Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a fun and entertaining experience. Fans of the modern Assassin’s Creed franchise will definitely enjoy it.
Compelling story
The story is probably one of my favorite elements of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It’s not something too special in the sense that it’s a fairly standard story but what makes it so enjoyable is how the game really takes its time to introduce all the important characters with their respective storylines.
The first act is packed with tons of cutscenes, I’ can’t remember when I last played a game that had so many of them in such a short period of time. My favorite by far is when the main antagonists of the game appear for the first time.
As someone who has watched a decent amount of anime I really got the same feeling I had when I first saw the Juppongatana (Rurouni Kenshin), Akatsuki (Naruto), or the Phantom Troupe (Hunter x Hunter). While the epicness might not be comparable, the feeling is very similar, and that’s not something that I experience frequently in video games at all.
Every character is well-defined, their values, beliefs, and story are their driving force. It can be greed, power, revenge, justice, or hope. The fact that these motives are so rooted in human nature makes it very easy to empathize with both heroes and villains.
The political complexities of this era give the story a lot of depth. The story doesn’t need to be historically accurate. I don’t think video games should be the ones educating us on such topics.
A good story and well-written characters are some of the things that make a game enjoyable for me, but having moments that make me tear up is what makes it a little more special. Even if it was only one, it already makes it stand out from other games.
Exploration and activities
Just like any other recent Assassin’s Creed game, the map is huge and it takes a lot of time to explore a single region. Exploring everything the first time can be tedious, especially because your horse isn’t incredibly fast, and rough terrain will slow it down significantly.
What makes it enjoyable for an impatient traveler like me is the beautiful landscapes that surround you at all times. Forest, mountains, water bodies, and cherry blossoms in addition to all the wildlife made me take my time to enjoy going from point A to point B, which is something I definitely don’t do often.
With so many activities, places, and enemies it’s inevitable to run into something interesting. I already lost count of how many hours I’ve spent on activities that weren’t on my initial path. Some take a few minutes while others can take an entire hour.
Having so many things to do and managing them can be overwhelming at the beginning but you get used to it after the first few hours.
If you’re not in the mood for raiding a castle or hunting an enemy you can explore a kofun, decorate your hideout, or take some cool screenshots.
To give you an idea, here are some of the optional things you can do in Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Find lost pages from temples, explore kofun, complete hidden trails, unlock viewpoints, paint your favorite animals, build and decorate your hideout, invade a castle, track down your enemies, look for your favorite assassin outfit, learn new katas with Yasuke, perform Kuji-Kiri with Naoe and many more things.
Combat
To be completely honest, I was worried that the combat in Assassin’s Creed Shadows would suffer the same problems of Star Wars Outlaws. It was fun at first but its lack of depth made it too repetitive and even boring a times.
For me, this is not a problem at all with this game. Being able to use different weapons and specialize in all of them with the help of engravings allows you to explore different playstyles even with the same character. Fighting with a Tanto or a Kusarigama is completely different from using a Katana.
The finisher animations are incredible and the cherry on top when defeating a challenging opponent.
This obviously applies to Yasuke as well. Is it counterintuitive to Yasuke’s archetype to primary wield a bow or a teppo? absolutely. But the fact that you’re given the chance to try it out is worth pointing out.
The enemies in Assassin’s Creed Shadows will punish your mistakes (unless you play on “forgiving ” difficulty. Not respecting Naoe’s clear weaknesses has humbled me on multiple occasions but it’s also very satisfying when I manage to pull it off.
Ironically, fighting many enemies simultaneously feels way more challenging than defeating one boss in a duel, that was a little disappointing for me. I’m always excited to see what kind of strange mechanics I’ll have to face with a new boss but this doesn’t apply to Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
How it performs
When a new game comes out there’s always concern about how the game is going to perform on my machine. With an RTX 4080 Super, a Ryzen 7800X3D, and 32GB of RAM I can run anything without any problems under normal conditions. But there are more factors than just the hardware.
In terms of in-game bugs, I’ve only encountered one that was actually super cool. The Ink filter that you can use in photo mode made it to the actual gameplay so for a little while I was fighting an enemy in a black-and-white scene.
It was odd and even pleasant but it made it impossible to know if the enemy’s attacks were unblockable or not due to almost everything, including light, being white.
My criticism
The first off-putting for me was the Japanese rock that played during a few scenes of the cinematics. The music isn’t bad by any means, but I just don’t think that it matches the essence of the game given the fact that it takes place during feudal Japan.
I decided to play in immersive mode, meaning that all dialogues were in either Japanese or Portuguese (Portuguese has subtitles for English as well). I was expecting Yasuke to have some sort of accent but to me, he sounds like any other Japanese male in the game.
It’s easy to think why that’s the case. It must be incredibly hard to find an African voice actor who also speaks good Japanese but not impossible. Imagine how cool that would have been.
Some parts become repetitive and there’s nothing you can do about it, only try to do them as quickly as possible. This happens in most games, but that doesn’t make it any less dull.
In terms of gameplay, it feels like Ubisoft is playing too safe. They’re doing another game with the same formula, just in a different setting. It would be nice to see them take more risks. For many people that is probably not an issue, but I’d like to see something innovative, or at least the intention to be so.
Final thoughts
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a fun game, I’ll spend a couple hundred hours on it before getting bored. I’m super invested in the story and characters while also enjoying the side quests and activities.
No other AC title matches the aesthetic of the Assassins as well as this one. That is particularly reflected in all the outfits. Each one you get is awesome and better looking than your current gear.
The best thing about the game is being able to choose to play as Yasuke or Naoe. With the variety in items and engravings, there’s an option for players who have different playstyles.
In terms of visuals, this is one of the most beautiful games I have played. It’s easy to see how much effort was put into the game’s environments. Even the animals are super cute. And very detailed.
While I am not a fan of micro transactions in single-player games, at least I’m not forced to buy them in order to gain some sort of advantage. I can just play the game without spending (more) money on it.
I’d recommend Assassin’s Creed Shadows to anyone who hasn’t played an AC game as well as to fans of the previous titles. Even if you complete the main story, there are still many things to do after that.
The VULKK team has extensive coverage of the game. Make sure to check our Assassin’s Creed Shadows guides and walkthroughs.
