Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the third installment in the franchise to feature dual protagonists, and is probably the only one to have executed it the best. While both Odyssey and Syndicate have had their own perks, Ubisoft brings a new dimension to the way it tells a story here.
This is probably the first game in the franchise to receive a lot of criticism before release, but that hasn’t stopped Ubisoft from bringing their best foot forward with this game. While it may not be as iconic as the Ezio trilogy, Assassin’s Creed Shadows gets a lot of things correct.
However, before we go any further, we’d just like to clarify that we won’t be going into any storyline details because this is a story that you need to and will certainly enjoy.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows perfectly captures Feudal Japan
Set in 1579, Assassin’s Creed Shadows follows both Fujibayashi Naoe and Yasuke amidst the overarching Japanese Civil War.
While there are a few cutscenes right at the beginning that will help you get your bearings, you’ll be thrust into the middle of the civil war the moment the game begins.
You’ll initially start off as Yasuke, who’s currently fighting under the command of the feudal lord Oda Nobunaga, but you’ll soon transition to Naoe. Here’s where the proper Assassin branch of the storyline starts.
The introductory section will give you a fair idea of the story and will also introduce you to “The Onryo” who are essentially your targets for the rest of the game.
From this point onwards, you’ll be playing as Naoe for a considerable amount of time, till you come to a pivotal point in the story after which you’ll finally be able to transition between both Naoe and Yasuke.
There are a lot of new features that Assassin’s Creed Shadows boasts of and all of them cumulatively have managed to deliver a one of a kind experience.
The streets are filled with normal civilians and armed soldiers at the same time, and while most of them won’t be hostile to you, sometimes, you’ll be caught off-guard by a wandering ronin or two.
In terms of the mechanics, the gameplay is pretty standard to what you’d see in almost every Assassin’s Creed game so far. However, the game does feel a bit favored towards Naoe, especially when it comes to the parkour part of things.
Most of the buildings in Japan have extended roofs that Naoe can easily grapple onto with her Grappling Hook. Yasuke doesn’t have anything in his arsenal that’ll help him grapple onto these ledges. Some buildings do have scaffoldings to make it easier while playing as Yasuke, but that’s about it.
The distinction between the two different playstyles is clear too, and in our experience, Yasuke hits like a truck while with Naoe you’ll have to be a bit more careful about who you’re hitting and how you’re hitting them.
Although it’s possible to complete the entire story as just one character, it’s recommended that you use both of them to make the most of their unique skill sets during combat.
And while both Naoe and Yasuke have their own skill trees, your Hideout will play a vital role in helping you maximize your skills as a Samurai and a Shinobi in the game. Every single skill that the Hideout has to offer is passive but it’s something that can make a massive difference in gameplay, something which I found out the hard way.
The Codex is a godsend but the Objective Board could’ve been better
More often than not I found myself going back to the Codex over and over again because going around a few things in Assassin’s Creed Shadows can be a little painful.
Whenever you come across a new feature or a mechanic, there’s a popup that appears on your screen. Although it’s something that you should be paying attention to, it’s not going to be a surprise if you end up treating it as a minor distraction and forgetting about it completely.
In case you do this and you don’t know what to do, just head over to the Codex and it’ll give you an idea of what you need to do. It’s probably one of the most helpful features of the game.
And that brings me to my biggest qualm with Assassin’s Creed Shadows; the Objective Board. It’s a very neat one and follows the Sumi-e art style, but it’s a pain to navigate. This is your central board where you get to pick missions from, but you’ll have to zoom in on the individual parts to do so.
Playing on a PC, all I needed to do was use the scroll wheel to zoom in, but it took me a while to figure that out and is something that I still struggle with. It’s just something that I personally feel Ubisoft could have done better.
The same holds true for the map. Navigating through it is something I found a bit challenging, but if you can look past this particular issue, it’s a very neat system, and is pleasing to the eye.
The game also features some basic quality of life upgrades, like recoloring a place of interest into gold if you’ve visited it. This helps avoid a lot of confusion, especially when you’re exploring the world.
The world itself has some secrets and mini-puzzles that you need to solve to collect some useful rewards. This is a staple that’s been seen in some of the older Assassin’s Creed games too.
Combat in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is as smooth as butter
Both protagonists feature two entirely different styles of combat which will affect a lot on how you pick fights. Naoe is more of a glass cannon and can weave around the enemy to deal damage.
Yasuke is tanky enough and will help you cleave through the enemy with ease, but considering he’s bulkier than Naoe, he doesn’t move very swiftly. The overall parry and the dodge mechanic is also a fun one and requires precise timing otherwise the penalties are rather harsh.
In fact, if you play both characters in quick succession, the change in movement speed is actually noticeable. And this brings me to my second issue with Assassin’s Creed Shadows; stamina.
Both Yasuke and Naoe have stamina points, but that’s only associated with the skills that you equip on your hotbar. Other than that, stamina has no other use in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
For a game that’s tried to focus a bit on making combat realistic, stamina should’ve been a factor that Ubisoft should’ve considered. After all, both Yasuke and Naoe are humans and they can’t roll around the ground dodging attacks without getting tired.
What made me more curious about the stamina bit is because you’ll literally be able to sprint for miles at a stretch without getting tired. However, if you look at the Ezio trilogy, he used to get tired after sprinting for a while.
This is something that Ubisoft has done in the past, and adding such a small detail would’ve worked in the game’s favor to begin with.
Furthermore, the dodge and parry mechanic that you’ll see in modern day Assassin’s Creeds feels similar to what we see in Soulslike games.
While it’s understandable that Ubisoft doesn’t want to adopt that DNA entirely, using stamina for something apart from just the skills on the hotbar would definitely add to the realism that they’re trying to incorporate in the game.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows allows you to customize your weapons too, but the customization is purely cosmetic, and doesn’t have any effect on the weapon’s performance at all. So, while you’ll be hitting for the same numbers, you can do so in style.
You’ll be introduced to some of the game’s elemental damages at the very onset of the game, and it’s something you need to be wary about.
Two characters and a hideout
Before getting hands on with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, one of my main concerns was how they’d be handling two protagonists at the same time.
The transition between the two characters needed to be smooth and accessible enough and didn’t need any unnecessary interaction.
And here’s where Ubisoft has done an amazing job. You’ll be able to change characters from the inventory screen or from your Hideout whenever you want to, as long as you’re not in combat, or in a hostile zone.
However, if you’re looking to make changes to Naoe’s loadout while playing as Yasuke, you don’t need to change characters. All you need to do is boot up the inventory screen and just shift to Naoe.
Once you’re done, you can go back to playing as Yasuke once again. You can also change characters while opting to fast travel. It’s a well designed feature, which further pushes you to try out both characters at the same time, irrespective of which mission you’re in.
However, it’s worth noting that you’ll only be able to switch characters once Naoe has formally met Yasuke, and it happens after you’ve progressed a decent bit in the story.
Which brings me to the Hideout. This is probably the first time Ubisoft has paid attention to the equivalent of the Assassin’s HQ, allowing us to customize it to a great degree. This also affects some of the perks available to you.
You’ll need materials to build and upgrade your hideout, but these materials are slightly difficult to come by, till you unlock Contracts. Once that’s done, you can complete missions easily to get your hands on items required to max out your Hideout but there’s a certain bit of challenge to it too.
Managing your Scouts is key to success in Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Unlike the other games in the franchise, you don’t have eyes in the sky, but you have scouts, which is a resource that you need to manage efficiently.
Whenever you start off a new mission, you’ll be given a brief idea of where the objective is. Here, you need to use the Scouts to help pinpoint the exact area.
You start the game with only three but upgrading your Hideout will get you more, which makes it an important aspect of the game.
Apart from revealing the objective for you, Scouts will also help you smuggle resources. This is something I personally struggled with a lot in the beginning before I finally got a hang of it.
If you can successfully leverage your Scouts, then you won’t have any difficulty whatsoever when it comes to navigating your way through Japan and smuggling resources at the same time.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows paints a lovely picture despite the brutal civil war in Japan
Another aspect which I feel Ubisoft has nailed is the audio visual representation of the game. From changing seasons to the overall ambient music, they’ve really managed to capture what I personally feel is the essence of Japan.
During my playthrough, I’ve experienced some minor bugs, which can be easily ignored and aren’t detrimental to the overall experience at all.
There’s an elaborate cutscene that depicts the change of seasons, and the instant weather transitions are also executed well.
In fact, in certain areas, the weather transition felt so realistic too. For example, if there’s a thunderstorm around, it will affect your visibility to a great degree. The same thing happens at night.
There were so many moments when I missed my trusty torch from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey because the nights were dark and visibility was a pain. I did turn up the brightness though, but that isn’t how the game was probably meant to be played.
The on-screen HUD is very neat and minimalistic. It’ll give you all the information you need, nothing more, nothing less. It’s divided into two sections. The left side contains your utilities while the right has your skills.
This minimalist approach reduces screen clutter to a great extent and helps convey important information quickly.
In Conclusion
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a well made title, and is superior to some of the entries in the franchise. While the gameplay is pretty standard, it’s the small touches that sets it apart.
For example, when you’ve scaled a view point, you’d have to previously interact with a specific keybind to trigger the synchronization cutscene. Ubisoft has done away with that in Shadows.
Furthermore, Yasuke isn’t an Assassin so he can’t execute the Leap of Faith properly and will always fumble. He’s got some funny voice lines to go with it too. The way in which these two characters approach assassinations is interesting too.
And while the facial expressions in Mirage were painful to watch, the ones that you see in Shadows are a massive upgrade.
For the first time in the history of the franchise, you can go prone too. This adds a new dimension to the way the franchise perceives stealth, and is a lovely way to break line of sight, especially when you’re trying to dodge your pursuers.
The open world that you get to explore is huge and has a lot of secrets that you can explore. More often that not, I found myself veering off the main path to explore some of the other side missions that lay hidden in the vast landscape.
Does that mean the story is dull? Not at all. It just means that even if you’re tired of following the main storyline for the time being, there’s still a lot for you to do. The explorable area is littered with castles too, so you can always loot and plunder your way around if that’s something you fancy.
There’s very little hand holding in the game, and if you really want to enjoy Assassin’s Creed Shadows, I recommend cranking up the difficulty. It’s more fun that way.
To sum it all up, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a title that you should pick up and try out, because you’re bound to end up liking it!
Reviewed on: PC
Code Provided by: Ubisoft
