While the Assassin’s Creed is a secretive brotherhood with a sophisticated globe-spanning network rich with culture, mystery and reluctant heroes. What’s no secret, on the other hand, is how badly Ubisoft, the company who’ve built their house largely upon the principles established with the franchise almost two decades ago, needs a big, big win. This has been evident throughout the build to Shadows, with how prominently it has been spotlighted at any and all opportunities and how hesitant they are to launch until they’re certain it’s ready.
Admittedly, I had concerns coming in as to whether this particular entry, so anticipated and sought after for so long, could crash through those expectations. Another wrinkle comes from the fact that Shadows, with a return to role-playing-lite leanings, is the “one that came after Valhalla” which many, despite selling well, considered to be bloated. To cut to the chase somewhat, it’s still Assassin’s Creed and everything you might expect that to mean. Were it not for the significant time between drinks, I think the series’ rigid inability to change could have made for bitter sake.
Thankfully for Ubisoft, I do think the bones of Assassin’s Creed is, and generally has been, enjoyable and that’s no different here. It’s a moreish, checklist-heavy campaign that does lots I love and lots I don’t. While the game’s identity is one thing, I think people’s reception will ultimately boil down to just how tired they are of the “formula” that is Assassin’s Creed.
As is always the case, Assassin’s Creed Shadows frames its narrative through quasi-historical events. While so many of the key players in this dramatised end to Japan’s Sengoku period are pulled from the history books, the game’s writers colour in enough to have it all bleed together with the millenia-spanning war between the Templar Order and the Assassin’s Brotherhood. For a good part of Shadows, I did wonder how the latter would come into play, however, when it did, as it was sewn into the tail end of Naoe and Yasuke’s individual plights, the result was a pretty stunning, expansive new “memory” in a canon that has had its ups and downs over it’s two-decade long history.
THE CHEAPEST PRICE: $79 WITH FREE SHIPPING FROM AMAZON
Our leads in Shadows, Naoe and Yasuke, begin the game on opposite sides of a fiery, war-ravaged coin. Naoe’s homeland of Iga is devastated, a precious relic has been stolen from her grasp and all signs point to Lord Oda Nobunaga, the so-called “Great Unifier” of Japan under whom Yasuke served. While history has determined little is known of Yasuke after a certain point, Shadows takes the ball and runs with it, penning the samurai into a grisly, vengeance-fuelled expedition that sees him pair with Naoe to make the most of their overlapping needs and ideals to usher in a brighter future for not only themselves, but Japan too. It’s sensationalist, but it’s a genuinely fun twist on legends that historians have lapped up for centuries.
As much as I did enjoy the story, Assassin’s Creed’s trip to Feudal Japan does feel like it’s too late. There was a point in time the setting might have felt novel, and that’s long behind us. With so many other games having told riveting stories from this time, I can only describe Shadows as a victim of its own leisurely approach to giving Japan its moment.
As I alluded to earlier, Assassin’s Creed really was the blueprint for so many of the Ubisoft open-world games that came after. I wouldn’t go as far as to call the franchise “cookie-cutter” though there is a formula, and it doesn’t often go out of its way to stray from it. Mirage, the most recent entry in the series, was an attempt at revisiting the franchise’s modest roots after Valhalla took the series in an almost unwelcome direction of being simply too mammoth an experience.
In terms of scope and what it brings to the table, Shadows is definitely nearer to a Valhalla-like experience, although I never felt overburdened by things to do. It is a checklist-heavy title and, thanks to level-gating to a degree, you’ll make your way through the campaign in an orderly manner despite an attempt at delivering non-linearity.
Combat, and the freedom of choice and variety we are gifted through having two protagonists, emerges as something of a hidden gem here. Yasuke and Naoe are uniquely proficient in certain weapons, with each tool of the trade having its own skill tree. Yasuke is an absolute bull and was an easy go-to whenever I’d be facing a duel or feisty encounter, while Naoe’s ability to be one with the shadows meant she’d be at bat for any moments that demanded stealth. At a certain point, you’re free to alternate between characters so long as context allows—you can’t hot-swap while in combat, for example.
If you’ve played an Assassin’s Creed, there won’t be too many surprises when it comes to the nuts and bolts of combat and exploration. With combat, the joy comes from the smaller details they’ve added this time around. Fighting as Yasuke, in particular, feels incredibly powerful, and management of posture attacks adds a slightly strategic fold to fighting. I don’t think Assassin’s Creed quite commits to the art of swordplay like its contemporaries have, it feels punishing and brutal all the same.
As lethal as Naoe can be, the way you’re able to weaponise the dark through extinguishing light sources within a zone to lower visibility for enemies, which let Ubisoft flex their dynamic lighting as well, was super neat. It’s hard to determine why exactly, but I did feel as though the game’s parkour, more than ever before, felt kind of clunky and unintuitive. Where I’d expect easy, free-flowing movement, I’d find myself getting hung up on niggly geometry.
Another area that Assassin’s Creed Shadows began to show its seams, for me, was in its distribution of interest throughout its map and in its mission structure. I am not going to sit here and say that this Japan isn’t beautiful, because it is. With how much swaying grass and windswept foliage there is here, it’s clear whoever was charged with constructing this Japan attended the same class as Sucker Punch, because it’s every bit as intoxicating to look at in motion as the world in Ghost. Comparable in size to Origins, I still feel as though it’s just exhaustingly big.
I’d hate to think how much of my thirty-five hours was spent traversing the map, which felt disappointingly desolate to me when you pondered action packed in per square foot. Townships, of course, felt bustling enough with several things to do, it’s the miles between that felt like a slog, especially as this era pre-dates radio by three hundred years. The way seasons roll by, which provides small functional differences in how you can engage with the world, is stunning and there are too many gorgeous vistas in Shadows to count, whether it’s after snow drifts in or the autumnal fall, there’s beauty in these lands.
It should come as no surprise that most of the game’s missions, both on the golden path and off, revolve around the targeted assassination of factions, cliques, and wayward, corrupted magistrates. While it’s a grind and is as checklist-focused as the game does get, I did enjoy how it fed into the “gear treadmill” of constantly finding newer, more intimidating wares to delimbify those in your path.
Despite slumping, at times, into that feeling of routine and monotony, it’s undoubtedly moreish to perfect that loop of recon and kill, which the series has iterated and ultimately built an empire on. The gear itself looks immaculate, and as someone who really likes Yasuke’s default armour, I appreciated the game letting us transmog any piece of gear, with all of its perks and stats, to look like any low level piece of dross.
Playing on Xbox Series X, primarily in performance mode, I’m pleased at how the game held up throughout thirty-plus hours. The only points at which I experienced any stuttering came nearer the end during some of the bigger castle sieges, and graphical bugs, for me at least, were as rare as hen’s teeth.
After rolling credits, the only word that came to mind to describe Assassin’s Creed Shadows was “inoffensive”. Put simply, if you tend to enjoy slipping a hidden blade between the unexpecting ribs of guards, Shadows still does all of that and a bit more. It’s a grand story of criss-crossing destinies with more ‘get evens’ than Kill Bill. I felt every grudge in my bones and took great satisfaction in paying them off one-by-one.
If it were the old days and Shadows launched hot on the heels of Valhalla, I’d find the franchise’s determination to play it safe egregious. Thankfully, Assassin’s Creed and I had spent long enough apart that I found the old-familiar loop oddly irresistible.
