Yarr, ye not be needin’ to shell out for the more expensive editions of Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced or its day one DLCs if you want to have “the full, complete experience”. So developers Ubisoft have said in response to Steam reviews giving the Black Flag remake a thumbs down because it has a bunch of purchasable extras on sale right out of port.

If you glance at Black Flag Resynced’s Steam page, you’ll see the laundry list of DLCs in question. There are nine in total as of writing, with the vast majority being gear for protagonist Edward Kenway and matching cosmetics for his ship. There’s also a map pack which makes finding the game’s litany of collectables easier. Fairly standard stuff for a modern Ubisoft game, if obviously not ideal if you’re desperate to dress up as a rather immersion-breaking flaming death knight without paying extra.

Some Steam reviewers certainly are. Cue Ubisoft responding directly to negative reviews, a practice that always goes well for developers.

“We’ve seen your feedback since launch, and we’re reading all of it,” the publishers wrote. “Thank you for caring this much about Black Flag Resynced. We want to be clear on one point: the standard edition is the full, complete experience. Every mission, every island, the full story and the complete world are all there, with nothing held back. The additional packs are entirely optional extras for players who want them, never a requirement to enjoy or complete the game. We’ll keep listening as you play!”

I’ll be honest, having looked through the DLC, none of it is stuff I’d class as making a noticeable difference to any playthrough. The deluxe edition I got from the publishers for my Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced review came with the Master Assassin gear and I totally ignored it in favour of sticking to base game outfits, since it felt unnatural to be romping about in swanky black and gold from the get go. That said, I can understand the ire at having to pay for the other gear sets you want if you’ve already slapped down more cash on the game than others.