Assassin's Creed Shadows Review - Great Gameplay, But Story Attempting To Hit A Word Limit

We're finally here, an Assassin's Creed game set in feudal Japan. While I haven't been the biggest fan of the series since their swap to RPGs – falling off partway through Origins and Odyssey, but most recently playing Mirage – I knew I wouldn't want to miss out on this one. Getting to experience Assassin's Creed Shadows it definitely grew on me more than my previous experiences, but the feeling of a simultaneously bloated but sparse open world was still present.

Cutting Right Into The Story

The story of Assassin's Creed Shadows follows two protagonists; Naoe, an Assassin from the Iga region who has been trained in sword fighting and infiltration, and Yasuke, an African-born Samurai who brought himself up from being a servant to one of Oda Nobunaga's right-hand men.

The action begins shortly after we're introduced to each character as they're set on opposite sides of a conflict when Nobunaga decides to invade Iga. Naoe's lands are razed to the ground, her father is killed by a strange group of masked characters, and she swears to get her revenge on this order.

This evil order, the Shinbakufu, is also after a mysterious box that Naoe's father has been protecting, and after he hands Naoe an assassin's hidden blade it's not hard to imagine what that might be tied to.

Some of the greatest character moments aren't in their most violent kills, but in the smaller discussions shared between the protagonists about why their killing is justified, or what it takes to usher in a new way of life for the peace of all.

The story frontloads a lot onto you, pulling you into the game with a few large setpiece moments and allowing you to empathize with Naoe's mission. I appreciated the focused and linear nature of the narrative to this point, there wasn't an explosive open world to immediately get lost into and it worked to introduce me to the smaller cast of characters to invest in… before ripping them away from me.

Padding The Time

As the story continues you roam from region to region following leads that allow you to get a general idea of where a Shinbakufu member may be, meet with locals who are able to provide you more info or have connections to get you closer to your target, and then you go in for the kill.

This formula was a great way of introducing you to a new area while also driving the plot forward and adding in some additional story and gameplay elements. That being said, as the Shinbakufu has a sizable number of members, having to go through this smaller story loop a dozen times started to wear thin by the end.

While Assassin's Creed Shadows story begins strong as you push into the 20-hour mark and onward it really feels like time is getting padded out. Traveling between quests takes longer, the quests have more vague steps, and I was genuinely confused when the credits rolled during a moment that was climactic but didn't feel like an 'ending'. 

Lots To Do, Little Variation

For players wanting to learn more about the world and deepen those stories with the characters that they meet along the way each of these confidants that you meet going region to region normally has some other multi-part questline tied to their back story. While the story is entertaining, the gameplay of these segments doesn't do much to add more.

A Samurai teacher who tells you of his disgraced students, who you go and kill, or a merchant leader who reveals that employees in the region have been being stalked by bandits, who you go kill.

It's honestly quite impressive that every problem anyone has in this land can be solved by skulking through some grass and assassinating an enemy…

Shinobi's Creed and the Samurai's Way

Naoe's gameplay is what you might call the traditional Assassin's Creed formula. You don't have as much health but by skulking through foliage and above buildings you're able to approach your target in the shadows and kill them efficiently.

Naoe also gets the advantage of a number of shinobi tools including a Kunai, which can be used for ranged assassinations, Shuriken, which deals damage but not as much, and smoke bombs and noisemakers for distracting your opponents and making quick getaways.

A really nice addition to Naoe's arsenal as an assassin is her grappling hook. This lets you scale buildings much faster, reducing the amount of time you're holding up while slowly waiting for your assassin to find a foothold, but it also creates a gameplay separation as to where Naoe can be and where Yasuke can reach.

Yasuke, who you only really get access to play as ~10 hours into the game is a different beast. While he maintains the same style of combat, mixing between heavy, light, and special attacks, his larger frame affords him better defenses and stronger hits.

Where confronting a group of three enemies at a time might be a scary situation as Naoe with Yasuke they'll need to bring double that before Yasuke will have any issues.

This new 'tank' gameplay build to Assassin's Creed was a very interesting one. The approach to infiltrating a base still starts with the idea of taking out enemies one at a time, but it's not with instant kill assassinations but a quick flurry of blows that decimates your opponent's health bar. For those times that you don't want to stealth through a castle you can knock on the front door and mow your way through dozens of samurai as you make your way to your target. While I normally opted for the stealth approach this shift in gameplay was always a refreshing change of pace.

The gameplay for Assassin's Creed Shadow is absolutely it's high point. Naoe continues to make the experience of being an assassin more entertaining and thrilling as you move through castles and compounds. The setting enhances the gameplay in pretty much every single way.

There are some parkour elements to Yasuke's gameplay, he can climb on roofs and perform leaps of faith, but they're nowhere near as fast or fluid as Naoe's gameplay. It was always funny to me seeing Yasuke perform a lead of faith, and instead of landing and staying concealed within the mound of straw he'd bounce out of it out into the open.

Combat, Upgrades, and Abilities

As with pretty much every recent Assassin's Creed combat is stealth first (unless you're playing as Yasuke), and then if you happen to get caught it's a swap to getting to show off your fancy loot in the form of weapons and equipment.

As always the fastest way to dispatch an enemy is through assassination, each enemy has a certain number of health bars. Beginning your adventure Naoe can only take out two health bars in an assassination, but by investing in skills and procuring the right loot you can begin to quickly increase that.

Weave combos between light and heavy attacks of over eight different weapon types as you find the right mix for yourself. Special attacks can also be learned allowing you to perform flashy attacks right out of a movie. My favorite of these is the sheathed slash, letting you crouch down and then dash through your enemy cutting them with your blade.

When leveling up your stats will increase slightly but the main way that you level up is through obtaining better gear. This will increase your damage, posture damage, health, and will also increase different stats by percentages.

Overall the system of gathering dozens of slightly different versions of the same sword or hat over 40+ hours where the numbers just get slightly higher still doesn't feel like it's working for me, especially when Legendary equipment is so frequently sprinkled into the mix.

At no point does getting new equipment feel interesting or exciting, it just feels like something necessary for the slow power scaling of the game. That there's always better equipment just around the corner at some temple or daimyo's castle also invalidates any need to purchase equipment from a shop.

Spacious Open World

The world of Assassin's Creed Shadows is massive. As you progress through the story and level up you'll travel through 10+ different regions, each with a dozen sub-regions. You'll ride your horse through small settlements and camps all the way up to cities dominated by the towers of those in charge.

While there are plenty of cities none are too sprawling which is a nice touch. Depending on their size they'll have outposts you can quick travel to, a small set of shops, and maybe a few characters looking to trade some information about nearby opportunities in exchange for help.

While the game does a great job of recreating a version of the world as it was there's also a lot of dead space between all of these settlements. Whether you're riding your horse through the rice paddy fields or up a mountain there really isn't much else going on in these spaces.

You might find a strange cave every now and then… but unless you're seeking to complete the entire map there probably isn't much for you.

Immerse Yourself In Exploration, Or Be Led To Your Objective

An interesting gameplay element of Assassin's Creed Shadows is that you won't get told exactly where to go for each of these objectives, but will be given hints as to where you can locate them. You'll know the region and sub-region, but won't have any marker on your map.

You can then send a scout to the region where you think the quest is directing you and if successful the objective marker will get added to your map. That marker still won't show you exactly where to go, but a region to explore and find your target.

This lets you experience the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows through immersive exploration, where you track down the clues for yourself. This is also a great way to stumble across unrelated side-quests and locations.

If that doesn't sound like your cup of sake though, this setting can be toggled so each quest points you in the exact direction of where you'll want to go.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Review | Final Thoughts

It feels so good to be back in the world of Assassin's Creed in a setting I was extremely interested in. The story that is presented with Naoe and Yasuke is mostly based on revenge, but also on their development as an assassin and samurai respectively.

Stealth combat has been elevated with the introduction of ninja tools and the grappling hook making exploration feel the best it ever has, and the introduction of a tanky samurai lets you stop feeling like you're cowering from your enemies and really let loose cutting through them.

While the gameplay loop did eventually get repetitive it was only after 30+ hours of playing that I began to feel this lethargy and I'm sure playing it over a longer timeframe would have lessened this.

Assassin's Creed Shadows world might be a bit stale, but the people and scenarios within it are a fantastic achievement of open-world gameplay and exploration. For those who have stepped away from the franchise, this might not fully get you back in, but is a welcome checkpoint to see just how much the formula has been improving even if the story will mostly leave you wanting for more.

Assassin's Creed Shadows was reviewed on PC using a copy provided by Ubisoft over the course of 25 hours of gameplay. All screenshots were taken during the review.