As one of the most beloved entries in the Assassin's Creed series, Black Flag's remake was met with great excitement when it was announced, mixed in with a bit of caution. People love the game, but they want to make sure the new version doesn't tarnish their old favourite. Speaking with game director Richard Knight, we asked how the team working on Black Flag Resynced balanced a mix of old and new.
"What I hope remains the same is the spirit," Knight told us. "Like, even if the mechanics are different and you can crouch anywhere, that you'll still go like 'Oh, I feel like I've already had this experience with Resynced'."
Knight's hope is that players will find the combat systems fresh and interesting, as well as newly introduced mechanics with the Jackdaw. A lot of the improvements have come in giving players cool tools earlier in the game, such as the rope dart and ram dash ability.
The decision to remake Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag over other titles in the series was a fairly easy one for Knight. "We try to think of what the brand is, these different experiences, different points in history, different exciting characters," he explained. "And so when you look at Black Flag, it's like, okay, check, great character, check, great setting, the Caribbean, check! You could be a pirate and you could be an assassin; it ticks all those boxes. And then it ticks the final box, which is it's old enough, and whilst it still holds up, there are loads of exciting things we thought we could do with it."
All that combined, to give Ubisoft Singapore enough of a reason to go back and remake the game thirteen years on. It took around three years to bring Assassin's Creed: Black Flag Resynced together, and you can read more about that journey in our full interview with Knight here.
