Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake — four seaworthy PS5 improvements If it does exist, we have Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake PS5 improvements to suggest. Despite being the best game in the series, we have four upgrades.Opinion by Kes Eylers-Stephenson Published 23 Jan 2024 FollowtopicsAssassin's Creed IV: Black FlagUbisoftRumourPlayStation 5Kes Eylers-Stephenson Like many of you, I've sailed the Caribbean and collected all those Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag trophies. I love it so much that I put it at the very top of our best Assassin's Creed games ranking (and I'd do it again, you scallywag). With news of a re-release supposedly entering production, I have a few Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake PS5 improvements I'd like to suggest.Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake reportedly enters developmentSpotted and backed by the ever-reliable team over at Insider Gaming, apparently the Assassin's Creed Black Flag Remake has now entered production. It stems from a tweet spotted by JorRaptor on X, which stated: "Developers from the Skull and Bones and Assassin's Creed team inside Ubisoft Singapore have moved to an 'Unannounced Assassin's Creed Project' in September 2023."Assassin's Creed 4 Black Flag remakeJorRaptor added a few comments elsewhere, suggesting that the remake could be a few years away given that the team still has to release and support the pirate live-service game Skull and Bones. In terms of upcoming Assassin's Creed games, Ubisoft is also intent on releasing Assassin's Creed Infinity — a live service adjacent Assassin's Creed platform — as well as the already announced Japan-set Red and the dark European-set Hexe.However, the report also notes that this project is supposedly a full remake. This not only gives Ubisoft the chance to make significant adjustments to Black Flag to run better on modern consoles, but it also means new players can revisit some of the Assassin's Creed games in order without such a sharp drop in graphical fidelity.Well, even if it is one of my favorite games of all time, I have some suggestions for improving this pirate haven of a video game. Here are my four suggestions for some Assassin's Creed Black Flag PS5 improvements.Keep the Assassin's Creed Black Flag map the same, pleaseMake it prettier. Make the textures sing. Improve the variety and complexity of the animations. Just please, Ubisoft, don't change the map. I'm not averse to making cities and explorable islands denser, upping the population count, or somehow making the sea even sexier. That's not what I'm talking about here.What I'm talking about is scale. Ubisoft has shown a propensity to opt for the biggest possible scale for Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Avatar Frontiers of Pandora. With Edward Kenway sailing the Caribbean in his vessel the Jackdaw, I'm sure there is a temptation to make the Caribbean even bigger because they can.Black Flag thrived because all the islands felt tight-knit without becoming tedious points to travel to on the map. It kept the pacing of the story high. When some major event happened, you knew you could hop onto the boat, have three minutes of important character dialogue, and then be where you needed to be. It wasn't the speed of travel that made it work, it was just how well-paced that travel time was. So, keep it, please!Assassin's Creed IV Black Flag remakeAssassin's Creed Black Flag's sea tailing missions can be overhauledThe worst part of Assassin's Creed Black Flag, as much as I love it, is the tailing missions. There are so many punctuating every chapter and all they require you to do is mindlessly follow a marker listening to conversations. It's not even remotely engaging. A remake should look at finding better ways of delivering this information while keeping the player engaged — I think the investigations system from Assassin's Creed Unity would be the perfect replacement.Assassin's Creed Black Flag's immersive qualities should be expandedIf tailing missions are the worst, then sea shanties are the perfect example of one of the best things in Assassin's Creed Black Flag — the immersion value. More sea shanties would help keep things fun on deck, but so would more ways to interact with the world in general. More gambling options in the taverns? Yep. A way to explore more of the Jackdaw and converse with the crew? Please. More buildings to enter and explore? I'm begging you.More importantly, a more in-depth upgrade pathway for Nassau would be much welcomed. If Assassin's Creed Valhalla did one thing right, it would be the Ravensthorpe town-building. Let us talk to the pirates of Nassau, find out their needs, and then voyage into the Caribbean to upgrade the houses, ports, the blacksmith, the tavern, the stately house on the hill, and so on. Deepening these systems with stories would help you feel closer you the pirate haven and up the immersion value.Be careful with combat and parkour changesAs I wrote in my Assassin's Creed Mirage review, the latest 'old school' parkour emphasizes style over substance. It's functional, but it isn't even close to how special parkour was in Unity and Brotherhood. Just throwing in the Mirage parkour system wouldn't be an upgrade, so Ubisoft needs to be careful it keeps the weight and technicality of Black Flag's parkour system.The same goes for combat. The more I think about Mirage's simplistic and broken return to 'old ways,' the less I like it. Ubisoft can't repeat that mistake with an Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake. It needs to be cautious about how it refines the stylish, animation-led combat that the original game offers. Don't rip out the janky soul, fix it!Those are just my suggestions. I've also suggested that an Assassin's Creed PS5 remake would be a better idea. What improvements would you want to see for an Assassin's Creed Black Flag remake? Let us know in the comments and I'll see you there!More Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag stories: Try Skull and Bones on PS5 for free (briefly) in February 2024 Poll: Do you have a go-to Christmas game on PlayStation? Assassin’s Creed 4 Black Flag rings in 10th anniversary with PS Stars Free Assassin's Creed games will light up your PS5 gaming this weekend The Assassin’s Creed series needs a PS5 remake, but not for Black Flag RumourPlayStation 5Upcoming Release Written by Kes Eylers-StephensonEditor Kes is our resident expert in PlayStation and Sony news. He writes about PS5 exclusives like Horizon, The Last of Us, God of War, and Death Stranding 2 using experience from years of playing PlayStation games. He also covers PS Plus and trophy news, as well as his favorite games — The Witcher 3, Assassin’s Creed, and some indie gems — before an evening swim.