From bad faith arguments about historical accuracy to how its success could determine the future of its 20,000-or-so employees, the discourse around Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been a lightning rod for controversy. So much so that it seems to have drowned out the actual game itself. With a March 20 release date on the horizon, Ubisoft invited media and content creators to its Mumbai office to go through the game. If the headline didn’t already give it away, I’m impressed. To avoid potential spoilers and keep French ninjas from my doorstep, I’ll steer clear of too many story details in this preview.
During my three hours, I went over the game’s prologue and a mission that takes place around midway through the story. What stood out from the get-go was the level of fidelity. Granted, this was at 4K on a PC with a PS5 controller, but the visuals were sharp. Whether it’s the rice fields of feudal Japan or dimly-lit gambling dens, there’s welcome attention to detail. Throw in seasons, day-night cycles, and an almost seamless transition from cutscenes to gameplay and back, you have what likely is the most visually stunning Assassin’s Creed to date.
Aesthetics Creed
Granted, the source material of Japan during the late Sengoku period of 1579 is ripe for artistic flourishes, but Assassin’s Creed Shadows makes it its own. There are dreamy-looking vistas such as those seen while commandeering a skiff in a river jaunt at sunset (to track down a missing son of a Daimyo) and all-too-real moments of surgically unaliving ne’er-do-wells by separating their skulls from their bodies with a large katana (also while tracking down said son). Regardless of what you’re doing, it just looks great. So much so that this could pass off for a Sony first-party title that isn’t Concord (RIP).
Aesthetic excellence notwithstanding, there are some solid gameplay chops too. Yasuke hits like a tank. There’s the usual bows and naginatas at his disposal, but the satisfaction of clubbing an opponent to death with a kanabo is unparalleled, as is the feeling of landing a headshot with a tempo. Combat is ridiculously fun, complete with expected flourishes like the late Sengoku-era equivalent of the spartan kick from Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and the ability to land critical hits on your foes in a sea of red and grey. As a power fantasy, Assassin’s Creed Shadows looks to deliver in spades. Great for those that think Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is the best in the series (read: me).
Dual destinies and modes for days
And what about the long-suffering fans of past entries before the RPG open-world reinvention? Playing as Naoe is equally a treat. Aside from the expected arsenal of throwing knives and shooting stars, you can go up close and personal with the series’ trademark hidden blade for brutal assassinations or use your katana to expose weak points, while being nimble enough to dodge most attacks.
Going into the preview, I was adamant to power through as Yasuke. Instead, I spent half of my time as Naoe because of her markedly different traversal set. It allows for parkour that’s a bit more involved than just auto-running and a grappling hook that makes verticality a fantastic option (it isn’t as overpowered as in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate). My only grouse is that her assassinations felt a bit squishy and almost muted compared to past games. I’ll chalk this down to the game being a work-in-progress. Hopefully, the retail release fixes this.
Regardless of how you decide to play Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft has included some surprisingly fun options. These include Immersive Mode which lest you play the game in its native languages of Japanese and Portuguese complete with subtitles; Canon Mode, which lets the game make every decision for you if you want to stick to what the developers believe to be lore-accurate in-game choices; and Pathfinder Mode that lays down a Google Maps slash Fable 2-esque line directing you to the location of your next objective. This reduces your need to keep opening and closing the map to know where you have to go.
I kept Immersive Mode on and used Pathfinder Mode every moment I could, simply so I could just play through the main story. In tandem, they made for a better experience. I can’t take Canon Mode seriously in a franchise notorious for a litany of retcons. That said, the story itself seems promising, and I’m curious to see how it unfolds in its entirety rather than just the two disjointed missions I played.
What we don’t know scares me more than what we do know
So far so good, right? While I’m looking forward to what Assassin’s Creed Shadows has to offer, it’s not perfect. For one, we don’t know how progression would work and if it would include the same kind of gating we saw in past entries which made entire regions of the map impossible to play through until you hit a certain level.
Also, we don’t know how the gear would work, as we were kitted out with Epic and Legendary weapons and armour. It’s unlikely to be representative of what players would experience at launch.
And while most of Assassin’s Creed Shadows is polished to a sheen, some of the names seem downright lazy in the present day sections. These include ‘Dark Animus’ which is a hacked version of the Animus from the series and your guide in it who is imaginatively called ‘The Guide’. Oh, and Photo Mode wasn’t accessible in the preview build either. Perhaps this time, Ubisoft won’t need to save a copy of your photos to its servers or its websites, like it did for past entries.
Finally, the game also serves as a Trojan horse for what Ubisoft calls the Animus Hub. It’s a unified launcher of sorts for recent franchise entries from Assassin’s Creed Origins onwards. It’s a great idea in theory, being a central location for the games, mission content in them, rewards for completing said mission content (that grant you new loot in Assassin’s Creed Shadows), and narrative content which appear to extend the ongoing present day aspect of the franchise.
However, seeing how Activision has executed this with Call of Duty, resulting in a barely functional launcher that forces you to download copious amounts of data you don’t need and use up gigabytes of hard drive space you don’t have, making you play a single-player campaign online — and at times through a 4G hotspot because wired connections are treated to an annoying error that hasn’t been fixed since the beginning of time despite multiple sites offering solutions, fills me with utter dread. Playing Call of Duty is nightmarish enough as it is, and I hope Ubisoft executes on its vision better than Satya Nadella’s $70 billion purchase. Given what’s at stake, it doesn’t have much of a choice.
My Call of Duty hub PTSD notwithstanding, I’m intrigued to experience what Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ retail release has to offer. What I played left me wanting more. March 20 can’t come soon enough.
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this guest post are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Story Mode.
