Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is a real comeback moment for Ubisoft’s long-running stealth series. It’s a solid, if unnecessary, remake of one of the series’ best games, bringing players back to the pre-RPG Assassin’s Creed era. Resynced isn’t just a return to the series’ more compact origins, though; it’s also resurrecting its history of hysterical glitches. Several users have discovered a familiar bug from the original game that leaves their ship waterlogged.
You can see the gnarly bug in action thanks to YouTuber G3-Assassin. At the 15-second mark, the Jackdaw suddenly falls into what I can only describe as a water sinkhole of biblical proportions. The entire ship slips below the ocean waves out of nowhere, leaving Edward Kenway piloting the ship underwater. The crew doesn’t seem too bothered considering that they continue milling about the deck as if nothing had happened.
That bug isn’t a one-time fluke. Reddit user hoes_luv_yovanni (God bless the internet) shared a clip of a similar phenomenon taking place during a raid. The video shows the Jackdaw crew boarding another ship that is completely underwater. Bubbles come out of everyone’s mouth when they talk and all the hair abides by the water physics accordingly. It’s completely absurd, as if the Jackdaw has turned into the legendary Flying Dutchman.
This isn’t a new bug for Black Flag; the original Assassin’s Creed 4 had the same quirk in 2013. In a video posted nine years ago, YouTuber Simonschreibt pointed out the phenomenon in a video explaining how waterplanes work in games. The video explains that Ubisoft simulates a boat sailing across an ocean by having water push away from the vessel. That’s a clever trick that makes for smooth sailing most of the time, but it can lead to bizarre accidents that can still occur in the remake.
I, for one, am a big supporter of the bug. If Ubisoft really wants to return to the good old days of Assassin’s Creed, I firmly believe that we deserve a new wave of wild but ultimately harmless bugs that were once core to the series’ ethos. Who can forget Assassin’s Creed Unity’s iconic no-face bug, where characters’ heads were reduced to floating eyeballs and teeth? That’s the kind of nightmare visual I’ll never forget. And sure, bugs like that were downright scandalous for Ubisoft at the time, but you have to admit that they were pretty hilarious in retrospect.
Thankfully, Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced seems to be in a much better shape than some of its predecessors overall. It’s a polished remake that does Black Flag justice (even if it cuts out some of its best parts in the process). One weird water bug isn’t likely to sink its reputation, but it will give us some good clips to laugh at. Enjoy the supernatural horror while you can before Ubisoft makes the glitch walk the plank.
Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced is out now on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
