The remake of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag, titled Black Flag Resynced, is reviewed as a solid and improved experience over the original game.
Technically, the game utilizes Ubisoft’s Anvil engine, which also powers Assassin’s Creed Shadows. This engine supports ray-traced global illumination and reflections, though not all reflections are ray traced; path tracing is not included. For visual enhancement, players have access to DLSS, XeSS, and FSR upscaling solutions, along with three frame generation technologies.
In terms of hardware performance, the title performs well on handheld PCs. Reviewers noted that it can be played at playable frame rates even on the Steam Deck. Beefier handhelds can reportedly achieve about 40 FPS at the Medium preset with maxed-out textures without excessive reliance on upscaling. A balance between quality and performance can be found at resolutions of 900p/1050p, with the Claw 8 EX capable of running it at 1200p while maintaining frame rates above 30 FPS using XeSS set to Quality.
The game is not very VRAM-hungry; players can maximize texture settings as long as they have at least 8 GB of shared memory allocated to VRAM. Furthermore, testing confirmed the title plays well when connected to a controller, with no issues reported.
Gameplay improvements are noticeable across several mechanics. The remake features much more fluid parkour, which the review found particularly satisfying and precise. Combat is also described as more fluid, emphasizing parrying and quick combos. Updates were made to naval combat and stealth mechanics. However, while improved, the stealth element was rated as ‘so-so,’ especially in areas with many enemies. Reviewers also noted that modern-day sections have been almost entirely eliminated.
The visual presentation of Black Flag Resynced is considered high quality at maximum settings, featuring features like Micropolygon—a system similar to Unreal Engine’s Nanite—to eliminate LOD pop-in without significant performance loss. Even on handheld machines, the game remains visually appealing, although upscaling is needed unless the absolute lowest visual settings are chosen.
Performance observations included that no shader or traversal stutter was observed during testing, even after a short precompilation time for shaders. The review contrasted the remake’s visuals with the original, noting that while the initial look of the character models might be unnatural, the game provides a significantly better-performing and more affordable alternative to the remake if considering the older title.
In conclusion, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is praised as a fun game and a proper remake. While it looks great with all settings maxed out, its performance on handheld PCs makes it recommendable for owners of Z1 Extreme, Z2 Extreme, and Intel-powered devices.
Source: TechPowerUp