Summary
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ main story will take between 30–40 hours to complete.
- Shadows is most similar in length to Origins and will be shorter than the behemoth Valhalla.
- The open world will have a seasonal system with gameplay implications and less map clutter.
It will take players between 30–40 hours to complete Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ main story, plus an additional 30–40 hours to complete all the side content. This information is courtesy of game director Jonathan Dumont, who revealed this information in an interview with independent journalist Genki.
This contradicts previous information provided by Dumont, who originally said Shadows is comparable in length to Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. As these three previous instalments differ significantly in length, this wasn’t a useful comparison anyway. In fairness to Dumont, he did qualify his previous statement by saying the length of open-world games is hard to quantify. The new information provided by Dumont suggests that Assassin’s Creed Origins is closest in length to Shadows. According to How Long To Beat, Origins’ main story takes approximately 30 hours and completionists will spend about 80 hours on the game.
Short & Sweet
This news will probably be well-received by most of the Assassin’s Creed fandom, as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is often criticised for how bloated the game feels. It takes about 60 hours to complete Valhalla’s story and a whopping 150 hours to complete everything in the game. If Dumont’s assessment is correct, Shadows will be a more streamlined experience.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows received a story trailer last month, revealing some of the game’s main narrative hooks. Naoe’s home province is invaded, presumably by the legendary “demon king” Oda Nobunaga, pushing her down a path of vengeance. Yasuke appears to be a reluctant retainer of Nobunaga before he is cast aside by the warlord. The pair are brought together through some means related to the Assassin Order. The trailer also shows foreign invaders, possibly the Portuguese.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ open world will have a seasonal system, which has gameplay implications. For example, a lot of the bushes and vegetation are absent in winter, meaning Naoe will have less hiding spots. This time around Ubisoft also wants to encourage more self-driven exploration, cutting down on the number of icons and markers on the map, a feature that Ubisoft has become infamous for over the years.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows releases March 20 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5 and PC.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
- Released
-
March 20, 2025
- ESRB
-
Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language