Things aren’t exactly going smoothly at Ubisoft right now. The company had a tough year in 2024, with Star Wars Outlaws failing to meet sales expectations, and news of XDefiant’s demise coming about six months after the tactical shooter’s debut. Skull and Bones finally arrived, but it felt a little damp.
With rumors circulating that the company will be sold or spun out some of its assets to form a joint venture with Tencent, Ubisoft really needs a win. There’s no better chance to achieve that quickly than in Assassin’s Creed: Shadow. After several delays, the latest installment in the company’s flagship series is scheduled to be released on March 20th.
After using AC Shadows for a few hours, I started to see a silver lining. The game at least looks and plays well enough for what Ubisoft wants it to be, and the company skirts the line between playing it extremely safe and trying something different.
Following the success of AC Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla (and the smaller-scale, fun Mirage), Shadows marked new territory for Assassin’s Creed to some degree. This is the first game in the series to feed directly into the Animus Hub project (previously known as Infinity).
Before diving into Assassin’s Creed Shadows, enter the Animus hub. From here, you’ll be able to access the various Assassin’s Creed games (Shadow and the four previous mainline entries) through the memory section. Arranged on a timeline for easy navigation.
The Anomaly section of the hub contains Shadow missions, which offer exclusive rewards such as weapons and gear. Adjust your character loadout from the Trade section or explore the story of the latest AC game through the Vault.
The Animus Hub is set to expand over the next few years as Ubisoft releases more games. This is an ambitious project aimed at tying the series together. It has been reported that the company is using Animus Hub to turn the series into a live service project, and this mission gives us a glimpse of that. As it stands, it doesn’t amount to much, but it’s clear that Ubisoft has grand ambitions here.
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Shadows brings long-awaited new ground to Assassin’s Creed: 16th Century Japan. Another big twist this time around is the ability to swap between two characters. At various points in the story you’ll choose to play as either Yasuke or Naoe, but at least in the open world you can switch on the fly. Swapping is useful when one character is targeted by an enemy. Because the other character can remain anonymous.
Yasuke is a two-man tank who has the ability to ram certain doors while sprinting. He can utilize ranged weapons such as guns and bows, so some players may want to use him to snipe a few enemies from a distance at the start of a mission. He can also use the Kanabo War Club to knock out bad guys.
Naoe plays more like a traditional Assassin’s Creed hero. She is much more agile and her parkour skills are passable. Shinobu can quickly scale the sides of buildings and has a grappling hook that helps him reach higher parts of buildings or jump over gaps. In direct combat, Naoe can perform a spin kick into the enemy’s teeth or flip him onto his back and slit his throat.
Perhaps most importantly (at least from what I’ve seen of this game), Naoe is the only one of the duo with the classic Hidden Blade. Yasuke can still sneak up on enemies and eliminate them with the press of a button, but his “brutal assassination” involves thrusting his sword into an enemy and lifting them into the sky. Not exactly subtle.
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The switch between Naoe and Yasuke is almost as seamless as, say, the switch between Peter and Miles in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. The latter requires some quick in-game action, but the action quickly shifts to other spiders. man. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, swapping characters means entering the menu, holding a button, and waiting a few seconds for the other hero to swap characters.
However, the prologue, one of the two sections I played, doesn’t immediately switch characters. Naturally, this serves as an introduction to the story and how the game is actually played.
For the first time in Assassin’s Creed, one of the playable characters actually existed. It doesn’t take long for players to learn how Yasuke, a black African, became a samurai. After a short lore drop, we move on to a combat sequence six months into the future. It’s an effective way to start understanding what Yasuke is capable of, such as special attacks such as the running sword slash.
After his short sequence of actions, we rewind to earlier in the evening and Naoe’s introduction. After an important box (the contents of which remain a mystery) is stolen, she heads to the compound to retrieve it. This short mission will focus on some of the stealth features.
One of the nice additions to the game is the ability to take out a light source at night to create temporary hiding spots in the shadows. Naoe can use kunai and shuriken to extinguish candles and destroy lamps from a distance. This may not be necessary depending on the terrain (and difficulty) and how quickly you can hotfoot the rooftops when discovered.
The second section I played was an investigation mission. You had to reach the truth of the mystery by completing several tasks and collecting information. All of this led to inevitable but fun boss fights and satisfying resolutions to quests.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ structure lends itself to multiple playthroughs for the most dedicated players. I spent most of the preview as Naoe, but I’m interested to see how different things will be as Yasuke. There are dialogue options throughout the game, but there is a canon mode that eliminates these choices and presents the canon story. After completing the game in their native language, players may be inclined to switch the conversation language to Japanese and Portuguese for deeper immersion.
Some of the gameplay changes that Ubisoft has implemented this time around are game-changing. Eagle’s visual abilities allow Naoe to see and tag enemies through walls. Her smoke bombs and distracting bells are useful when there are too many enemies to fight head-on. Both characters can also lie prone, giving you more opportunities to hide and sneak.
I soon tried out some side activities, including the peaceful act of sneaking up on animals and sketching them in certain situations. This feels a bit like the haiku composition sequence in Ghost of Tsushima, in that it slows things down for a moment of calm (notably, this game’s sequel, Ghost of Youte is scheduled to be released in 2025 and may compete with Assassin’s Creed). )
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It wasn’t completely clear from what I saw, but it feels like Ubisoft has cut down on a lot of the crappy elements that tend to be found in Assassin’s Creed maps. This will make the game feel less oppressive. Climbing and syncing to a viewpoint doesn’t reveal everything worth seeing in that area, only the important locations. The company backed away from map bloat a bit with Mirage, so it may have learned some positive lessons from that approach.
Adding all this up, I left the session feeling mostly satisfied. The game seems to be perfectly fine. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from an Assassin’s Creed game these days, but with enough tweaks, new wrinkles, and quality of life updates to make it more than engaging. It feels like a decent entry point into the series while still holding enough interest for long-time fans. Naturally, as someone who completed Assassin’s Creed Mirage but dropped out of Valhalla after about 10 hours, I’m ready for more.
I’m looking forward to playing Assassin’s Creed: Shadow more and seeing how the weather system changes, for example. In winter, the lake freezes, making it impossible to swim or hide in the water. Icicles can also be used as a distraction. I didn’t get to the point where I tried out a spy recruitment system that might come in handy during an investigation.
Given the popularity of the series, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is inherently better than many other Ubisoft games. It already looked like it was poised to do well, and it looks like it’s in good enough shape to succeed. If so, this could help Ubisoft finally steer the ship away from the rocks.
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows launches on March 20th for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Windows, Mac (and eventually iPad), Ubisoft+, and Amazon Luna.
