Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a very good remake. And I’m not the only critic who thinks so. Over on review aggregator Metacritic, Resynced is currently sitting at 84, which makes it one of the highest-rated AAA games of the year. The remake is also the highest-reviewed game in the series since the original Black Flag launched back in 2013.
Black Flag Resynced, which releases on July 9 on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, is a gorgeous remake of the original pirate-themed Assassin’s Creed entry that adds some new content while making smart changes to the controls and open world. The original Black Flag launched first on Xbox 360 and PS3 in October 2013 before arriving a month later as a next-gen upgrade for the just-released PS4 and Xbox One consoles. On Metacritic, the PS3 version has the most reviews and sits at an 88 overall.
As of July 8 at around 2 pm E.T., Black Flag Resynced‘s 84 on Metacritic (with over 75 reviews) marks a recent highpoint for the series’ critical reception, and makes it the best-reviewed AC game, according to the aggregation site, since the 2013 release of the original Black Flag. Since then, most AC games have struggled to score higher than 80.
To put Resynced‘s 84 score on Metacritic in proper context, here are all the main games in the Assassin’s Creed series in order of release and with each game’s Metacritic score for each version that has the most critic reviews.
- Assassin’s Creed – 81
- Assassin’s Creed 2 – 90
- Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood – 89
- Assassin’s Creed: Revelations – 80
- Assassin’s Creed 3 – 84
- Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag – 88
- Assassin’s Creed Rogue – 72
- Assassin’s Creed Unity – 72
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – 76
- Assassin’s Creed Origins – 81
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – 83
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – 80
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage – 76
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows – 81
- Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced – 84
I’m not sure what to make of this outcome. I guess the main takeaway is that if you remake a game people already liked and do a good job of it, then the outcome is likely to be another well-reviewed game. Of course, sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic only provide a snapshot of how critics felt and shouldn’t be treated as the definitive score for any piece of entertainment. Still, it is fun to look at data. Like how many people are completely wrong about Origins, the best game in the series.