Assassin’s Creed Shadows Review

Back in 2007 when Ubisoft first debuted the Assassin’s Creed series, most of us anticipated an actual “assassin” game would happen somewhere down the line. Something along the lines of Tenchu perhaps. We went to Italy, the Caribbean, London, you name it. The series has spanned across a dozen historical timelines, and with every reveal, I always said “maybe the next one”.

Well, Ubisoft has finally done it, an Assassin’s Creed game in Japan. An Assassin’s Creed game where you can actually live out that assassin fantasy without the lines being obscured by a Viking dual-wielding axes, and slaughtering dozens while raiding villages, screaming war cries and doing literally everything else but being an assassin.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is also a far step away from 2023’s Mirage. As a grander, more expansive adventure, it tends to be compared to the likes of Odyssey, Origins, and Valhalla. This means Shadows is a big game. From the get-go, Ubisoft shows that it didn’t hold back when it came to crafting the most layered, detailed game to date.

Japan is blanketed in beauty, while at the same time, the game has oozes all the historical and cultural lessons I have come to expect from the series. From learning about the importance of a tea ceremony to diving into the various folklore tales that citizens roped me into throughout my adventure.

I also felt a bit more at home in Shadows and its Japanese setting. I am a big fan of Japanese culture and have the utmost respect for the traditions. Let’s be honest, it is kind of the safe bet in video games too where we have seen dozens and upon dozens of titles take on the region. But I promise, I won’t be comparing Ghost of Tsushima and Assassin’s Creed Shadows to one another in this review because I don’t think that tends to be very professional. If Shadows came first, it would be easy to throw claims around that GoT copied Shadows. You get my point.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows kicks off in a brand-new way, introducing the Animus Hub. Ubisoft has launched its new Assassin’s Creed game library system with Shadows, where players can browse the “Memories” of past assassins, read up on some overly complicated memory logs that try to make sense of the series’ modern-day lore, jump into the games, and complete weekly tasks across supported games to earn XP, which levels up a battle pass track and unlocks currency called Keys, materials, and gear.

Before you ask, yes, and the Animus Hub is just as slow and unintuitive as Ubisoft Connect’s panel that appears in supported games. Menus look like they don’t load when you click on them, and redeeming an item can often feel unresponsive. But this is it, the highly anticipated “Infinity” project is here, and it is quite underwhelming.

I do have to say that I earned enough XP to advance a bit across both available “Shadows_Projects” (the battle pass-like tracks), unlock 3000 keys, and purchase an outfit and a weapon for Shadows. Basically, you can only earn XP for the battle pass in Shadows. The XP is earned by completing anomalies in-game, and the gear on sale is for Yasuke and Naoe. There are outfits for your allies and some cosmetic stuff for the Hideout system.

All the stuff for sale comes from the game’s premium gear packs. So you can buy the items without spending real money on the packs. Granted, it will take a long time to earn enough currency, especially considering the XP rewards reset only once a week, and even then, you have to progress on the battle pass track to reach the keys. I won’t lie, I preferred having Reda around with more items on sale and a free chest once a week with something cool inside. This whole Animus Hub system is quite shallow and underwhelming considering it was meant to link the series together.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows starts off with a rather lengthily opening. For about 15 hours of the game, you’re introduced to Naoe as the upcoming shinobi. I must commend Ubisoft for its stellar work in crafting Shadows’ opening hours. While it takes longer to get into the swing of things, the game’s introduction is by far the best in the series.

It follows a back-and-forth series of events that link Yasuke and Naoe to an ongoing invasion by Oda Nobunaga. Naoe is run out of her village of Iga by the troops and asked to go collect a box which has mysterious context and was hidden away by her father. A few things happen and Naoe is introduced to a handful of shady people who are later known as Shinbakufu. Naoe makes it her goal to hunt down Oda Nobunaga, find out more about this group of dirty people, and kill every last one of them.

While this sounds like your typical revenge plot, Assassin’s Creed Shadows kept surprising me with its deep narrative. The way Yasuke and Naoe’s story intertwines is both brilliant and heartbreaking as the game’s opening hours kept switching up my understanding of the story.

This actually happens quite often throughout the game. It also plays into the mystery that surrounds Japan and its leaders. The region is shrouded in secret leaders and movements that shaped the land.

I won’t spoil any plot points, but I will say that after around 15 hours (more like 20 because I got distracted exploring), Yasuke and Naoe become one team. From this moment, Shadows opens up as the typical open-world sandbox experience you would expect from the series.

The objective board expanded as I completed missions, met new people, and explored new regions. These objectives gave a great explanation of the goal and how I would go about getting the objective done. It is very similar, if not identical, to Mirage. For example, each major region had some sort of group of people causing issues. Once I met the people who needed them killed, they all appeared in a ring, and I could hover over the objective and find clues to tracking them down.

I did enjoy the flow of these objectives. I played with the standard exploration option where the game would not show me the quest marker unless I was nearby or had met the person before. So instead, the objectives forced me to search for the location and person by reading hints provided on the map.

I could also listen to the chatter of people nearby in the game who would often discuss something related to the quest nearby. This was completely optional. For example, someone would mention how they were shocked that the guard dragged this person off to a village up by the river. This “person” was my target.

I think Assassin’s Creed Shadows has just the right amount of hand-holding from this system to make the game feel like it was mine to explore. It also didn’t ever feel overwhelming when it came to what I had to do. Instead of a never-ending list of quest tabs, I just found a circle on the board, read it, and followed the route. It was also incredibly satisfying to see a full circle with red markers on it signalling that I had completed the entire quest line by slaughtering an entire group of baddies.

Outside of that, the sheer number of objectives in Assassin’s Creed Shadows meant I always had something to do. If it was exploring the map and approaching every “?” sign, completing a castle, or running to the next region, the game offers that typical open-world checklist I enjoy from the series. However, it is all elevated thanks to the world itself.

It is difficult to put into words just what a step up Japan is compared to all previous Assassin’s Creed games. In Valhalla, I felt like I was just running around a flat country with large empty spaces in between while I scurried from one objective to the next. Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been set in a world that I was often taken aback by.

Every hill welcomed a new secret to discover. Every region looked distinctly different from the last. It then all expands even further thanks to the new season system in Shadows. This sees the game world evolve as you play the game. Each season is divided into two timelines and has a unique look that completely changes the entire visual appeal of the game.

Summers are bright with long days and the beaming sun shining down on the area. Spring is a wet season with thunderous storms that see blankets of rain fall around you. Autumn is where the game starts to get much darker. This constant feeling of chill spreads across the region as the wind blows and kicks up leaves wherever you go. The rain during autumn creates a real showcase of beauty as the days start to get shorter and the world around me felt grim and damp.

Winter is then what you would expect from it, cold and blanketed in snow. There’s an almost peaceful calm to the winter in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. While other seasons bring rain storms, birds chirping and the annoying crickets in the grass, winter is dead silent. The odd wind brings a sort of eerie, uncomfortable feeling to this season as the world stood still around me and all I could hear were the footsteps crushing the ice beneath my feet.

I cannot express the strength the world brings to Assassin’s Creed Shadows. At times, I kind of wanted to revisit previous locations during different seasons just to see how they adapted to the change. I would be exploring on my horse and try to imagine what a path would look like blanketed in snow while I trotted along under full-bloom Wisteria trees as the frogs croaked in the river nearby.

I don’t think there’s been a game prior to Shadows that delivered this level of quality when it comes to seasonal changes. Just the sheer technical aspect of the world during each season left me in awe.

And then we have the presentation, which is a triumph on its own. Assassin’s Creed Shadows looks and sounds magical. Even in the dark winters and stormy summers, this game found a way to pull me in. It is a game best played with Atmos or 3D sound at the highest volume you can manage. The rain drops tapping the wooden tiles, the leaves whirling around my chair, the grass rustling across the path, the thunderous crackling of the storms that rumbled throughout the house. It is unbelievable at times.

The sound design complements the visuals as the game is brought to life in ways we have yet to see in the series. Ubisoft has also done a tremendous job perfecting the smaller details in Shadows, and if anything, using smoke and mirrors to hide away the usual nastiness we see from open-world games.

So instead of low-texture grass plains you’ll usually see on mountains in the distance, the sheer mass of vegetation hides this away and looks too good to be true. I think I spotted a single nasty-looking mountain during my entire playthrough in Shadows, and this was at the edge of the map. It is actually difficult to find flaws.

From a graphical point of view, Ubisoft’s smart use of global illumination and raytracing is likely the best I have seen this generation. Instead of cranking raytracing reflections to the max, Ubisoft has cleverly focused on a lower resolution but mixed a blur and a sharp reflection to create unique visuals where possible. So the small puddles of water reflect the world but just enough to look stunning. Blurry reflections are then used on shiny wood surfaces and ice lakes to create shadowy reflections that again, look fantastic.

The RT lighting then delivers a world filled with light that bounces around and fills up rooms and dark areas. It then picks up bright colours and carries this around the environment to scatter just the right amount of it. The result is often hard to believe. Temples are a visual showcase with reflective floors and rooms filled with red glow thanks to the Inari pillars outside. Forest trees have subtle shadows that wrap around the bark to create soft lighting. Every frame in Shadows is truly a technical marvel.

When I wasn’t exploring the world and taking a ridiculous amount of photos, Shadows’ gameplay kept me very busy. As a dual-protagonist game, there really is a great amount of freedom to approach every situation with both play styles.

First and foremost, after the 15-hour opening in Shadows, you can swap between Yasuke and Naoe at any time outside of a restricted section and during a mission. There’s a bulk of content that only Naoe can take on, and it is the same for Yasuke. These relate to character-specific quests and side objectives.

Yasuke performs arts, and only Naoe can reflect on her past in a button-pressing mini-game. There are also a few combat-related quests that only Yasuke can initiate. However, I would say that if you only want to play as Naoe, you can most of the time, but don’t get upset if you “have to” use Yasuke to complete the game 100%.

During key missions in the game, especially when taking down a Shinbakufu member, I was given the opportunity to take on different portions of these missions and swap between the two at different times. There were also some moments where I had to choose a path, and it resulted in Yasuke going on his own hunt and Naoe doing hers. After which, they met up again. This decision would mean experiencing a different portion of the game depending on who you choose.

The same goes for dialogue and decision-making. If I chose Yasuke during some key story moments, he would appear, and the script would be altered to suit this. So there’s a lot more going on in Shadows than just using a Shinobi or a brute for combat.

With that being said, saying Yasuke and Naoe have completely different play styles would be an understatement. These two characters feel entirely different to play. So much so that swapping between the two often felt refreshing. Sort of like playing a different game at times.

Naoe is, of course, the silent play style. Everything about her approach is meant to be taken with extra thought. It relies on staying back, scanning the area, and planning a path into it. I would then pick off enemies one by one. Tossing tools at them, creeping through the bushes to stab them, and silently taking them down from the ceiling, which is new and pretty cool to do.

But Naoe is also squishy. When she does fight, expect a tough one. She can be killed in just a few hits, which relies on avoiding heavy attacks and parrying lighter attacks. Even in the post-game, I felt the same. I was able to deal crazy damage to enemies with my tools, but close combat was still a challenge, but a good one at least.

Naoe’s skill tree buffs her tools, silent kills, and her various weapon types she can equip. She can also be geared into a tool-focused build or even a close-combat one, but even then, it isn’t a walk in the park. I still had to worry about damage.

I do think Naoe is the true essence of the Assassin’s Creed experience here. She feels very fun to play and can get around with ease. Her parkour looks stylish, and quickly climbing up a temple with her hook felt so satisfying.

Of course, this comes with the usual issues we find in previous AC games. AI enemies can feel dumb at times, and there’s nothing stopping you from dropping a smoke bomb amidst combat and “assassinating” all the enemies caught in the smoke. It is a timeless cheese.

Yasuke, on the other hand, is like handling a bull. This brute of a character feels heavier to play, can absorb major damage, and just destroys everything in his path. Even the smaller details impressed me about his play style. For example, he can’t eagle dive properly. He tries, but he lands in the hay and immediately hurts his back and jumps out. I also found myself bashing into ladders and completely destroying them by accident. It is both comical and problematic.

Yasuke uses his skills to deal massive damage to enemies and, at times, multiple of them at once. He is violent, and I witnessed him take hundreds of heads clean off their shoulders during the game. He can “assassinate” enemies with a skill, and he can sneak around, but it comes with its own hassles. He also can’t climb up tall walls, and when he does climb, he is very slow.

The two playable characters truly make Assassin’s Creed Shadows feel like the best of both worlds. If you enjoyed Valhalla, Yasuke is the one to use. If you want a true sneaky game, Naoe is for you. However, it does come with some problems.

I found that most of the game became quite easy with Yasuke after a while. I specced him into a poison build with a Kanabo and found gear that let me parry a heavy attack (usually, you have to dodge them). So I just pummelled everyone around while poisoning them and parrying every attack that came my way. The parry window is also stupidly long, so it wasn’t even a challenge to avoid both light and heavy attacks.

Nothing was too difficult for Yasuke. Yes, it was easy, but I won’t say it was boring. His build was fun to use, and even once I unlocked basically the entire skill tree, I still found enemies with large health pools that I could bash around.

There were times throughout Assassin’s Creed Shadows where I felt like Ubisoft didn’t take into account the full scope of the dual protagonist system. For example, I took on a fairly large castle as Naoe. These provide materials and legendary gear if you kill all the leaders and make your way to the top of the temple to open the chest.

I spent a good hour in there, silent and deadly. Sadly, I got right to the end only to find a collectible that was hidden behind a box that Naoe could not move. It was an F@#%#NG box that only Yasuke was able to push aside. So I had to run all the way out of the temple, clear my wanted status, and then change to Yasuke and do it all over again.

The same thing happened when I was playing as Yasuke and wanted to reach a vantage point to trigger the usual “Assassin’s Creed camera rotating map tower thing”. Yasuke could not climb up on the roof because of his limited movement. So again, I had to run all the way down the castle temple, leave the area, and change Naoe.

These moments are far and few between, but they still became an annoyance. In a way, they forced me to play as the character I didn’t want to because I knew that there was a stupid box in the way that I could not move or a ledge I could not reach. I can seem myself losing my calm during the post-game cleanup when you spend most of the time collecting stuff and trying to unlock each vantage point.

With that being said, the general gameplay from both characters did feel fleshed out and enjoyable. I do think Yasuke is a bit too strong and way out there compared to his shinobi friend, but they both offer such drastically different styles that swapping between the two almost felt like a must after spending too much time with one.

There’s a lot to see and do in Shadows. The map is quite big and filled with the usual sandbox stuff. It relies on exploring this time around as the fog doesn’t go away unless you actively explore that part of the map. It is stunning, and the people I met along the way kept me entertained. There’s more focus on killing and collecting this time around rather than back-and-forth side quests, which I enjoyed.

The base building system is also good fun. I could build my hideout, upgrade rooms to unlock buffs and perks, tweak my gear, and so much more. A big focus on this building system is to decorate it using items you find in boxes around the world. So again, there’s a big emphasis on exploring and finding more boxes.

I had a good time placing down paths, trees, linking rooms together, and making it look all fancy like. Even if I spent very little time there.

I won’t say Assassin’s Creed Shadows pushes the envelope to any degree when it comes to the “new”. Sure, the seasonal changes are remarkable, but even then, they weren’t enough to make me change the way I played the game. Winter kills the long grass and freezes the water, but I never swam around the ponds to take down enemies in the first place. There were also very few locations that offered this sort of opportunity.

The main change still comes from day and night and how you would take on the stealth depending on that. The seasonal changes, after a while, felt more like a visual overhaul and had less impact on the gameplay than I expected. Still, they are impressive to see, and that alone I have to appreciate.

I think the only real change I noticed was walking through the snow was slow. I only felt this because I was walking around. Apart from that, the seasonal system has very little impact on how I played the game (apart from taking more photos during spring).

The gear system is also much the same. There’s a good amount of RPG here with the ability to find new gear, equip it, upgrade it to your level and engrave it with perks. Both characters offer a good amount of freedom to tie the skills and gear system together to create some fun builds. Of course, in typical Ubisoft fashion, you’ll also be able to buy gear sets with actual functioning gear using real money. You can also transmog gear to any visual style after finding it.

In the end, this is an Assassin’s Creed game. It is the most technologically advanced one we have seen and, if anything, reminded me of the Black Flag to Unity jump. It is a big game, and Japan fits the theme of the series like a glove.

It is likely the best game in the series for me since Assassin’s Creed II as it feels grounded and focused on its key gameplay pillars. However, the real unexpected part in Shadows was the world. It manages to carry the game even during the most tedious quest lines and drawn-out chapters. The sheer sense of exploration is unlike anything we have seen in the series. It comes to life like never before.

This Assassin’s Creed Shadows review is based on a PS5 Pro version using a code provided to us by Ubisoft. The game launches on 20 March and is available starting at R1499.