The Assassin’s Creed franchise has been around for almost 20 years at this point, and it’s covered such wide eras of history as the Italian Renaissance, Norse Vikings, Ancient Greece, and even the Revolutionary War. But my favorite era of the story of the conflict between the Assassins and the Templars is easily from the fourth entry in the series, Black Flag. Not only is this the game in the series that features the best simulation of life in the golden age of piracy, but the sheer amount of things you could do, from exploring islands to commandeering ships to hunting sea creatures, made it one of those rare games that would eat up all of my time.
Now, with the release of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, I worry about my time being eaten up all over again, but at least some of that can be used to good use after checking out Titan Books’ The Art of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced.
Far more than just a rehash of the original Black Flag art book, Resynced features new pieces that highlight the extensive work that Ubisoft’s developers put into the new game. The vast detailed artwork and model sheets included in the book offer a lot of details that would be overlooked just by playing the game, and in an era where developers in the gaming industry aren’t getting nearly the credit they deserve, seeing a big art book like this really give them their flowers is really nice to see. The sheer amount of art content covered in this is pretty exhaustive, even if the actual information into the development is lacking.
Titan Books
The art book is broken down into different sections highlighting the locations, characters, and creatures that Black Flag Resynced‘s team meticulously recreated, my favorite being the section dedicated entirely to the naval battles players can partake in. Long my favorite aspect of any pirate story (or really any old school battle period), this section is filled with absolutely gorgeous pieces by Ubisoft’s art team of various pirate ships at war with British and Spanish fleets, the elements, or one another. There are pieces in this section that are so incredibly crafted and executed that I immediately looked into ways to have them framed and placed on my wall, which, sadly isn’t an option (at least until Ubisoft decides to figure out a new way to get me to give them more money).
The layouts of the art are really well designed and pleasing to the eye, highlighting things in a way that really makes each element pop on the page. As great as the layout of Resynced is, some sections are more interesting than others. While it’s impressive to see the amount of work the developers put into recreating Nassau, for example, that section takes up areas where we could learn more about the different design processes that went into lead character Edward Kenway’s current gen glow up, or even discuss elements that were cut from this new section of the game. Even with the information given here, there’s still a lot left at arm’s length in the development of this new version of a modern classic, which is to be expected from a book so tied to Ubisoft, as their reputation as of late hasn’t been the best.
That lack of more information does bring up an interesting element of Resynced‘s art book: aside from the exhaustive art pieces, there really isn’t a whole lot of content and information into the remake process that Ubisoft went through to recreate Edward Kenway and the crew of the Jackdaw. The captions we get for some elements of the game are shockingly short, and the “real facts” about piracy are ones that most people probably know from the game or from general knowledge of piracy itself.
With a company that has as vast of a history of Ubisoft, Resynced‘s art book could have really delved into that, showing differences between not only the original Black Flag and Resynced, but how elements of the franchise have evolved from 2007 to now. As a huge fan of pirates and Black Flag specifically, there was enough here to keep me entertained, but at $50, I can’t imagine the average person grabbing this unless they are a gigantic fan of the franchise or this particular game.
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