One of the largest and best changes in Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is the new combat system. It’s still faithful to the original’s lethality, but it’s no longer just about standing still waiting to counter an attack.
But you know what I don’t love? The confusing removal of hidden blade combat and the ability to pick up enemy weapons. It’s dual cutlasses all the way, matey, which gets old pretty fast. In fact, it’s been a pretty big point of contention for fans of the original game ever since the remake was revealed.
Black Flag Resynced game director Richard Knight has spoken on the topic in a new interview with YouTuber JorRaptor, revealing why these mechanics were cut and if they’re ever coming back.
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Firstly, don’t stop asking for it: “We can’t make any promises [but] we’re listening to the community,” Knight explains. “We’re interested in what people want the most,” he adds, and I’d say that these missing features are surely high up the list.
As for the second bit, their absence came down to prioritising resources, Knight says. “During development, if you looked at Edward—he’s so powerful right now and has so many tools—and so we prioritised core combat because we needed to nail that.”
“Something like throwing weapons, while it’s cool, it’s just like ‘he already has ten ways to kill somebody’. So, given the cost to reinvent the feature and rebuild it from the ground up with today’s characters, rigs, and animations, there’s a lot more that goes into it. It was just lower priority for us.”
Core combat is, obviously, the most critical part of Edward’s kit—I love the kick, sweep, and easier access to the rope dart—but these were iconic features of the original Black Flag. It means you can’t steal a musket and do a cool, running takedown with it, for example, or pick up an axe and start swinging.
But there’s hope yet that Ubisoft will figure out how to add them to Resynced post-launch. I suppose that’s one of the benefits of Ubisoft cramming an expanded cash shop and weekly challenges into the remake: more incentive to expand on the base game and keep us all sailing the high seas.
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