English
Gamereactor
previews
Assassin's Creed Shadows

Assassin's Creed Shadows Preview: Our thoughts after four hours in Feudal Japan

We've spent hours wandering around Feudal Japan, chopping down enemies as Yasuke and striking from the shadows as Naoe.

Subscribe to our newsletter here!

* Required field
HQ

There has been a lot said about Assassin's Creed Shadows over the past year. Ever since the game made its first proper appearance to the world in the form of a cinematic trailer in early 2024, it didn't take long for certain criticism to arise, public discourse that soon became an overlying narrative even when a compelling and lengthy gameplay walkthrough was given to the world in June. To say that the conversations around the game became toxic is probably a bit of an understatement, which is likely a contributing factor as to why it was delayed from November until February.

We now know that this wasn't the end of the delays for the title, as it has since been pushed to March 20th, a delay that Ubisoft promises will continue to allow the team to refine and make improvements in places where the community has expressed issues. Even with transparency it's easy to immediately assume that a game is facing deeper troubles when it's hit with two delays within a few months, but thankfully I can tell you that Assassin's Creed Shadows seems to be in quite a good place, and that's coming from my experience with four hours of the latest instalment in the major franchise.

HQ

Before I get into the finer details, let me just start by saying that I won't be commenting more on the authenticity of the Japan that Ubisoft is presenting in this game. I've never been to the country, I'm not an expert in Japanese culture or history, I'm not the person to turn to for knowledge of the intricacies that's involved with accurately simulating 16th century Japan. But, what I can say is that the world Ubisoft has created has all the elements and iconic architecture and religious markers, and so forth, that I would expect from Japan. After four hours, it felt like I was getting lost in the world that Shogun so beautifully presented last year, and for me, someone who never made a peep (nor cared) about Britain's representation in Assassin's Creed Syndicate and Valhalla, despite being British, that's all I want from an Assassin's Creed game that begins by telling you it's a work of fiction inspired by real events.

This is an ad:

So, anyway the setting. Assassin's Creed Shadows is set in 16th century Japan, around the time that Oda Nobunaga was waging wars and looking to cement his position in the Japanese hierarchy. Again, if you've seen Shogun, this will all feel familiar. However, this isn't the entire story as the preview session consisted of two parts; an introduction to protagonists Yasuke and Naoe in a time period where Yasuke is working hand-in-hand with Nobunaga and Naoe is leading her best Shinobi life, and then a leap forward after Nobunaga's death when Yasuke and Naoe are now working together. The majority of the session revolved around that latter period, so I'm unsure as to what happened with Nobunaga and how Yasuke and Naoe came together, but that's not really important for this preview.

What is important to note is that Ubisoft seems to have put a great amount of emphasis on narrative and dialogue this time, in a way that prior instalments have often struggled with. The story seems to have a huge amount of political intrigue and turmoil at its centre, with plenty of mysteries and twists and turns along the way. This isn't an Assassin's Creed story where you are simply assassinating people because they are evil. There's more to the core of Shadows and the many conversations (that even presented occasional important dialogue options) proved this with great effect. There are characters in this game you will actually care about and want to hear more from, which wasn't always the case with Odyssey or Valhalla, for example.

Assassin's Creed ShadowsAssassin's Creed Shadows
Assassin's Creed ShadowsAssassin's Creed Shadows
This is an ad:

Yet even though this is the case, make no mistake, this is Assassin's Creed as you expect it to be. The world design and the gameplay feels familiar, the art direction, viewpoints, the combat, the UI design, the question marks on the map and compass, the side activities, the whole thing reeks of this more modernised Assassin's Creed we've become used to since Origins made its arrival. I'm not averse to that, but it does have its shortcomings. Booting up the map and seeing question marks makes me disappointed at this stage, and the fact that the world isn't really that interactable doesn't help the simulation - even though I will admit smashing crates of food and seeing it spill across the road, or watching watermelons burst into pieces is a delight. The ragdoll and physics systems are a huge amount of fun. And yes, there are ways to increase the immersion by reducing markers on your compass, but this doesn't all of a sudden put Shadows' open-world on par with Elden Ring's Lands Between or The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's Hyrule. This is an Assassin's Creed open-world for better and for worse.

Thankfully, aside from the narrative depth, there are additional changes that are worth harping on about. The combat and stealth is significantly more challenging to master. Enemies are faster, have more varied and complex attacks, and even react better to your offensive moves. Combat flows more fluidly, clearly utilising the years of improvements from Origins to Odyssey to Valhalla. The armour system means you have to treat different combatants in different ways as you may need to block and parry and land meaningful counters to shred armour before unleashing an array of more destructive blows. You'll meet boss foes with huge health bars and unique attacks to keep the action feeling fresh. If you're playing as Yasuke, you can be more aggressive, whereas Naoe needs to be smarter and more methodical, accurately capturing a sledgehammer versus scalpel approach, something that is absolutely displayed in stealth too, as Yasuke basically lacks all elements of surprise while Naoe is a master of the shadows.

Both of the protagonists can now prone and crawl to reduce detection but for Naoe that also means advanced stealth capabilities, be it hiding in shorter grass or moving through tighter crawlspaces. The Shinobi warrior can literally hide in the shadows, manipulating darkness to her whim, smashing and extinguishing lights to further enhance her stealth, all while using a grappling hook to more easily, effectively, and quickly parkour around the urban landscapes. I, for one, have become so used to brutally chopping down threats as Eivor and Alexios that Naoe's broad stealth actually felt uncomfortable at times, because it required me to unearth mechanics and skills that I buried years ago due to simply not needing them in most modern Assassin's Creed titles. Oh, and while I'm at it, the parkour is better and more fluid, but it's also met with the traditional Assassin's Creed parkour jank where sometimes you simply cannot get your desired action to happen as planned. Too many times have I launched myself into a group of enemies when attempting to hop between elevated ledges...

The point is, if you like the sledgehammer style of the more recent protagonists, Yasuke is your man, as he can stand toe-to-toe with any threats and even make short work of doors and walls that block his path. If Assassin's Creed Mirage's Basim re-ignited a fire in you then Naoe is the perfect choice instead, as she is agile and sneaky, but also far, far less effective in combat and much more prone to being overwhelmed and defeated if she's detected. It's a really compelling design that Ubisoft has dreamt up here, as it's not nearly equal to the Alexios/Kassandra or dual-Eivor approach. Yasuke and Naoe are fundamentally different characters with massively different playstyles, and while you can stick with one for the majority of the game should you wish, you can easily swap between the two, be it during certain mission intervals or when out of combat in the open world. The only additional thing to note here is that while a lot of the game is designed for both characters, there are times and places when only one key fits the lock if you will, and a great example of this is how Yasuke is essentially incapable of utilising advanced parkour and scaling viewpoints.

HQ

The unique protagonists work well enough for me, although I will admit that it limits buildcrafting options a tad, as you can't really make Yasuke into an assassin or Naoe into a brawler - not that you'd need much reason too. Still, Ubisoft has used Shadows to at least address one of Valhalla's most ridiculous ideas: the skill tree with a million branches. That nightmare is gone and instead there are a collection of skill categories that you can advance that are tied to respective fighting styles and tools. For example, if you like using Yasuke's katana, you can improve that with new skills but if you prefer to wield kanabō war clubs, you can absolutely spec into those instead. The same applies for Naoe and whether you prefer to use tanto blades or the far more unique kusarigama. Skill points, now known as Mastery Points, are earned by completing quests and tasks and earning knowledge from impacting the world, therefore making character enhancement feel that bit more immersed in the gameplay.

Speaking about the world, I found that it both had its strengths and weaknesses. Yes, it looks absolutely enormous, yes, there are both sweeping rural areas and built-up urban sections, and sure a lot of emphasis seems to have been placed on making the world feel more lively by having more frequent wandering NPCs and enemies, and even an array of wildlife. There's tons of colour, be it in broad flower arrangements and cherry blossom trees, or stunning and eye-catching Torii gates, and graphically the game impressed even with the preview capped to 1080p. Plus, and while it wasn't available to test, there's a specific feature where you can cycle the seasons in case you want to play during the snowy winter or prefer the vibrant summer instead. Despite all of this, I found myself a bit lost of exciting things to do towards the end of my four hours. I did only get to experience a small portion of the wider map, but besides the main story, the majority of what was additionally available included creeping up behind unique wildlife to use as sumi-e ink painting inspiration, or instead finding a yabusame trainer to put my horse archery skills through the ringer.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is a beautiful game that never failed to impress me in a graphical standpoint, but when the majority of your time outside of missions is once again dedicated to opening chests to discover tiered and coloured loot to improve your characters, or visiting shrines for boosts to your statistical attributes, the charm does start to fade. It's for this reason that I'm hoping the wider open world has a few more tricks up its sleeve to keep me entertained in-between core missions.

HQ

It feels as though the weight of Ubisoft's world is on Assassin's Creed Shadows' shoulders and I'm not sure many games are capable of supporting that level of expectation for long. What I can say with confidence is that Shadows seems like a promising game, especially if you, like me, can't seem to get enough of the series and the formula that Ubisoft continues to build on. I won't deny that modern Assassin's Creed has its kinks, whether that's them being too large or too familiar, and Shadows definitely seems to be falling into this trap again. But at the same time there's a very premium feel about this game, and between the visuals and the tone, the unique protagonists and improved gameplay systems, and even the more engaging narrative structure, there's plenty of reasons to be hopeful and excited for this next stage in the Assassin's Creed saga.

Related texts



Loading next content