Book Review - The Art of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced
- 13 hours ago
- 6 min read
July 10th 2026
Ubisoft took players to the seas once again on the Jackdaw this year in a remake of the fan favourite entry in the Assassin’s Creed series, Black Flag. The 2013 game got a remake with a lot of visual upgrades, none of which are possible without the talented artists involved, and their work is now fully explored in The Art of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced!
The release from Titan Books was published on July 14th, 2026, giving fans a look at the concept art and models behind the Resynced edition of the game. The publisher was kind enough to send a copy so I’ve been able to voyage into the art and give my thoughts on the new book.
Build Quality
The book comes as a 192-page hardcover book in a portrait 23.5cm x 30.5cm format, like the vast majority of artbooks from the publisher. It’s well made as expected, using quality gloss paper with an excellent print finish for the art. The binding allows the pages to full open with ease as well, laying flat without needing to be held down, which is always fantastic for an artbook. The cover art isn’t my favourite though, something more vibrant or dynamic would have been nice to see.
Content
An artbook for a remake is always interesting because a lot of the heavy lifting was done for the original, and in this case already shared in the publisher’s 2013 book, The Art of Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. The approach here was to share new concept art, as well as 3D models and in-game environments that highlight the updates made to Black Flag Resynced.
This is a nicely organised book, so it’s also best to break it down in the same order. After the foreword from Creative Director Paul Fu and Art Director Franco Perez, it dives right into the ‘Remake Process’ chapter, consisting mostly of 3D models and locations with a little art to highlight the improvements with notes from the creative team on what they changed.
I liked that it opened this way and having the old game and new side by side to highlight the changes is a nice inclusion. However, they don’t actually point out that they are showing both in any way, and while it is clear which is the old and new, here and throughout the rest of the book, it’s odd it wasn’t indicated clearly.
The character chapter was up next and is on the shorter side, but that’s expected as the designs already existed for the original game. It does include artwork for Edward Kenway’s outfits and some side characters, along with more 3D models. Trinkets and weapons are also included, but like the characters, it’s all final designs, so it's not the most engaging part of the book.
The book then hits a high for me for the remainder of the book with environments, because as much as the Assassin’s Creed teams have great art across the board, it’s their locations, key frames and vistas that have always stood out. There is also a lot of 3D environments mixed in, but you quickly realise that some of the concept art is so detailed that at a glance you might think there is more of this than there really is.
The art for the towns, caverns, underwater areas, and more is exceptional. Black Flag is one of the more colourful and vibrant in the series and that’s reflected in the artwork too. Martin Deschambault, Charles Thorpe, Gabriel Loo-Carre, and the rest of the team created images you want to step into, each benefitting from the high-quality print finish.
The screenshots and 3D assets showcase the level of detail that’s achievable on modern hardware, perfect for fans of tech and game development. This covers all types of environments, the Jackdaw, set dressing, cannons, and more. It works well when included alongside the artwork and shows how it was executed in the game. In some places when unrelated or on its own, it’s less interesting, because if you’ve played the game, you can interact with it there in more detail. Some sort of behind-the-scenes breakdown of the models would have been more engaging over stills of final renders.
Throughout the chapters are insights about the characters and locations, as well as the details from the artists about their work. The most informative comes in the first chapter with notes on the upgrades, but does continue in places throughout. The majority of text for individual images are simple descriptions, but some include the artist’s approach as well. This isn’t a ‘Making of’ book by any stretch of the imagination, but it's well written and delivers information from the team themselves. There is enough written to guide you through the book and point out the upgrades and share some interesting lore.
Credits
This isn’t the most consistent in The Art of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced, but a lot of the images have a credit with an artist’s name placed after a comment assigned to them. There are many instances of an artist name not being present with them though, while some images have no notes at all. The lack of a credit happens mostly for the 3D environments, which makes sense as many people worked on them, but the 2013 screenshots are ignored completely.
The last page of the book does list all of the artists involved, so although they aren’t assigned to each piece of art, they are given their own space in the book.
Use of Space
Like previous artbooks in the Assassin’s Creed series, a lot is packed in, giving players hundreds of images to spend time looking over. The character pages are the weakest, using large images and leaving empty space, but this is a short chapter and the rest of the book does well to fill pages with artwork. There are a variety of image sizes that keep things varied and thanks to the print quality, even smaller pieces are still clear with their details.
Double page spreads also shine thanks to the flexibility of the binding that reduces and entirely avoids image loss in the centre fold. This is always a big win in my eyes and I’m happy to see they did a great job with that here.
Value
This volume art art for the seafaring adventure comes with an RRP of $50 in the US and £39.99 in the UK, which is not unusual in 2026 for a book of this size. Titan Book’s consistent production quality justifies the price to fans that are interested in what’s inside. Discounts come and go too, even less than a month after release, with Amazon US currently selling the book for $43. I think the full price is reasonable, but bargain hunters will have themselves a good deal if they find a copy under $40/ £34 if the book is to your taste. There are no complaints about the pricing of this piece of loot.
Verdict
The Art of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced offers fans hundreds of images to pore over that will appeal to those interested in both concepts and renders. This isn’t like the previous books for the series consisting of just concept art, it’s a showcase of the visual improvements that Ubisoft could design and implement for Resynced, and it does a good job at doing so. Some spreads are less interesting than others due to showing what you can see in the game, but there is also exceptional early artwork that you’ll want on your wall.
Overall, I think it was a well designed and balanced book, but it’s approach to the 3D pieces is a mixed bag. I think they had the right idea showing both for an artbook based on a remake, but focusing more on the comparisons and doing a VFX-style breakdown for them would have helped. On the concept art side though, Assassin’s Creed once again delivers superbly. Collectors will find this to be an interesting addition among the other artbooks, and fans wanting more from the adventure of Edward Kenway in the Caribbean will find a lot to enjoy too.
If you enjoyed the review and previews, you can order a copy of The Art of Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced for your own shelf here;
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