The Assassin’s Creed series needs a PS5 remake, but not for Black Flag Word on the high seas is that Ubisoft is going to release an Assassin's Creed PS5 remake, but it isn't for the entry that actually needs it.Opinion by Kes Eylers-Stephenson Published 08 Jul 2023 FollowtopicsAssassin's Creed IV: Black FlagUbisoftRumourPlayStation 5Kes Eylers-Stephenson You might be getting another chance to collect those Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag trophies if reports that Ubisoft is making an Assassin's Creed PS5 remake are to be believed. However, despite it taking the number one spot on our best Assassin's Creed games list, Kes thinks it isn't the remake the series needs.Assassin's Creed 4 remake rumored Kotaku reported the news of an Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag remake for PS5 being in the works recently. The 2013 entry into the long-running franchise is set in the Golden Age of Piracy in the early 18th century and memorably features ship combat in the translucent blue seas of the Caribbean isles. According to two anonymous sources, Ubisoft Singapore has a team together to plan the remake despite the studio still trying to get the ill-fated Black Flag-inspired pirate game Skull & Bones out of the door.Ubisoft Singapore originally worked on some of the ocean tech that brought the piracy aspect of the title to life. When the idea of a separate pirate game came about thanks to the success of AC4, it allegedly took years to even work out what the game should be before they settled on the quite tame-looking Skull and Bones PS5 gameplay we see today. Perhaps with an established set of boundaries to play with, an Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag remake is what the team needs to gain confidence, and it would seem the studio is perfectly tailored to the job. That said, I can't shake the feeling it's not the game the Assassin's Creed series needs remaking.Assassin's Creed 1 deserves a remake, not Black FlagFor me, Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag is the best in the series. From the moment pirate Edward Kenway swaggers onto screen on the hunt for a real assassin, the story hooked me in and boarded my brain with its buccaneering brilliance. Kenway isn't a real Assassin, but he learns to become one over the course of an enthralling narrative that has emotional stakes and a genuinely philosophical story about adopting responsibility and maturing. Then there are wonderful side characters in the form of former slave turned first mate Adewale, Edward Teach and his threatening Blackbeard pirate persona, and Anne Bonnie the irresistible vagabond with a tragic tale.Then you have the location. The Caribbean sings, accompanied by the sound of sea chanties and the ocean rhythmically lapping the brow of your beautiful vessel, the Jackdaw. Whether you are fighting with a cutlass on land or on deck, by broadside or by arching cannon fire, the game never lets its sense of adventure go. The Assassin stealth is slightly toned down, but still present and correct in linear missions. Ship combat itself is a delight, and the small upgrading gameplay loops are impressively controlled. Side activities are great — shout-out to diving missions, fort attacks, and the legendary ships — all of which seek to enrapture you with your beautiful ship and the islands you travel to.Assassin's Creed IV Black FlagSo, needless to say, I'm not exactly going to be upset if we see a revision of the game with upgraded ocean tech, better graphics, and higher framerates for PS5 any time soon. My hope is Ubisoft expands a little on the Nassau base building to make it more like building Ravensthope (a feature I detail more in my Assassin's Creed Valhalla review) and possibly add a bit more ship customization, but that's not my core want here. I'm wondering why on earth we aren't getting a much-needed remake of the original Assassin's Creed game instead.The original game came out in 2007 as a strange brother of the Prince of Persia series: it had its own identity, but started life in development as a game in a different series. The game has us follow a young member of the Assassin's brotherhood called Altair as a Templar conspiracy unravels during your travels across the Holy Land cities of 1191's Third Crusade. At the time, it was an open-world action adventure with innovative parkour exploration through then-dense cityscapes, sprinkled with a somewhat odd sci-fi historical narrative. Supreme stealth missions with open(ish) assassination missions carried dodgy controls and pretty bad open-combat mechanics, but it was a game that oozed cool.Assassin's CreedStrangely, though, it is the only early PlayStation entry still stuck on the original PS3 hardware (outside of the PSP spin-off Bloodlines). The game also hasn't been touched since its 2007 release outside of an 'Extended' version released on Windows in 2008. That leaves the game as broken as it ever was with no way to even play it on PlayStation without booting up a PS3, despite its role as the inspirational center of Ubisoft's money-spinning IP. Brother, sisters, and TrueTrophies friends be warned — it doesn't even have trophies.How on earth Assassin's Creed hasn't been updated in 16 years, we'll never know. With our calendars marked for the day we can collect Assassin's Creed Mirage trophies — a game that directly harkens back to the format of the original game before it became big open-world RPG fodder — it seems even stranger. Can you imagine the things you could do with the original Assassin's Creed with the PS5 hardware?Assassin's CreedYou could improve the parkour so it's less clunky, something Assassin's Creed II did barely two years later. You could up the texture quality and frame rate so it doesn't look like a broken-down off-road bus painted in desert camo. You could increase the volume of crowds in the streets and make all the already distinct cities more lively. You can add tools and weaponry from later games to increase gameplay variety. You can drop irritating load times from the game completely and totally overhaul bland cutscenes and puppet-like character models.The list of improvements would be nigh-on endless, but here is the most important point — it just seems weird not to start remaking the series from the very beginning. So please, Ubisoft, give it some thought after you get me drunk once more on dreams of sailing the seas with Edward Kenway, singing sea shanties on my couch with more rum sloshing around on my chest than in my body. Let us head back to the Holy Land where the series was founded and free us from that rickety old PS3.What do you think of this idea? Have you seen all the upcoming Assassin's Creed games? Will you fit in time for Black Flag? Seriously, spill all your secrets in the comments down below and let us know!More Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag stories: Assassin's Creed Black Flag PS5 remake will lead absurd series roadmap Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag remake is just the beginning for PS5 Assassin’s Creed Black Flag’s PS5 remake — why it needs to happen Try Skull and Bones on PS5 for free (briefly) in February 2024 Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake — four seaworthy PS5 improvements RumourPlayStation 5Upcoming Release Written by Kes Eylers-StephensonEditor-in-Chief Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and Sony news. He writes about PS5 games like The Witcher IV, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and Kingdom Come Deliverance II using experience from years of PlayStation gaming. He also covers PS Plus news and some of the best PS5 games — Uncharted, God of War, and The Last of Us — before an evening swim.