Black Flag Resynced's Release Just Dropped

For one reason or another, very few games scratch the genuine pirate fantasy. There’s Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag, of course, which is pretty much why there’s so much hype behind the upcoming remaster: Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. Ubisoft would try to replicate it success with Skull and Bones, but that “AAAA adventure” became stuck at sea. Other pirate games have hit the market, but none with the staying power of Black Flag, at least before Windrose. It remains to be seen if it can hit the same heights, but Windrose has officially entered Steam Early Access on April 14.

The standard price is $29.99, although there is a Supporter Bundle priced at $39.99. Purchasing before April 21 gets Steam users a 10% off discount as an introductory offer. The Bundle includes the soundtrack and a handful of wallpapers.

Windrose has the potential, at the very least, to go the extra mile. In February, a brief demo for Windrose attracted thousands of players and accumulated tons of wishlists, seeing it catapulted into the top 30 most wishlisted games on Steam. And that was just a brief portion of the whole game. In short, Windrose takes Black Flag‘s core fantasy, Skull and Bones‘ naval combat and ship progression systems, and expands on both with Soulslike-inspired combat (in a PvE adventure game structure), co-op RPG progression, and open-world survival crafting features. That’s a recipe for success if I ever heard one.

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Windrose is Unexpected Pirate Game Competition for AC Black Flag Resynced

What’s Going on With AC Black Flag Resynced?

Right now, it’s uncertain what’s going on with Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced. After months of rumors, a restructure, and layoffs at Ubisoft, the company would come out and confirm that Black Flag Resynced was real and in development. It’s been mum’s the word since then, although there have been as many rumors post-confirmation as there have been pre-confirmation. While it will be revealed and released when ready, Windrose‘s Early Access is here now and worth spending some time in. Not to mention, as it continues to take form, it’ll be interesting to see how the pirate game evolves into the final product.

What to Expect After Downloading Windrose

Windrose is a open-world pirate survival RPG built around land and naval combat, focused on PvE but with optional PvP and co-op elements. That’s a lot of words to define the game, but that’s because of how big and complex it promises to be. Size isn’t everything, but a quick look at its feature list shows how it’s starting off on the right foot:

Single-Player and optional Co-Op (up to ~8 players in shared pirate crews)
Character Creation
Lengthy story with unique main quests, side quests, enemies, and tough boss fights
The story revolves around challenging Blackbeard’s dominance on the seas while dealing with an empire-scale conflict and supernatural forces.
There are 3 dominant biomes spread across procedural generated biomes and over 90 Points of Interest
There are 3 playable ships currently. Players actively captain, upgrade, and engage in combat with them.
Naval combat includes the ability to board enemies a la Black Flag
There’s fully fleshed out survival crafting features where players gather resources, build bases, recruit NPCs, and manage progression systems
There are factions, faction quests, and more in the hub of Tortuga Town

As far as boots on the ground combat, Windrose drives players toward bosses with fair challenge. The Soulslike combat system focuses on the key elements: stamina management, dodging, and enemy pattern recognition. Players are encouraged to hit-and-run due to the strength of Windrose‘s enemies, as well as take advantage of the Bloodborne-like rally system where players recover health via counterattacks.

Balance the critic averages

Easy (6)Medium (8)Hard (10)

What’s more, Windrose has already began incorporating feedback and outlining plans from the aforementioned demo, ranging from loot reworks and expanded co-op to better controls, performance options, and navigation improvements. Other possible improvements include QOL improvements for ship roles, reward balance, new features, and technical components. The key takeaway here is that Windrose‘s Early Access is starting off much stronger than most games at this stage.

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Windrose Hopefully Signals a New Era of Pirate Games

Now, many will argue that competition is vital in capitalism. Maybe it is. But Windrose is off to a strong start that will be expanded with new content, new platforms, and more in the future. Sometime soon, AC Black Flag Resynced will happen, and games like Sea of Remnant have their own potential. Since Black Flag, there’s been a solid lack of strong pirate games that fulfill that fantasy with boots on the ground. All of these titles may sail under different flags, but the more pirate games, the better.

Windrose may share DNA with games like AC Black Flag and Skull and Bones, but it carves out its own niche with the open-world survival crafting elements. It learns harder into a lived-in open-world RPG with survival crafting mechanics than Ubisoft’s games, and that makes it stand out.

When both Windrose and Black Flag Resynced are on the market, players will see the pirate fantasy (on land and at sea), exploration-driven progression, and more that combine them. But Black Flag is a more direct, story-driven action-adventure game with a tightly scripted world, whereas Windrose offers more emergent gameplay, more grindworthy progression systems, and a systems-driven sandbox. If Black Flag makes those changes in Resynced, the game will be unrecognizable and that’s not what fans want. Instead, a plethora of varied pirate games is only good for gamers.