Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced: New mod brings back missing feature

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced sticks closely to the original, but according to Insider Gaming, Ubisoft largely rebuilt the game under the hood. The old code reportedly could not simply be reused, meaning many systems had to be recreated – and some features appear to have been lost in the process. For example, Edward Kenway can no longer use his hidden blades in regular combat, while fist fighting is now limited to certain situations. Edward can still beat up opponents with his bare hands during tavern brawls, but in regular fights, players cannot simply put away their weapons. This is exactly where kamzik123’s new Unarmed Combat mod comes in. Released on Nexus Mods on August 7, it makes fist fighting available outside tavern brawls as well.

After installing the mod, players simply need to equip the Officer’s Short Swords in their inventory. The mod then puts Edward into the corresponding combat stance, allowing him to fight regular enemies with his bare hands as well. However, this does not fully restore the old combat system: There are no dedicated unarmed finishers. As soon as Edward performs a finisher, he therefore pulls out his swords again. It is also a fan-made mod, so technical issues cannot be ruled out.

Community wants an official implementation

The fact that a mod, of all things, has brought back fist fighting is generating plenty of interest in a recent Reddit thread. However, many players would like Ubisoft to integrate the feature itself as a regular part of the game. Their argument: If a single modder can do it, why doesn’t Ubisoft simply do it themselves? It is not quite that simple, however. A working mod does not automatically mean that Ubisoft could officially offer the feature without additional development, animation or QA work.

Unarmed combat is far from the community’s only request. Players are also discussing the ability to replay missions, greater freedom when boarding and controlling ships, rope dart and tool finishers and a more extensive bounty system. More lively cities with additional guards, patrols and NPC reactions are also on the wish list. Overall, however, most players seem to like the remake – making it all the more puzzling to them why some familiar features are missing that, in their view, could further improve the experience.