Sneak & Slash in the Land of the Rising Sun

Assassin's Creed Shadows Review

Credit: Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows in-game capture

NOTE: TL;DR verdict at the end.

For eighteen years, Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed series has launched would-be assassins across the world and across time on epic, if not rote, romps to protect an otherworldly secret.

From the Third Crusade to the Italian Renaissance to Victorian London to Colonial New England to the Caribbean to Revolutionary China, Russia, and India to Ancient Egypt and Greece and..., players parkoured, snuck, assassinated, and puzzled our way to success over ancient orders and cults.

But one location remained in-demand yet unanswered...until now: Feudal Japan.

Elephant in the Room

Anyone following the development of AC Shadows is likely familiar with the controversy surrounding the title. Let's get that discussion out of the way first.

Initially, parts of the criticism held merit, and they seem to be corrected for by Ubisoft.

• Misappropriated banner art from the Japanese historical reenactment and cultural group Sekigahara Teppo-Tai

• An insensitive collectible featuring a broken torii gate

• Historical-era inaccuracies in architecture seen in the reveal trailer

The remaining controversies are baffling to say the least.

• Assassin's Creed is a long-running series known for historical settings and the use of historical figures, period pieces, landscapes, well-known architecture, etc. within those settings. Across the fourteen main installments and seventeen spin-offs, players smashed and assassinated their way through every conceivable setting from houses of common folk to high-holy sites. (In AC II, you attack Pope Alexander VI in the Sistine Chapel during High Mass.)

To this reviewer, the criticism of AC Shadows following the same formula misses the entire point of the games; much of the reason fans come to the games; and perhaps, takes the game a bit too seriously. Asking Assassin's Creed to be something it's not is asking for another game, which defeats the purpose. Granted, Ubisoft could make some tweaks regarding interactions in non-mission-critical shrines and temples as a balm, but it's not a necessity.

Ultimately, this complaint: violence and destruction in holy places, seems like noise.

When I see the same uproar over shrines and temples and priests and monks being decimated in anime and manga, I'll take this controversy more seriously.

• Yasuke is a true historical figure. A black man from Mozambique, he was brought to Japan by the Portuguese and later rose to become a samurai under Nobunaga. Period.

Credit: Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed in-game capture

Obviously, Ubisoft takes liberty with the character. (This is a stylized work of fiction set in the AC universe.) Being able to play as this character presents a refreshing change to the tired, trite characters usually presented in the series.

Objections to playing as Yasuke or to his fictionalization stem from one thing and one thing only: racism. Get over it and enjoy the game or just don't play.

Jumping In

Immersion is the first thing to decide. Do you prefer the Japanese language, or do you want the English version? Do you want a guided or unguided map?

Personally, I went for English and unguided. I love the Japanese language, but didn't want to read that many subtitles. Unguided because it's required to 100% the achievements. If you aren't concerned about snagging all the achievements / trophies, go with guided. Unguided is frustrating because it's almost guided but frustratingly leaves out certain elements which makes one question the difference.

If you're playing on PC like me, graphics are the next big thing. This is where AC Shadows falls short, but not in the way you might think.

Feudal Japan is beautifully rendered. The experience with high-tuned graphics is amazing. If you can keep the game from crashing. I run an RTX 4070 Ti setup with equally good CPU, RAM, etc., which handled Black Myth Wukong and Dragon Age Veilguard like a champ.

Not so much with AC Shadows.

The problem lies with Direct X, and Ubisoft is aware of this. However, after multiple tweaks to NVIDIA, Windows, and in-game settings, I've still not completely solved the problem. I can play the game, but I'm almost guaranteed to crash out after 2.5 - 3 hours with a DX error.

Mission and World Basics

Like all AC games, a core group requires elimination by your protagonists. You search the world over for clues to their locations and systematically rid the world of these nefarious ones.

Naoe provides the typical AC experience with her shinobi skills. Yasuke, simply put, allows you to play as a tank, wielding various traditional weapons of the samurai.

Along the way, allies and the good people of the provinces alert you to other individuals and groups bent on making their own power grabs. Helping them is (somewhat) optional. You'll miss out on the richness of the AC Shadows world, and your ability to level up will take a Yasuke--bull rush--level hit, if you don't.

Unlike AC Valhalla and Origins, the majority of these side quests don't feel like "go fetch" ones. The ones that clearly are such break up in a way that makes them more than tolerable. Each side quest, especially the ones involving groups, relate to meaningful back stories within the world, which makes them worth pursuing.

(Seasonal "contracts" are another story. You can take them on, but you don't have to complete them. I don't always unless I'm in the immediate area.)

Knowledge is indeed power in AC Shadows (orange icons) and should be pursued at every opportunity from early-on in the game. The skill tree doesn't unlock regardless of player level without the knowledge level growing, so don't neglect these.

If you played Final Fantasy XIV and ever owned a house or apartment, you're prepared for the building, leveling, and aesthetic tweaking of your home base. Not nearly as robust or frustrating as FFXIV's housing, AC Shadows offers a satisfying improvement over Valhalla's home base system. I keep coming back to add or change cosmetic elements even though I've maxed my base itself.

Tried, True Ubisoft

Ubisoft put in a lot of work to make the relationships richer and more meaningful in Shadows. They also show how the characters' back story impacts their current outlooks in a way that's been neglected in past AC games.

Still, at the end of the day, this is an Ubisoft game and Assassin's Creed to boot.

Anyone who comes to an Ubisoft game not expecting a looong slog of traversing maps, tons of side quests and collectible items, a fantastical plot premise, sometimes half-baked characters (not this time), and very formulaic, fairly easy combat... hasn't played a whole lot of Ubisoft games.

I've played more than 60 Ubisoft games, and I keep coming back. (I've only played more games from Square Enix.) With Ubisoft, I know what I'm getting. They've a fairly time-tested formula, which doesn't get shaken around too much. Without having a steep learning curve, I can just sink into new worlds with the only surprises being what the world itself offers.

I never expect a Black Myth Wukong or an Elden Ring from Ubisoft. I'd be surprised if I got one. If such a package arrived in a series like Assassin's Creed, Far Cry, or Watchdogs, I'd probably be disappointed. Not to say Ubisoft doesn't put out stinkers; they do, and I've put down more than a few. Though, not as many as I've finished.

All that to say: If you like main AC installments, you're likely to love AC Shadows.

Verdict

Credit: Ubisoft's Assassin's Creed Shadows in-game capture

Highly enjoyable and at times, emotionally impactful entry to the Assassin's Creed universe. Not a must-play for non-fans of the series, but definitely a must for AC fans. AC Shadows finally gives fans the Japanese world requested for years, and the world doesn't disappoint.

PC players may want to wait a couple of weeks for the first patches to arrive, so that the Direct X crash issues are worked out.

Ignore the controversies, as the legitimate ones seem to have been handled, and the others are either hypocritical, hypersensitive, uninformed, or racist.

OVERALL: 8 out of 10

• Graphics: 8 out of 10 (not higher due to ongoing DX issues on PC)

• Sound / Music: 10 out of 10

• Story: 8 out of 10

• Character Design / Interactions: 8 out of 10

• Map Design / Interaction: 7 out of 10