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
I love wafting about my splendid mansion between missions, admiring all of my trinkets
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.
