Anyone who has been concerned aboutAssassin’s Creed Shadowsafter two delays is justified. While delays are usually good for games, multiple delays can be a sign of a rocky development cycle and the inevitable release of a bad, if not broken game. But as the old, misattributed Shigeru Miyamoto quote goes, “A delayed game is eventually good, but a rushed game is forever bad.“Assassin’s Creed Shadowsis not rushing to the end, recently pushing its release date to March 20, and Ubisoft Quebec seems confident in the game. After playing it, I too feel more confident in it than ever.
Recently, Game Rant visited Ubisoft Quebec in Canada to play roughly six hours ofAssassin’s Creed Shadows. This playtime was split into three sections: an hour (or so) of prologue, four hours of open-world exploration and a main quest line, and one hour playing inAC Shadows’Hideout. This is a sizeable chunk of the game, but as a huge open-world title, there is the caveat that I did not see a lot of the wider world. That said, what I did play ofAssassin’s Creed Shadowsexceeded my expectations at nearly every turn.
Prologue: Stepping into Shadows
Without going too far into spoilers,AC Shadows' opening sets the stage for both Yasuke’s introduction to the Samurai and Naoe’s entry into the Shinobi life. This also served as the tutorial for both Yasuke’s brutality and Naoe’s nimble approach to exploration and combat. The difference between the two could be felt immediately, but two major things stood out during this time. First,AC Shadowsis a more cinematic experience; the prologue featured several cutscenes, and it felt like there were more cutscenes than gameplay. A Ubisoft dev would explain thatAC Shadowsfeatures over 700 cutscenes and overall the visual direction feels in line with modern Japanese movies, quickly immersing players into theJapan setting ofAC Shadows.
The narrative immediately sets high expectations for the story ofAC Shadows,with the prologue ending on an emotional high point that did everything it could to make me cry. I quickly found myself attached to Naoe as a result, with an earnest desire to assassinate the Templar/Order of the Ancients stand-ins, the Shinbakufu. Based on theAssassin’s Creedtimeline, these figures should be “Templars,” but it remains to be seen how that shakes out exactly. Their specific introduction, which Ubisoft internally calls the Assembly of Enemies, certainly made their threat to Naoe and Japan palpable.
I did not see how Yasuke and Naoe come together, which is the biggest question I had coming out of it. It’s presumed that they would start on opposite sides ofAC Shadows' story, perhaps as enemies, and that seems to be the case. But seeing how emotional just the first hour was, I am excited to see how the story brings them together and develops from there.
Story and Open-World Gameplay: Shadows Over Japan
After finishing that section of the prologue, Ubisoft jumped into theopen-world area ofAC Shadows. We had access to one main quest line, The Noble, and a small portion of the open world. It’s not certain how many hours into the game Ubisoft jumped ahead, but I had access to both characters and level 25 gear. I loaded into this section as Naoe, ignored the quest-giver in front of me, and looked for the highest point in the area. I quickly ran for it, determined to get that synchronization and eager to see more of the parkour.
AC Shadows Parkour Remains a Middle Ground
IneveryAssassin’s Creedgame, parkour is subject to the location. Tighter cities like Paris inAC Unitycontributed to some of the best, most technical parkour in the franchise, but the more open-world locations ofAC Origins, Odyssey, andValhalladialed this back considerably. Parkour inAC Miragewas better, but not as mechanical as past entries. ForAC Shadows, the parkour feels flashier and better than otherACopen-world games, but not quite as good asMirage. Naoe is nimble and quick, effective at moving from point to point. However, it’s clear that parkour inAC Shadowsis still more about navigating from A to B than player expression, although Naoe’s style is enjoyable to watch. Even finding basic, outlined paths for parkour was a challenge, and the architecture of Japan required a grappling hook when wanting to climb up many structures, interrupting the flow of movement.
Yasuke stands tall over many othercharacters inAC Shadows, making him effective in a fight but bad at parkour, and that is a lot of fun to experience. He is chunkier than Naoe, slowly swinging one foot around the other when walking across tight A-framed roofs. Running up walls sees him reach up like a child trying to climb something they are too short for because of the limitations of his armor and size. My favorite is performing a leap of faith into a haystack because, never in a prior game, has someone failed so spectacularly and hilariously.
Is parkour and sneaking around possible as Yasuke? Absolutely. But where it comes naturally and simply for Naoe, it is more challenging for Yasuke and a bit more fun (at least in some scenarios). Instead of graceful movements, the best use for Yasuke is crouching and moving across the side of a roof. Instead of running up any wall, players need to pick and choose deliberate, unintuitive paths for Yasuke. And his leap of faith may not be pretty, but it is effective.
Stealth Shines in Shadows
Stealth is so important to the franchise that it’s quite surprising thatAC Shadowsis the first game with a prone mechanic, but the easiest way to put this to the test is with a direct comparison betweenYasuke and Naoe. Between a few reloads, I replayed one small encounter a couple times to see how it would work with Yasuke and Naoe. It was a pretty small area, with a few rooftops, a bell for reinforcements, and a few innards. There was a strong enemy in the innermost section, one at the entrance, and two hanging around. Every bell we’ve encountered thus far has been on a raised platform, oftentimes taller than the nearby buildings, and taking them out to prevent reinforcements is relatively easy.
UsingAssassin’s Creedtools like kunai and smoke bombsmakes eliminations as Naoe simple, ensuring the stealth gameplay flows well. Prone makes it easier to get around locations or break line of sight, and as a result, any common enemy is an easy target for Naoe. Higher-level enemies can block assassinations, though. Of course, Naoe shines best in a 1-on-1 fight. Retrying the area with open combat quickly made the point that Naoe is not built to face multiple enemies. Likewise, trying to do the area as Yasuke proved that open combat is most effective, although with so few enemies, taking them out from afar with a bow works wonders.
At one point, I decided to let the enemies ring the bell to see how long Yasuke could survive against reinforcements. Some reinforcements take the form of Guardians: larger, more powerful enemies from the traditional foes. Even in 1:1 open combat, they proved to be a challenge, ensuring that players who push the limits of stealth and combat also receive pushback from the game. It creates a certain friction that is enjoyable if players want to test their skills, but it also ensures there’s a certain level of danger should things not go as planned.
It will be interesting to see how well detection works throughoutAC Shadows, but it’s worth noting that I was never unfairly detected. If anything, it might swing the other way because there were a few times I should have been detected and wasn’t. Overall though, the stealth shined in our time withAC Shadows.
Combat: Fulfilling AC Shadows' Fantasy
The control schemes of Naoe and Yasuke are exactly the same, but the “game feel” behind the input ensures each character feels different. Naoe is agile, nimble, great at stealth, and capable of handling enemies solo, but, if surrounded by enemies, running becomes a more appealing option. Likewise, Yasuke is great for charging through castles and eliminating enemies left and right. There is a strong grasp of theSamurai fantasy with Yasukeand the Shinobi fantasy with Naoe, and the game ensures there are plenty of opportunities to indulge one or the other.
While there will no doubt be players who prefer Yasuke or Naoe inAC Shadows, I often found myself thinking, “Oh, if I were Yasuke” or “Oh, this would be better if I were Naoe.” At large, the mission design often ensures both Yasuke and Naoe are viable, and indulging one fantasy creates a feedback loop where the other fantasy comes to mind.Dual protagonists in video gamesis a tricky concept, but the design ofAC Shadowsensures that both characters are always in mind.
In the open world, players have a few ways to swap characters practically on the fly. However, when completing linear elements of the story mission, they cannot swap until given the choice.
While most missions could be completed with either character, one mission felt like we were the “wrong” character. It involved visiting a shrine to retrieve a child, but while there, we were ambushed by several shinobi. As Naoe, we were quickly picked apart by the volume of enemies and it took several tries and an unorthodox approach to complete. As Yasuke, it would have been easy to cut through them.
For most of the missions, either character seemed like a viable choice; in this one mission, it was clearly more designed for Yasuke because stealth was not even an option. We were locked into the fight until they were defeated, with no way of knowing what was going to happen prior. Temporary decision saves or, perhaps, recommended characters when starting a mission could also fix this, technically speaking, but that might go against the dual protagonist design. During our six hours of gameplay, this was the only time that an issue came up with player choice, but it stands to reason that unknowing players may sometimes walk into the wrong scenario with the wrong character. Sometimes that can be fun, but that’s the trade-off with most missions working with eitherAC Shadowsprotagonist.
The Noble Quest: Assassins in the Shadows
Because this is a main quest line, I don’t want to get too “in the trenches” with spoilers. Allow me to say that it involved figuring out who one of the Shinbakufu were and a threat they were to the province of Harima. After an attack, players must track down a couple of clues to slowly reveal who the Shinbakufu is and then prevent their plan from working. The more cinematic approach ensured that every character involved felt realized, there was not a super obvious enemy, and perhaps more importantly, it made this assassination target feel more realized. In some of the recentACgames, namelyOdyssey, Valhalla, and evenMirage, assassination targets outside the leader sometimes felt more like nameless nobodies than threats to the Assassins/locations. This target felt like a real, important character, not just a mechanic. This quest line did a lot to put our high emotions from the prologue on a pendulum and swing it the other way, making us consider the motivations and realities of the assassination target.
The remarkable thing, which may not apply to every main assassination target, was the presented choice to assassinate the target or to let them live. To my memory, ever sinceAssassin’s Creedintroduced choice, this has never been an option. The outcome was predictable, even when choosing to spare them, but it created a roleplaying perspective of bothAssassin’s Creed Shadowsprotagonists.
The cinematics and cutscenes bring this story to life, but when talking to less important NPCs or other characters in standard dialogue, there is some very wooden, lifeless dialogue. Even without the excellent cinematics, these options would have stood out, but the cinematics certainly make them all the more apparent.
Open-World Gameplay in AC Shadows
Thetraditional Ubisoft open-world formulacan be fairly criticized for being a massive sandbox with far too many dots and points of interest scattered around the map, overwhelming players with the sheer number of things available to do at once. While this preview focused on one specific location within the greater open world,AC Shadows' open-world management makes it more digestible. Having access to the whole map may change this, but as the fog over the map was peeled back and question marks began to pop up, it never felt overwhelming. There were a few POIs scattered around the area and checking them did yield quests and activities, but they were not all there at once, which was helpful.
Even something likeAssassin contractswould not appear on the map unless players accepted them in their city hideouts. It is still a Ubisoft-styled open world, but it does seem like there is attention paid to not inundating players with map markers. Unveiling these on the map led to activities like training Yasuke in combat forms and horseback archery competitions, while others were locations to face enemies, acquire loot, and move on. If the pacing of the entire open world follows the same philosophy, it should be a more manageable Ubisoft open world.
Little Details Hide in the Shadows
Attention to detail and ensuring that a massive game is immersive, intuitive, and intertwined on a smaller scale matters, and a lot of little details inAC Shadowsstand out. The difference in height/perspective between Naoe and Yasuke isn’t necessarily noticeable, but it’s there. The placement of Shrines is intentional. Yasuke will not assassinate an enemy from behind, instead getting their attention and delivering the killing blow head-on. The small details of how cities, NPCs, and animals react to the seasons, and even how NPCs respond when looked at by a samurai all tie back into honoring Japanese culture. My favorite is how, in the Hideout and certain indoor locations, Naoe or Yasuke (automatically) take off their shoes.
I obviously can’t speak to every aspect of Japanese culture honored through small and large details, or the possibilities of any mistakes, but it appears Ubisoft put in the work to ensure that small details lined up with its larger ambitions.
The Hideout: A Customizable Base for Naoe and Yasuke
Our gameplay session came to an end with one hour in the Hideout. At some point in the story, Naoe and Yasuke establish a hideout for their spy network where recruited NPCs, story NPCs, and others fill in. In many ways, this is the equivalent ofAC Valhalla’s Ravensthorpe, where players can shop, make upgrades, interact with NPCs, and influence the settlement. However, where Ravensthorpe was only upgradeable, the Hideout is completely customizable. The Hideout features a grid system where players can place buildings, customize their internals and externals, and upgrade them for more spies, better experience gains, better weapons and armor, and so forth.
The mechanical elements are great for progressing throughout the game and encouraging players to collect resources, but players can also decorate the grounds however they like with various trees and cosmetics. Internal cosmetics can consist of paintings players make while exploring the open world, intertwining the hideout with other game systems. Where this shined best is the number of animals players can place in their hideouts.
Once I realized I could putShiba Inu puppiesand other dog breeds in the hideout, I beelined to a small island-like area. The Hideout area is a pretty good span of land, divided by a river from another, smaller section of land. I placed as many dogs over there as I could, ensured they had food and a pond for water, and realized they needed shelter when it started to rain. Of course, they don’t mechanically “need” these things, but it was a great, if quickly thrown-together puppy sanctuary. I made sure to pet several of them before turning my attention elsewhere; if nothing else, I did not expect to make a puppy sanctuary inAC Shadows.
Stepping Out of the Shadows
I’ve been waiting forAssassin’s Creed Shadowsever sinceAC3first teased itwith a Torii gate, and Japan has been one of the franchise’s most requested settings. The wait and demand put a lot of pressure on Ubisoft, but after six hours with the game, my higher-than-average anticipation has skyrocketed, my qualms have been squashed, and my expectations have been exceeded. If the full version of the game lives up to the six I’ve played, then it seems the upcoming open-worldAssassin’s Creedgame is going to cast a long shadow for future entries.
Game Rant was provided with travel and lodging for the purposes of this preview.
