Earlier this month, I got to try out Assassin’s Creed Shadows via a livestreamed four-hour preview. Just a week before that preview, Ubisoft had announced that the next main entry in the open-world franchise about sneaky assassins and evil Templars had been delayed. Again.
It’s clear that Ubisoft really needs a big win here and is betting a lot on Shadows, giving the devs as much time as possible to make a great game that it hopes sells really, really well. So yeah, there’s a lot riding on this game. And while I can’t say, after my hands-on demo, whether or not the full game is going to be enough to help turn things around for Ubisoft, I’m at least convinced that Assassin’s Creed Shadows could be a very good game. In fact, it might be two good games smashed into one package.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is set in Japan during the 16th century, toward the end of the Sengoku period. During this time, Japan was rife with civil war and guns were becoming more common on the battlefield. As with many past Assassin’s Creed games, Shadows features members of the Assassin Brotherhood fighting the Templars and their various proxies.
However, rather than the series’ ongoing, interconnected lore, my demo was focused mostly on the two main characters—Yasuke and Naoe—and their involvement in a war between clans and family. And after four hours of playing Shadows over a mostly stable livestream connection under the watchful eye of a Ubisoft representative, those two characters really stood out to me, not least because they offer two drastically different ways to play.
A tale of two assassins
First up, there’s Yasuke, a Black man who has made his way to Japan via Christian missionaries. This character is based on a real person from history, though the exact details have been changed to better fit the world of Shadows. And yeah, a corner of the internet is angry about a black man being in Shadows. Who cares! Anyway, Yasuke is a tough, combat-focused character who plays a lot like the heroes from Assassin’s Creed Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. Yasuke can kick people across a room, break down doors, and wield large weapons against crowds of enemies. And while he can sneak around a bit and do some parkour, he’s slower and less effective at stealth than his counterpart.
On the flipside, you have Naoe, a ninja-like Assassin who plays a lot more like the heroes of older Assassin’s Creed games—stuff like AC2, Rogue, and Unity. Naoe is skilled at sneaking in an out of places and taking out people without anyone noticing. She’s also really fast and can easily scale walls and roofs in seconds.
In my time with Shadows, what surprised me the most was just how different the game felt depending on who you selected.
As Yasuke, I could do a bit of stealth to get into a base and then fight my way through using a big sword and abilities like a charge attack. He played a lot like a walking samurai tank; able to destroy enemies easily while taking a lot of damage. Naoe is the opposite. Returning as Naoe to the small enemy base I’d previously ransacked as Yasuke was interesting. I could take advantage of all the shadows around the base more easily, hiding from enemies and taking them out with my hidden blade. I could escape quickly with smoke bombs, too.
As I bounced between the two characters, I got the sense that Ubisoft really wants this Assassin’s Creed entry to appeal to all of the franchise’s fans. Ever since Origins, which was a more RPG-focused action game compared to past titles, a split has developed between fans. There are those who like that type of action-focused game and others who miss the stealth gameplay of the older installments. 2023’s Assassin’s Creed Mirage was Ubisoft’s attempt to provide those older fans with something that would make them happy, and it worked. But Mirage might have scared away the players who want a big new open-world, RPG-style Assassin’s Creed.
With Shadows and its two characters, Ubisoft is trying to merge both playstyles and fanbases into one big package. You love sneaking around and using a hidden blade? Play as Naoe! Prefer a big sword and large fights? Good news, you can play as Yasuke.
It’s a smart approach that worked shockingly well in my four-hour preview. At times I’d force myself to play as one or the other, and I was always able to make progress regardless of the situation. And while there will be parts that force you to switch to one or the other, Ubisoft seems dedicated to mostly leaving the option of who to play as in the hands of players.
For those who want to frequently swap between both and enjoy everything the game has to offer, Ubisoft has your back. Every mission I played featured numerous points where I could swap between characters. And outside of quests, I was able to freely swap between Yasuke and Naoe as long as I wasn’t in combat. Ubisoft really, really wants everyone to be happy, and while that approach can sometimes lead to games that feel bland or sanded down, my admittedly limited demo left me with the feeling that in Shadows, it could work really well.
Exploration, questing, and the open world
Beyond the two-character approach, Ubisoft is also trying to encourage more exploration and a slower pace in Shadows.
Quests aren’t automatically marked on your map, for example, with the game instead encouraging you to read clues, explore the area, and find your next objective yourself. If that doesn’t sound like your cup of tea, however, you can also use scouts to find places to go, so there’s a way to skip the searching and get to the killing. Another example of Ubisoft trying to satisfy everyone.
Between those quests, I found a gorgeous world packed with a ton of detail. I came across some deer fighting in the woods, sneaked close to them, and was reward with some XP and a short cutscene of my character drawing the animals. Later, I cut my way through some bushes and discovered that a lot of stuff can be cut and destroyed in Shadows. Trees, bushes, paper doors, crates, and more are all dynamic and can be broken or sliced. Fighting some guards near a bush I was hiding in led to the bush getting cut up and me losing my sneaky spot. Oops!
Sadly, I was only granted access to a small section of what looks like a really big map to explore. But even so, there was some neat stuff to experience. I spent a lot of my time riding a horse, though you can walk around the map if you prefer. At one point I stumbled upon a challenge to hit targets with my bow while on horseback. Another time, I prayed at a small temple. Nothing mind-blowingly cool, but in general, I got the sense that Shadows wants you to slow down and poke around the world more than past Assassin’s Creed games.
My only major disappointment with the demo was that a lot of the quests boiled down to go somewhere, kill some stuff or sneak in, and then leave. Sprinkled between these moments were cutscenes that featured dialogue choices and I did enjoy these moments as I got to better define Yasuke and Naoe. But the quests weren’t that memorable, and I worry that trying to support two very different characters might prove tricky when it comes to designing engaging and varied missions.
We’ll have to wait and see if the rest of Assassin’s Creed Shadows has more interesting missions and if the slower pace and dual-character approach works in the long run. I’m not sure Shadows is the game that will save Ubisoft, mainly because I’m not sure one single game can do that. But it might be the game that finally unites the Assassin’s Creed fanbase, and that would be impressive, too.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows arrives on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC on March 20. It will be the first game in the franchise to skip PS4 in over a decade.
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