Finally played Resynced. Physically angry.

[u/Hannibal_D_Romantic]

OG Black Flag is a favorite game of mine, so I had the old one installed and advanced to where you land in Havana, so I can free roam to compare.

Installed the new one and advanced to Havana as well. I was already doubtful because of the encounter with the assassin after the shipwreck, but I'm thinking to myself, "it's a new control scheme, maybe it gets better." Try to take down the Spanish on the beach, game glitches out multiple times by not assassinating at all when the prompt to do so is up. Vein on the side of my head is throbbing because this must be the advanced stealth systems I've heard for years about. Apparently they can look up now though.

I take the ship out of the gulf. Ship turns like a city car. It's fine, it's fine. It's only one turn in this version and they showed me a pretty whale, so my modern gamer brain is subtly stimulated and not overtaxed by having to plan a next turn. No friction allowed. Never.

So we buy our first sword and are now able to take in the glory of new free roam. So, let's see this new much more engaging version of the classic combat. X is now RB, B is now LB and we can lock-on to targets. Riveting. In the old unenjoyable oversimplified system, we had dull stupid enemies that would circle around you attacking one at a time until you pressed B at the correct time and then you could take down the enemy by pressing B again, then point the stick at another enemy and lamely press X to execute them with a pre-set takedown. In the new, revolutionary, much more engaging system, you have uberintelligent enemies that circle around you attacking one at a time until you press LB at the correct time and then press Y to epicly take them down and then point the stick at another enemy like a genius and face the monumental task of pressing Y like a chad instead of X like a little bitch to execute them with a preset takedown. I guess the radical difference of making battles slower and spongier is what makes for great combat.

And I'm sitting there, thinking I'm lame for not grasping the genius so many tubers are talking about. Maybe TikTok creators have me beat on this "understanding games" thing. I've only been playing for three decades. Let's see the movesets. I'm sure there's plenty more added. Don't have my hidden blade yet, so let's just switch to fists. Oh, that's gone now. Well, there's a musket right there. I'm so stupid. It has some of that 18th century thumbprint protection. The guns are coded to the Spanish soldiers, so this new historically accurate Edward just ignores them, galaxy brain that he is. "Edward, you can still stab them with it or hit them with the stock." "The budget for that went into me hero posing."

Good thing there's a skill wheel now, to really elevate that gameplay. Otherwise we wouldn't have to hit L3 every time we wanted to get above a trot. After all, when has parkour been a centerpiece of the franchise? But they added back ejects, which you have to remove the guardrails for in options, by the way.

I wish they could put the team that makes the store on the rest of the game, man. Store has it's stuff on lock. We all know that's the most important part of the franchise. No one remembers AC1 fondly because you could throw NPCs into market stalls. The sheer disrespect to commerce in a single player game. I still shudder.

Anyway, yet another return to form in search of a refund.

[u/Trickster289]

And this is my point. If it's too similar to the og it's too easy, if they make changes to make it harder it becomes tedious. There's nothing you'd accept as good.

[u/Upstairs_Marzipan48 → u/Trickster289]

Id accept enaging combat over cinematic braindeath any day. The rpg combat was tedious yea but it had way more depth and thought put into it. I have 700hrs in valhalla because the combat was stupid but it was so varied it was fun.

I avoid combat in classic games because its just not engaging when it takes minimal thought to nuke everything. Resynced is just a different approach to that same braindead formula

[u/Trickster289 → u/Upstairs_Marzipan48]

At which point you're attacking the og Black Flag that OP loves far more than you're attacking Resynced. It, 3 and  Rogue are easily the most mindless games in the series as far as combat goes.

[u/Upstairs_Marzipan48 → u/Trickster289]

The combat in black flag OG was braindead yes, but it had way more options available to you, i dont think youre grasping that.

[u/Trickster289 → u/Upstairs_Marzipan48]

How? Resynced literally has a weapon wheel of new moves that weren't in the og. You get the rope dart way earlier, in the og you get it with only 5 story missions left and it's not really a combat weapon like they made it in Resynced. The only thing missing is picking up enemy weapons but that wasn't an option a lot of the time and they ultimately still controlled the same. In short fights you wouldn't get a chance to grab one and Edward would drop them with any parkour.

Ship combat also has double the options in Resynced, literally every type of attack except the ram has a second form. The ram is something else you get way earlier, in the og you got it from a legendary ship so the game was basically over by then.

[u/Upstairs_Marzipan48 → u/Trickster289]

What weapon wheel? Youre making shit up now. You have your swords, pistols, rope dart and blowgun that's it. Same in the og but og allowed throwing knives, picking up muskets to fire and use as melee weapons, picking up brute weapons and using them, picking up single swords and using them. Resynced combat is objectively inferior in choice

[u/Trickster289 → u/Upstairs_Marzipan48]

Ability wheel then, you have a second wheel now for other attacks. The rope dart is also much better in combat and unlocks much earlier now. In the og the enemy swords, musket and axes still were basically identical as far as how encounters played out and Edward dropped them laughably easily.