Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced Faces Backlash Over Animation Quality
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced has landed well with a lot of players, and the consensus is that it looks sharper and more impressive than ever. Fans also seem genuinely excited to revisit the classic release. The catch is that, because this is a remake of one of the series’ most beloved entries, comparisons to the original never really stop—especially when it comes to how characters move and react in its cinematic scenes.
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Players have been lining up the cutscenes from both versions to see what changed. Resynced clearly takes the lead on visuals, but many viewers notice that the character animation doesn’t quite carry the same emotional weight. When you watch the scenes back-to-back, it becomes hard to ignore that the characters often look less expressive in the newer release—and in some moments, it can feel like they’re barely emoting.
Did Ubisoft Tone Down The Animations Too Much In Black Flag Resynced?
This concern was brought up by a Reddit user named Jiehfeng, and the sentiment appears to be spreading. Multiple comments point to the cutscenes feeling less expressive than before. One player describes the result as “uncanny,” arguing that improved character models paired with reduced emotion can create a strange disconnect.
It’s also worth noting that judging animation quality from screenshots alone can be misleading. That’s why some fans have shared footage that compares the cutscenes directly, letting you see the differences in motion rather than just in still frames.
The overall change isn’t framed as a massive collapse, but the contrast is still visible. Certain expressions that landed hard in the original cutscenes appear to be missing in Resynced. That can show up as characters not looking as angry or as sad as they did previously, and even Edward’s signature smirk seems to come across as more subdued than before.
There’s also a plausible argument that this “less expressive” look may be intentional. If the original’s more animated, expressive style worked alongside the earlier version’s more stylized presentation, then Resynced’s push toward a more realistic visual direction could have forced a rework. In other words, Ubisoft may have decided that the old animation language wouldn’t fit as cleanly with the updated look.
Even with all that, fans aren’t fully aligned on whether Resynced is an improvement overall. A lot of it will likely come down to personal taste: the new visuals and animation tech still represent a serious technical achievement, but the final style is meaningfully different from the original game.
This isn’t the only time an animation downgrade has bothered people in a remake or remaster. A frequently cited example is Final Fantasy X. In the PlayStation 2 version, Tidus and the rest of the party often show a wider range of facial expressions and look more animated. In the remastered release, those specific animation behaviors are removed, making the character models feel more static.
