The success of a single tentpole single-player game is unlikely to determine the fate of a large company like Ubisoft. However, after recent disappointments such as Star Wars: Outlaws and XDefiant, the company cannot afford another major mistake. Ubisoft urgently needs a significant hit, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows is well-positioned to deliver it.
At its core, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a massive game that requires dozens of hours to complete. The game offers a multitude of activities beyond the main storyline, including various missions and side quests. During my playthrough, I rarely found myself bored, even during the lengthy flashbacks, which speaks to the care and attention Ubisoft’s developers have invested in this vast world and its narrative.
Ubisoft could not risk releasing a game that performed poorly and then spending months fixing it, as was the case with Cyberpunk 2077. Fortunately, Assassin’s Creed Shadows runs smoothly on my consoles (base PS5 and Xbox Series X) and PC.
The game looks stunning on my high-end gaming rig, which features an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4090, 14th-gen i9 Intel CPU, and 32GB of RAM. I experienced no issues while running the game at very high settings, with a framerate between 55-59 fps and no significant drops. However, I did notice some minor visual anomalies on the PS5, such as water pooling on a dirt track shimmering unnaturally.
There were no noticeable slowdowns during intense combat on the three platforms I played on. Nevertheless, I did encounter some small issues, like my horse getting stuck when I whistled for it, which was more of a nuisance than a significant problem.
Two heroes with their own stories
The game’s main hook is the ability to swap between two characters, Naoe and Yasuke, almost at will. Naoe, a shinobi, is a more traditional Assassin’s Creed protagonist, while Yasuke, a samurai, can break through doors and carry bodies to hiding spots more easily. Both characters have their own stories and missions, but for the most part, you can play as either in the open world.
I preferred playing as Naoe, who is more agile and capable of climbing strongholds and carrying out stealthy assassinations. Her movement is extremely fluid, and she has access to the classic eagle vision ability to reveal enemies, hiding spots, and goodies through walls.
Yasuke, on the other hand, is a fun character to play as well, with his ability to take out enemies silently with his bow or loudly with a firearm before charging in to eliminate them with his katana. Both protagonists are well-written and performed, at least when playing with English audio.
Personal stakes with a broader goal
The story is strong enough to hold my attention, with a narrative that starts with personal stakes for both heroes but expands to involve safeguarding the future of Japan. The writers have crafted a tale with plenty of intrigue and intricacy, and I enjoyed how they wove the broader Assassin’s Creed lore into Shadows.
The story and structure are rich and intricate enough to justify the 40-60 hours it’ll take many people to finish the game. However, I preferred the tighter 20-hour approach Ubisoft took with Assassin’s Creed Mirage.
Skill tree frustrations
I’m not a fan of the way Ubisoft has structured the progression systems. Naoe and Yasuke each have six skill trees, all of which are broken down into levels. To unlock the next level, the player must accumulate enough experience points by completing various side activities. This can be frustrating when you have a lot of spare mastery points to spend on skills but need to run around to honor some shrines or find meditation spots before you can acquire some of the cooler moves.
There are other antiquated systems in the game, such as defeating a rōnin in a fun fight, earning decent loot, but not being able to equip it because my character hadn’t reached a high enough level. This doesn’t make logical sense.
Scaling enemy difficulty from region to region feels tired and artificial, and I would have preferred more creative level design, new enemy types, and the ability to manually make the game harder in the settings.
Despite some
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