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 not set course back to his hometown of Swansea for some Welsh adventuring?
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.
