Assassin's Creed Shadows Review – Where Is the Box?

Ever since the first Assassin’s Creed game came out people felt that playing as a Japanese shinobi would embody the assassin spirit perfectly. We waited for almost 18 years for Ubisoft to fulfill this fantasy and it comes in the form of Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

The problem with an Assassin’s Creed game being set in Japan is that it must respect the rich history of its people. Focusing on just the shinobi seems like a disservice to so many traditions and cultural high points of Japan. What about samurai? They are surely a more important part of Japanese history?

So, beside letting us play as a shinobi, Ubisoft decided to also tell a story of a samurai called Yasuke to help us see that side of Japanese society in the 1500s as well. The choice to showcase a little documented samurai instead of all the famous Japanese warriors and daimyo of the period still perplexes many. Luckily, this choice has no impact on what Yasuke provides in terms of gameplay in AC Shadows or experiencing what a Ubisoft samurai is.

MacGuffin

The game begins with Yasuke, slave of the Portuguese turned samurai of the ruler of Japan – Oda Nobunaga. You’re invading the Iga province together with Nobunaga and his armies. In the night of the invasion, we also get to experience Naoe’s side of the story. The daughter of a master shinobi tries to protect her village and people but also discovers that her father is part of a mysterious order of assassins and they have an artifact to protect. The rest of the game’s main story becomes Naoe and Yasuke searching for the mysterious box.

Through incredibly detailed, greatly voiced and acted and marvelously directed cutscenes you are slowly released into the open world of Assassin’s Creed Shadows and 1500s Japan. The first hours of the game you’ll play exclusively as Naoe and her shinobi playstyle will be very familiar to everyone that played Assassin’s Creed games before.

In familiar fashion of Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla you get to explore nine huge regions of Japan while trying to fight the overshadowing danger of Templar meddling and learning about our heroes’ backstories. There are optional activities, castles with legendary gear to infiltrate and side story assassinations everywhere.

Kill Bill starring Naoe and Yasuke

It took a while for me to get used to AC Shadows combat. During the first hours of the game I felt as if the reaction time needed to parry and dodge attacks from enemies was entirely too short. It is in line with quick, epic, Japanese style sword fights the game is trying to evoke. However, I feel like Assassin’s Creed veterans will need time getting used to the quickness needed here.

And then Yasuke becomes playable again.

The moment that happens is epic in presentation. As 1970s Sergio Leone Spaghetti Western style music plays, electric guitars and all, you get to control the giant samurai that pummels through enemies like a fire rod through butter. For a moment you’ll feel like a god of war.

Two Protagonists, Two Combat Styles

Naoe combat relies on stealth and assassinations. It is a continuation of the familiar Assassin’s Creed formula with nothing spectacularly new added. If you fail to stay stealthy, you’ll try to perfect parry and dodge enemy attacks to try and make them vulnerable so you can do more damage. Besides the three weapons she can use you’ll gain access to assassin tools like kunai, shuriken and smoke bombs. Try not to get hit because her health is very low, and she can die in only a few hits. Combat-wise, playing with Naoe is as expected and, actually, the reason why many people play these games.

Yasuke, on the other hand, is a completely new appearance in AC games. Do not use stealth. You are a bull in a china shop. You’re supposed to get all the enemies to attack you and then dispose of them in a spectacularly brutal fashion. His health and damage are enormous, and he is so much easier to play with than Naoe once you figure that out.

Yasuke’s arsenal comprises of five weapons and one of those is even a gunpowder powered Teppo rifle. Portuguese slave turned Japanese samurai going around shooting ninjas with headshots. How’s that for going overboard?

Meditative Action Adventure?

You’ll customize your playstyle using a skill point system. This is also a familiar system from Assassin’s Creed games of the new era. Together with RPG style gear you can go all in into deflect or ability damage for example. The problem is that the higher tiers of the skill tree are locked behind leveling up your knowledge rank. You obtain knowledge points through doing optional activities like praying at shrines or doing quick time events.

These optional activities are in most cases boring. They are repetitive quick time events that offer only a mind-numbing experience. I guess that’s the point, since most of them have roots in meditation. The problem is that you can easily make a mistake during these quick time events, which prolongs an already excruciating experience. I can appreciate the game developers wanting us to experience the piety and meditative nature of Japanese society, but … How do you feel about doing 40 of these if you want to unlock all skills? How about doing another 60 to unlock the additional Knowledge tree?

Somebody please hand me a wakizashi so I can perform a seppuku.

In general, the game is great for meditation. If you turn off the UI and not use any game help to find your way around Japan, you’ll be roaming the roads and paths of an amazing scenery. Seriously, some of the landscapes feel like they’ve come out of a fairy tale straight onto our computer screens. Do you get an Assassin’s Creed game to achieve emptiness and reflect on your inner self? My guess is that not many players do. My point is that the younger audience will find these boring and older will go out and meditate on their own if that’s what they crave in life.

It’s not like previous games in the series had terribly exciting side activities, but at least there were some puzzles to them. Some cerebral involvement.

Hanami

Japan in AC Shadows is stunningly beautiful. Changing of seasons where you’ll have distinct weather makes things fresh as time goes by because one place will be a staple of beauty when cherry blossoms bloom, while others will shine only when covered with snow. The amount of natural beauty you get to experience in the game is stunning. I particularly enjoyed exploring Japanese mountains filled with temples through forest paths. It was truly serene.

Character and gear models are amazingly detailed. On PC Ultra settings there will be so many things to see that I have nothing but praise for the graphics of the game. It’s hard to believe that I also experienced almost zero bugs or glitches in 60+ hours of gameplay with such a detailed world.

Yasuke’s and Naoe’s main stories are told through long quests that feel like a Netflix series. The quality of voice acting, motion capture, animation, character models, facial expressions and overall graphics is so high all throughout these stories that one can’t help but feel like they’re watching a show on Netflix. If Shōgun is your jam, then AC Shadows will be right up your alley.

The Gennojo Cringe

Ubisoft tried very hard to be respectful to Japanese culture, history and its people. I could clearly see that they did everything in their power to try and show us just how ceremonial, subtle and deep Japanese culture is.

The time period the story is set in is full of war and strife. None of the nobility you have dealings with in the game are innocent or to be trusted. I was confused multiple times by how conflict is initiated or resolved in the story of the game. Then I remembered that it is my lack of knowledge of the culture I’m witnessing in the game is probably what confuses me. Ubisoft attempted to constantly put emphasis on the choice between revenge and mercy. Such high concept ethical debate feels misplaced in a game where your main gameplay element is murder.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is more about Japan and the bloody moment of their history in 1500s. If you’re looking for a simple good guy/bad guy story and fighting the templars you will be disappointed. This happens only after you’ve finished the main Japan related story, some 40 hours into the game, and is no longer than 5 hours in length.

I appreciated the education about Japan Ubisoft provides through the stories in the game. My only true complaint about storytelling was the Naoe romance side quest. Gennojo romance is probably the cringiest thing I’ve ever seen in video games. The fact that Naoe is able to hook up with a Godzilla sized douchebag like Gennojo made me lose all respect for our main character.

The Yasuke Effect

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is very much in line with AC games of the new era. Grand action adventure with faux RPG elements. It reaches new heights in graphical presentation, animation and acting. We also get changing seasons, base building and scouts instead of a bird companion.

One truly new element is that you get to play two characters with completely different playstyles in one game. This is a first for the franchise. Yasuke the Samurai introduces a brand-new type of gameplay in Assassin’s Creed. However, Yasuke’s combat is so out of character for the franchise that it took more than 5 hours of playing him for me to feel comfortable.

Although Yasuke’s story of becoming a samurai is used as a great vehicle for showcasing some crucial points about honorable aspects of the Japanese culture, playing an Assassin’s Creed game in this way feels awkward. There’s no subtlety of stealth gameplay, no grace of movement. Once you get your hands on a big club called Kanabo you’ll just go around castles smashing people’s heads in and breaking their spines. He is a brutality producing embodiment of a power fantasy.

It, also, must be said that as Yasuke you will fight and defeat all the most prominent samurai, monks, shinobi, daimyo and lords of Japan. All of these heroes of folk tales will be trampled over by Yasuke. At the same time, this is what we’ve been doing to every other culture in previous Assassin’s Creed games. He is also one of maybe five total non-Japanese characters to show up in the game, and he is used to showcase one of most honorable and essential aspects of Japanese culture – the way of the samurai. I can’t help but feel that this is disrespectful to the people of Japan. You can choose to play the game as Naoe to avoid this, but why include Yasuke at all then?

Gameplay-wise, his presence moves us even further away from whatever Assassin’s Creed stood for and was loved for before. We have less assassin related content than ever before.

On the other hand it is possible that Ubisoft just listened to the players. They tried providing a classic Assassin’s Creed experience with Mirage and no one cared for it. Valhalla was their 1 billion dollar money maker. It was clear that they have to continue in the RPG direction and add even more action. Yasuke is exactly what the people have been looking for. A more fun way to play assassin games without burdens of stealth gameplay. Something pretty looking to relax to while smashing heads in after a hard day’s work.

As an Assassin’s Creed purist my initial score for the game was 6/10. But I have to put aside my personal preferences and look at things objectively. Objectively, Assassin’s Creed Shadows raises the technological bar and provides lush natural landscapes with fun combat and plenty of cultural education. With the most boring side activities in franchise history that are tied to character progression it falls short of being exceptional.

The game is an embodiment of 2020s Zeitgeist. It makes me feel inadequate to review it. My every instinct says it is a 6/10, but I’m seeing so many people enjoy it and praise it that I feel like I’m missing something. It is a commercially very sellable product that many will enjoy they bought, but I don’t see any real value in it. It is a perfect gift to receive from your mom at Christmas. That’s why this will be the last review published on this website by me as a founder. It is time for the new generation to have their say. As for AC Shadows … lets let people enjoy what they want … I’ll give it a 8/10. I want my last scoring of a video game to be a high note. This is the Noob, signing out.

Review platform: PC

Developed by: Ubisoft

Published by: Ubisoft

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