Assassin’s Creed Shadows Review (PS5)
Assassin’s Creed is a game franchise older than many gamers who are playing the games these days. It has had many tweaks and changes over the years, much to the dismay of many. After Assassin’s Creed Mirage it seemed Ubisoft was returning to the good old days of the Creed with a larger focus on stealth. So how does Assassin’s Creed Shadows, set in Feudal Japan, fare?
Surely still a heavy stealth component? After all ‘Shadows’ kind of implies this.
A Tale of Two Halves?
Assassins Creed Shadows introduces you to two protagonists. A skilled Shinobi and a hard hitting Samurai. Although you have to progress to a point in the game to have access to both, it quickly becomes obvious that they each play quite differently. And to be honest, playing as Yasuke, the Samurai, moves you quite a way from Assassin’s Creed of old. The parkour and stealth elements are right out the window and replaced with a brutal tank gameplay. There is nothing wrong with this but it isn’t what I want from an Assassin’s Creed title.
I definitely found myself sticking with Naoe, the Shinobi, for the convenience and maneuverability I expect in an Assassin’s Creed game.
This Week on Assassin’s Creed…
OK, lets get this one out of my system. The Cut Scenes!!! Soooo many cut scenes and moments you are just following an NPC to hear more story. Yes you can skip them but having gameplay inturrupted so often just really breaks the immersion. Especially when they are needed for advancing the game but involve a flashback section of gameplay and story. The story itself is a fairly ‘been there, done that’ affair which didn’t really engage me all that much. But unfortunately it is many of the characters and voice overs that are just plain bad.
Even if the story was of Oscar winning quality, it would be hard to sit through.
What about you Guy? Thoughts?
Well, I mirror much of what Barrie has said already. His comments on the cut-scenes and the Samurai character sections especially. Both felt like they had to be “got out out of the way”, as fast as possible! So I could get back to being a sneaky Shinobi Assassin. Crawling through the grass, using the darkness and weather as cover to get close to unsuspecting targets. One issue I would touch on is the level systems. Level locking areas of the map seems like such a weird system for a stealth game. I can stab a level 2 dude and he dies, but sneaky-stab a level 18 dude, and he barely feels it!? And the player character runs two parallel XP systems, which has “combat skills” locked behind a second system, which forces you to do the busy-work of collecting “stuff” and doing flashback side missions to level up. This was a terrible idea Ubisoft! I ended up with a whole heap of “Combat Mastery” skill points to use, but couldn’t, as I haven’t done enough busy-work to unlock new columns with “Knowledge Skill levels” (Sigh).
The weather and season systems are brilliant and needs a wee mention. The day/night cycle is about 45mins. And as dusk comes on, I would consciously make a decision to go and take down a castle or garrison, as I knew darkess was my friend. Or if lightning streaked across the sky in the distance, I knew a storm was coming and the weather would mask my footsteps and throat slitting. I have really enjoyed AC: Shadows, but only from a stealth gameplay design perspective.
As Barrie said, the story, the busy-work and the Yasuke sections did nothing for me. Luckily there is enough of that cool stuff, to out weigh this stuff and the open world bloat Ubisoft is obsessed with. I much prefer the AC games when they are a Stealth Game first and foremost.
I think the AC games are at a stage that they are trying to be too much, to too many people. Ubisoft need to be split it into two franchises. An AC: “RPG”, with levels, loot and questing and then an AC: “Stealth” game. One is the swords and boards, sweeping open world RPG like AC: Odessey (which I never got into) with a grand narrative and hundreds of hours of “stuff” to do. Then there needs to be a refined Assassin purist franchise, with a smaller playground, tuned stealth gameplay and much more focus of being completly sneaky at all times. AC: Mirage was the closest we have had to this in years. In fact AC: Mirage what my GOTY in 2023! As it was refined right down, set in just the city and surrounds of Baghdad. It felt like a 16th Century Splinter Cell.
I mean, failing all this, just give us a Splinter Cell, Ub,i and we can all just be happy with life.
Anyway, Back to you Barrie!
Land of the Rising Sun.
The setting is beautiful. 1579 Japan is well populated and just a joy to explore. Unfortunately, thanks to Ghost of Tsushima this setting isn’t as fresh and awe-inspiring as it should be. Don’t get me wrong, it is still a fantastic setting with a massive world to explore and with the seasons changing there is constantly many wonderful sights to behold. It is just that Ghost of Tsushima sort of beat Ubisoft to the punch, by five years. Not comparing games here, just the setting.
There is just so much to do in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. And that is its downfall to some. The grinding, repetitive nature of missions and collectables. I’m a bit weird with this, as I quite enjoy the tedium of exploration and treasure hunting. But to 100% this will take a lot of time.
Closing Comments.
It might seem like I have been hating on Assassin’s Creed Shadows here. But it is actually ok. I’m going to go and play some more after typing this. But that is the thing. It is just OK. Think Origins, think Valhalla. A big beautiful world where you do the same things as before. And if you liked it before you will like it again. And with the new Animus Hub you can even revisit all the previous worlds, as long as you own them on the same platform. A downside for me as I have every other title on Xbox and Shadows on PS5. Oh well, first world problems…
So if you are an AC fan, Shadows will scratch that itch. For others it will be just more of the same open world drudgery. And I’m OK with that.
There it is again, OK… Assassin’s Creed Shadows is, OK.
