company between 2005 and 2023 before departing, and was later appointed head of content this February, also taking over as creative director on Assassin's Creed Hexe following the departure of Clint Hocking (in what was, in fact, his second time leaving the company).

Things haven't exactly been smooth sailing at Ubisoft recently. At the start of the year, it was announced that the company was undergoing a "major reset," which led to six games being canceled. This same reset saw production split into different "creative houses" tasked with the development of different series – Vantage Studios, for example, includes the likes of Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, and Rainbow Six. That's the same one that was backed by Tencent.

Clearly, it's in Ubisoft's interest to smooth things out – Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has had a very strong start, but there are a bunch of other upcoming Assassin's Creed games on the horizon, including Assassin's Creed Hexe, Jade, and Invictus. Hopefully, Baptizat will be able to help get these out the door successfully to keep things moving in the right direction.

OG Assassin's Creed Black Flag devs "had a lot of teething difficulties" trying to nail down the "seamless naval experience."

While sailing was a massive part of the Assassin's Creed Black Flag experience, the devs say it was a trial to get it working in the first place.

While sailing was technically introduced earlier in the series thanks to some segments in Assassin's Creed 3, it became the whole basis of the next game in the series. Speaking to Retro Gamer magazine, Jean Guesdon, creative director on Black Flag, explains, "One of the first key decisions was to reuse everything we could."

Despite a test-run in AC3's American Northeast the year prior, Guesdon says it wasn't quite as simple as bringing that over into the next game. This was mainly thanks to the scale of the sailing being expanded. He adds, "We had a lot of teething difficulties trying to move from focused naval missions to a seamless naval experience."

Of course, it wouldn't be the end of sailing, as Ubisoft would soon go into the Skull and Bones mines for about a decade before releasing that to… being released. But its development probably helped in the creation of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced this year, so piracy lives on once more.

While I'm admittedly not really into Ubisoft's biggest series, I have always had a very big soft spot for Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag. Maybe it's because, in many ways, it really doesn't feel like an Assassin's Creed game as the pirate fantasy elements take center stage. I don't even think I finished it entirely as I just enjoyed sailing the high seas and singing with the fellas too much.

If you're yet to play it yourself, you can read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games.

Assassin's Creed: Odyssey player count soared for the first time in years since Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey adaptation released earlier this month, according to data gathered by Alinea Analytics.

Alinea head of market analysis Rhys Elliott explains in a new post on Substack that, once The Odyssey zapped onto IMAX screens on July 17, "the cultural spillover into games was immediate." 10 days later, Ubisoft's 2018 ancient Greek adventure Assassin's Creed: Odyssey had nearly doubled its active player count, swelling from an approximate total of 122,000 players to 233,000 across platforms.

"That's a 90% surge in engagement," says Elliott, "at 1.8x the game's pre-film July baseline." But unlike the Greeks as they piled into their Trojan horse, most recent Assassin's Creed: Odyssey players are unwilling to risk more than a boring afternoon. Only 26% of the action RPG's new recruits came from Steam, while PlayStation players went off like a car alarm up 94% to 114,000 daily active users, and Xbox boomed plus-134% from 36,000 to 84,000 active users.

Probably, Assassin's Creed: Odyssey's luck on console came from PS Plus and Game Pass subscribers – even with Game Pass currently limping toward death. Elliott says, "Lapsed fans jumped straight back in, while new players found a 60+ hour Greek epic waiting inside a subscription they already pay for."

Though, Nolan's The Odyssey also blessed Ubisoft's Odyssey with some fresh sales. "Software sales moved modestly at around 400K copies year-to-date," Elliott says, but the real news "is pure player engagement. The film didn't make millions buy an eight-year-old game, but it got a massive cohort playing it again. That data gives Ubisoft great ammunition for an eventual AC Odyssey Resynced."

The developer's recent Black Flag Resynced has been a gargantuan financial success for Ubisoft, so I wouldn't be surprised to see it capitalize further on Nolan fever – if it stops laying off devs long enough to do so.

Ubisoft had a very on-brand problem with Assassin's Creed Odyssey: there weren't many tall buildings in Ancient Greece even though it's a "climbing-frame game."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a massive (and much-needed) success for Ubisoft, even if that hasn't stopped the publisher from laying off a number of its devs. Looking at the player reactions, it's evident longtime fans of the series were ready for a return to the series' pre-RPG roots.

Understanding where open-world games are right now is impossible without studying what happened in the early 2010s. Skyrim proved density trumps raw size and that immersive sim elements are the key to immortality. GTA 5 became a new gold standard for modern-day sandboxes that many studios still haven't reached before GTA 6 arrives. Assassin's Creed, meanwhile, toyed with a bit of everything and began rowing towards beautiful worlds of deceptive depth and excess.

Even as someone who loves to get lost even in the largest of Ubisoft's sprawling maps, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced feels like the most satisfying and leanest the series has been in a very long time. Mind you, clearing its upgrade of a pirate-infested Caribbean still takes tens and tens of hours, but coming from behemoths like Crimson Desert – which are obsessed with stuffing as many mechanics and systems as possible into a disjointed package – Edward Kenway's seafaring adventure hits a sweet spot I think we didn't fully appreciate back in 2013.

Land ahead

Assassin's Creed Black Flag's biggest trick when it came to its scope was – and still is, despite Resynced's notable additions – that most of its Caribbean map is just water. It sounds obvious, but even with points of interest emerging from time to time and entire fleets of Spaniards and Englishmen hunting down pirates, the vast majority of the map isn't the icon-filled nightmare we started getting with Assassin's Creed Unity. Even clearing Black Flag's biggest towns, such as Havana, doesn't take too long.

By building the game around the core premise of a pirate simulator and raiding forts and small outposts in remote isles during most secondary tasks, "cities" (they aren't big) are more of a fancy set dressing for a handful of shops and key locations. Of course, they're still fun to traverse and are put to good use by scripted story missions, yet they were far from becoming "black holes" surrounded by even more content grind. I must underline Black Flag Resynced isn't a small or mid-sized game, but I recommend booting up one of its later relatives, such as Odyssey, and comparing how each of them uses its square kilometers.

Less obvious (at least at first) is the fact you can't really fully explore any chunk of land bigger than an islet with a hidden treasure and two turtles. Assassin's Creed hadn't yet reached the "you can climb anything and walk in any direction" approach that made the rebooted saga so sprawling. Dense walls of vegetation and rocky formations are used to "enclose" handcrafted areas that are rarely bigger than they need to be. Stunning vistas abound, but they're no more than that: pretty backgrounds to look at. You can't climb every mountain. Sorry, Todd Howard.

True freedom

Even rebuilt in 2026, Black Flag avoids becoming an endless expanse as gargantuan and playful as Tears of the Kingdom or a Bethesda-style simulation like the upcoming Fable. It also escapes the gravitational pull of last year's Assassin's Creed Shadows, a lovely but eventually tiring Japan-set action RPG that feels like the end of an era. It's an interesting result, and with some remaining traits – such as the lingering deluge of cosmetics – still around, it almost feels like both developers and executives fighting against their worst impulses in an attempt to chart the series' future.

There's a way to make ridiculously detailed open worlds engaging – Rockstar Games and Bethesda Game Studios figured that out ages ago – but Ubisoft isn't interested in following those schools of design. As gorgeous and well-researched as these historical romps are, Assassin's Creed exists in a different sphere, one that's concerned with more immediate thrills and "snackable" stealth action. At some point, probably influenced by entirely different mainstream hits, it moved away from that in an attempt to produce massive games for everyone. As a proud Origins truther, I've been okay with those, but like many others, I've had my fill and would like to go back.

Of course, we still don't know how Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe will implement these learnings while also serving as the next big blockbuster for Ubisoft. Success aside, Black Flag Resynced is more of an experiment – but it's safe to say we'll be getting more remakes that could be more transformative. In any case, the larger message is clear: We still like to get lost in open worlds, we just don't want them to become second lives.

Xbox is making it easier for you to transfer your digital console library over to PC, at least when it comes to a select few Ubisoft titles.

In an official Xbox Wire news release, a total of 13 Ubisoft games are revealed to be part of a new "Xbox Console-to-PC Offer" program giving players the opportunity to play their Xbox games on PC "at no additional cost." Basically, it all works via the Ubisoft Connect app, which you can install on your PC and access the following games for free if you already own them on Xbox:

• Assassin’s Creed Mirage
• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla
• Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora
• Far Cry 6
• Immortals Fenyx Rising
• Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown
• Riders Republic
• Skull and Bones
• The Crew 2
• The Crew Motorfest
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Extraction
• Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege
• Watch Dogs Legion

Thankfully, it doesn't seem like there's a whole lot of fine print here. Xbox says that starting today, if you buy any of the above games digitally, you'll immediately get both the Xbox and PC versions via Ubisoft Connect. Meanwhile, if you already own any of them, a "progressive rollout" will begin doling out PC versions starting on August 4.

In case you were wondering, as I was, the deal doesn't work the other way around, as Xbox says "you can only claim a free PC version" with this offer. Otherwise, "for most games," the edition of the game and any DLC you own will transfer right over to the PC version alongside any progress you've made so long as the game supports cross-progression.

This initiative is part of a newly expanded "partnership" between Xbox and Ubisoft that'll add "a broad selection" of digital games with premium editions to the Xbox app on PC. The full list hasn't been revealed, but some of the highlights include Assassin's Creed Shadows, Star Wars Outlaws, Rainbow Six Siege, and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.

Of course, the biggest caveat to all of this is something of an elephant in the room right now, as physical games don't appear to be included here. That's not surprising in the slightest given the nature of digital vs. physical entitlements, but it is yet another grain of salt in the wound for disc fans.

Xbox is down, just days after PlayStation outage, and it affects both digital and "disc-based" games

There aren't any explosive grenades in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, but a handy exploit lets you make some on the fly. Players have discovered a way to turn smoke bombs into impromptu fiery weapons to handle multiple enemies – but you really need to be careful when using it.

On Twitter, Assassin's Creed fan account Zephryss posted a clip of how it works. First, you throw the smoke bomb, and let it start filling the area. Then, using your pistol, shoot a bullet right at where it landed, and you'll get a nice little explosion. "Here's an insane secret trick," they say.

They include footage of them doing it a couple of times, across different areas and situations, to demonstrate how repeatable it is. In one of them, several enemies are approaching, and this tool of slight destruction takes a chunk of their health and bounces them back.

It's a fine addition to the toolkit of any assassin. Not very graceful, mind, but sometimes you need to just go for broke and do whatever you can to get out alive. That last part can be tricky, since many people are figuring this alternate way of using smoke bombs the hard way.

"THIS. THIS IS HOW I KEEP BLOWING MYSELF UP??" says one player in response to the clip from Zephryss. "I learned this the hard way when trying to get the trophy of kicking a [berserk] enemy in smoke off a ship," another adds. "Would accidentally pull out pistols and wonder wtf happened."

Now that word is getting around, there's a chance Ubisoft could patch this out if it's not intentional. I hope that doesn't happen, because this is definitely handier than it is a hurdle. But a primer on how to do it safely would help, lest more people wind up blowing Edward's face off completely by accident.

If you're yet to play it yourself, you can read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games.

The director of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is looking into adding a challenge system to the pirateventure, like the one Assassin's Creed Mirage eventually got, but he's not promising anything just yet.

Asked about bringing back a series feature that let fans replay missions with new challenges and requirements, in an interview with JorRaptor, game director Richard Knight says he thinks it "would be awesome."

Assassin's Creed Mirage actually got a post-launch update with the same challenge system last year, which offered unique challenges for contracts and black box missions. One challenge might have disabled Eagle Vision for the entire mission or asked you to slide a hidden blade into your main target while going undetected - they were essentially cool modifiers that gave mission replays some extra spice.

"We've looked into this one quite a bit," Knight adds. "I can't promise anything on it just because it exists in Mirage, but it doesn't exist in the modern Anvil [Engine]. So, it's like new tech, right? They do have a solution. We do roughly see how it works, but it's going to take time to understand if it's something we can build or how long it would take."

Part of Knight's desire to add tougher mission constraints and replayable challenges to the stealth game comes from his time on the Hitman titles, a series renowned for those sorts of open, free-flowing, flexible assassination sandboxes. "You know, personally, as someone who used to work on Hitman and has played a lot of Hitman and likes seeing the speedrun timer on screen, I think it's a very interesting way to play a game," he explains. "But, yeah, no promises on that one."

Seeing a similar system implemented into Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced isn't entirely impossible. Ubisoft confirmed that a New Game Plus mode is on the way, and the team apparently have a bunch of other DLC ideas as well.

At 3.5 million sales, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced beat Ubisoft's full-year expectations in 2 weeks with "historical" PC performance

Once you give players an ability, you really can't control how they use it. People can do whatever they like with a photo mode, as the devs behind Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced have discovered due to the amount of feet pics they've seen.

"There's just nothing like having one million or two million players playing a game at once that you can't replicate. The feet pics were very surprising," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, tells JorRaptor. "That's kind of what photo mode is there for – to take really interesting, sometimes unusual, photos."

I'm not surprised – internet loves doing things for the bit, and bizarre, slightly lewd photographs emerging from a new Assassin's Creed game is the exact kind of tomfoolery that goes over very well.

But I'm far too innocent for such things, because my most in-depth experience with photo mode was in Insomniac's Spider-Man games. I loved swinging around and making fake comic book covers. I've made dozens of them across the three installments.

Obviously, that's the wrong line of thinking. Pictures of Spider-Man are out, pictures of feet are in, apparently. "I never would have expected that one," Knight adds.

I have to imagine someone on the team thought it was a possibility, but what are you going to do? Restrict people's creativity? You've got to just let people do what they do, that's the real adventure of life.

At 3.5 million sales, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced beat Ubisoft's full-year expectations in 2 weeks with "historical" PC performance.

Even Ubisoft seems surprised you all wanted classic-style Assassin's Creed back this bad. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has sold 3.5 million units in 14 days, already beating the publisher's internal sales projections for the full year.

"The strong launch of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced in early July by Vantage Studios is an encouraging proof point" of Ubisoft's new corporate structure, CEO Yves Guillemot says in the company's latest financial report. That same restructuring has also cost numerous developers their jobs, including many of the very people who brought Black Flag Resynced to life.

Black Flag Resynced is the first Assassin's Creed game to reach over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam. According to Ubisoft, "this translated into a historical proportion of sales for the franchise on PC, led by the US and Chinese markets."

As part of today's financial report, Ubisoft announced net bookings of €256 million for the first quarter of the fiscal year, "down 9% year-on-year and slightly above guidance." Notably, that does not include any boost from Black Flag Resynced sales, which launched just after the start of the second quarter. Instead, those first quarter revenues were "driven by a record performance for Invincible: Guarding the Globe," an idle RPG for mobile.

Clearly, though, Ubisoft expects investors to be pleased with the performance Resynced is going to show next quarter. "The game is the highest-rated Assassin's Creed title since the original Black Flag, and we are very pleased with the praise it received from players," Guillemot continues. "Two weeks in, the title has already exceeded the annual expectations we had. I would like to warmly thank the teams whose talent and dedication brought it to life. This launch illustrates the enduring appeal of the Assassin’s Creed brand, as well as the early benefits of our ongoing transformation and commitment to delivering very high-quality experiences."

Ubisoft CEO says ditching physical games "helped" PC gaming, and PlayStation ending discs won't "disturb" the industry much anyway.

It's always fun to see what lurks just below what we can see in a video game through datamining and the like. You can find remnants of ideas that hit the cutting room floor, or perhaps suggestions of what's to come in DLC. A lead developer on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced respects the curiosity, but asks we don't put much stock in what's uncovered.

"Many games get datamined, it's very clever, I understand," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, says in an interview with JorRaptor (below). "Sometimes these are for assets that don't even exist yet, and sometimes they're placeholders that were done three years ago."

For projects as big as the Black Flag remake – or any triple-A game, really – all sorts of little curios and oddities tend to sneak into the finished product. Perhaps it was easier and faster to just cover something up than to take it out entirely, or, as Knight suggests, there was the kernel of an idea that didn't pan out, but you can still find a little marker, left however long ago in the game's past by god knows who.

They make for good discussion around the game's development, but holding people who worked on it to account for them is difficult. If they're placeholders, the devs genuinely might not remember what the point was, and if they're hints at what's coming, nobody will be allowed to talk about it yet.

Naturally, this comes up because JorRaptor asks about costumes that have been found in the game's innards. Multiple get-ups for Edward drawing on several entries from the storied franchise have been discovered, leading people to believe they indicate what's coming.

Knight is saying nothing, however. "This is my way of saying I don't actually know," he responds, remaining coy. "I can't spoil it because I don't know."

He does say whatever comes, the team will "support the brand legacy." Take that however you like.

If you're yet to set sail in the remake yourself, be sure to read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games in the series.

One fan-favorite feature in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has seemingly been patched out of the game, and players are begging Ubisoft to restore it.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced lets you toggle Edward's hood on and off with a quick press of a button while you're exploring the world, and until recently, it was also possible to do so at the most cinematic moments – during leaps of faith.

"In case you didn't know, you can toggle your hood while doing a leap of faith, and it looks awesome!" reads one Reddit post from 11 days ago, which was met with enthusiastic replies like "this is too damn cool!"

And apparently it really was too cool, because it's no longer in the game. "Did Ubisoft remove the ability to toggle your hood while sliding and leaping?" questions a more recent Reddit post shared after the game's latest patch, adding: "It was so cool, why did they patch that out? Is it just my game? Please tell me it's just a bug."

Unfortunately, it's not just their game. "Same for me. Heartbroken," reads one reply, as a fan on Twitter observes: "Ubisoft removed one of the best features in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced."

Looking through the patch notes for last week's title update 1.0.4, there's nothing that explicitly states that the option to toggle your hood while performing a leap of faith has been removed – I can't help but wonder if maybe it was tied to one of the more generic sounding changes, like "fixed various clothes clipping issues" or "fixed various character clipping issues." That, or its removal was a total mistake. Either way, though, folks are certainly making their disappointment known.

"PUT. IT. BACK," begs one fan, directly tagging Ubisoft. Another asks: "Pls put it backk it was a cool feature!!"

Whether Ubisoft listens remains to be seen, but the team has definitely been taking feedback on board. Game director Richard Knight recently confirmed that the team is working on an option to hide Edward's blowpipe, noting that "the feeling is mutual."

While you're here, be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see how it compares to the best Assassin's Creed games.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players have spotted a mysterious German cathedral they believe to be linked to Ubisoft's upcoming new mainline entry Assassin's Creed Hexe, in a part of the game that features landmarks from other entries in the series.

Replacing the modern day segments from the original game, Black Flag Resynced features various Animus Rifts, weird pieces of terrain that allow Edward to see alternate realities. For example, one of these rifts shows Edward the life he could have led if he'd kept his promise to his wife and returned home within two years.

However, one of the later rifts isn't about Edward as much as his ancestors, as he walks through an area featuring buildings from every "period two" game. We see structures from Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla, Mirage, and Shadows, all of which are part of the Animus Hub, alongside a mysterious cathedral that points to the setting for the upcoming Hexe.

Some fans believe the building to be an old version of Würzburg Cathedral, a site which has been rebuilt many times over the years. Not only is the Bavarian city of Würzburg the location of one of the largest and most brutal witch trials in history, but it is also the setting proposed in a previous leak, adding more fuel to the rumor's roaring fire.

Very little is known about Assassin's Creed Hexe aside from the fact that it will be set during one of history's many witch trials. However, given that Hexe is the German word for witch, we're thinking it's more likely to feature sauerkraut than Salem.

While this doesn't confirm that Würzburg will be the setting for Hexe, the hints are certainly mounting in favor of the German city being the next Assassin's Creed hot spot.

Assassin's Creed Hexe setting potentially leaked as a witchy German city, and Ubisoft fans think it's "the best possible outcome."

Assassin's Creed Hexe is a mystery. The follow-up to Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is so unknown that all its fans have to go on is a Blair Witch-style logo and a series of high-profile departures that threaten its very existence. But what you, the uninitiated, may not know, is that there's a pattern running through the entire series that gives away a lot more about the upcoming Assassin's Creed game than you might think.

Since the beginning of the series, every mainline Assassin's Creed protagonist has taken it in turns to be either a Nerd or a Bastard. The former are those characters who are steeped in the Creed and all it stands for; stoic, stalwart, disciplined. The latter are those who use their skills as much for their personal amusement as anything else. Taking down Templars might be their duty, but it can also be good fun - and it won't necessarily get in the way of a good time once the Bastard is off the clock.

If you're not prepared to take my word for it, I'm happy to show my working. I've enlisted the help of GamesRadar+'s cabal of AC experts to help fill in the gaps in my knowledge, and while there are a few grey areas (and while we're not counting games like Rogue, Liberation, or Freedom Cry), my theory holds up.

History lesson

We start with a nerd. When we first meet Altair Ibn-La'Ahad in the first Assassin's Creed, he's embedded deep within the Brotherhood and its teachings, at a time when its mission seems critical to his homeland's survival. He is calculating, serious, and entirely absorbed in his task. It's a collection of character traits that make him the proto-nerd, especially when you compare him to his immediate successor.

Jumping ahead to Assassin's Creed 2, Ezio is almost the opposite of Altair. Brash, arrogant, getting in street brawls and fleeing over rooftops just for the fun of it. Admittedly, his revenge quest puts a little bit of a dampener on that, and Ezio definitely mellows over time, but you get the sense that he's having fun and prepared to toy with his prey a little more. You don't fist-fight the pope and not end up with some kind of bastard status.

AC3's Connor is a huge nerd who, in fighting for his homeland in a manner similar to Altair, seems to barely crack a smile throughout his entire story. That's in marked opposition to his pirating grandad in the series' fourth instalment; Edward Kenway is a massive bastard, who is doing everything for the money and is barely an assassin for most of Black Flag. He's not interested in the Creed, wishing instead to get rich quick and hopefully have a good time while he's at it.

AC Unity is a personal blind-spot, but I'm reliably informed that Arno is a big ol' simp, who does pretty much everything he does in his game in the uncomfortably chivalric pursuit of a girl. Across the channel, Assassin's Creed Syndicate's Evie and Jacob are a little harder to place in contrast. Evie seems like a nerd, and Jacob is hard to classify as a bastard because he's such a himbo, but his pursuit of vibes-based gang violence and presence as a slightly bigger character than his sister makes Syndicate a bastard game.

From there, it's on to the modern era. Bayek kicks things off by bringing the stoic, desert-dwelling attitude of Altair back to the series in Assassin's Creed Origins. Alexios and Kassandra then immediately reject that vibe in Assassin's Creed Odyssey in favor of fighting and *ahem* sleeping their way across the Mediterranean. Much like fighting the pope, having a signature move based on the movie 300 is definitely a bastard-signifier. The religious Norse underpinnings of AC Valhalla mean that even though Eivor is prepared to have a good time demolishing monasteries, they're too nerdily obsessed with the gods to gain bastard status. But then Basim throws up an issue.

Assassin's Creed Mirage once again features a Creed-steeped desert environment, where Basim is a bit of a nerd as a fledgling Hidden One in ninth-century Baghdad. But overall, the presence of Loki within Basim as established in Valhalla means that he honks bastard status, giving way for Naoe and Yasuke to be big 'ol nerds whose Japanese background all but requires them to be extremely dedicated, serious figures in Assassin's Creed Shadows.

Back to Edward for Black Flag Resynced, and the bastard/nerd pattern holds up into 2026.

Yer a Wizard

All that brings us to Hexe, which by every metric I can consider looks like another major win for my pattern. Granted, we don't know much about its narrative, but many signs point to its tone and setting. Eagle-eyed fans pinned the Assassin's Creed Hexe setting to the 17th Century Wurzburg Witch Trials in Germany, and subsequent leaks have made that prediction more likely.

A game with Hexe's witchy theme was always likely to feature some nerdiness. Craft of all kinds, whether or not it was associated with magic or even medicine, requires devotion to learning and precision, which means a driven, academic protagonist seems likely. A community under threat draws comparisons to Connor and Altair, both massive Assassin nerds. And if setting can play a major part, as it did with Bayek, Naoe, and Yasuke, 1600s Germany in the grip of a religious fervor seems likely to prove a setting where the kind of flippancy that makes for a good bastard is not looked upon kindly.

Clearly, there's every chance that Hexe bucks the trend, but it certainly doesn't seem likely to offer up some carefree hero based on everything we've learned about it so far. The only thing that could disrupt my pattern is the rumored remake of an early Assassin's Creed game. If Altair returns just before or just after Hexe, that'll be two nerds in a row. I'll just have to pray for a post-Hexe Ezio remaster to keep my immaculate theory intact.

Explore the best Assassin's Creed games ranked in order of greatness, from the RPG era to spin-offs.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced game director, Richard Knight, hopes people are still playing his remade pirateventure by the time GTA 6 comes out this November.

Modern Assassin's Creed games have typically had surprisingly long legs with Ubisoft supporting titles such as Assassin's Creed Shadows and Odyssey for months or sometimes even years after their initial release dates. There aren't any concrete plans for a Black Flag Resynced roadmap just yet - at least, not one that's been made public - but an extensive post-launch tail is looking ever more likely.

Asked about whether Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced would be supported for at least a year, Richard Knight tells JorRaptor that he "can't say anything officially," but the suggestion "doesn't feel like a crazy bet" because "we definitely need to support the game."

"We need to, you know, fix bugs," the game's lead explains. "Sorry for anyone running into bugs, uh, they hurt - they're painful for us, too. And we do want to add some quality-of-life stuff. So, I mean, it's a pretty reasonable guess." So far, those quality-of-life updates include an upcoming New Game Plus mode and a toggle to hide Edward's blow pipe.

The Black Flag Resynced director didn't put a proper timeframe out there, but he did ask fans to "please play us when when GTA 6 comes out," perhaps suggesting us seafarers will get something new before the year ends.

DLC plans are also not official but not too outlandish, either. "I know some folks on the team have DLC ideas," Knight says, though whatever comes next will be more focused on Edward Kenway's story. Don't get too excited about a possible Freedom Cry redux, then.

The day-one Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced DLC everyone said they hated has earned Ubisoft nearly $1 million, analyst estimates

Ubisoft developers had to rebuild most of Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag entirely from scratch to make this year's swashbuckling remake, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, because the original 2013 code was largely unusable for a 2026 game.

Black Flag Resynced is a pretty faithful reconstruction of one of the best Assassin's Creed games ever made, but even though the remake sticks to the original's story and open-world structure very closely, the team at Ubisoft were still essentially making a brand new game.

Speaking to JorRaptor about the project's development, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced game director Richard Knight put it in simple terms: "Quite frankly, it's a brand new game."

"We can't use the code from the original," Knight explains. "I mean, it's nice to think about, but what was it built on, you know, Windows 2000? Like, it was a long, long time [ago]. Not that bad, but the codebase and the tech is so completely different that we use the original as reference. Sometimes we can occasionally pull an asset as a placeholder or something to model the new stuff. But mostly we just look into the code to see how things work, to look into the data, to see how certain things worked, to learn some of the secrets. But we effectively have to rebuild."

Some of Black Flag Resynced's more dramatic changes - the revamped combat, the graphical overhaul, the new narrative content - were always going to require more work. But even when the remake stays faithful, the team simply weren't able to lean on archival code.

"There's lots of systems for this game that we just rebuilt, and partly to be the best case version of whatever it was before, but also because we needed to," Knight adds. "So, when you go fresh sometimes that gives you the ability to make changes." (By the way, you can get a deeper look at the differences with our guide on all changes in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced.)

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs already "have DLC ideas," lead confirms, but that doesn't mean Freedom Cry is coming: "It's definitely a game we remember"

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs at Ubisoft are, technically, currently running a community treasure hunt throughout July with three secret pirate troves ready to be torn open. But it's not the challenge Ubisoft anticipated – fans are way too good at playing pirate, having already dug up all the loot in a matter of days.

Ubisoft introduced the community hunt only last week on July 11, writing in a Twitter post, "We've heard word that 3 chests lie hidden across the Caribbean, each containing a unique bounty. We'll drop a new clue every Friday of July! Remember... No pirate sails alone. Work together, crack the clues, and claim the treasure." But there really wasn't any need for patronizing – pirate-tronizing? – advice. Black Flag Resynced players have already dug up all the gold they could. (Spoilers ahead for pirates who want to work out Black Flag's community event on their own! Argh!)

The first buried chest is located at coordinates (421,939), and rewards players with 4,000 Reales – this is the classic treasure hunt reward, a fat mound of money. The second chest located at (501,168) is a little more dramatic: it includes the legendary Uncrowned Prince rapier and legendary Guardian Beast Figurehead. One player on Reddit seems to have discovered it on a lark, writing in a post, "I think I stumbled onto some more items." They did, indeed.

Then, there's the third and final community chest, which contains the biggest prize of all. Found at coordinates (28,293), this bounty includes the legendary Aveline Figurehead and rare Explorer Outfit originally found in the Assassin's Creed Black Flag from 2013. Resynced players initially fretted that the exceedingly rare outfit in red and white – traditional Assassin's Creed colors – hadn't been brought over from the original game. But, as content creator Synth Potato puts it on Twitter, the Reddit user -Holliday was blessed with "genuinely insane luck" and discovered the Explorer Outfit waterlogged at the bottom of the ocean.

"I glanced at my map after taking a naval contract and just how the area looked on the map peaked my interest enough to go check it out," -Holliday explains in a Reddit thread. "Dropped anchor and jumped off, I immediately seen air bubbles and could not believe my eyes once I spotted what was inside. I was honestly briefly shaken with excitement since I knew it was highly sought after and didn't believe anyone had found it yet."

"You just ruined it for Ubisoft," replies another Reddit user. "I love it."

Ubisoft confirms on Twitter that, "We were going to reveal a clue for this community chest on Friday but your treasure hunting skills are too great." That's too bad for Ubisoft, but a pleasant indication that fortune favors the Black Flag fans.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced New Game Plus is coming, director promises: "We're working on that right now."

As Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players beg Edward to put his pipe away, Ubisoft has confirmed it's looking into it.

The remake of the title many people consider the best Assassin's Creed game is unsurprisingly pretty well liked, with it being the fourth-highest-rated game in the series – it even saw the biggest Steam launch in the series' history. But the biggest complaint with the game itself – well, aside from the gross $80 DLC and it being briefly unplayable over the first weekend on PC, but those aren't as funny – has been Edward's pipe.

For whatever reason, the blowpipe weapon in Assassin's Creed Black Flag has been moved for its Resynced return. As far back as months before the game launched, fans picked up on the weird positioning of the weapon, and players have been asking for a toggle to make the blowpipe invisible until you need to use it.

Speaking with YouTuber JorRaptor, Richard Knight – game director on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced – acknowledges the complaints about the weapon. When JorRaptor mentions that players are looking for a way to hide it, Knight explains, "I'm not sure this is official yet," but "one of our most senior programmers is working on it right now." He adds, "The feeling is mutual. I have a feeling it's coming soon."

As for why it wasn't there from the get go, Knight says: "I wish it was just a magical feature that just was there the moment it started, but it's just because of the way characters are set up." He explains, "Somebody has to do setup to make this specific part of the character just disappear only when this specific setting is enabled, which you know we need to do."

So while nothing is "official" yet, you can rest easy knowing you'll be able to have Edward sans blowpipe soon.

If you're yet to set sail in Ubisoft's new remake, be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review.

Of all the games I've never played, Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag may be the most celebrated. I've heard praise aplenty for its enticing sailing mechanics and roguish protagonist Edward Kenway, but I've never felt the desire to explore Ubisoft's take on the Golden Age of Piracy – at least, not until I saw the first trailer for Resynced.

The remake's announcement was received with huge excitement, so much so that even a landlubber like myself, who has never really clicked with Ubisoft's back catalog, was caught up in the frenzy. So when I met Kenway's actor, Matt Ryan, I took the opportunity to ask him if I should play the original or begin with this new iteration. "Start with Resynced," he said, and so I did, and I can say with glee that it's the best Assassin's Creed game I've ever had.

Running down to Cuba

In play, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is as gorgeous as it is gripping. Tearing across the cruel yet comforting waters of the Caribbean, I'm in awe of the multitude of things to do: battle enemy vessels, lay siege to forts, harpoon sea creatures, drop anchor at some new shore; or simply bond with my ship's many animal companions (Albert the Monkey is my best friend).

The result of all these activities is hours feeling like minutes, with no amount of time ever enough to slake my thirst for more adventure – and I say this as someone who normally gives up on Ubisoft games before the 10-hour mark. Why has Resynced hooked me so easily? It starts with the location.

The Caribbean is one part of the globe I can't imagine myself visiting. Not for lack of desire, to be clear, but a deficit in funds. Travelling isn't cheap, so the beauty and history of this area of the world will likely always remain a mystery to me, Black Flag Resynced provides a welcome alternative.

Boasting a beautiful map brought to life by Spanish architecture, Mayan ruins and tropical beaches, there's few games as pleasurable to play tourist in than Ubisoft's latest pirate entry. I have a similar relationship with the Like a Dragon series, taking in the streets of Kamurocho or enjoying an arcade in Isezaki Ijincho as if I'm simulating a vacation instead of concerning myself with any plotlines.

In fact, so great is the joy of simply existing in Resynced, I relish doing the open-world-checklist-style side quests on offer, something I usually ignore in favor of pursuing the main narrative threads. Instead of sailing after my destiny, I'm uncovering treasure chests like I'm in The Goonies, or tinkering with ancient puzzles like Nathan Drake.

Riches and reputation

Now, while there is no doubt equally as much pleasure to be found in the original Assassin's Creed 4, I can't imagine I'm missing out by playing Resynced instead. Some content has been cut, and we're a fair few years on from the rose-tinted Xbox 360 era the original game launched in, but playing on PS5 I'm having just as magical a time as I was led to believe I would.

The visual overhaul is magnificent and I can see how big an improvement it is because my mind's eye isn't clear of nostalgia. The character movement is slick, and the settings menu gives options to adjust the free-running/parkour experience for a more nuanced feel. Add to all this the fluid open-world structure with an impressive lack of loading screens, and it's hard to imagine any version of this game from two console generations ago could contend with it.

And yet, I still believe it could. The enjoyment I get from Resynced has me eager to play more games from the franchise. I want to try Altaïr's story, see Ezio's trilogy through to the end, and find out what AC3 has to offer before eventually setting sail in Ubisoft's first version of the Caribbean. Sure, I'll likely struggle with aged parts of the older game, but something tells me it'll be worth the effort. Whether I stay the course I can't know yet, but the desire to try is a sign of Resynced's quality.

All that's left to say is thank you to Matt Ryan. His encouragement has resulted in hours of fun listening to sea shanties, swordfighting with soldiers and cuddling with Albert. Here's to the rest of my voyage.

Players have had just seven days to enjoy Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and talk of DLC is already starting. The devs have notions about how they'd like to carry on Edward's story and the world of the Caribbean, but don't expect to see a redux of the Freedom Cry expansion just yet.

"I know some folks on the team have DLC ideas," Richard Knight, game director on Assassin's Creed Black Resynced, tells JorRaptor. "We need to balance those out with our future, and then updating the core game."

Knight calls Edward "our focus" and the "heart and soul of the original game," and Ubisoft is keeping that aspect at the forefront. "Maybe there could be more to tell there too," he comments.

You'd think Freedom Cry, the spin-off DLC from Black Flag, would be a natural evolution for Resynced. But since the protagonist and setting differ, focusing on Adéwalé in Saint-Domingue marks a departure from Edward.

"I can't really say anything as to a Freedom Cry," he adds. "We've got our hands full with this game right now. Freedom Cry, it's not a small thing either."

He mentions the devs are "still figuring out" what to prioritize at the minute, since there are all the post-launch fires to put out, and whatever additional plans are already in place for the coming months.

Assassin's Creed games are always among the bigger releases in any given year, and Black Flag Resynced is one of the more hyped in recent memory. The original's a fan-favorite that still holds up, and getting to hop back out on the seven seas is something plenty of us are jumping at. Freedom Cry would be an added bonus, and Knight understands the yearning for it.

"It's a game we remember," he says. "It needs some modernization work. These are just things we consider; I really don't know the future beyond supporting Black Flag Resynced."

The terrible weather in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is fixed in a new patch that also adds hints for a notorious boss fight

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced made some notable changes to the original game's weather system to make storms more dynamic and realistic – but they've also gotten annoyingly frequent. Thankfully, that's one of the key changes in title update 1.0.4, which also includes a wide array of bug fixes and quality of life improvements.

Title update 1.0.4 will go live at 7am PT/10am ET/3pm BST on July 16. The update is 2.44 GB on PS5, 2.7 GB on Steam, 3.71 GB on Ubisoft's PC launcher, and a whopping 15.35 GB on Xbox Series X and S. You can check out the full patch notes on Reddit, but there's no doubt the big highlight is the weather.

Ubisoft has "fixed the issue where the weather never becomes foggy" and "tweaked weather system balancing to increase the proportion of sun and clear skies." That'll come as a great relief to the players who've been complaining about the weather from the start, since the storms have been rolling in with alarming frequency, cutting short shanties and preventing you from using your fastest sails.

But there's one other tweak that catches my eye: "During the battle with El Tiburon, it might be unclear for some players on how to break his defense," Ubisoft admits. "We have added hints for players on how to break it." That is a highly specific issue that you'd hope would've been addressed through pre-release testing, but hey, this is why it usually pays to wait for a few patches.

There are other, more substantial content updates on the way a little further down the line, including a New Game Plus mode. The devs are also taking a look at potentially restoring some of the combat options that were cut for Resynced, though it's not yet certain when or if that's actually going to happen.

If you're wondering how much you've got left to play of Resynced, check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag mission list.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players quickly noticed that our old pal Edward feels noticeably better to play in many ways but has also forgotten some of the techniques he had several years ago. Game director Richard Knight says some elements of the original game's combat system were left out in the remake because they were of lower priority compared to finalizing the core action, but that doesn't necessarily mean they're gone for good.

Speaking with YouTuber JorRaptor (thanks, PC Gamer), Knight explains some of the triage involved in much of game development. "During development, if you looked at Edward, he's so powerful right now, he's got so many tools," he recalls. "So we prioritized core combat because we needed to nail that."

Edward's ability to source throwing weapons has been heavily discussed. Knight touches on this as an example of a non-essential mechanic for the remake. (There was also quite a bit of chatter around the removal of hidden blade combat in favor of Edward's dual swords.)

"Something like the throwing weapons, while it's cool, it's just like, he already has 10 ways to kill somebody," he reasons. "Given the cost to reinvent the feature and rebuild it from the ground up with today's characters and rigs and animation and all this, there's just a lot more that goes into it.

"So it was just lower priority for us. I don't have anything to share on this one yet, but we're definitely listening. I read all the good and the bad feedback."

Knight stresses that he "can't make any promises" regarding combat updates or reinstated features, but does say, "We're listening to the community. We're interested in what people want the most." Throwing weapons seem to be near the top of the list, but as Knight says, would likely require quite a lot of work to add in. Of course, that probably won't stop modders from bashing a version of this together themselves.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced New Game Plus is coming, director promises: "We're working on that right now."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is getting New Game Plus, and while Ubisoft isn't ready to say exactly when it's launching, this feature is a high priority for future updates.

YouTuber JorRaptor asked about New Game Plus in an interview with game director Richard Knight, and while the dev couldn't say much about the option, he repeatedly emphasized that it's currently in production.

"Well, this is the one thing I can say: Yes, we're working on that right now," Knight says in the interview. "For sure. It's one of the first things. Partly because Shadows has already built their version, so it's considered a low-risk feature for us. We're still doing the work, so I can't promise exactly a day or anything, but we're definitely working on this one. It's just such a natural thing."

Simon Lemay-Comtois, associate game director of Shadows, "did the hard work" of introducing New Game Plus, Knight jokes, which does give the Black Flag Resynced team "something to look at" when implementing it. But "our games are not exactly the same," Knight explains. "We have different challenges in terms of how that works. We can't skip to the hideout, necessarily. But we're looking into it."

Asked if Black Flag Resynced will have additional rewards for New Game Plus similar to Shadows, Knight says: "If it's up to me, yes. There's still production discussions about what we can do and how much time it takes. Every item we make needs a model. Sometimes it needs cloth sim. All sorts of things."

In other words, it sounds like this iteration of New Game Plus is still pretty early in the design phase. Knight adds that, in his opinion, the "more exciting" part of New Game Plus is simply stomping early-game foes with late-game power, but it sounds like those sorts of details are still being ironed out.

And, again, that also goes for the release date. "I really can't promise anything – just to say it's at the top of the list of things," Knight emphasizes. "There's a lot of things. Some are harder than others, but it's something we definitely want to get done."

As Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced's underwater levels draw praise, dev says those responsible are "being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve."

The Black Flag Resynced Isla Providencia location is a Mayan temple island that the Nassau Warehouse treasure map leads to. The problem? The Animus doesn't let you go there unless you've completed a particular quest in Black Flag Resynced's main story, resulting in a forced desynchronization if you attempt to sail the Jackdaw to the island's shore. So, to help you reach Isla Providencia and complete the relevant treasure map, I've explained how to unlock it and where the buried treasure is below.

How to get to Isla Providencia in Black Flag Resynced

Isla Providencia is a Mayan Temple island on the southern border of the map, southwest of Kingston, at (487, 23). To gain access to the island, you need to play through almost two-thirds of the main questline to get to the Vainglorious Bastards quest – you can check out the full Black Flag Resynced mission list here to see how far along you are.

Complete this short and simple sailing quest and you'll then be spat out on Isla Providencia for the next mission called 'Mutiny'. Once you complete this mission, you can travel to and from Isla Providencia as you please.

Black Flag Resynced Isla Providencia treasure location

Now that you've hopefully made it to Isla Providencia, you can dig up the buried treasure. You need to head to the three palm trees clustered together near a small rocky outcrop along the beach at (487, 11).

The dig spot is right in front of the middle tree, so follow the button prompt to rip the chest from the sand, bagging you the Govenor's Outfit – one of many Black Flag Resynced outfits – and 2,000 Reales.

Note that you can dig this treasure up during the 'Mutiny' quest or you can come back to Isla Providencia later to dig it up. While you're this far south, you may also want to look for the Black Flag Resynced Grand Cayman chest and clear out all the chests in the Black Flag Resynced Anotto Bay smuggler's den.

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Black Flag Stalking Zones appear on certain Assassin Contracts as an additional challenge option to earn a little extra money. The trouble is Black Flag Resynced never actually says what a stalking zone is, leaving you to work it out for yourself. Fortunately, the answer is simple and, if it seems weird, remember this game is technically 13 years old and it all goes back to how they did things in the old days...

How to assassinate someone from a Stalking Zone in Black Flag

A stalking zone in Black Flag Resynced is just any bush or grass that hides you. If Edward appears with a white outline, you're in a stalking zone. As you can see from the shot above, it's a very technical distinction leaving Edward very obviously sticking out while completely concealed.

The reason for this is that it's a throwback to the original game where stealth wasn't actually optional, and was instead only triggered by entering specific areas like tall grass and bushes. This stalking zone system was introduced in Assassin's Creed 3 and a dedicated crouch button didn't actually arrive until Unity. So, adding a crouch button is one of the more notable changes in Black Flag Resynced.

Confusingly, you can also get Assassin Contracts where the challenge is to do it from stealth. In those cases you can do it from corners, overhead branches etc - anywhere where you're hidden or undetected, including stalking zones. However, the stalking zone criteria only works from bushes and plants that give you the white outline. There are 30 of these murdery side quests, forming quite a big chunk of the Black Flag Resynced mission list, so you'll be looking for the right spot plenty of times. And, if you have your heart set on completing them all, that will play into how long it takes to beat Black Flag Resynced.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

The Black Flag mission list features 51 main missions in total, including 8 new ones made for Resynced specifically. There are also around 61 side missions across things like Assassin Contracts, Officer Quests, collectibles and so on, bringing that grand total up to roughly 145.

That breaks down roughly like this:

• 51 main missions
  • 6 side missions
    • Former Glories
    • Mayan Mysteries (16 missions)
    • Damn Fine Gear (16 missions)
    • Blackbeard's Treasure
    • Captain Stede Bonnet
    • Art Lover
  • 11 Officer Quests
  • 30 Assassin Contracts
  • 15 Naval Contracts

Of course there are some semantics involved here. Damn Fine Gear is a mission, to complete 16 other missions, so I've counted that as 17. There are also various other things to do in the world - like the 12 Black Flag Resynced Treasure Maps, 10 Forts you need to destroy, or the 26 Sea Shanties to chase and collect and so on. Those I haven't counted and instead have focused on the map marker objectives you can find and tick off. Obviously, what you do go after will affect how long it takes to beat Black Flag Resynced too.

Here's how that all breaks down below

Black Flag main missions

There are 51 main missions in Black Flag, an increase from the original game thanks to 8 new quests added to the original 43. These missions are spread across 12 sequences, with the new content unlocking at the end of Sequence 11.

Black Flag side missions

There are multiple side missions and objectives to find and complete in Black Flag, which are listed below. However there are six general side quests, some of which group together into longer mission chains:

1. Former Glories - upgrade everything at your Great Inagua mansion.
2. Mayan Mysteries - Complete all 16 Black Flag Resynced Mayan Stones and collect the armor.
3. Damn Fine Gear - Get all four Black Flag Resynced Templar Keys and unlock the armor.
4. Blackbeard's Treasure - Find the X on the Black Flag Resynced Blackbeard's Treasure map (new for Resynced).
5. Captain Stede Bonnet - Find Stede Bonnet's ship and crew (new for Resynced).
6. Art Lover - Find 30 pieces of art for the Butler at your Great Inagua mansion.

Former Glories and Art Lover are basically collectible missions, as are Mayan Mysteries and Damn Fine Gear, technically - albeit with more to them than just collecting things. Captain Stede Bonnet and Blackbeard's Treasure are new mission that expand elements of the original game's plot and the respective characters.

Let's take a look at everything in a little more detail:

Officer side missions

There are five Black Flag Resynced Officers you can unlock. Two are mandatory unlocks as you progress through the main campaign but three have their own mission chains with 11 missions in total:

Templar Hunts

The mission Damn Fine Gear includes a series of Templar Hunts - a sequence of 16 assassin missions you can undertake to get the Black Flag Templar Keys needed for one of the Black Flag Resynced Outfits in the game. There are four hunts, all consisting of four missions each, that are accessible in the quest log on the map page:

Assassin's Contracts

Once you've completed the mission Overrun and Outnumbered with James Kidd you'll unlock 30 Assassin Contracts. These are found scattered around the various towns and settlements, marked on the map with a skull icon, where you'll find a pigeon coop that you collect contracts from. These all involve killing a specific target, often with a bonus challenge like doing it from stealth, or using a specific weapon to get extra Reales.

Naval Contracts

There are 15 Naval Contracts you can take on, starting with one called the A Spanish Plague in Great Inagua which unlocks the rest. That in turn is unlocked by completing This Old Cove. These are a selection of boat based combat missions that see you battling and boarding various vessels and gathering certain cargos.

Mayan Stelae

There are 16 Mayan Stelae to find, each of which involves a small visual puzzles to reveal a stone. Collect them all and you'll get the Mayan outfit which includes a trinket that repels bullets. Technically these are introduced once you complete the mission Overrun and Outnumbered with James Kidd, who introduces you to them. But you can find them out in the world and start solving them before that.

© GamesRadar+. Not to be reproduced without permission.

Sometimes, gaming remakes can be used to gauge interest in returning to an older series. While that's not quite the case with Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced – we know Assassin's Creed Hexe is on the way – I think its reception could be a useful barometer for such a long-running franchise in seeing if there's appetite for more of the same. Namely, a classic-feeling Assassin's Creed that centers on smaller, denser maps rather than Assassin's Creed Shadows-style open-world RPG adventures. Going further, I'd love the remake to directly lead to a legacy sequel continuing Edward Kenway's saga. If that's the case, consider my appetite ravenous.

In my own Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review, I bemoaned the awkward approach to how remaining faithful to the 2013 original hampered introducing changes. A legacy sequel, acting as an immediate follow-up to the 13 year-old entry, would be able to shed one-to-one comparisons while providing room to iterate on classic AC's stealth loop. With plenty of information out there about what the pirate-turned-Master Assassin was up to between Black Flag and the American-set Assassin's Creed 3 and London-set Assassin's Creed Syndicate, I'd love to see his journey for myself. It has too many tantalizing beats not to salivate over it.

London bound

After all, during Black Flag, Edward spends most of his time turning his nose up at the Assassins. His self-centered quest for booty blinds him to the righteousness of extending his belief in liberty to the people en masse rather than just himself. It's not until the game's final arc that he seeks to make amends for his errors – not truly embracing the path of the Assassin until literally the final cutscene of the game where he finally sails home to Britain after many years building his pirate empire in the Caribbean. Black Flag ends with Edward setting out on a new beginning. Satisfying in its own way, but it feels like the door is open for expansion.

While a legacy sequel doesn't have to be completely beholden to existing Assassin's Creed lore, there's plenty Black Flag 2 could riff on if it doesn't want to completely diverge. After settling in London, Edward became pals with the Assassin Miko, joining the local Brotherhood and rising up the ranks until they both became co-Mentor figures. Miko, by the by, is the poor fellow you kill at the opera as Haytham Kenway in the opening of Assassin's Creed 3 – Haytham having been indoctrinated into the Templars after his father's murder.

While Miko handled the day-to-day running of the Brotherhood, Edward forged alliances at home and abroad – able to merge his piracy experience with a strategic mind to sail the world in search of more First Civilization artefacts and Isu Temples, leveraging some of the information obtained from the Templars in Black Flag to do so. Recent webtoon Assassin's Creed: The Forgotten Temple has expanded on this by focusing on a series of adventures he has across southeast Asia – an exciting jumping off point (which Ubisoft considers a Black Flag sequel in and of itself), but not the only path a sequel game would have to take.

Edward's journeys could take him to almost any location frequented by ships of the era, with codex entries in both Assassin's Creed Rogue and Syndicate putting him back at the very first game's Alamut, as well as the Ezio Trilogy's Italy, where he is confirmed to have found remnants of Isu civilization. His continued search for the Grand Temple (around which most of Assassin's Creed 3 revolves, but also the America sidequest chain in Assassin's Creed Valhalla), give him plenty of excuse to set sail to the Americas as well.

Eventually tragically killed in his own home, and never able to succeed in actually finishing off Templar Woodes Rogers (who somehow survives a decadent stabbing at a party courtesy of Edward in Black Flag – one of many things I wish Resynced had given us more elaboration on), there's still plenty Edward manages to accomplish over this period of time. As well as simply finding Isu Temples, he secures Pieces of Eden – detailing it all in his encoded journal that would eventually lead Evie Frye to the Shroud of Eden in Assassin's Creed Syndicate.

The Shroud of Eden a high-tech device so powerful that Edward kept it secret, even to the London Assassins, which shows he had an interesting independent streak even after joining the wider cause. And, though the deaths of Edward and then Miko would lead London to fall to the Templar rule that Syndicate would find it in, building up London into a kind of Assassin Golden Age has an appeal. Maybe even more so with the dramatic irony that would entail for series fans.

Importantly, a lot of these locations have already been present in the series so far. Rather than making that a hindrance, I say celebrate it. Only the perennially overlooked Assassin's Creed Rogue (and very briefly Assassin's Creed Revelations) has dabbled in revisiting past maps subtly altered to place them in a different time period. In fact, that could make a Black Flag 2 feel like a true Legacy Sequel, reimaging maps from past Assassin's Creed games.

Why waste the bones built for Syndicate when its London was so big and dense? Re-engineer it into a new era for Edward Kenway to run around his home between boat jaunts, please. Asset re-use, smartly used, can provide a sense of place like little else – just look at the Yakuza series and how special Kamurocho has become to its dedicated fans like myself.

Mixing together reimagined takes on previous entries with some new ports could provide a neat blend of old and new as Edward takes his ship and crew across far-flung coastlines. As well as Alamut, and, say, Rome or Boston, Edward could indeed touch base in some southeast Asia territories like Macau; where does Shao Jun's Chinese Assassin Brotherhood find itself a couple hundred years after Assassin's Creed Chronicles: China? Or, why not set course back to his hometown of Swansea for some Welsh adventuring – which was forbidden in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. On the Edward Kenway celebration tour, nothing is off limits.

Am I seriously expecting Assassin's Creed Black Flag 2 to exist? Honestly, I'm on the fence – though, Ubisoft, feel free to call it Assassin's Creed: Fall of London, Assassin's Creed: Boys on Tour, or Assassin's Creed: Sail Mary for free. A lot of work has clearly gone into getting Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced off the ground, and in a time where soaring game development budgets seem untenable, I'd love to see more bang for each buck spent on the tech made specifically for the remake. I love sequels that feel like deeper iterations on strong foundations rather than ground-up evolutions – I think it can create an atmosphere in which developers can do some of their best work (and may be one reason I love God of War Ragnarok so much). But, maybe I just grew up playing too many level packs like Rayman Designer and Tomb Raider.

Beyond that, it's clear that Assassin's Creed is reaching a point where it could use a bit of reinvention. Assassin's Creed Shadows being a huge open-world RPG works well enough on its own, but for all its unique mechanics, it can feel too similar to the three huge open-world adventures that came before it. Assassin's Creed Hexe looks to be mixing things up. But, until then, perhaps Edward Kenway can step in. After all, he helped steer the course after Assassin's Creed 3 proved so divisive. Perhaps he can do it again.

Edward Kenway is great, but which adventure is king? Check out our best Assassin's Creed games ranking to see our favorites.

The Black Flag Resynced Sugarcane and Its Yields quest is a bit of a tough one because it features two sections where a stealth approach is best due to the overwhelming number of guards. However, the main challenge for this Black Flag Resynced quest is finding the Warehouse Key as it's tucked away in a private manor at the far end of the plantation and can be difficult to get without causing a huge commotion. With that, here's what you need to do to complete Sugarcane and Its Yields as smoothly as possible.

Black Flag Resynced Sugarcane and Its Yields walkthrough

After following James Kidd across Andreas Island to the elevated lookout point, here's what you need to do to find the Warehouse Key and complete the Sugarcane and Its Yields quest without getting into a massive fight:

1. Find Beckford's agent, who usually patrols the parts of this British dock camp furthest from the lookout point you start at. Sneak forward and use Eagle Vision (R3/R3) and aiming (L2/LT) to mark enemies until you find the agent.
2. Kill the agent and loot his body to collect the cargo manifest. It's good to use whistling, hiding spots, smoke bombs, and tree hangings to your advantage to secure the kill without causing a ruckus as this dock has quite a lot of soldiers inside.
3. Return to the Jackdaw and sail to Cat Island (706, 669). Dock the Jackdaw when you arrive then sneak onto the island plantation.
4. Sneak past the plantation guards using the available buildings and shrub hiding spots and head straight for the manor in the southwestern corner of the Cat Island plantation.
5. Climb onto the roof of the manor and peek into the garden to locate and mark Emmerson Beckford at roughly (705,664). He holds the Warehouse Key you need.

6. When Beckford eventually goes inside the manor and isolates himself from his guests, drop from the roof out of sight, go inside, and either pickpocket the Warehouse Key from Beckford or assassinate him and loot the key from his body.
7. Sneak over to the Warehouse towards the north beach of Cat Island at (706,669) and use the key to unlock the doors. Edward and the Jackdaw's crew will safely plunder the Warehouse in a cutscene.

From the Warehouse, you should loot a piece of art called "The Burning of the 'Royal James'", 1,250 Reales, and 12 Wine. That also marks the end of the Sugarcane and Its Yields quest!

However, you may want to return to Cat Island later to rob this warehouse again as, like other warehouses, it replenishes based on a timer (hover the map cursor over the icon to see how long you must wait). Once it has been restocked and you can get the key off one of the plantation guards and loot the warehouse again, helping you get fragments of Black Flag Resynced Treasure Maps, more Reales, and precious resources. If you've got access to Kenway's Fleet, you can also send your ships on missions that resupply warehouses so that you can loot them again.

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Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is here, and despite releasing to "Mixed" reviews on Steam, it's doing – and selling – pretty dang well.

Standing as the first Assassin's Creed game to hit over 100,000 concurrent players on Steam, the Black Flag remake is performing quite nicely on PC – and beyond, for that matter.

Rhys Elliott, head of market analysis at Alinea Analytics, explores some of the numbers Resynced has already managed to pull off, under a week after its launch, in a new post on his Substack. He first dubs the game a "much-needed win for Ubisoft.

This aligns quite well with what the analyst previously said: that Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced "is on track to be a much-needed hit for Ubisoft" – which he evidently was right to say.

"Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a much-needed win for Ubisoft on Steam," as Elliott writes, "selling 701,000 copies for $35 million in gross revenue, plus almost $1 million more from day-one DLC."

Now, that's a lot of money – especially when you consider all the controversy the DLC has stirred up with fans.

Heck, many of the negative reviews over on Steam have to do with these "optional" purchases and microtransactions, which add up to over $80 in total. It appears that hasn't stopped folks from buying the DLC, though. A million or so bucks is, well, pretty significant, all things considered.

That's not all, however. Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is outperforming predecessor, Assassin's Creed Shadows, on Valve's platform, too.

"Shadows was the first Assassin's Creed to go day-and-date on Steam, and it set the revenue bar early last year," as Elliott notes. "Resynced cleared it comfortably, and did so while selling for less ($59.99 versus Shadows’ full-RPG price)." For reference, Shadows is usually (off-sale) $69.99.

"On day one alone, Resynced pulled in $22.4 million on Steam, 2.35x what Shadows managed on its own launch day ($9.5 million)," the analyst continues. "Four days in, Resynced's revenues via unit sales sat at $35.1 million cumulative versus Shadows' $22.2 million, roughly 1.58x ahead and pulling away."

Wild figures, eh? Ubisoft is finally settling nicely into the PC market, it seems.

"Against the pre-day-and-date era, it's no contest: Resynced has out-earned Valhalla by 9x and Mirage by nearly 19x at the same point, a reminder of how much Steam has grown as a launch platform for Ubisoft in just a few years," as Elliott concludes.

"It's proof that day-and-date Steam releases are now doing serious money for a publisher that spent years treating PC as an afterthought (outside of an ill-fated launcher)."

He does clarify that Resynced is still facing criticism for its DLC – but as I said earlier, that doesn't seem to be slowing down the game's (or the optional purchases') traction.

Interested in one of the biggest new games of 2026 yourself? Read through our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to learn what we think of it.

There's one Black Flag Resynced Grand Cayman chest in particular that's very difficult to reach, despite being so obvious. It's more of a puzzle than a parkour or exploration challenge compared to the other two chests you can boot open in this small Black Flag Resynced settlement. To help you get these lootable chests off your checklist, I've how to get to every chest in Grand Cayman below.

Black Flag Resynced Grand Cayman secret chest

The hardest chest to reach is the secret one on the cliff found at (357,298) where an old man is getting shouted at for drinking too much. It's impossible to climb up to so you instead need to follow the man's lead and get Edward hammered too.

Head to the Grand Cayman tavern (you may need to complete a bar fight to properly unlock it first) and buy five drinks at the side of the bar. After the fifth drink and a fade-to-black, Edward will wake up in a pile of palm leaves on the ledge where the old man was. You'll get the "Hungover" trophy/achievement for getting up here, and you can open the secret chest to get the Yoke-Form Vessel art collectible.

Black Flag Resynced Grand Cayman chest 1

To reach the chest at (358,295), you need to go to the cave pool on the southwestern side of Grand Cayman with a Mayan statue nearby. Wade into the pool and dive down when you reach the end of the downward steps. Swim through the small doorway at the bottom of the cave and follow the steps up to the surface and you'll emerge right in front of a chest containing some valuables worth a few hundred Reales in total, so it's not the most rewarding of discoveries.

Black Flag Resynced Grand Cayman chest 2

The chest at (365,303) is easy to spot on the northeastern side of Grand Cayman. The only issue is it's in a small encampment of Spanish soldiers, so you'll have to assassinate or fight your way to it. This chest also contains an assortment of valuables worth several hundred Reales.

If you're looking for more chests to plunder, the Black Flag Resynced Antocha Wreck is full of chests, with one being similarly puzzling to reach as in Grand Cayman.

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An Ubisoft Barcelona developer who worked on Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has responded to praise for their team's work as Ubisoft looks to lay off 51 developers from the studio.

Ahead of the remake's launch earlier this month, news broke that Ubisoft Barcelona developers are going on strike after Vantage Studios – the Ubisoft-Tencent conglomerate established last year – informed the studio that the Assassin's Creed team at Ubisoft Barcelona will be let go at the end of July, according to a former developer. Resynced is the fourth-highest-rated game in the series, has seen the biggest Steam launch in the series' history, and is receiving praise from fans of the series.

Over on Twitter, Assassin's Creed fan account TheRealZephryss made a post praising the game's underwater tech and exploration segments, which was reposted by Manel Cota, tech and gameplay animator at Ubisoft Barcelona, as part of Black Flag Resynced's development. Cota responded to the praise, saying, "Thanks! Ubisoft Barcelona did all the underwater levels. And that same team is being fired right now because Ubisoft thinks that's what we deserve."

Ubisoft Barcelona are striking today, tomorrow and Thursday in response to Ubisoft's planned layoffs, with Spanish union La Confederación General del Trabajo's bulletin confirming the strike aims are to ensure that the 51 staff who are set to be laid off are retained, to prevent more mass layoffs for "a minimum of five years" by requesting job protections, offering staff the option to work from home, a demand that already-agreed promotions be given.

Ubisoft says it's going a little quiet after Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced ahead of "significantly bigger" years with more games.

Anotto Bay in Black Flag Resynced has a handful of treasures to find, including buried treasure from a map found in a Havana warehouse. There are two chests to find, both of which are in the shark -infested underwater tunnels that you must navigate to even reach the smuggler's den, and one secret chest that requires a key. It's a simple location to clear in Black Flag Resynced, but the treasure and secret key can also be quite easy to miss, so here's how to find every bit of loot in Anotto Bay.

Anotto Bay also happens to be where you need to go for the Black Flag Resynced Blackbeard's Treasure quest, so if you need help uncovering that too, check out the linked guide.

Black Flag Resynced Anotto Bay location

If you've got the Black Flag Resynced Treasure Map for Anotto Bay from the Havana Warehouse and want to know where Anotto Bay even is, you need to head to (590,245). It's on the north side of the main island in the Charlotte region of the map and is north-northwest of Kingston. To get inside the smuggler's cove here, you need to dive where the shipwreck is and look for the underwater mineshaft tunnel entrance.

Black Flag Resynced Anotto Bay treasure

The buried treasure marked on the Black Flag Resynced Treasure Map for Anotto Bay is found in the den area at the end of the underwater tunnels. In the middle of the den, you'll notice there's a patch of dirt amongst the wooden floorboards next to a large stack of wooden boxes. The dig spot is in this dirt patch!

The chest within contains 2,000 Reales and the Crimson Cloak outfit for Edward – it's not the most interesting of Black Flag Resynced outfits, but it gives Edward's assassin pirate garb a more striking look.

Anotto Bay Chest 1

The first Anotto Bay chest is in the underwater mineshaft tunnel that leads to the den itself. As you swim through the tunnel, take the first left where the dead pirate is, follow the tunnel around to the right (watch out for the sea urchins), then take the next left. As you swim towards the wooden barricade ahead, a shark will burst out, so be prepared to dodge. When the shark is out of the way, the first Anotto Bay chest is straight ahead and holds 1,000 Reales.

Anotto Bay Chest 2

To reach the second chest, continue swimming down the tunnel until you reach an area with a ladder leading upwards and a spout of bubbles. Follow this up, then look around and you'll find chest 2 in the opposite direction to the rest of the tunnel. This chest also contains 1,000 Reales.

Anotto Bay Secret

Like the buried treasure, the secret in Anotto Bay (which is another chest) is found in the den area. The chest itself is tucked in a corner on the left as you walk into the den, but the key you need is on the smuggler leader Lorenzo – use a combination of Eagle Vision and aiming to mark him and the key. All you need to do is kill Lorenzo, loot the key from his body, and open the chest to get 4,922 Reales and a Weathered Map Piece!

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Black Flag Resynced codes are in high demand, as they can be used to claim free rewards in this updated swashbuckling adventure. Some are cosmetic, such as fresh sails to adorn your ship, but you can also redeem them to get Animus keys – and there's enough on offer to unlock one of three new swords for Edward Kenway to wield. To find out more, here are all of the Black Flag codes and how to redeem them for rewards.

All Black Flag Resynced codes

The following Black Flag Resynced codes can be redeemed for rewards:

• ACBF-PHGN-SYBJ-RTRF – 1,500 Animus keys, Crimson Storm Sails (note: although not officially expired, this code is currently giving an error message)
• ASC-BFR-PMK-000 – Shipmate Monkey Pet

Neither of these Black Flag codes have an official expiry date, although when the first one was announced producer Justin Ng said it "will remain available for a limited redemption period" and players trying to redeem it are currently receiving an error message, so it's not clear if this is a temporary issue or the promo has actually expired.

There is also another route to claim rewards for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced:

• Complete Red Bull Quiz – Wings of the Tempest Sails (expires September 30, 2026)

The previous Twitch Drops to unlock the Rustborne Swords and Cheetah Claw Cat Pet expired on August 2, 2026, though it's always worth keeping an eye on the current Twitch Drops Campaigns to see if anything new has been added.

To complete the Red Bull quiz, scroll down the page until you find the 'Spin' button and hit that to start the questions. There are six in total and you only need to answer one of them correctly, then provide your name and email at the end to receive a unique code. When you redeem that code a message which pops up suggests this reward may not be available yet, and you'll receive a further email from Red Bull once it's in the game, so don't stress if you can't immediately find it.

How to redeem Black Flag Resynced codes

The most direct way to redeem Black Flag Resynced codes is to activate them in-game, by entering the pause menu then following the Store prompt in the top right corner of the screen, before hitting the Redeem Code option to the bottom left of the screen.

However, some players (especially on consoles) have reported issues with this process, so you can also redeem Black Flag codes though the Ubisoft Connect app by tapping your profile icon then choosing the Key Activation option, or going through the official Redeem codes site and following the steps there. You'll need a Ubisoft Connect account for either of those routes, so if you don't have one already then complete the process to set one up.

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The Black Flag Resynced Antocha Wreck is one of the many shipwrecks you can plunder for long lost loot, with one chest in the wreck itself being quite tricky to find. Grabbing all eight loot chests in this wreck is really useful as well, since you'll gather both a load of Reales and the Mortar Ultimate Plan, which is arguably one of the best in all of Black Flag Resynced. With that, I've detailed the locations for all seven chests in the Antocha Wreck below.

All Antocha Wreck chest locations in Black Flag Resynced

As mentioned, there are eight chests to rip open in the wreck of the Antocha – seven containing Reales and one secret chest containing the Black Flag Resynced Ultimate Plan for the Mortar – with four of them stuck within the two halves of the destroyed ship.

Starting with those since they're the hardest to reach, here's how you can find every chest in the Antocha diving spot:

1. At the very bottom of the south edge of the northern half of the wreck (the stern of the ship).
2. In a small room on the middle deck of the stern wreckage. Swim into the deck, take the second left, then turn left again to reach it.
3. Deep within the stern wreckage on the upper deck. From chest 2, turn around and go straight ahead, then up to the next deck to find the chest straight ahead.
4. At the end of a corridor accessed via an opening on the east corner of the stern wreckage. The opening is roughly halfway down the ship and there is a shoal of fish plus some coral and plants surrounding it.

5. On the top deck of the southern bow half of the shipwreck, near the bowsprit.
6. In the small shipwreck part closest to the diving bell.
7. In the small shipwreck part directly south of the diving bell.
8. Secret: In the small shipwreck piece furthest from the diving bell. This contains the Mortar Ultimate Plan.

When looking for these chests and secrets in the Antocha, or any shipwreck accessed via the diving bell for that matter, remember to scan the area by holding L2/LT to look for white dots as these are the chests, then check your map often to see where to go. Obviously, you also need to watch out for sharks and ensure Edward doesn’t drown, so make sure you return to the diving bell and use the barrels to refill the oxygen meter – barrels can only be used to replenish Edward's air once each!

Another particularly pesky treasure chest to find is the Black Flag Resynced Grand Cayman chest, which can't be reached using parkour and instead requires some heavy drinking.

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Calmness washes over me as I place a brig on the shelf, nestled lovingly between a schooner and a fishing boat. There's something deeply satisfying about building out my collection of ship models in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, each awarded to me after defeating a vessel of its likeness in the clear blue oceans connecting the West Indies, and it keeps me coming back to Great Inagua for more.

The magpie-like thrill doesn't stop there. In fact, one of my favorite things about the Black Flag remake is its curated approach to base building. I love wafting about my splendid mansion between missions, admiring all my trinkets like a wistful, somewhat inebriated old widow looking back on her life with pride. What good is all that pirate booty if Edward can't put it somewhere special?

Warning: spoilers for major character deaths ahead!

Home and hearth

I didn't expect the mansion on Great Inagua to become such a warm, inviting space when I liberated it from a Templar in the game's early hours. Yet here I am, rushing back to the island hideaway with a backpack full of paintings, vases, and even an intricately-designed wardrobe to adorn its halls with.

What started out as a lengthy side quest – restoring the late lady-of-the-house's art collection by request of her devoted butler, whom I seem to have inherited along with the mansion itself – has become a pronounced obsession. It's a different approach to the base building elements seen in some of the best Assassin's Creed games of late. With its grid placement system and massive library of structures, landscaping, and design tools at the ready, Assassin's Creed Shadows leaned heavier on the sandbox elements of life sim games like The Sims. It made sense for Shadows as a dense open world RPG, fleshing out the system as seen in Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Ravensthorpe base camp.

But Black Flag Resynced's mansion of trinkets sits a little closer to the likes of Assassin's Creed Syndicate's procedurally-decorated steam train hideout, which sees new items and mementos unlocked after completing mission sequences.

There's no grid system in Edward’s mansion, but individual gaps in its art collection. Tasteful portraits have their own ascribed wall hanging spots and cannot be displayed elsewhere, as do furniture items, while tabletop decorations and miscellaneous paintings can go on any suitable surface. There also seems to be a finite number of artworks, art pieces, and furniture items to collect, which does make narrative sense. Edward is supposed to be restoring a curated suite of items that have been doled out to various Templars across the West Indies, each with their own pride of place in the mansion – not redecorating the house as he pleases.

That in itself adds a rich bit of texture to Black Flag's overall world building. Edward might be the current occupier of the mansion, but he is not its owner. He did not purchase it; much like the Templar Du Casse before him, Edward had to kill to take what wasn't his. I've mentioned before that I think he's a huge bastard, and, well.. Put like that, can you really disagree with me?

Know your place's place

To my utter surprise, though, Edward does not meet the butler's request for him to restore the art collection with a sneer. Nor does he threaten to sell the items off for profit, as would befit a pirate.

Edward agrees to this strangely sentimental side project, setting out in earnest to get the mansion back to the state it was in before its rightful owner died. He accepts that this house is not truly his, and that there's no point trying to wrest it from the long-dead Lady's hands when her butler is still here laying claim to it in her stead. Edward shows the butler deference instead of derision, and after all his mouthy blustering, I love seeing him humbled.

There are still inflections of Edward's own personality shining through as he restores the place. He starts collecting ship models, for a start, displaying them in his large office space, and can display his armor and weaponry in one of the parlors. There’s even a basement passage leading out into Great Inagua’s village center with extra painting spaces, each waiting to commemorate one of Edward’s lost comrades. They become little vigils once a portrait is placed, creating a space where Edward can stop and take a moment to remember friends and adventures past.

It's become one of my little rituals. I always make time to stop by the house to reflect on Edward's journey so far after a particularly grueling main mission, having a little cuddle with pet monkey Albert on the way to Blackbeard's portrait, perhaps sneering "prick" at the likeness of a slain Templar and plantation owner en route to his miniature collection.

All it takes is a mild word from the butler ("there's still more art to be found, Mr. Kenway") I'm off again, hunting down my next mission marker in hopes of securing another fine painting. But first, I collect my protection money. He might have a disarming respect for culture and art, but Edward Kenway is still a pirate after all.

Check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review for our Games Editor's thoughts on Ubisoft's latest.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced might be a single-player game – which Ubisoft says is "playable offline" – but that didn't stop the revamped pirate adventure from being temporarily unplayable on PC for many during its launch weekend thanks to issues with Ubisoft Connect.

On July 11, many Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced players on PC reported being unable to load the game at all, experiencing an "insta crash" when Ubisoft Connect popped up. "Even 'Play offline' doesn't work. What a disaster," one affected user wrote, as another said: "Can't start a single player game offline.. ggs ubisoft."

This problem seemingly didn't affect everyone – some on Reddit noted that "it didn't log me out or make me not able to play it," and that "I've played offline just fine. I was playing offline when this happened."

It seems likely that many of those running into issues may not have launched the game at all up until that point – in a frequently asked questions section on its website (specifically, the part that asks if Resynced is playable offline), Ubisoft says: "Yes. A one-time internet connection is required to download the game. Once downloaded, the full main campaign of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is fully playable offline. However, an online connection will be needed to play live content linked to the Animus Hub (Store, Anomalies, Projects, Vault)."

With that said, that doesn't appear to have been the case for everyone. Looking at the game's Steam reviews – which have taken a hit since Ubisoft Connect went down – many players had multiple hours on record by the time they left their negative ratings. "Can't play game in offline mode because I can't reach servers. 0/10," one reads, with over nine hours played at the time of submitting it.

Because this was a Ubisoft Connect issue, it wasn't just Black Flag Resynced that was affected, mind you. One Reddit user stated: "Tried to play Fenyx Rising on GeForceNOW, and couldn't because of it."

Regardless, the timing of this happening couldn't have been much worse given that it was on Black Flag Resynced's launch weekend, when many fans would have been starting it for the very first time.

Thankfully, everything appears to be back to normal now, and the game's reviews on Steam are still Mostly Positive, but it seems that console players definitely had a better experience on Saturday than many of those on PC.

Be sure to take a look at our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review if you're yet to play, or our roundup of the best Assassin's Creed games if you're looking to revisit an older adventure.

Although Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced launched to "Mixed" reviews on Steam, it's proving to be one of the most popular entries on PC from Ubisoft's legendary franchise. On Steam, at least.

Standing as a remake of what might just be the series' peak title, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has climbed its way up Steam's ranks over the past few days – so much so, in fact, that it's set a new record for the Assassin's Creed name.

As per SteamDB, the revamped gem hit over 100,000 concurrent players on Valve's platform yesterday… only three days after its July 9 release date. That's quite a figure, considering the game's predecessors' own.

The second-highest concurrent player count ever hit by an Assassin's Creed game is 64,825, for comparison – and yes, that number belongs to none other than Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft's previous entry to its nearly 20-year-old series.

After that, Assassin's Creed Odyssey sits in third place with a peak of 62,069. Then, the figures drop a bit more with Assassin's Creed Origins, with only 41,551 players back in 2017.

It only gets lower – quite a bit, too – from there, with every following game dropping below 20,000 concurrent players. Interestingly, the original Black Flag boasts a peak of only 16,049… a good 88,707 fewer players than Resynced, with its own 104,756.

That's one heck of a big difference, but I suppose it makes sense. If most folks are anything like me, they were probably playing the OG game on Xbox or PlayStation back in 2013.

Now, PC players have grown in number – and Resynced's peak concurrent player count on Steam only proves as much.

Interested in one of the biggest new games of 2026 yourself? Read through our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to learn what we think of it.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is here, but looking back at the OG 2013 game, the remake's creative director thinks that it only "became a classic" once players learned to love protagonist Edward Kenway.

Speaking in the latest issue of Retro Gamer, Paul Fu – who also served as a game designer on the original Black Flag – notes that while there's a lot to love in Ubisoft's pirate adventure, back at launch, not everyone was completely in love with quite how piratey it is. Namely, some felt that "Edward didn't really feel like an assassin."

Fu explains: "People really like the pirate fantasy and the characters, Blackbeard especially. I also remember what they didn't like early on was that Edward didn't really feel like an assassin."

Obviously, this wasn't a sentiment that stuck around forever. "I think people quickly came around in the next few years, and soon enough it became a classic," as Fu says. "I remember being really proud of the Montreal team for having the foresight to make an anti-hero."

He's certainly right about it becoming a classic – there's a reason why we rank it so highly on our list of the best Assassin's Creed games. With that said, it'll probably take a while before we can properly assess whether or not folks think its remake has been able to surpass it.

In our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review, we gave the remake three and a half stars out of five, praising its pirate atmosphere and excellent voice acting. However, games editor Oscar Taylor-Kent writes: "It splashes between wanting to be faithful, and wanting to make adjustments, not quite able to find an elegant middleground between the two. Combined with bugs and other annoyances, this isn't the bold, confident swing its predecessor was, but still a fun outing."

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced "is on track to be a much-needed hit for Ubisoft," says analyst, selling 5 times the Steam copies Assassin's Creed Shadows did pre-release.

The pizza crust might not be anyone's favorite part of a delicious, cheesy pie – but it is an integral part of the munch experience. They're a break from the main event that helps you appreciate the foundations of each bite. And, they can be killer with dip. That's exactly what Assassin's Creed's modern day sections and storytelling does for a complicated series like this – and it was a mistake for Black Flag Resynced, as a remake, to remove the 2013 original's present-day chapters.

Only with their removal do I really appreciate how important they were to grounding the overall package. A crustless pizza sounds all well and good until you're trying to lift it.

A hood in time

There's a lot I loved about Assassin's Creed Shadows, the first game to offload almost all of its 'modern' storytelling (it's now shifted to a few decades in the future). But when I look back on Naoe and Yasuke's adventure, it feels like a forgettable and insubstantial part of the series as a whole.

In fact, the further away Assassin's Creed moves from its overarching modern day stories – explaining why you, as a player, are using a digital device to relive ancestor memories from across time – the more adrift I've come to feel as a long-time fan of the franchise.

The first five Assassin's Creed games follow Desmond Miles as he's forced to use the Animus to relive the DNA-stored memories of his Master Assassin ancestors, helping the evil Templars locate mythical artefacts capable of reshaping reality on a whim in the present. The side effect of this device is that it awakens the skills and abilities of those ancestors within Desmond himself, leading to a handful of linear modern day missions where Desmond gets to show off his parkour and assassin skills.

It always felt like this set-up was building towards a modern-day blowout of 21st century Assassin action (which feels like it wouldn't be a stone's throw from something like Watch Dogs 2, in all honesty). It never came to pass, as Assassin-like gameplay in modern times was de-emphasized after Desmond's story concludes in Assassin's Creed 3.

Yet this bleeding effect, and the modern sequences, still serve a purpose. Through Desmond, the connected quest between Altair, Ezio, and Connor to protect the Pieces of Eden and unlock the Grand Temple, pivotal for humanity's survival, forms a cohesive whole. Bouncing between the Crusades, Renaissance Italy, and the American Revolution would feel random and directionless without the modern day sections creating a throughline.

The original Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's modern story was a big shift, becoming narrative-heavy first-person sections with light puzzle-solving as you're goaded into investigating your evil game developer employer, Abstergo Entertainment. But, it still contributes to what we've been doing in all the previous games.

These aren't just brief palette cleansers that provide space for Edward Kenway's pirate journey to more naturally have some big time jumps, but important moments that deal with the fallout of Assassin's Creed 3's storyline. Poking around the office has you piece together what happened with Desmond and his friends, and new lore elements with the precursor Isu civilization even create some direct connections between the Age of Piracy and the time in which you find yourself.

With Black Flag Resynced especially, because it was originally designed to connect to the other games in this way, excising that content creates unsatisfying pace issues. As I mentioned in my Black Flag Resynced review, it even means one character arc is missing its bombastic ending and just fizzles out.

Speaking of fizzling, it's all the modern day storylines have managed to do since they've become de-emphasized. Rather than fixing any issues, the step back has made me feel directionless as a fan who wants to appreciate Assassin's Creed as a whole. While even Assassin's Creed Syndicate managed to somewhat incorporate the narrative thread around Juno (a digitized entity from the Isu civilization) escaping her prison, the conclusion of this was instead wrapped up in comic books as the series' RPG era entered the picture.

New modern day protagonist Layla Hassan wasn't perfect, but exploring the origins of the Assassin and Templar conflict at least gave the games some direction, especially through her connection with Assassin's Creed Odyssey's Kassandra. She, like the Isu Civilization's constantly reincarnating Sages, gives an additional timeline-spanning hook alongside the Animus' memory exploration.

Like it or not, past threads connecting is vital to Assassin's Creed DNA – and those threads have to connect somewhere. But, these plotlines struggled to mesh with Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and while Basim's own connection to the modern day through Valhalla and Mirage are super interesting, once again they peter out with Shadows.

New sections set within the Animus Ego attempt to connect Black Flag Resynced and the other, recent open-world RPG era of the games together. But, even within these segments of play, the all-digital world means all it can muster is gesturing towards these historical memories sitting together in a space almost as disconnected as the launcher-like menu that opens when you boot up either Black Flag Resynced or Shadows.

Assassin's Creed's modern sections were the glue holding the whole thing together – doing a lot with just a little. Assassin's Creed 2's morsels of action with Desmond, and absurd reveals about who throughout history has been on the side of the Assassins and Templars, can easily be forgotten about if it's not your thing. But, to others like me, they're an invitation to revel in the sometimes-absurd, sometimes-engrossing spiraling worldbuilding of the series.

It makes me feel like part of a club as a fan. Ubisoft acting self-conscious about that part of the series identity can feel off-putting in its lack of confidence, and make it feel like the clubhouse door has creaked close for business. How can I be a fan of something that isn't sure what it even is anymore? I need something to nibble on again. I need my crust.

Check out the best open world games for more massive adventures!

Looking back on the infamously buggy Assassin's Creed Unity after 12 years, Ubisoft veteran Jean Guesdon admits "this opus maybe pushed too many things at once."

As part of a new feature about Assassin's Creed in a new issue of Retro Gamer – on sale now, by the way – Guesdon offers a sense that ambition is largely behind the game's tricky release.

"Sadly, Unity's launch was a huge challenge because of several reasons," he says. "Like AC3 with AnvilNext, Unity's development was impacted by the incredible new tech allowing for 1:1 scale, interiors, massive crowds, a brand-new parkour system and an integrated multiplayer component. Pushing content and tech at the same time is always very demanding, and this opus maybe pushed too many things at once."

"[AC Unity] is one of the most underestimated games in the series," he says.

If you care for a history lesson, one of the big pitches behind Assassin's Creed Unity was the ability to play co-op with three of your friends online. Sounds neat, doesn't it? Four players sneaking around to assassinate targets and work together to achieve a common objective attracted the interest of many.

As you might have figured by now, though, Assassin's Creed Unity wasn't really able to handle it, among other things. Not long after launch, the interest was awash with clips of various graphical issues and bugs, leading to an apology from Ubisoft and a free expansion to make up for the bother.

Despite the bumps, Assassin's Creed Unity ultimately sold well, but Ubisoft certainly had to learn a lesson or two about matching ambition to what's deliverable.

"This is not how I imagined it would end": Ubisoft to lay off Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced devs at its Barcelona studio, with one calling the remake's release "bittersweet."

I'm surrounded by enemies in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and I'm getting my ass kicked. Two swordsmen flank me either side, one heavy axe-wielding brute boxes me in dead ahead. I don't have enough room to swing my sword – but I do have one last smoke bomb.

Executing targets big or small with the hidden blade is immensely satisfying in any of the best Assassin's Creed games. But it feels especially welcome in Edward Kenway's slick new remake given how challenging regular melee combat can be. It's precise art, "modernized" compared to the original as Resynced's technical director told me in an interview, but with just enough of that hitbox-based hack and slash flair to remain faithful to its old school roots. But there's one game in particular it reminds me of most. I'm impressed to say that Assassin's Creed Unity has been unseated as the unofficial king of finicky combat in the series as a whole.

Down but never out

As it turns out, a pirate's life is not always for me. It takes me a bit of practice to get comfortable with Edward's fighting style in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced: it's built around parrying, dodging, and timely hits in between, with the opportunity to counter after performing a perfect guard or dodge.

Now this is all well and good when I have just one foe to focus on. There's a skill and finesse to combat here, something best approached with nimble thumbs on the joysticks and a sharp eye watching for blue warning flashes, alerting me to an imminent attack. Edward's sneaky dodge-rolls over foes' backs, powerful heavy attacks with his double cutlasses, and general pirate panache reminds me of Arno Dorian's different yet equally stylish fighting style in Paris-set Unity.

But unless he's using enemies as human shields when confronted with a mob, a swarmed Edward certainly suffers for his art. Given that's exactly how boarding ships after naval combat plays out – that's an awful lot of cutlass moshpits. Which is where the privateering gets shoved to the wayside for a touch of sneaky assassin charm.

Deploying my last smoke bomb in the midst of a heavy close-quarters firefight, I'm able to walk around the obscured bubble and quickly dispatch any baddie while they're distracted. Meanwhile, throwing out the rope dart with the right button on my D-pad lets me interrupt even red-flashing power attacks and rain down some pain with my own blades instead.

Bar Yasuke from Assassin's Creed Shadows, who was no assassin and didn't have access to hidden blades, I can't recall the last time a non-RPG Creed protagonist's personal fighting style felt so distinct from their assassin moves. There's a graceful, almost feline way about Arno's that lends itself well to assassin-like stealth. Evie Frye of Assassin's Creed Syndicate wields her cane sword just as elegantly, and even her tankier brother Jacob knows when and where to reign in the brawn and take to the shadows. When Edward Kenway is boarding your ship after peppering it with non-so-subtle cannonballs, you know he's coming.

Edward, with all his rough edges and swashbuckling privateer moves, is by far the least graceful hero of the bunch, and it shows in how he fights. He plays dirty and mean because that's how a pirate rolls, not to mention he's not really an official assassin at all to start out with. He doesn't operate by the Creed; he writes his own to suit his own needs.

Where does the original Black Flag rank among the best Assassin's Creed maps in terms of aesthetics and utility? Go find out...

Animal pelts, skins and hides in Black Flag Resynced are all an important part of how you improve both your maximum health and your ability to carry around ammo and equipment generally. However, finding animal pelts isn't easy, as you'll have to explore the world to find and hunt various creatures and critters, from deer to jaguars to monkeys. Fortunately, I'll show you where to find all the pelts and animal locations in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced below, as well as how to get them all quickly without even having to leave Inagua.

All animal hunting locations in Black Flag Resynced

Below we've laid out where to find every animal you can hunt in Black Flag Resynced, with coordinates and islands attached. When you reach the marked area, use your eagle vision to find and mark the animal nearby, and use common sense a little. Crocodiles are usually in water, while monkeys are usually up trees, and so on.

It's also worth remembering that certain animals behave differently in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced . For example, deer will flee, while jaguars will fight back and potentially kill you if you're not careful. Keep in mind when hunting them!

Once killed, just approach the animal and choose to "Skin" with the button shown to harvest the skin and bones. It doesn't matter how you kill an animal, they yield the same amount of rewards whether down by assassination, bullet, sword or blowgun.

How to get animal skins and pelts easily in Black Flag Resynced

Though you can hunt animals for free, there's another option: upgrade both the general store and treasure dealer in Great Inagua. Once upgraded, the merchant's store will allow you to buy any animal pelt and skin in exchange for bones (the cost changing depending on their rarity.

Bones can be obtained by killing any animal in the game, but you can also buy them for 5000 Reales each from the Treasure Dealer, once unlocked. This leads to a straightforward cash-for-bones-for-skins arrangement that isn't cheap, but is at least highly efficient, especially if you're flush with cash in the late game. You can also spend some of your pelts at the Treasure Dealer to earn special Black Flag Resynced Outfits!

For animals you can treat slightly better, here's how to get all the Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced pets. Or while you're hunting for animals, hunt for the different Black Flag Resynced Treasure Maps too!

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Line up Arno Dorian, Jacob Frye, and Ezio Auditore, and they'd all have something Edward Kenway does not: being likeable blokes. The Welsh pirate was never meant to be a decent guy from the off. As an aimless drunk trying to find himself in the West Indies after royally fumbling the bag when it comes to his estranged wife back in Bristol, that offputting loser vibe was already there in the 2013 original. But it has to be said that while Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is an absolutely gorgeous and incredibly fun new game, it magnifies its protagonist's asshattery by dragging out his redemption arc for an unbearably long time.

I get it. We all love a rehabilitated bad boy, as anyone who plays dishonorable Arthur up to a certain point in Red Dead Redemption 2 will tell you. But, unlike a gruff outlaw atoning for his none-too-egregious sins at the dawn of a new world order, Black Flag Resynced gives me very little to root for in Edward. His personality traits are money, dubloons, and reales, and I am so very bored of it. How is it possible that over five hours and four sequences into the remake, I'm still rolling my eyes at a very two-dimensional anti-hero, waiting for the moment he starts feeling worth the emotional investment?

Ye olde frat bro

I've been trying to work out why I am so repulsed by Edward Kenway's character in Black Flag Resynced. Maybe I just hadn't noticed it before, and seeing such a faithful remake has exposed how simplistic the character has always been: from the faded leathers to the alcoholism, near-constant money-grubbing, and self-aggrandized dreams of rising above the derision he'd faced in the "old world", Edward is a stereotypical wannabe pirate. So much so, it starts to feel forced.

Others in the game recognize that. His friend Vane sneers at Edward’s twisted view of piracy, how he views it as a means to an end rather than an earnest movement for complete freedom from the shackles of Crown, Country, and Colony. James Kidd notes his equally shallow motives for dealing with Templars initially, Edward's interest piqued by the promise of a snazzy new get-up. There's also the matter of his most un-pirate-like commitment to his estranged wife back home. He intends to win her back with a fortune amassed as a temporary pirate, rendering him little more than a well-connected tourist in the West Indies.

Resynced does a great job of highlighting how hard Edward's intentions have been clocked from the start. Doing the right thing for the wrong reasons is still righteous, Kidd remarks mildly, but it's clear that Edward's self-interest immediately grates on his companions very early on.

Only for me, it's not that early on. Six hours into Black Flag Resynced, Edward is still a goofy, greedy caricature of a peg-legged pirate, lacking only a Pretty Polly parrot on his shoulder squawking for a cracker. I'm starting to wonder if it's not the game that's making his simplistic bad boy era drag on for so long, but the way I'm approaching its new spatial parameters.

Thanks to being rebuilt in the powerful Anvil game engine, one of the most exciting tech advancements seen in Resynced is the seamless open world. As soon as I gain access to a ship of my own, I'm free to cut about Havana as I please – which means that I'm taking too long to get stuff done.

Too cool for charm school

The original's tight, linear narrative pacing has been well and truly let off its leash in Resynced. There are plenty of islands to explore (though the maps therein are quite limited), a vast ocean I can freely dive into at any time for some treasure hunting, and I can even indulge in a spot of harpoon fishing when a compass marker pops up. Then there's sea shanties to collect after chasing down sheet music over rooftops, Helix glitches to explore alternate timelines, pirate contracts, brief in-world events, and a host of side quests after unlocking Edward's island hideout.

All this is excellent, because I adore exploring the best open world games and letting myself get sidetracked, yet I can already feel how it's damaging my journey through the story as a player. I have to keep reminding myself that this is not an RPG. I could storm all the main early-game quests (is six hours still early game?!) to keep myself on the straight and narrow, but am too much of a magpie not to get pulled off-course.

Why would I jump straight into the next mission when I could go climb every vantage point in sight, something I do in many of the best Assassin's Creed games to open the world up before I get stuck in? Resynced's biggest problem is that it trusts me, the player, far too much to let its story play out as intended. As a result, I'm dragging out the worst of its hero.

Looking back at the stealth-action Assassin's Creed games, I don't recall ever feeling this much like a kid in a Havanaen candy shop. City-based Creeds have plenty of side quests, challenges, and collectibles, but the close-quarters element means I am never more than a few seconds away from fast-traveling to the nearest quest marker if I want to get back into the main story.

But as I set sail again for a distant island and pray to God I don't get swept up in another spot of naval warfare which was totally not my own fault, I realize that I have been intending to visit this map marker for the past thirty minutes to no avail. Resynced is almost too big and enticing to keep up the narrative momentum at times, meaning I am accidentally spending far longer in Edward Kenway's bastard era than I'd have liked. Help! My pirate game is too beautiful and distracting, and my lobster is too buttery!

I know that Edward Kenway's days in a pancake-flat pirate fantasy are numbered. His ego death is rapidly approaching, and embarking upon my first proper Templar Hunt, I am so very ready to see it. I don't know whether I love or hate Resynced's open world for being so good at its job that it makes an already unlikeable character even more of a tool, but I'm having such a good time getting lost in it that I can't even stay mad. Especially when, if I ever feel he is in need of karma points, I can send him out to feed chickens or pet cats to right the cosmic wrongs he inflicts upon myself and others (and his poor, poor wife).

Check out all the other upcoming Ubisoft games to anticipate next!

The locations of outfits in Black Flag Resynced vary significantly, with some being hidden in chests, others bought in stores, and further more being found in treasure chests around the Caribbean. We've got all the details on outfits around Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced below, with locations and coordinates for every costume, setting and clothing set around the game, so you can build out your piratic wardrobe accordingly.

Locations of all oufits in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced

There 35 outfits in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, though some can only be unlocked in paid DLC. Below we'll lay out how to get all of them for yourself.

Outfits in Black Flag Resynced have no function and it doesn't matter what you wear. That a change from the original game where some outfits could have certain effects - a role now performed by various trinkets you can equip.

That means your choice of outfit is fully dictated by fashion and personal preference as you explore Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, and the general vibe you want to give off. Speaking personally, I am enormously fond of Captain Morgan's Redingote, which is probably the most "piratey" outfit in the whole game.

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Ubisoft Barcelona – one of the development teams behind Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced – will be laying off 51 staff by the end of the month, one dev says.

In a post on LinkedIn (via Kotaku), Isabel Codina García, quality assurance/quality control lead at Ubisoft Barcelona, said yesterday, "Today is a bittersweet day."

She continues, "Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced releases today, the project I have been working on for the past 2.5 years. However, two weeks before launch, the whole AC team at Ubisoft Barcelona was informed of a collective redundancy plan."

The dev explains that Vantage Studios – the Ubisoft-Tencent conglomerate established last year – told the studio that there "will not be further mandates for the Barcelona studio, despite the team proposing new AC projects." As for the scale of the layoffs, she says "51 people, myself included, will be affected by the end of July."

The studio's LinkedIn lists it as being made up of "51-200 employees" with 119 of those employees being members of the site, so it seems a large chunk of the studio is set to be affected.

At the end of June, staff at Spanish union La Confederación General del Trabajo released a bulletin stating that Ubisoft Barcelona staff were going on strike (thanks, GamesIndustry.biz) over the proposed layoffs, with attempts to ensure that the 51 staff were retained, requests for job protection to prevent more mass layoffs for "a minimum of five years," a demand that already-agreed promotions be given, as well as the option to work from home.

Codina García adds, "After 7 years at Ubisoft Barcelona, this is not how I imagined it would end. But I am genuinely grateful for the people I have met and everything I have learned along the way."

Frustratingly, it's becoming increasingly common occurrence in the games industry that even if your projects are successful, that isn't enough for execs. Resynced is the fourth highest rated game in the series, saw the biggest Steam launch in the series, and will undoubtedly sell millions as a remake of the series' most beloved game.

And those making these decisions aren't the people affected even if the game somehow was a flop. But now, years of experience is leaving the studio, which will in turn leave future projects in a worse place, and more importantly, 51 people looking for work in an industry that feels like it is laying off far more often than hiring.

We have reached out to Ubisoft for comment on this situation, and will update should we receive a response.

Before you walk the plank and dive into the deep end of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, there's one early-game item that's a total time-saver for both prospective sailors (those who haven't started the game yet) and veteran pirate legends (those who are planning 100% completionist runs).

This being an Assassin's Creed game from the open-world fanatics at Ubisoft, Black Flag Resynced is expectedly massive. A full completionist run can easily take up to and over 60 hours to beat once you fold in all the enemy forts, sunken treasure, side quests, collectibles, and unlockable upgrades.

Worry not, freebooter, as there's a trinket called Exotic Sea Shells that can help shave that time down quite nicely. When equipped, Exotic Sea Shells "increases the wildlife products gained from skinning animals" – resources used for both unlocking upgrades and outfits.

Best part, you can find the trinket super early on. In southeast Havana, to be exact. To be even more exact, you can head to the coordinates 213, 568 and find a treasure chest containing the Exotic Sea Shells there. (Thanks, Game8!) As one fan puts it on Twitter, "this is one of the best trinkets you can get early" in the remake.

Grinding and hunting for pigs, let's say, should be over much quicker with a seashell necklace on hand (I love video game logic), as should getting all of the game's outfits and upgrades, which are tied to how many animals you can skin and how many sea beasts you can harpoon.

Just make sure you don't fall victim to a bug that can wipe hours off your Black Flag Resynced save file, OK?

You can read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to see our thoughts on Ubisoft's new remake and see if it's up there with the series' best Assassin's Creed games.

The Salt Lagoon treasure in Black Flag Resynced is a tough one to find, especially if you're not used to the system of maps and implied locations that the Remake works on. It's also definitely worth hitting this reward ASAP for the money that can give you a good footing early in the game, so I'll explain how to find the treasure of Salt Lagoon below and interpret the treasure map that Black Flag Resynced gives you to work on.

Salt Lagoon treasure location in Black Flag Resynced

The Salt Lagoon treasure from the map found on Abaco Island is located at 719,607, just south of the tall rock formation on the northwestern beach.

This dig spot can be quite easy to miss compared to some of the other buried treasure spots around Black Flag Resynced – make sure you get right up to the green ferns growing by the tall rock – but unearth the buried chest and you'll get the Serpent Figurehead Design Plan for the Jackdaw and 3,000 Reales.

Treasure is normally a bit easier to find than this, but our Black Flag Resynced Treasure Maps guide details where to find every bit of treasure, so that you can easily find and plunder every dig spot.

Otherwise, there are a few other things you can do and find on Salt Lagoon to complete the checklist: one Viewpoint, one chest, and one secret, and you need to hunt a deer. The Viewpoint is on the end of the bowsprit of a wrecked ship on the southwest beach; the chest is in the sea off the south beach and contains 1,000 Reales; and the secret is another treasure map on the northeast side of the beach. Finally, deer are found towards the middle of the island.

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An Xbox Game Pass option for Black Flag Resynced is something that many players are hopeful for, but at time of writing it doesn't seem like such an option is expected for the near future. That being said, that isn't written in stone, and there is good reason to think that Black Flag on Game Pass will be an eventuality, as we'll explain in our guide below. We'll also cover other options for subscription services that include Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced!

Is Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced coming to Xbox Game Pass?

No, the Black Flag remake is not currently on Xbox Game Pass, and there's not yet been any official comment regarding when (or even if) it will be added.

However, it's worth acknowledging that most previous Assassin's Creed games have been added to Game Pass some time after release, though this doesn't include 2025's Assassin's Creed Shadows at time of writing, so we can't say that it's a definitive guarantee, or at the very least may take a while for Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced to be added.

That being said, you can play the original from 2013 on Game Pass, if all you need is some form of Edward Kenway's adventures. Our own Black Flag Resynced review felt uncertain about whether it truly outshone the acclaimed original, so it's possible you might get the better experience from going back to the first incarnation.

If you're a PC gamer, it's also true that you can get Black Flag Resynced as part of the Ubisoft+ Subscription service, as long as you get the Premium subscription.

If you're getting into Edward's adventures, you might want to know how long it takes to beat Black Flag Resynced, so we've laid out some estimated completion times for you. And if you want to know how it differs from the 2013 original, check out all the Black Flag Resynced changes.

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Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is finally here, and it's not doing so bad so far – but it's safe to say there's one thing folks aren't too thrilled about in Ubisoft's revamped adventure.

Unsurprisingly, it's the price of the game… and its optional microtransactions. If you have a quick look at Steam, you'll find that the game has "Mostly Positive" reviews so far in English – and "Mixed" overall.

That's not bad, per se, with various fans praising the remake for how faithful it remains to the original and the fact that it's "super fun" to play. Over on the more negative end of things, players also aren't really criticizing performance. Sure, there are a couple of comments on the game's frame rate and the like here and there, but it's mostly all about money. After all, if you add up every optional purchase, you'll get some $84 or so.

As one reads, "Releasing a 70-euro game and on the DAY of the release you slap us with 85 euros worth of DLC packs that are just not cosmetic but give you a gameplay advantage," adding: "I will be refunding!" Interestingly, Ubisoft actually responds to such negative reviews directly.

It's always the same cut-and-paste response, too – at least to reviews regarding Resynced's price and microtransactions.

"We've seen your feedback since launch, and we're reading all of it," writes Ubisoft. "Thank you for caring this much about Black Flag Resynced. We want to be clear on one point: the standard edition is the full, complete experience. Every mission, every island, the full story, and the complete world are all there, with nothing held back."

Ubisoft concludes: "The additional packs are entirely optional extras for players who want them, never a requirement to enjoy or complete the game. We'll keep listening as you play!"

It's certainly an interesting reply – but I'm not sure it's enough to change fans' minds about optional purchases and the like. It does, however, line up with what the developer and publisher has said in the past about microtransactions.

Last year, Ubisoft declared that microtransactions help players "experience more fun" – a controversial statement, to say the least.

It's important to note, though, that in the case of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, the studio is replying to positive feedback as well. It's not a case of simply sweeping issues under the rug, I'd say. In one such comment, Ubisoft says, "We wanted to thank you for your positive review."

The devs state they've "poured our hearts and souls into that remake, & we are fans of the original game too. So reading some positive reviews matters more to us than you would think."

I'm personally interested in seeing how the game continues to perform, honestly – it's likely we'll witness some patch drops here and there, and perhaps a higher rating on Steam as more fans get into Ubisoft's new remake.

Be sure to check out our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to read our thoughts on the remake, or our list of the best Assassin's Creed games to see how we rank the rest of the series.

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has only just set sail, but the pirate romp has already left its predecessors in the wind and is now enjoying the biggest Steam debut in series' history.

Despite having released only a few short hours ago, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has already courted over 99,000 concurrent players on Steam, according to SteamDB stats – that number shoots up by a couple thousand every few minutes, so don't expect it to fully settle anytime soon, either.

Last year's Assassin's Creed Shadows previously held that honor with a peak that sits just over 64,000. For context, the lush and hilariously horny Assassin's Creed Odyssey attracted a peak of 62,000, while the sandy epic Assassin's Creed Origins held a peak of 41,000.

The original Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag's record was also absolutely demolished in no time at all – its peak of 16,000 or so players was passed within the blink of an eye, though that game's PC port came a month after its initial PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii U release in an era when Steam's audience wasn't as monstrously large.

Many of Ubisoft's other Assassin's Creed games also had inconsistent releases on Steam, too. One of the biggest games in the entire series, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, which only peaked at about 19,000 players, didn't actually come to the platform until years after it first hit consoles and the Epic Games Store, for example, so they're not all competing on a level playing field. That is the pirate way, I suppose.

Despite the various asterisks you could place on the new series record, Black Flag Resynced is hitting huge Steam numbers no matter how you look at it. Perhaps not a surprising turnout considering the acclaim and nostalgia that's followed the original piratventure.

If you happen to be part of the mass flooding Ubisoft's revamped high seas, look out for an Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced bug that could potentially wipe a couple hours off your save file.

The Black Flag remake might have the other games in the series beat here, but check out how it fared on our list of the best Assassin's Creed games ever. You can also read our Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced review to find out if it's worth playing.

How long does it take to beat Black Flag Resynced? That length will vary depending on whether you want to 100% complete the game or just go through the story campaign, but most players will be looking at least 30 hours, and potentially more than double that. Having completed it myself and consulted with others who have, I'll lay out the full time to beat below and how long it'll take you to beat the Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake.

How long is Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced?

From my experience playing Black Flag Resynced, and that of other members of the GamesRadar+ team, you should expect to sink roughly 35+ hours for an light to average playthrough. That's one that takes in a little bit of everything but doesn't get side-tracked too much from the main path. But, obviously, this completion time depends entirely on how much you choose to do from the Black Flag Resynced mission list.

I'd say, roughly, the time it takes to complete Black Flag Resynced averages out like this:

• Critical path: 25-30 hours
• Main quest and some side activities: 30-40 hours
• 100% completion: 50-60 hours

If you're only interested in Edward Kenway's story, as he tries to make pirate life work in the Caribbean, you'll probably spend 25 hours or so clearing the main missions. You might be able to get through the main quest in under 25 hours - if you're particularly dedicated and playing on the easiest difficulty settings - but with important upgrades needed (for the Jackdaw especially) it's difficult to play through the whole thing quickly without dipping into at least some side activities. That said, there are no modern-day sections in this remake, stripping a bit of time off things (you can read about the other changes in Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced here).

Alternatively, if you want to see everything Black Flag Resynced has to offer, you're looking at easily spending around 50+ hours playing. With plenty of Forts to destroy, upgrades to unlock, Black Flag Resynced Treasure Maps to dig up, and side quests and contracts to complete, there is a lot to do beyond seeing Edward's story through to the end. And the endgame-level Black Flag Resynced Legendary Ships will require you to have all the Black Flag Resynced Ultimate ship upgrades applied to the Jackdaw.

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