Stellar Gameplay, Broken Story.
By Ameer AmmarI've played every single Assassin's Creed game since the original AC1 back in 2007 so I'm practically a mega fan who grew up alongside the franchise, I’ve also watched Ubisoft shift further into RPG territory while losing sight of what made Assassin’s Creed special in the first place.
With Shadows, I expected a solid RPG but a poor Assassin's Creed experience, same as it has been since Origins but 55 hours later, I can confidently say Shadows exceeded my expectations completely with its gameplay but fumbled its storytelling. This is the first true Assassin’s Creed RPG finally giving us proper Assassin stealth in these RPG games alongside some of the best combat mechanics in the series, but its narrative structure leaves much to be desired.
Gameplay
AC Shadows' gameplay is by far its absolute strongest aspect and carries the experience, and that is mainly due to the fact that it has arguably the best stealth and combat in franchise history.
One of the most major improvements over Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla right out the gate is a distinct focus on cutting the amount of bloat and padding, meaning that this game is equivalent in length to Origins in my experience but without ever forcing you to do side content like in previous RPG AC games to level up, as level gating is basically gone.
Stealth
Stealth has been gutted in RPG Assassin's Creed games across the board ever since Origins, and I am so happy to say that stealth is back in full force. Playing as Naoe is a genuine treat as a long-time series fan. There's a lot of depth again to these stealth mechanics, especially if you play on Expert difficulty, and that mainly comes to how much they've refined every single mechanic. A lot of the improvements that came with AC Mirage are back but improved even further upon.
Unlike the previous RPG trilogy, AC Shadows has actual stealth mechanics and depth. Naoe feels fantastic to play in these scenarios, she comes equipped with proper stealth tools and a new ability to go prone plus the shadows mechanic meaning you can hide in the dark all come together to form a stealth gameplay groove that has simply been completely absent from this franchise ever since Origins decided AC doesn't care about stealth, I am so happy to see how much care was put into stealth this time, it feels insanely satisfying on higher difficulties to enter an enemy castle and complete all its objectives without ever being seen.
Another big improvement to stealth is the animations, all the assassination animations are quick, brutal, and feel distinctly AC after we had to deal with four AC games with brutally slow assassination animations that miss the point of being a quick assassin.
All of these improvements come together to form what is one of the best stealth systems in franchise history, arguably its best. Unfortunately, social stealth is gone once again, but for these RPG AC games, I do understand why it's gone at least.
Combat
Combat in AC Shadows feels like Odyssey and Ghost of Tsushima had a baby; it builds off the foundations Odyssey laid with its very RPG focused combat but adds proper weight behind it now, every attack feels fierce and that's from both protagonists, and each weapon type actually finally feels different.
What I appreciate so much about the combat is that it balances the RPG silliness of enemy spongey enemies with actual realism for once, so enemies dont take a million hits to go down and enemies dont just go down when killed but instead weapons connect in finishers that feel very Tsushima-esuqe.
A distinct lack of varied finishers, however, is a pretty big issue, each weapon type only has seemingly 2 finishers and that becomes repetitive insanely quickly, I am really not sure why more time wasn't put into animating at least 20 of these like there was in older AC games. another flaw with the combat is that some abilities are straight up broken. Late in the game, if you unlock the Assassination ability for the Tanto as Naoe, it basically becomes a "skip fight" button as it insta-kills basically anyone. Aside from that, I really enjoyed the combat here and I do hope AC keeps this system going forward.
Parkour
Unfortunately, Parkour is still nowhere near where it was pre-Origins. There have been improvements made here, generally with much better animations which I really loved watching as Naoe with her ninja-esque flips and it does feel less janky so you won't experience Naoe going off somewhere you don't want as much as you did with Eivor. However, Parkour is still a shadow of its former self, it lacks any level of depth, and while I appreciate that we are back to relying on hand holds rather than being able to climb everything, it just isn't enough to make this any more interesting than just holding one button and going forward with the occasional grapple hook moment.
The developers know this and they seemingly made it nearly impossible to die from fall damage as a result, which just feels like a cheap trick to amend a poor parkour system. This franchise desperately needs to get a Parkour overhaul, and Shadows isn't the game to do it.
Side content & Exploration:
Shadows's side content and open world are generally pretty good, there isn't anything mindblowing, nor does it try to change up the formula, it feels a lot like Ghost of Tsushima just with a bit more variety to objectives and locations, so you'll be painting animals, clearing out castles, exploring tombs, doing viewpoints, and doing side quests that usually involve investigating things to kill a group of targets. None of it is particularly mindblowing or creative, but it is servicable, and it is fun enough that I will most likely be getting the platinum on this game. if you enjoyed Tsushima's open world then you'll enjoy this one.
The seasons system functions in a way that every few IRL hours, time moves forward in-game, and seasons change; this adds quite a lot of variety to what you actually see, visiting an area in winter feels completely different to visting it in autumn. I loved this system, and I want to see it in more AC games going forward.
The loot system is basically taken straight from Odyssey and while I personally much preferred Valhalla's approach of making every weapon and armor set entirely unique, there's something satisfying about constantly getting new gear that makes stats go up.
Soundtrack:
Shadows unfortunately has the series first ever soundtrack that I straight up don't like. I think the OST is a bit obnoxious with its themes and the choice to use rap/trap beats for combat sequences straight up took me out of the experience; it sounds grossly out of place for this setting, and other themes that made a lot more thematic sense were generally entirely forgettable.
I am really disappointed as AC has always had amazing OSTs especially Valhalla which is one OST I still listen to this day. Shadows is one OST that I don't think I'll ever be wanting to listen to.
Graphics:
AC Shadows being the first 8th gen exclusive AC game, has the best graphics in the franchise hands down and it's not even a competition. the world looks gorgeous, each season is insanely detailed and looks completely different, textures all look great and the weather system is one of the best I think I've ever experienced, there's actual wind in this world, you'll feel storms approaching with the wind ramping up, areas that are dry can suddenly get covered in snow with storms that completely limit your view, it is a gorgeous experience.
The world is insanely gorgeous but the cut scenes unfortunately are a let down, I don't know why Ubisoft is so terrified of putting their actors in mocap suits but AC Shadows once again has a distinct lack of actual real motion captured cut scenes and instead relies on generic animations for about ~95% of its scenes. after playing Kingdom Come 2, An RPG that managed to have tons of cut scenes fully motion captured especially in its main story, it has further cemented this choice of presentation as outdated and needs to be addressed.
FINAL VERDICT
Assassin's Creed Shadows has some of the best gameplay in franchise history, with a gorgeous open world, solid side content and combat/stealth systems that are a blast, but the main story is a gigantic let down due to the baffling story structure decision in Act 2 that results in a story that feels repetitive for more than half of its run time and an ending that is completely unsatisfying and exists solely as set up for DLC.
Story:
No spoilers. I am starting with the aspect that I feel the most negative about: Assassin's Creed Shadows story isn't badly written, its quite the opposite but one story structure decision in Act 2 basically shoots this entire narrative in the foot for absolutely no reason, causing 70% of this story to be entirely forgettable and feeling like its meandering.
Naoe's story is a journey of revenge, a pretty standard AC plot device generally focusing around her role in Japan and the wider Assassins conflict, while Yasuke's journey is centered around self-discovery and who he actually wants to be.
The prologue does an especially strong job of setting up Naoe's story and Act 1 had me hooked to her story, while Yasuke comes into play much later than I expected, his story was genuinely fascinating, and I loved watching his journey during the course of the game, but unfortunately this entire story shoots itself in the foot at Act 2.
As the second act opens up to a series of targets that you have to take out as part of the Shinbakufu, and to put it simply, the entire story falls apart here due to the singular decision to make the story non-linear, meaning that each target is a standalone story with its standalone set of side characters while Naoe/Yasuke's characters are basically barred from any character development as the game has to account for the random order that the player can play in, this is a genuinely baffling story structure decision that shatters the pacing and progress of this game.
Almost every single side character & target you meet is forgettable in these target arcs because they all MUST be barred to that specific storyline to account for the fact the player can do these in any order, you don't get enough time with anyone because of this baffling structure decision so all characters eventually just blend together and I struggle to remember any of their names really.
Once you do get that storyline out of the way, you are back to a proper storyline like in Act 1 and it's legit great until the game suddenly ends in one of the most anticlimactic endings I've ever experienced with one of the worst DLC-baits I have ever seen. this is an incomplete story that spends more than half of its runtime chasing targets and offers next to no pay off as it sets up its DLC.
I am massively disappointed by this as the story has moments of genuine brilliance in Acts 1 & 3 and every single storyline that doesn't involve the Shinbakufu during Act 2, but the baffling decision was made to make the worst storyline be the bulk of AC Shadows.
If you like any of the RPG AC games (Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla) then you really have no reason to skip this one, it has the best gameplay of these games and builds upon their mechanics in meaningful ways while cutting out the bloat issues that plagued Odyssey & Valhalla especially.
Assassin's Creed Shadows - 8/10 - BUY
A review key was provided by the publisher.