"The Old World is Dead"
Assassin's Creed Shadows Review
Written by Chris
Foreword
Assassin's Creed Shadows is finally here and as of writing this review I have put just over 50 hours into the game, managed to roll the credits and done probably about one third of side content. Thank you to Ubisoft for providing me with 2 weeks early access allowing me to get this review out for you all. This review wont have any story spoilers and will act more as a general impressions of the game, it's world, the mechanics that stood out to me and what I think can be improved.
The settings I played on were, Game played on Normal // Canon Mode ON // Immersive Mode OFF // Guided mode OFF // Played in Performance mode. In the 50+ hours I played I only had 1 crash and a few times the sound bugged out, but apart from that it has been a pretty smooth experience.
General Overview
For anyone that knows me personally; they know, this is the setting I've wanted in an AC game since the beginning. Growing up playing games like Ninja Gaiden and Tenchu and then later in life absolutely falling in love with Sekiro, I've always loved games centred around Shinobi. With these types of games being my favourite and Assassin's Creed being my obsession since 2007, I was hoping for the day Shadows got announced.
The time has finally come and I can honestly say that I am quite blown away with this game, and that's not just the fanboy in me! this game has actually surpassed all my expectations by a long shot. Ubisoft Quebec have always made high quality products, but they have truly went above and beyond with this latest entry into the universe. That's not to say that it's perfect, there's a few small issues I have with the game that I'll go over but I think its safe to say that Assassin's Creed Shadows is now my favourite game in the series! So lets start with the world and traversing it...
The World
The section of Japan that Ubisoft has recreated is simply beautiful. Every corner of this world is bursting with details big and small! The world is one of the things I'm most impressed with. To have a map that is this big, with this amount of detail, and still have it looking and running this well is remarkable.
The world is built differently than anything that's come before. When you first get proper control to go out into the world and do as you please you actually get a notification telling you its best to stick to the paths, as there is dense forests to tread through, and dense they are! Granted not all forests are severely dense but the ones that are, you really don't want to be running through them. This makes your exploration of Japan a lot different from any other AC game. However I still found myself getting that nostalgic feeling when running through a snowy forest, I felt like I was right back in the American Frontier!
Traversal is limited to on-foot, horseback and small boats but there is no more stamina bars for you or your trusty steed, so you can sprint to your hearts content (be careful sprinting with Yasuke though as he's prone to breaking most things in his path)
Like Mirage you cant just climb anything. Some rock faces can be scaled, but only the most obviously climbable looking ones . Which brings me to something I'm not too happy about. There is yellow paint on some rock faces and all the climbable trees. Now I completely understand why it's in the game and agree it's a great accessibility feature, however, In Star Wars outlaws you had the ability to turn the yellow markers off, but for some reason, in Shadows it can't be turned off.
The second thing I wasn't too happy about when it came to the world is the fact we no longer have the ability to cycle between day and night. I was told there is a legitimate reason for this, but I found myself really missing this feature as someone who likes to travel long distances during daylight and taking on stealth missions at night.
These are just two small things that I do miss but the rest of the game easily makes up for it! Some of those smaller details I mentioned completely blew my mind. I noticed leaves blowing off of a tree and landing in a river, floating downstream for a while and then sinking. If you put your character into a river and tread water, your character will actually be slowly pulled by the current downstream. I went to hide a body in a bush but pressed the wrong button and slashed my sword, destroying the bush making me unable to use that bush to hide myself or the body anymore. I have many more examples of these amazing little details as I don't want to rob you of finding this stuff by yourself.
If there's one piece of advice I can give for this game, it's take your time. There are hills and forests as far as the eye can see, castles to loot and people to meet. Rushing through this game is doing yourself a disservice.
Stealth
Stealth is my favourite part of any Assassin's Creed game and Shadows has taken it to the next level. I'm so happy with what I was able to do with Naoe. It's extremely satisfying to use your grapple hook to scale a wall, to then run over the rooftops, flip off the other side then go prone into long grass and take out a target. Chefs kiss!
Normally in an Assassin's Creed game I would go into an enemy base and stealth my way through it and if I got caught at any point I would continue on, but my end goal would always be to clear out the base of enemies completely. With Shadows though, I found myself, for the first time ever going through and only killing when guards when I absolutely had to, and basically just trying to be that silent ninja in the dark. The fact that this game got me out of my usual stealth gameplay habits is amazing.
I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me 10 hours into the game to actually realise that you need your Tanto equipped to be able to preform a double assassination. It does tell you this in the abilities menu but there is a lot going on with all the different systems at work, but more on that later.
Stealth details have went above and beyond this time! You can break off the bells from the alarms and pick them up to use as a distracting tool. Your corner kills have much greater ranch now. You can grab an enemy from behind and pull them into a bush to either knock out or assassinate. You need to be much more aware of enemy sightlines and hearing! The ability to crawl under some buildings and enter through trap doors adds even more stealth elements to thing about. You have to now thing about light, sound, guard pathing and your position. Take your time and survey the area and you can stealth kill entire castles!
Guards will now be able to deny your assassination attempt and its usually because they heard or kind of saw you just before you tried to strike. At first I thought it was a random thing but then I whistled for a guard to come close to a bush , and because I done that, he was more aware that I was there, and therefore caught me when trying to kill him. I know this might actually annoy some people but you will be happy to know that guaranteed assassination is available in the settings menu. Speaking of settings, if you turn the difficulty up to hard, Guards will actually be even more aware.
Obviously Yasuke can't really do any stealth, the guards see and hear him coming from a mile away. which is fine, his character is for brutal force and strength and I like that. Both characters complement each other quite well and I think you will all see that when you play.
Its interesting to note that you can now save your game when you're in a restricted area. A first for Assassin's creed games. Although you still can't fast travel from a restricted area or if you are in combat.
Shadows for me has the best stealth in any Assassin's Creed game and its not even close.
Combat
The combat in Assassin's Creed Shadows has been taken up a notch and it feels great. With Naoe you're small, fast and very agile, while with Yasuke you're a big, powerful tank!
You can be easily overwhelmed as Naoe but at the same time if you take the time to learn her abilities and level her up she can straight up become a few notches below Sekiro in terms of sheer ability. It's fast and deeply satisfying.
With Yasuke, he towers above most enemies (and most npc's). He's obviously a lot slower but he doesn't feel as slow as Eivor. He's fast enough especially with his Katana. You should have no problem simply walking through entire castles just wrecking havoc and taking our anyone in your path. That's not to say you can't be under levelled or equipped. I found myself a few times getting into situations I wasn't ready for because I hadn't spent mastery points or simply not refilling my rations. I look forward to playing again and spending more time figuring out Yasuke's fighting style and abilities. As you may know he has a Teppo (Rifle) or a bow. I sadly didn't use these much, but again I look forward to trying it more on a second playthrough when I'm really taking my time.
On that note, your safehouses or Kakurega as they're called are very important. Not only do they act as a fast travel point but you fill up your rations and supplies there, as well as pick up contracts, manage allies and refill scouts.
I said there is a lot going on with the systems. You have ability trees for each class of weapon, for each character. Every time you level up you get a "mastery point" for each character. You spend these points on abilities and passives in those trees. However, some of the perks need you to be a certain "Knowledge" level to unlock. You gain knowledge levels by taking part in the many mini games and side activities. I never knew this but once you get to a certain Knowledge level, you can then open up a new menu and start putting mastery points into Knowledge passives.
So like I said there is a lot going on, but if you take your time to learn it its actually quite simple. I think there is a combat style for everyone in this game. Its going to be interesting to see the different combat builds people come up with.
Photomode
Lets talk about the photomode. I know a lot of our followers will want to know about this stuff. I'll be blunt, I don't really like the photomode for this game. I actually feel like its a step backwards from previous Assassin's Creed games! It seems to be and altered version of the PM in Star Wars Outlaws.
There are some improvements though. Its great to see they have added numbers to the sliders again. Another brilliant feature is that if you enter the photomode when your character is hidden, the PM will actually remove the white glow around your character, this was a big issue in Mirage where people would take pictures of Basim in red clouds of smoke but he would have this silly white glow around him, essentially ruining the shot!
However something that completely undermines this change is the fact if you enter photomode while your pathfinder is on, that for some reason doesn't get removed from the pm and will ruin your picture.
The range that the camara can go seems to be a bigger area than before and the zoom in ability is actually insane but for some reason the zoom out is terrible.
So yes, I'm not too thrilled with the photomode but luckily the world is so beautiful and detailed that it doesn't really matter.
Hideout
I wont say too much about the hideout other than its exactly what I've wanted from a hideout in Assassin's Creed games. The hideout is very important now. You will need to build a forge to upgrade your weapons and armour as well as unlock the transmorg ability. You will need a study and upgrade it to get more scouts. You will also pick up your stolen supplies from a chest at the stables. This took me a while to figure out and was wondering why I didn't have any building materials.
Then you have all the fun cosmetic stuff you can add, and yes, a lot of the cute animals you fins out in the world can then be adopted and place within the hideout. Kitty sanctuary, here I come!! One of the side activities in the game is sneaking up on an animal and painting them. You can then put these paintings up on the walls of your hideout as well as other things you can find in the world.
Be sure to come back to your hideout regularly to talk to your allies, upgrade your gear and even take a moment to simply decorate your rooms with some of the artwork you might have created on your travels.
Weather and Seasons
Now this is the part of the game I'm really in love with! what they have done with both the seasons and weather system is a work of art in itself.
Spring is beautiful with everything in full bloom and lots of showers across the land, you can feel the world coming alive at this time. In summer it is bright and sunny for the most part with clear skies, day and night. With Autumn rolling in afterwards the colour palette changes to that dark red and brown that is always so wonderful to look at. Then you have winter! and oh my god I love it so much. I love a good snow level in games and this something else. Snow storms will roll in and its like actually being in a blizzard. When it gets foggy, you can barely see 15 foot ahead of you.
The seasons changing did confuse me at first. It seemed like it was changing season far to often but then I realised from reading the tutorial codex that the seasons passing screen shows twice per season to illustrate the passing of time.
With things like lakes freezing over, rain covering your noise discipline and icicles falling and giving away your position, The weather and seasons system truly adds so many gameplay changes! I don't honestly think I can think of any other game that has this level of detail when it comes to the weather.
Animus Hub
I'm just going to talk a little about the animus hub because again I don't want to give much away. I am very happy with what the hub is and the potential it has for the future. There is a free battle-pass system where you can do a variety of things to unlock keys to then spend on rewards. You also unlock some really interesting modern day stuff that starts to build a new story.
The future of Assassin's Creed with the Animus Hub really excites me with this new intriguing modern day story in it's infancy and the fact Ubisoft didn't monetise the hub makes it perfect.
Conclusion
I am really impressed with what Ubisoft Quebec have built here. As I mentioned before this is the Assassin's Creed game I've been waiting for since the beginning, so it kind of had a lot to live up to. I can safely say that it's exceeded all my expectations in nearly every way. I have some small issues with the game but the good far outweighs the bad. The story is engaging start to finish with lots of amazingly beautiful moments. The cinematography of the cutscenes is on point along with the soundtrack and general sound design being the best it's ever been. All that with the highly detailed world and awesome characters, I can't recommend this game enough. I know Ubisoft took a lot of heat for this game, but what I want to say to the developers is keep your head high, Assassin's Creed Shadows is top tier and you have changed the game. Thank you.
There is a lot I haven't talked about because I don't want to give much away. I really do think everyone should try this game and experience it all for yourselves. I and Scholars of the Creed will be creating a lot of content around this game for months to come so keep an eye on our website and social accounts.
"The Old World is Dead"
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