Is the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake better than the original?

The original Black Flag (along with the Ezio trilogy) has always been my favorite game in the Assassin’s Creed series. I love ships and naval combat, and I always appreciated Edward’s approach and his complete rejection of the conflict between the Templars and the Assassins. He was a great protagonist: rough, flawed, constantly drinking, indulging in women, and having very few qualms when it came to killing. He felt like a real pirate and provided a stark contrast to Ezio, who was, at best, a charming seducer. Meanwhile, Altaïr barely had a personality at all.

Well, all of that is gone in the Assassin’s Creed Black Flag remake.

Softened character and changes in character design

Edward occasionally takes a sip of grog, but otherwise, his character is significantly softened. Very significantly. He still swears and brandishes his sword, but his entire character arc can be summed up as: "Friendship is great and love is wonderful!" Personally, I don't like this approach as a general principle, because it is rarely — if ever — executed well and feels like one of the cheapest ways to write character development.

The softening doesn't just apply to Edward himself. Character designs have also changed: men are noticeably more attractive compared to standard beauty conventions, while women are less so. Let everyone interpret that as they wish.

Story changes and filler content

Furthermore, the remake removes all the modern-day segments — which, frankly, is an improvement, as those sections were terrible. Unfortunately, they replaced them with useless filler content.

Edward now constantly talks to himself. And I mean constantly. He comments on almost everything he does, which is a technique sometimes referred to as "multitasking pacing": explicitly repeating key information so that viewers who are watching videos while scrolling through content on their phones can easily follow the story. I absolutely hate this trend, regardless of the medium.

They also added filler content to several key scenes in the game. Imagine characters A and B having an important conversation exactly as they did in the original. Now imagine another character standing nearby — someone who wasn't there before — interrupting the scene to comment on what A and B are talking about, even though neither of them ever acknowledges that this person even exists. That is exactly what happens here, and it feels incredibly unnatural.

Cut mechanics and unbalanced difficulty

The remake adds a number of new gameplay mechanics while removing many of the original ones. Melee combat is no longer divided between fists, hidden blades, and swords. You also can no longer pick up enemy weapons, such as muskets, and use them yourself, which was always great fun.

Ship upgrade progression has also changed. Early progression is now limited by the main story, and naval combat is significantly harder at the beginning. Conquering forts, for example, is practically impossible before reaching Inagua. However, once you unlock all the upgrades, the difficulty disappears entirely. Even after setting the difficulty to maximum, the game became mind-numbingly easy.

Ruined ending

Finally, I think they completely ruined the ending.

In the original game, Edward knows little, if anything, about what happened to his wife. Towards the end of the game, he receives a message that "Lady Scott" is waiting for him. Naturally, he assumes it is his wife. Instead, he discovers that she has died and that it was actually his young daughter who came to meet him. It is a genuine emotional blow and, in my opinion, one of the best-executed scenes in the entire original game.

In the remake, however, Edward already knows his wife was pregnant, knows she died, and knows his daughter is coming for him. The entire reveal is thus stripped of its emotional impact.

Visuals

As for the graphics, I honestly don't care. Some people say the remake looks fantastic, and perhaps it does. After all, how can a thirteen-year-old game realistically compete with a brand-new one? I can't judge that too much, as visuals have never been a deciding factor for me.

Final verdict

I cannot recommend this game with a clear conscience. At launch, it included DLC worth more (€89) than the base game itself (€69). I honestly believe that these kinds of practices are one of the reasons why we as a society are heading in the wrong direction.

Ultimately, comparing the remake to the original leads to a single question: How much do you hate the modern-day segments in the original game? Do you hate them enough to replace them with TikTok-style filler content?