The anticipated Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag remake is maybe the worst-kept secret in gaming proper now. News of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced (rumored to be the official title) has been surfacing frequently over the past 12 months or so, and with developer Ubisoft having now re-uploaded the game’s entire soundtrack for no obvious cause, it’s primarily a foregone conclusion {that a} remake announcement is imminent.
And whereas I’m definitely glad on the prospect of leaping again into one of many best Assassin’s Creed games ever made, I’m not totally satisfied that Black Flag is in want of a remake, definitely not over older video games like Assassin’s Creed and Assassin’s Creed 2.
Ubisoft has yet to announce anything official about the Black Flag remake, though rumors point to some significant changes being made to the original version of the game. Here’s what I’d like to see changed in a potential redo, and some things that I absolutely, under no circumstances, want Ubisoft to include.
The tempest
I’ve not quite been sold on the last few Assassin’s Creed games, finding both Valhalla and Shadows to be missing within the parkour, story, and world design departments. That doesn’t imply {that a} potential Black Flag remake shouldn’t ignore the fashionable video games totally, nevertheless.
Shadows, specifically, is an absolute business chief in climate and environmental results. The seasonal adjustments, the heavy rain, snow, and sleet – the dynamic climate in Shadows is sensible in the way it ties into gameplay, and it might be completely gorgeous when utilized to Black Flag’s West Indies.
Black Flag’s setting was actually forward of its time, particularly with regard to its massive oceans and water results. Now think about how a correct dynamic climate system might tie into crusing, exploration, and extra.
Tempestuous storms and rolling fog would significantly up the ante for ship fight, as would extra fashionable particle results for cannon-fire and sea spray. If I might select one factor for a Black Flag remake to plunder from Shadows, it might completely be the dynamic climate.
Hardcore parkour
Modern Assassin’s Creed titles approach parkour in a completely different way than the first six games in the franchise.
I loaded up Black Flag recently, and spent half an hour or so running just around the rooftops of Havana. Parkour still feels surprisingly good. It’s lightning fast, dynamic, and most importantly, it leaves plenty of control in the hands of the player.
You see, parkour is too heavily automated in recent games. The animations are better than they’ve ever been, but the actual moment-to-moment flow of the movement is more restrictive, and you don’t really have all that much control in how you move from point A to point B.
I’m worried that Ubisoft might be about to crowbar modern parkour systems into Black Flag. They actually did something similar already with Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
That sport, regardless of being an homage to the primary Assassin’s Creed, options parkour that’s secretly only a tweaked model of Valhalla’s. This doesn’t work in any respect within the confines of Baghdad, a metropolis that’s alleged to evoke the bustling locales of the primary three Assassin’s Creed video games. The result’s a sluggish and much too streamlined system that pales compared to the parkour of video games that got here out almost 20 years in the past.
Post-launch updates to each Shadows and Mirage have improved issues considerably, but it surely’s all made one factor very clear to me: Black Flag’s parkour doesn’t want changing, it simply wants updating and refining.
Cleaner animations and an up to date management scheme are all {that a} remake of Black Flag actually must have.
Freedom Cry
I look back quite fondly on Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag – Freedom Cry, though I’ll be the first to admit that it’s nowhere near the best DLC we’ve had in the Assassin’s Creed universe. A potential Black Flag remake does raise the question as to whether Freedom Cry needs to be brought along for the ride. I’m going to be somewhat controversial and say that no, it really doesn’t.
Now, having replayed Freedom Cry recently, I’m here to tell you that you probably do not want to play a straight-up remake of it as much as you think you do.
The story is great, the blunderbuss and machete weapons are fun enough, but the actual structure, the gameplay, and feel of the DLC are seriously lacking. The majority of the missions are tailing ones (more on that later), and the ship combat is really just more of the same from the base game. I would much rather see Freedom Cry protagonist Adéwalé’s role expanded and folded into Black Flag.
While the events of Freedom Cry do take place after Black Flag has ended, Adéwalé could have a much larger, more prominent role in the Black Flag remake.
Give Adéwalé his own missions that borrow from the Freedom Cry playbook and plot, and have the story side of Freedom Cry play out as post-game content. I’d love to see some of Freedom Cry be incorporated here, but simply tacking on a remade Freedom Cry onto the Black Flag package? It’s just not going to be worthwhile.
It’s worth noting here that we have never seen an Assassin’s Creed remake before. We have no idea whether Ubisoft intends to follow the plot and structure of the original, or do something like the Resident Evil series and establish a completely new version of events. I’d quite like to see the latter, as it’d allow for characters like Adéwalé to be fleshed out and given more prominent roles.
Chasing its tail
Many of us look back on games like Black Flag through rose-tinted glasses. It is an undoubtedly fantastic game, and one that really stands out in the series for being something completely unique when compared to what came before.
The problem is that broader memory of Black Flag, the one that evokes snapshots of thrilling ship battles, hair-raising stealth, and larger-than-life supporting characters, isn’t quite the full picture.
Black Flag does not feature the mission structure we’ve come to expect of modern AC games, and it’s particularly plagued by tailing missions. These are a much-maligned part of the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and fairly so. Black Flag, and Assassin’s Creed 3 before it, are the worst offenders for having players slowly tail a target for the duration of a main mission. It’s always dull, and during a replay, it’s quite surprising just how often it crops up.
Black Flag has possibly the worst implementation of a tailing mission in the entire series, as well as one where you tail a ship while sailing the Jackdaw in a swamp.
These either need to be reworked completely or taken out of the game. Modern entries like Assassin’s Creed Shadows handle tailing quite well by giving players more stealth options when approaching a target, or by giving them the choice to kill a tail early and track down the info they’re hiding later on.
This is one area of Black Flag that I think needs modernizing entirely, and please, don’t make me do ship stealth, it simply doesn’t work.
That’s quite enough loot
According to a particular Black Flag remake rumor, the game will lean into loot and gear stats for Edward Kenway’s arsenal, likely in the same way as we’ve seen in the modern games.
Personally, I cannot stand constantly picking up slightly higher-level loot items of the same kind, and I much prefer the older AC games’ approaches to bespoke weapons and simple upgrade trees.
Black Flag does not need the same role-playing game (RPG) treatment first utilized in Origins, nor does it want bloated enemy healthbars and harm numbers. The fight in Black Flag is quick, brutal, and easy, although it undoubtedly matches the protagonist higher than having a slew of legendary swords and pistols always thrown right into a participant’s stock.
This is a pirate sport, nevertheless, so a greater loot selection can be welcome. What I actually don’t wish to see is similar loot system as employed in Shadows, the place I’ve 20 katanas of various ranges, every one as forgettable because the final.
It’s very possible that Ubisoft will incorporate a number of the extra RPG-heavy techniques seen in current video games when designing a Black Flag remake. A talent tree may very well be nice, and increasing crafting would match with the treasure-hunting setting. All in all, nevertheless, turning Black Flag right into a full-on RPG can be a mistake, one that will introduce a complete heap of the very points which have made fashionable Assassin’s Creed video games so uneven and generally even troublesome to suggest.
Ubisoft must stroll a really effective line between previous and new right here, particularly with a sport as beloved as Black Flag. The trick will likely be to modernize ageing management schemes and world design whereas preserving the unique’s focus. Easing off on the urge to fill the remake with sprawling RPG loot techniques will likely be key.
We’ll have to attend and see whether or not Black Flag is certainly getting a remake. All indicators level to sure, but it surely’s necessary to notice that Ubisoft has by no means acknowledged the remake’s existence, nor has it commented on the current rumors and leaks.
Hopefully, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced sticks carefully to the unique sport, because it’s nonetheless a improbable entry into the Assassin’s Creed sequence, and one which impressed numerous video games in its wake.
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