The Assassin’s Creed franchise pulls me in with its stealth mechanics and fictional take on historical events, but I wasn’t prepared by what Assassin’s Creed Shadows brought. I’m creeping up on an enemy with Naoe expecting to see the standard assassination animation I’ve seen countless times, only to see her stab and then slit the throat of my unexpecting victim. Never have I seen such surreal violence in an Assassin’s Creed game. I was able to rethink how I have played Assassin’s Creed games in the past and realized I was about to experience something different for the first time.
Ubisoft had mentioned we would be getting something different with this instalment of Assassin’s Creed, and you see this right off the start with the Animus Hub listing all the previous Assassin’s Creed games and showing the character you used, and whatever cosmetics you last used for that character. It allows you to select games from the Assassin’s Creed franchise as long as the game loads onto your console. It reminds me a lot of what Activision has done with the Call of Duty franchise, allowing you to play any games you own in a central hub.
I enjoyed my time with Assassin’s Creed Mirage and loved that it wasn’t as big as other mainline Assassin’s Creed games. I have played every game in the Assassin’s Creed franchise, and it’s one of my favourite IPs. I was also asking for an Assassin’s Creed game based in Feudal Japan, but I wanted it to align with the larger games in the series. I thought if it were a bite-size one like Assassin’s Mirage, the team over Ubisoft wouldn’t be able to explore the world they created enough.
I Am Iga; You Will Pay For Your Mistakes
From the initial reveal, I looked forward to watching Assassin’s Creed Shadow‘s story unfold, particularly how Yasuke and Naoe’s story intertwined. Many games have tried and failed when having different storylines for two main characters and making them feel different concerning combat and how they impact the story. Set during the Sengoku period in Japan, Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes you on a journey in 1579 Feudal Japan. We follow the two aforementioned characters, Naoe and Yasuke, as they make choices that lead them to each other and uncover the perpetrators who murdered Naoe’s father. Naoe, a shinobi, and Yasuke, a samurai, begin as enemies but learn they have a common enemy, leading to their alliance.
I had my concerns about using two separate characters and developing stories around them and being able to use them as I wished while progressing the story, but I grew to understand the choice and liked it. I used one character more than the other because I thought the story was more about Naoe than Yasuke. You start using Naoe only – it’ll take some time before Yasuke becomes playable. It’s not until you uncover Naoes’ motivation for the game that you get to use Yasuke, who feels more like the villain at the start of the game. My biggest fear with two main characters is one story would overpower the other, and they wouldn’t flesh out each character’s motivation and my purpose for using them. But thankfully, that wasn’t the case. Assassin’s Creed Shadows allows you to make choices with the characters, or you can play the canon story by choosing the option when beginning a new game. Still, I decided to be able to make some choices, which I can confirm will provide a different narrative during your playthrough and could mean you do or don’t unlock certain characters and side missions.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows does a fantastic job of telling a compelling story while intertwining the two main protagonists, and it doesn’t feel bloated like in some previous Assassin’s Creed entries. I want to add that with some side missions or leading up to main assassination missions; the developers take the time to get you through the story when I feel it could have been done in a quick time event. The number of times you have to search for a point on the map to have a two-second conversation only to find out you need to go across the map again to have another two-second discussion to get your target wore a little thin with me.
I only thought about it a few times, which didn’t detract from the story significantly. Ubisoft said you could beat the game in 30-40 hours, which is true if you mainline the story, but there is so much to discover in Assassin’s Creed Shadows it could easily take 60 hours plus if you did every side mission, encounter, and assassination. I think fans of the genre and Assassin’s Creed will be pleasantly surprised by the story Assassin’s Creed Shadows tells. Even if you’re new to the Assassin’s Creed franchise, you won’t need to play the previous games to understand what is happening because Shadows is once again a soft reboot for the series. Once again, the Ubisoft team uses actual historical figures and periods to tell their story with a fictional spin. The series usually does a good job of providing context of people, places, and timelines using the in-game codex. I know it is not for everyone, but I get lost sometimes reading all the codex entries and learning the history of the building or region they depict in the game.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Feels Excellent To Play
Some new combat, weather, and progressions systems are at play, with new allies to help you complete your journey. I worried that Assassin’s Creed Shadows would feel similar to previous versions of Assassin’s Creed, and the only difference would be it’s based in Japan. The weather system is a nice addition as it helps bring Japan to life, and there are some advantages and disadvantages to each season in the game. For instance, during the winter, it is hard to traverse on land as the snow slows you down, but enemies will leave footprints in the snow, which you can use to sneak up on enemies. I used Naoe more than Yasuke and found when it was raining, the noise of the rain provided me with a sound dampener to sneak up on enemies, and it was easier to kill enemies in the shadows. The rain makes the visibility less, but using your Eagle Vision, you can highlight enemies briefly, and you won’t lose sight of them. The Eagle Vision works differently in Assasin’s Creed Shadows as it only works as an infrared that allows you to see enemies through walls. Still, you don’t have a bird-like in previous Assassin’s Creeds to survey your surroundings and know where all enemies are. Oh, and there is no longer an eagle to tag enemies.
Additionally, Synchronized Viewpoints are now used to survey the area to see where points of interest are. You can only use Naoe to unlock the viewpoints, though. There’s a shift in how Ubisoft wants you to interact with the world. This differs from previous games, where you’d unlock chunks of the map and all its secrets. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it is best recommended to discover the world independently instead of having the icon on the map to follow all the time. If that doesn’t suit your playstyle, you can turn the Discovery feature off and have your mission icon show up automatically in the settings menu, but that will affect trophies as a warning pops up if you select that slider.
I enjoyed discovering areas of the map on my own and finding hidden treasures as well, which are scattered around the map. Many Ubisoft games can fall into the trap of selecting a mission and following the map icon. With Assassin’s Creed Shadows, I found myself looking for the next mission, uncovering some new ones, and looting along the way. Ubisoft integrated a scouting system in Assassin’s Creed Shadows that can help locate parts of the map to find the next story mission. Each story mission or assassination gives you clues in the objectives menu for you to solve, and when you do, you can use your scouts to see if a specific section of the map is where you think the mission is.
One Of The Best Looking Games Since Assassin’s Creed Unity
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has a couple of graphical settings for consoles. I use the PlayStation 5 Pro for most of my gaming. Balanced Mode is likely the way to go if you have the equipment to utilize the boost. PlayStation 5 owners will see an upscaled 4K image regardless of the console, but only capable screens with a high frame rate display can use Balanced Mode.
During my playthrough, I noticed no stuttering or draw distance issues. I used Performance Mode, 2160p upscaled with 60 frames per second, and Standard Ray Tracing. The world, buildings, and NPCs looked fantastic, and the combat always felt fluid.
However, there is one area where I feel the framerate has some issues—the hideout. Most games in the series have some customizable base, but nothing like Shadows‘ base-building.
In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you can edit and customize your hideout and add and subtract buildings. Your hideout will allow you to upgrade your weapons and scouts while recruiting characters who help you. Your hideout provides advantages in the game, so I suggest upgrading your hideout. Upgrading your Forge will be a massive boon because it allows you to upgrade your weapons. You might find a weapon or armour piece that has a low level, but you like the perks it has, and the Forge allows you to continue to upgrade that weapon to your skill level. The max level it will allow as you upgrade is 60, but you must upgrade your Forge to Level 3. I know that during some preview events and trailers, Ubisoft talked about this new feature and all the custom options, but for me, I placed the buildings wherever they were on the map and only cared about the perks each building provided.
The progression system is like that of previous Assassin’s Creed RPGs, but I feel it’s pretty easy to level up your characters. As you play as either Naoe or Yasuke, both characters progress simultaneously. You collect gear for either character regardless of who you’re using at the time. You can seamlessly switch between characters on the menu screen if you’re not in combat or danger.
Whatever character you switch to will start right where you are, which is handy as some side missions or collectables can only be started or picked up by the other character. Yasuke can’t climb well, so if you want to climb to the top of any vantage point to see your surroundings and get a fast travel point, you must use Naoe. As you collect gear, you will notice each gear set has perks that can give you an edge, and all gear is upgradable at the Forge by using the resources you collect worldwide.
You can select which upgrades you want for your characters based on your favourite playstyle. I preferred to be stealthier, so I focused on Naoe’s Katana’s upgrades, as it was my favourite weapon. Yasuke is more of a brute and can smash through walls and doors. I used his stature when I was either forced to or if I wanted to invade a castle and kill everybody in sight.
The differences between the two characters don’t stop there, and this is what I found sets Assassin’s Creed Shadows apart from other mainline Assassin’s Creed games. As I mentioned, you must use a specific character sometimes during missions or when looking for treasures or items in the game. I didn’t mind being forced to use both because if I hadn’t, I would have used Naoe the whole time and missed out on using Yasuke.
You can even have both characters have romantic interests in the game and, based on the conversation, choose whether you want to pursue that or not. The dialogue tree will have a heart icon beside the sentence you chose to let you know it will start a romantic conversation. They have different weapon sets that suit their characters and traversal attributes. Naoe has a grappling hook she can use to get to high areas, which I truly loved, and I was surprised Ubisoft hadn’t had this in Assassin’s Creed before.
Yasuke isn’t as delicate as he uses his body to break through walls or enemies, for that matter, and the stealth approach can be used with him, but it’s not as effective. If you liked playing as Eivor in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Yasuke is the character you should use, but if you prefer the more stealth approach, then Naoe is the way to go.
What We Do In The Shadows
Regarding stealth, Ubisoft introduced shadow zones you can use to avoid being spotted by enemies and also extinguish the light from rooms, but I felt you didn’t need to do this and wasn’t used to its full potential. I didn’t find the need to turn out lights or hide in the shadows because as you levelled up your character or used certain perks— creeping in the shadows didn’t matter. I could sneak up on an MPC in the dark or the light and go unnoticed most of the time. If you’re using Naoe, climbing up high and assassinating from above is much easier. Working in the dark and being a part of the combat system sounds excellent, but the execution wasn’t there.
Naoe’s weapons are the katana, kusarigama, and the tantō. Each has its perk, and if you level up the kusarigama, you can use it to pull enemies close to you for assassination. I led towards using the katana and tantō as my primary weapons. The brutality of using the katana leads to some gruesome kill animation when using Naoe. The art direction Ubisoft used during some of these combat sequences stood out to me, as with some finishing moves, the screen uses a stylized black-and-white effect but shows the enemy’s blood in a bright red. When using the tantō, Naoe uses some up-close kill animations with enemies by stabbing them multiple times, and enemies bleed out all over the ground and your clothes. I was surprised by the brutality of Assassin’s Creed Shadows combat.
The combat with Naoe is more acrobatic, and you can jump over enemies, but when using stealth, you can get behind them and slit their throats. Naoe will feel more familiar to the seasoned Assassin’s Creed player but cannot overpower enemies like Yaskue. You will need to use the parry system more with Naoe to kill your enemy, and that system is highlighted by a blue, which you can block or counter, and red, which means if you don’t evade, you will get hit.
Some more formidable enemies pose more of a challenge to Naoe than Yasuke and can kill you in one hit, which is highlighted with a crown and skull in their health bar. Naoe will rely on her tools, like throwing knives to kill enemies from afar, making her stealth path through an enemy camp or castle much easier. She can even swim underwater and use a reed to breathe to stay undetected.
Naginta, Naginta, Check Out My Naginta
Yaskue uses ōdachi, naginata, kanabō war clubs, yari, and yumi bows. Yasuke can also use the Tanegashima arquebus rifles, but I prefer the bow over the rifles during my playthrough. The clubs lead to brutal kill animations, but I found them far too slow, mainly because Yasuke’s play style is far more hack-and-slash than Naoe’s. I found myself using the ōdachi and a bow during my playthrough and found them far more effective for my play style, but many mini-side missions are tutorials for the weapons, which help you decide which weapons to use.
Compared to Naoe, your finishing moves with Yasuke are far more substantial, and one of those moves sees Yasuke lift enemies in the air with his sword inside them and then forcefully smash them on the ground, killing them. Yasuke has more decapitating animations than Naoe, and when he kills an enemy, there is a lot more blood on the screen. Yasuke can overpower enemies but still uses the parry system, but his strikes inflict much more damage. I found it much easier to storm a castle for loot by using Yasuke and killing every enemy. I found the boss fights a lot more satisfying with Yasuke as it felt more like a dual than when I used Naoe and had to be more strategic with my strikes.
Throughout the world, there are a lot of mini-missions or games that can only be uncovered or played by specific characters. They allow you to level up your characters quickly, but I felt the map was cluttered and too repetitive. Some missions let you understand Japanese culture better, but I found them annoying. I understood that it helped my character progress in the game.
There are these meditation spots for Naoe all over the map that you first have to do to progress the story, but eventually, they are only there to upgrade your character. These missions require you to press buttons in a specific order at a particular time to a rhythm, but I found it was far too long, and if you mess up, you have to get back in a rhythm to progress. It was rarely peaceful for something meant to be mindful, and I felt distracted from the game and could have done without the button-mashing parts. Shadows also have similar mini-games for Yasuke, and because there were so many on the map and I’m a completionist, I felt compelled to tick them off my list.
Compared to the previous Assassin’s Creed, the present-day parts of the game are non-existent and almost feel like an afterthought. We see virtual pixels of the present day in the animus but no fleshed-out characters like Desmond or Layla from previous games. Instead, it feels like a follow-up to Unity, where exposure to the modern is minimal, and you rarely, if ever, step away from the past.
Verdict
I liked Assassin’s Creed Shadows far more than Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Shadows respects my time and only sometimes feels bloated. The map isn’t expansive either; my playthrough felt acceptable, and the new combat and stealth systems were a huge plus. Having two main protagonists works here instead of being an afterthought.
The combat was, by far, a massive step up, with brutish combos and slick stealth, which the series has finally achieved. The theme of choice allowed me to choose my dialogue, character, and how I wanted to play through the campaign. The story has surprising depth with twists and turns the campaign showcases, making for one of the best stories since at least Odyssey, rivalling that of Ezio’s involvement with the Brotherhood years ago.
If you’re on the fence, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an excellent starting point because it discards years of backstory to focus on the aspects most people want—the fictional historical simulator. Whether you were previously a fan of the modern-day story or not, Shadows leaves enough breadcrumbs for the future.
[The publisher provided a copy of the game for review purposes.]
Reviewed on: PlayStation 5
