As we get closer to the July 9th release of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, a new video has popped up giving us a look at the opening moments of the game. Coming courtesy of IGN, the video gives us a look at the first 18 minutes of gameplay from the title, kicking things off with a black screen letting us know that the story starts at Cape Bonavista in the June of 1715. Check it out below.
Kicking things off with a naval battle, we get to see protagonist Edward Kenway before he dons his iconic assassin robes. Being just a pirate, his ship has come under fire from another ship flying the flag of England. The sequence acts as a tutorial for the ship-to-ship combat in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, with Edward having to take the helm and order his crew to fire cannons at the other ships.
While not much may have changed in gameplay terms for the naval combat, the visuals are quite obviously a major step above the original game, which should come as no surprise since Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag was first released in 2013. The weather effects as well as the frantic and stressful nature of naval battles are shown in all their messy glory, and before long, Edward, along with a mysterious hooded figure, is thrown overboard thanks to an explosion on the ship’s deck.
Once Edward is able to swim to shore, the true beauty of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is shown off in all of its glory. The tropical island he finds himself on is lush, with bright green foliage all over the place.
In terms of story, the opening moments of Black Flag Resynced aren’t really change much from the 2013 original, with the events that would eventually make Edward a prominent member of the Assassins’ Brotherhood largely playing out as you would expect. Tasked by the hooded stranger to deliver a message, Edward agrees on the condition of getting paid for his work. However, he also manages to get his hands on a set of assassin robes and manages to get himself entwined in a seemingly never-ending shadow war between opposing factions.
Ubisoft has revealed quite a few details about Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced as the company gets ready to release it on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. In a recent interview, technical director Jussi Markkanen teased that the title would allow players to dive underwater just about anywhere in the open world. This also means that there will be an entirely new set of secrets for players to discover, including entirely new shipwrecks.
Markkanen has also confirmed that Black Flag Resynced will feature an evolution of the combat system we saw with the most recent entry in the franchise – Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
“We modernized the combat to be more hitbox-based, as modern combat games tend to be, and a little bit more reactive. So, Edward can still use the hidden blades, but as a takedown action in the combat, making the combat more fluid.”
Check out more details about the game’s global release timings. PC players can also take a look at details about its Steam Deck Verified status.
