Assassin's Creed Shadows Review
WAS ASSASSIN’S CREED SHADOWS WORTH THE WAIT?
Almost as long as Assassin’s Creed has existed, players have been asking for the opportunity to explore a Feudal Japanese landscape through the lens of an assassin. Now that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is finally here, has the wait been worth it?
The answer is mostly yes, Assassin’s Creed Shadows features a fully realized world with stunning visuals paired with excellent traversal that make exploring Japan circa 1579 a pleasure. Assassin’s Creed Shadows also features a strong core narrative centred around a tale of revenge with an extremely satisfying combat system, and a surprisingly enjoyable base building system.
Unfortunately, it might not be the revolution that many were hoping for since Assassin’s Creed Shadows is unable to find a consistent tone, playing as Yasuke felt to distant from the core experience, repetitive franchise cliches still exist and there is an almost abysmal lead performance from Naoe that felt stiff and immersion breaking.
The silver lining is that you have the ability to fix some of these problems yourself and if you accept Assassin’s Creed Shadows as what it is, which is a fun, action forward open world game and not as a serious tonal piece about Feudal Japan, which it also tries to be, there is actually a lot to like.
NAOE AND YASUKE
In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, not only do you get the chance to be a Samurai during the Feudal Japan Era, but you also get to be a Shinobi. Naoe is a blossoming Ninja from the dying Iga clan and Yasuke is an outsider who finds his sense of place as a bruising Samurai. The narrative and your gameplay experience weaves between these two in a tale about revenge, heritage and honour.
The overarching story-line feels similar to Kill Bill as you play as Naoe, a strong and powerful female shinobi, who is hell bent on getting revenge against twelve people who have wronged her and this journey will take you across the vast and well realized feudal Japanese provincial landscape.
The environments are stunning with an impressive draw distance, a dynamic weather system, as well day and night cycle, which not only add realism, but also greatly affects the improved stealth encounters. There is also changing seasons, which are beautiful and add plenty of variety from the rain soaked spring, the blossoming trees in the summer, the plethora of colors in fall, to the stark white of winter.
You are constantly reminded of the beauty, and vastness of this world and it encourages the player to seek out all that it has to offer and the offerings go far beyond the game. One of the ways that you can expand your skill tree is with knowledge, which are done by praying and being able to get close enough to rare wildlife and paint them. There are also hundreds of codex entries to discover around the world that offer pieces of cultural knowledge to learn and understand the time better. All of these are completely optional, but added greatly to the overall experience and highlighted the beauty of the world.
THE ESSENTIAL ASSASSAIN EXPERIENCE
However, the core of the Assassin’s Creed Shadows experience is stealth, movement and combat systems, all of which have the ability to be great depending on which character you play as. The core systems don’t feel revolutionary, but they do feel evolved from the past. As mentioned, the day-night cycle plays a role as there are plenty of fires at night that you have the ability to snuff out, making yourself invisible in a world that feels more designed for a proper stealth approach.
The combat feels weighty, satisfying and is very brutal. The core of the combat is built around parries and dodges, but also includes standard attacks, posture attacks and ability attacks. A large omission is the lack of a stamina system, meaning you can spam attack on some enemies with little consequence, especially if you are playing as Yasuke, who is nearly indestructible.
Combat feels more satisfying when you play as Naoe, as you need to be more methodical as she has less health and isn’t as strong. The one downside is that combat doesn’t overly evolve as the game goes on. You learn some more skills, enemies get bigger bars and a few different moves, but nothing that feels overly rewarding for mastering.
The world is dangerous, especially around areas above your level, as you can die in one hit. You can also trigger one hit kills, which can also be increased with the right equipment and perks, but there is a missed opportunity for a more serious standoff mode, similar to the one in Ghost of Tsushima and this would have greatly increased strategy, realism and truly conveyed just have dangerous this world is.
You can evolve your combat skills in Assassin’s Creed Shadows through skill tree that are upgraded through mastery points and expanded with knowledge points. Eventually when you find good enough gear, it will come with perk slots, which need to be done at your hideout.
HIDEOUTS
Nearly as important as your skill tree, is expanding your hideout and finding new allies. To construct and build your hideout you will need to find crafting materials around the world like lumber and stone. However, these are in the areas you will be so you don’t have to venture off the beaten path. Once you have enough materials you are able to construct buildings like stables and dojo, which offer skill bonuses to yourself and your allies. Assassin’s Creed also lets you recruit people into your “League of Assassin’s” by completing specific side quests that will help you forge bonds with people who can aid you on your journey. These allies will then be able to assist you in battle.
ANIMUS
The other big new feature of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the new “Animus System” that acts a hub for the series dating back to Odyssey and moving forward. The Animus system exists to constantly engage the player with activities and challenges. Currently, there are projects, which are essentially battle passes with challenges that don’t expire and at the moment, don’t cost anything either. Completing anomalies, which are weekly challenges, help progress your project. As you would expect rewards range from crafting material to weapons, armour and keys, which are one of the currencies used to buy goods from the rotating shop.
The good news is that currently, nothing feels pay to win and I never once felt the need to purchase anything as there is an abundance of loot to find, upgrade and it comes complete with one of the easiest transmogrification systems as well.
I like the idea of the Animus System with the projects and anomalies as a way to keep the player engaged and coming back for more fun. We have seen system like this used in the past and when done properly like elusive targets in the Hitman series can strongly encourage return visits. Hopefully with proper implementation, it can be a win-win for both Ubisoft and the players.
CRITICISM
While in theory I like the idea of weaving two different stories to give different perspectives and gameplay feel, I didn’t love how both characters didn’t have the same core abilities, namely tower climbing, which is a core series staple. The world is designed around the assassin experience. While playing as Yasuke is initially fun, as you feel unstoppable, the inability to do core series mechanics and lumbering speed quickly became rote. Yasuke being a Goliath in a world of David’s didn’t serve the plot and making Yasuke slightly smaller and with the same tool set could have accomplished the same plot mechanic.
There is an engaging story of loss, but it was hindered by the immersion breaking performance of Naoe, as well as abrupt tonal shifts and a lack of commitment to a moral compass or repercussions. The character model for Naoe always felt like it didn’t receive as much attention as other characters and her voice acting felt stiff and didn’t capture the levity of the moment.
Immersion problems are further exacerbated by enemies that can feel like sword sponges, and writing that didnt always reflect the era. A stronger commitment to a serious tone and a more lethal combat system would have went a long way.
Repetition can also set in across many facets of Shadows. Quests usually involve the same go to a place, getting information, going somewhere else and killing some people. In addition, every civilian you help between major cities, says almost the same thing and offers you the same reward. Furthermore, each character also only has a few different executions and while they were nice, a few more would have added some much needed variety.
VERDICT
If you don’t like Assassin’s Creed, Shadows won’t be the pivotal moment in the franchise that changes your mind, as it features the same DNA the series has become known for. Albeit, most gameplay systems have seen evolutions and the good news though is that most of the major criticisms can be adjusted or worked around. If you don’t want your map to be littered with markers, turn off the guided experience and don’t use scouts. If you want to be more immersed and enjoy better performances, turn on Japanese and adjust your HUD. If you want to experience the best stealth and movement the series has seen, then play as Naoe at all opportunities.
Due to dual protagonists, experiences of Assassin’s Creed Shadows are going to vary drastically, but when the game is at it’s best it allows the player to take full advantage of the satisfying parkour, stealth, assassin systems through the eyes of a young shinobi and requires a more methodical approach
The biggest downfall with Assassin’s Creed Shadows is indecision. At times between shinobi and samurai, between stealth or action, between drama and comedy, between instant kills and sword sponges, between series cliches and fresh ideas. At times Assassin’s Creed Shadows can be a six, but then at other times it’s almost a ten and where it ends up is somewhere in that range. When everything clicks together, Assassin’s Creed Shadows was worth the wait.