I never played Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag when it first launched in 2013. I’m kicking myself for that negligence right now. Its new remake, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced, reaffirms that the open-world pirate adventure is one of Ubisoft’s finest games. Everything from its thrilling naval battles to its island treasure hunting holds up remarkably well in a respectful touch-up that mostly sticks to impactful gameplay tweaks.

There is one significant change, though. Resynced does away with the original game’s present-day storyline, a sci-fi framing that revolved around the perpetually nefarious Abstergo Industries. I was none the wiser about that at first considering that this was my first experience with Black Flag, though I couldn’t shake the nagging feeling that the story was missing a layer during my playthrough. Now that I’ve gone back and watched the missing sequences, I’m baffled by Ubisoft’s decision to leave them on the cutting room floor. Black Flag just doesn’t make as much sense without them.

The story of Black Flag as it is presented in Resynced is centered solely around Edward Kenway circa 1715. He’s a pirate who gets entangled with a grand conspiracy in the Carribean, as a secret order of Templars look to track down an observatory that will help them control the world order. A swashbuckling tale ensues that sees Edward sailing around islands,........

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