Assassin’s Creed has a special place in my heart. I grew up playing these games, and a lot of my love of video games can be directly attributed to the Ezio trilogy, as I’ve written before. It might be hard to glean that from my writing, considering I’ve ragged on every one of its games post-Black Flag. But as much as I complain about Ubisoft’s weird practices (NFTs and AI galore!), I’ve been waiting for Assassin’s Creed to hook me again – even hoping, against my better instincts.
It hasn’t managed to do that just yet, because the series has basically refused to innovate in any meaningful way over the last decade. Between Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, I’m hard pressed to tell you how those games are significantly different from each other apart from in setting and character. This would be fine, if the gameplay was fun and the stories were strong, but I hate that AC has largely turned away from stealth with its writing increasingly confused and weak. More Assassin’s Creed isn’t a compelling prospect when it’s this version of Assassin’s Creed.
But, finally, god willing, it looks like Assassin’s Creed Shadows will actually be different in a real, tangible way. With previews now out (ours is here), we’re starting to see that quite a lot more will be different from previous games.
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After four hours with Ubisoft’s open world epic I remain cautiously optimistic.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Tries To Cater To Everyone
One of the biggest contentions within the AC fanbase is that some fans (like me) want to return to the stealth-based gameplay of the early games – you know, because assassins are supposed to be stealthy? – and others prefer the action-RPG format of the newer games, which allows them to barrel through enemies like murder-tanks. Assassin’s Creed has long struggled to balance the two, usually learning towards the newer style, while leaving stealth fans with smaller games (Mirage) that aren’t quite as satisfying.
Shadows is trying to deal with this. We already knew that the game would have a dual protagonist system, but now we know just how differently these characters feel to play. While the game occasionally forces you to play as one or the other, you’re largely free to switch between the two characters at will, even during missions. Naoe is nimble and stealthy, traversing the landscape with ease and hiding easily in the shadows. Yasuke, a bulkier hero, is clumsy, breaks tightropes that Naoe crosses with ease, and he doesn’t know how to Eagle Dive, and therefore plummets to the ground ungracefully.
By all accounts, Naoe plays like a classic AC character. She can do double assassinations, draw attention to specific areas with bells, and use smoke bombs and throwing daggers. She’s also much easier to kill than Yasuke.
Ubisoft has also tried to cater to players who want a more linear story and established canon through its Canon Mode, an interesting addition that removes major narrative choices from the game and gives players what the developers consider to be the definitive story. It allows you to choose between finding objectives yourself or using scouts to find places to go, taking the need for exploration out of the game. It gives you an Immersive Mode that defaults to a Japanese voice track with historically accurate Portuguese.
That’s important as Yasuke is enslaved by Portuguese captors.
The name of the game is choice, something that Shadows seems to be incredibly focused on. You know what they say – if you play both sides, you always come out on top.
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Slow Down And Smell The Roses
That’s all well and good, but another of Assassin’s Creed’s biggest issues is making huge open worlds full of boring things to do. According to previews, Shadows does quite a lot in improving its worldbuilding. For example, you might come across animals doing something cool in their natural habitats, and be able to paint them for an XP reward. You might get into a fight among some foliage and realise at the end of it that you’ve cut it all down.
One of my favourite changes mentioned in the previews is the base-building mechanics, which have been upgraded from those in Valhalla. You can place buildings in a Sims-like building mode, building rooms to unlock extra bonuses and state perks, but you can also decorate the space with foliage, pavements, stones, and paintings you create during your travels. You can even fill your base with pets.
I don’t know if all this will add up to make Shadows the ideal combination of all the games that have come before it, but damn it, I’m hoping it will. If it pulls all this off, and successfully reboots the modern day timeline as franchise boss Marc-Alexis Coté said it would, finally, after a decade, we might have the first Assassin’s Creed game actually worth the time it takes to play it.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- Released
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March 20, 2025
- ESRB
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Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language
- Developer(s)
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Ubisoft Quebec