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This article contains officially confirmed information combined with expert industry speculation, rumors, and analysis.
To put it lightly, Ubisoft is going through something of a rough patch. The French video game company has been caught up in a lawsuit, the Prince of Persia remake has been cancelled, they’ve closed multiple studios as part of a company restructure, and there are calls for industrial action. Probably the least important of all of these problems is the rumored Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake getting delayed, but I’m miffed anyway.
I’m genuinely excited for the prospect of an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake, as I think it’s just one of the most fun Assassin’s Creed games the series has ever had. However, given that the original is rather long in the tooth, the “additional development time” on offer could be used to add a whole range of sorely-needed improvements. With more time for refinement and innovation, here’s how we think the rumored Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake could punch far above the weight of the original.
Parkour pain points
It’s a shame to admit, but Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Assassin’s Creed Mirage both fumble the series’ traditionally strong parkour movement. It feels like the game is trying to be too smart, and you’ll often find that when you’re trying to climb through a window, you’ll end up grabbing onto the wall instead.
An Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake could avoid these mistakes, with developers looking to older entries in the series for guidance.
Many of the older Assassin’s Creed games never had this issue, Black Flag included. You generally tended to seamlessly move in the direction you wanted, whether that was across a Havana rooftop or along some tree branches.
If we are going to see an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake, we cannot accidentally pick up the bad habits of modern parkour. If Ubisoft is mandating a delay, then maybe use that time to try and dig out the Assassin’s Creed Unity code. The game was buggy, but the parkour was marvellous.
It’s hard to match the feeling of captaining one of Black Flag’s ships. Ubisoft certainly wasn’t able to match it with Skull and Bones, and outside of Sea of Thieves, the closest we’ve ever gotten is, weirdly, the Pirates of the Caribbean section of dramatic JRPG Kingdom Hearts 3.
It was already great in the original, but I know that if they put their mind to it, an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake could make something even better. Expanding out the gameplay with more customisability and responsiveness would be a start, adding to the refinements from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.
One of the big areas that modern hardware can astound, however, is in atmosphere. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you can get caught in some wonderfully stormy weather. Rain coming down in sheets, distant thunder, truly mesmerising stuff. Get that going during a ship battle, and we’re on for a winner.
Sailing for adventure on the big blue wet thing
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag felt like the height of freedom at the time. Take control of your ship, sail around the crystal waters of the Caribbean, and then weigh anchor whenever you find a new island or want a dip underwater. Of course, looking back, it wasn’t a true open-world, but there’s no reason it couldn’t be.
The habit of an open-world Assassin’s Creed game came with Assassin’s Creed Origins, and then continued through the other modern RPG-style games like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. In their usual Ubisoft style, they’re often filled with too many pointless objectives or large stretches of dead space, but they’re still fun to traverse.
Black Flag’s Caribbean in full HD would be a gorgeous open-world paradise that I’d feel compelled to travel for hours on end. It’d be wonderful to recapture that feeling of adventure, and could even reach the lofty heights of The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker, if Ubisoft plays its cards right.
The look makes the man, and the man makes his look
If there was ever a game to push customisation, it would be an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake. The potential to customise your ship and your outfit would be great, and it feels authentic to how Edward Kenway would act.
One of the most important things to customise here would be adding more sea shanties. Sailing between locations occasionally had some downtime, but filling it by getting your crew to sing a rousing rendition of Fish in the Sea made you not want to arrive at your destination in such good time.
Now, it’s important to clarify my wish on this particular monkey’s paw. I want these customisations to be found in-game, not purchased through some outside shop. Of course, we can want a lot of things, and I fear the Pandora’s box of paying for character customization in Assassin’s Creed has no chance of getting closed.
This fear cuts to the core of my hopes and fears for Assassin’s Creed Black Flag. A return to the Assassin’s Creed of yore is tempting because it heralds a return to a time before the safe yet bland open-world templates that constitute modern Ubisoft titles.
The success of any Assassin’s Creed Black Flag will be contingent on Ubisoft’s willingness to innovate for the sake of the audience, rather than for the sake of shareholder comfort. We can but hope that a longer development cycle will give developers more room to realize this goal.
FAQs
There’s been no official confirmation that there’ll be an Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake; however, there are plentiful rumors, and the signs seem all there. Right now, however, it looks like it has been delayed to the next financial year.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag had plenty of pirate ships and ship combat, but it’s not the only one. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey had ship combat, as did Assassin’s Creed Rogue. If you want to get granular, Assassin’s Creed Shadows had pirate ships with targets on them, but they were static and therefore more like themed pirate islands.
The best Assassin’s Creed game in terms of quality is probably Assassin’s Creed 2 for the more classic series style, and Assassin’s Creed Odyssey for the more modern RPG-style. My favourite Assassin’s Creed game, however, is Assassin’s Creed Black Flag.
Ubisoft recently cancelled a Prince of Persia The Sands of Time remake alongside five other projects, which weren’t specified. This was part of a general restructure and attempt to cut costs.
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