Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced is cutting the original game's playable modern-day missions, changing how the remake handles one of Black Flag's most divisive but important pieces of story structure.
Game File reports the modern-day sections are gone from Resynced after a Ubisoft-hosted preview and follow-up answers from creative director Paul Fu. The remake still has a way to nod back to that material: a new ending scene written by original Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag lead writer Darby McDevitt.
Black Flag's 2013 story regularly pulled players away from Edward Kenway's Caribbean memories and into Abstergo Entertainment, where the modern-day player-character worked inside the Templar-linked company. Those sequences were not universally loved, but they carried some of the game's bigger Assassin-Templar and Isu connections.
That makes their removal more than a simple pacing tweak. Ubisoft has already described Resynced as a remake with new story arcs and combat changes, but this is a clearer look at how far the rebuild goes when it touches the game's frame story.
A new ending scene replaces part of the modern-day payoff
Fu told Game File that Resynced no longer includes the original modern-day missions, but Ubisoft wanted to preserve a connection to one specific late-game thread. Game File redacted the character name to avoid spoiling a major Black Flag reveal, and that redaction is worth keeping intact here.
"As a fan of the original modern day story myself, we wanted to do something special for [REDACTED CHARACTER's] original modern day story. Though we do not have the original modern day missions anymore, there's a new ending scene specially written by [original AC IV Black Flag lead writer] Darby [McDevitt] for [that character] in Resynced, that alludes to his poignant story in the original. We hope that fans will pick up on this!"
The change may split Black Flag fans. Some have long treated the modern-day interruptions as the price of getting back to Edward, the Jackdaw and the Caribbean. Others valued them because Black Flag used Abstergo's offices to tie its pirate story into the wider Assassin's Creed mythology.
The Animus story is not completely gone
Resynced also appears to keep some present-day connective tissue through new Animus files. Game File says one collectible found on a new island unlocked a message teasing a mysterious group called The Watchers, with roughly 15 such messages visible to collect.
That sounds closer to the modern framing used by recent Assassin's Creed entries than a return to fully playable office sequences. Resynced, like Assassin's Creed Shadows, is described as launching from an Animus-style interface, making the player the Animus user while the larger modern-day conflict is tucked into unlockable files.
Ubisoft has been presenting Black Flag Resynced as a faithful but expanded remake of the 2013 pirate game, with upgraded visuals, rebuilt mechanics and additional content across the Caribbean. The modern-day cut is one of the more direct story changes so far, even if McDevitt's new scene is meant to soften the loss for players who cared about Black Flag's original ending.