Five Assassin’s Creed games that need the Resynced treatment

I love the Assassin’s Creed series, and while many of the games have aged surprisingly well, having now played Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced I’m convinced that more games in the series deserve to see these improvements.

You’ll find out all about what’s new in our full Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced review, but for me there are a few standout improvements:

• Parkour: A bit of a contentious subject among fans. Some of the older games give more control, some of the newer ones are more fluid and we can all agree that the RPG games might as well not have it. OG Black Flag sat right in the middle of this spectrum, but with Resynced adding back in the advanced movements missing from some of the recent games at launch, I think we’ve probably got some of the best parkour in the series now. 
• Narrative: Now, I love the modern day stuff in Assassin’s Creed, it’s the glue that holds together a lot of the series but I appreciate not everyone likes it, and some games do it better than others. Black Flag removes the Abstergo employee nonsense and the game’s better for it, and while I wouldn’t want that for every game, there are definitely some that would benefit.
• Photo mode: Come on now, lads. This is the de facto virtual tourism game. Whichever game gets Resynced next will get the benefit of a full featured photo mode, something that many of the games are sorely missing. 
• Visuals: An obvious one but some of these games are getting on a bit now! Resynced is drop-dead gorgeous and there are more than a few locations from the older games I’d like to see get spruced up like the Caribbean did. 

Now, let’s get into the list.

Assassin’s Creed Unity

Yes, I could have gone older for my first choice but while playing through the full series a year or so ago, I couldn’t help but think Unity needs a do-over. 

It was plagued with issues when it released and fixated on a multiplayer mode that nobody really cared about. It’s a shame, because the game itself was strong in many ways: it introduced some fluid, slick parkour and gave us one of the densest, most interesting environments to use it in. Mission design had a huge upgrade, with the assassinations almost feeling like miniature Hitman levels and while the story wasn’t anything to write home about, Arno was at least a likeable protagonist. 

Assassin’s Creed Unity Resynced would be an opportunity to give the game the launch it should have had. Forget the multiplayer guff and instead just focus on making revolution-era Paris as bustling and full of life as possible and I’m sure people will see the game far more favourably than they did at launch.

Assassin’s Creed

Let’s go back to where it all began now. The original Assassin’s Creed was a hallmark game, and while it didn’t quite nail everything, it was an excellent proof-of-concept for the series that followed it. 

At nearly 20 years old, it unsurprisingly feels more dated than any other game in the series, with notoriously repetitive mission design and a slightly sparse visual style that’s heavily reminiscent of that early 360 era. 

An Assassin’s Creed Resynced would be amazing for modernising the original game, expanding the variety of missions and introducing larger, denser versions of Acre, Damascus, Jerusalem and Masyaf. There’s an argument to be made that we could strip out the modern day element to make a leaner experience, but for me those early games really were held together by Desmond’s story so I’d rather keep it. That’d mean 4 other games would need the same treatment though, so it’s a commitment! 

Assassin’s Creed 2

How could I think about resyncing the series and not include one of the most iconic games of all time: Assassin’s Creed 2?

Similar to the first game in the series, this one’s feeling a bit long in the tooth but Ezio’s charm and the story of his family is just as impactful now as it was back in 2009. There’s a whole generation of people who won’t have experienced it, and likely never will as the game obviously feels of its time now.

Modernising it with improved visuals, expanded story (maybe some more time with Leonardo?) and a photo mode that can capture screenshots of fireworks over the canals of Venice is a no brainer, and I can only hope Ubisoft are already thinking about how they can resync these first two games in the series.

Assassin’s Creed Rogue

Possibly a bit of a rogue choice (pun intended), this feels like it could be a quick win that might improve opinions on one of the worst received games in the series. 

Rogue does some genuinely interesting things narratively, with the atrociously voiced Shay Patrick Cormac grappling with the morality of his role in the Assassin’s and some interesting twists and turns along the way. It unfortunately came out at the turn of the generation, where everyone was more interested in Unity rather than what felt a bit like a reskin of Black Flag.

It does bear enough similarity to Black Flag though that a Resynced version could be a relatively quick turnaround, using the mechanics and new visuals from Black Flag and perhaps spending a bit of extra time reworking the story and some of the performances. The bones of a great Assassin’s Creed game are here, and resyncing it might just help put the meat on them.

Watch Dogs

I’m being a bit cheeky here but they’re all in the same universe so why not? The original Watch Dogs is a great game that was marred by that damned E3 trailer which unfortunately overpromised visually, leading the game to underdeliver. 

A Watch Dogs Resynced would be the perfect opportunity to build the world we saw in that E3 trailer, bring in some of the parkour and hacking improvements from its sequel and give Aiden Pearce and his “iconic” baseball cap another chance to shine. I’d even go a step further and bring in some of the Assassin’s Creed characters from the later games, like Darcy from Legion, to help bring the two series closer as fans always wished they were. 

So, there’s 5 Assassin’s Creed games that need the Resynced treatment. If I’ve missed one then let me know in the comments below!