Four things that look great in Assassin’s Creed Shadows (and two we’re not sure about)
We still have to wait a while for the achievements of Assassin’s Creed Shadows to arrive, but it already looks like the next Assassin’s Creed will bring a number of changes from the latest AC games, whether it’s dynamic weather or dual protagonists. Taking everything we’ve seen — whether it looks promising or a little less so — here are a few things we like from what we’ve seen of AC Shadows so far, and some we’re not sure about.
Shinobi League and Hideout
When we first shared our thoughts on how Assassin’s Creed could learn from the past to build a better future for the series, and what we’d like to see in Shadows (which was still codenamed Red at the time), the first thing , which we talked about how we wanted to see it double down on the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla settlement feature.
This is important because although Valhalla had a lot to offer, it often got stuck on its own overly bloated map. Having a large map (or maps with Valhalla) can be a good thing, but if not backed up by rewarding exploration, it can be tedious. This is where the settlement of Ravensthorpe in Valhalla helped – instead of aimlessly zooming back and forth across England, we suddenly had a center to return to. Ravensthorpe helped anchor Eivor’s presence in England and also brought together all the traders and functions we needed in one place. It also helped emphasize the story and immersion of the game, giving Eivor something to worry about as we built and customized the area.
Ever since Shadows was first revealed, we’ve heard repeated mentions of a shinobi league. We know we’ll be recruiting allies and relying on a network of spies, but the Xbox pre-order page confirms that we can “Create a fully customizable shelter for your growing shinobi league as you train your crew, craft new equipment, interact with key characters. and choose your base layout, decorations and accessories.” Huzzah! There’s no word yet on how this hideout will work, since it’s a “hideout” and naturally it might be a little less obvious than a settlement or village, but the fact remains that do have shelter. In fact, the Ultimate Edition already includes the embellishments. This might not be great news if you didn’t like Ravensthorpe (or the endless cosmetics), but hopefully Shadows will improve on what came before.
Dual protagonists
We went into a lot of detail about how the protagonists will differ in our summary of everything we know about Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but what’s exciting is the freedom we seem to have to play with the system however we like. The Viking background for Valhalla’s sole protagonist meant that noisy, direct open combat sometimes seemed more natural to Eivor than a stealthy approach. This left the game in something of a dilettante situation: how do you give the player freedom of choice in combat while still remembering that Assassin’s Creed was originally supposed to be about stealth? Splitting up physical strength, heavier weapons, and direct access for Shadows Yasuke’s samurai, while Naoe’s shinobi assassin can rely on parkour and stealth, seems like a better way to handle the situation. We will be able to switch between them at almost any moment, except when we are in the middle of a fight, busy doing “infiltration” or completing personal tasks. The latest Shadows footage from Ubisoft Forward gave an example of how the player can choose their approach when hunting down a target hidden in a castle. Naoe and Yasuke debated how to handle this: all-out combat or stealth infiltration. The choice was then given to the player, with the two protagonists then concluding their discussion as we progressed forward with the protagonist of our choice. Hopefully that’s how it works in every situation like this, so we can weigh the situations and decide how we want to handle it before going in (or sneaking through a hidden path).
This difference between our two protagonists looks set to become even more definitive as Naoe will be the only one with a hidden blade. On that note, it looks like hidden blade combat will be making a comeback: creative director Jonathan Dumont says that “the hidden blade has two functions. So it can come off as a regular hidden blade, like for stabbing people. But Naoe can push out the other part and flip it so that it has dual wielding, using a smaller weapon called a tanto or hidden blade at the same time. So that’s a very quick and damaging situation for most people fighting it at the time.” Assistant Cinematographic Design Director Akim Milne adds, “Fans have wanted to bring back hidden blade combat for a long time. As if you could fight with your hidden blade. And we brought it back with Tanto style.”
It will be interesting to see how these two end up allied after starting out on opposite sides, and there’s a lot of potential in what Ubisoft has said about the different reactions and relationships they’ll have with other characters due to their different social standings. at the peak of the potential for personal quests. But it’s also a useful balance that while Naoe grew up in Ize and will therefore have a better knowledge of the land we’ll be exploring (and hopefully share that useful information with us), Yasuke is a relative newcomer and will be learning alongside us .
A big open world?
It’s a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to the AC series. I love open world games with a big map to explore. I also loved Odyssey and enjoyed Valhalla. But even taking all that into account, the scale of these game maps has worn off a bit. It was even more telling with Valhalla – maybe because the memory of wandering around the Odyssey was still fresh, or maybe because of the sheer amount of ground you have to cover, but either way the world often felt too bloated. This has been a bit of an issue with the newer Assassin’s Creed games (not so much with Mirage, which aimed for a more condensed feel), but according to Ubisoft, Shadows is about the same size in terms of scale as Assassin’s Creed Origins. In an interview with IGN, Dumont said that Shadows is “in line with the most recent Assassin’s Creeds we’ve done”, but that “On a scale level, maybe we can compare it a little bit more to the size of Assassin’s Creed Origins. ” Dumont also added, “We wanted to have a much closer scale ratio in real life. So because the castles took up a lot of space and we really wanted the mountains to look like mountains.” [we’ve made] the environments in the game feel wider… But I’d say about as big as Origins.” Another of our initial hopes for Shadows was that it would focus on quality over quantity, and Dumont’s comments sound more promising there. The new Ubisoft Forward game also brought us a mention of the Torii gates we’ll be seeing, and how that means we’ll know to look for “secrets” in the area; whether loot, targets or something else. We need to see if Shadows actually offers more rewarding exploration, which leads us to…
Changing seasons
It may be a minor thing, but we hope it can mean something to Shadows. The worlds of Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla were beautiful, but they could still feel very samey, partly because of how you navigate them. Of course, our characters being parkour experts means they won’t have the same kind of heavy movement as, say, Red Dead Redemption 2’s Arthur Morgan, who will be dislodging pebbles, falling down hills, or sending his horse tumbling straight into trees. But this lack of heavy movement (and the way AC horses are apparently gravity-defying parkour experts as well) meant that the world could just blur into the background, with terrain, weather and even mountains not much of a hindrance.
The “unpredictable weather, changing seasons and reactive environments” that Shadows promises could at least help break through any monotony and give us a chance to appreciate the setting. Especially since it also affects the gameplay; Ubisoft Forward showed us how a mission in spring means Naoe can hide in bushes and even sneak through a pool, but if you do the same mission in winter, the pool will be frozen and the bushes bare, and Naoe will have to find other ways to get around hide.
Destructible environments
That’s another minor aspect to look forward to. After I just wrote about how cool it will be to be able to play stealthily as Naoe, Shadows’ destructible environments look like they’d be fun to try out when you engage in open combat as Yasuke.
NPCs in the latest AC games (the ones in the towns and villages you walk through, not the main supporting characters) can often blend into the background or be noticed because of how they constantly get in the way of your horse. Admittedly, it’s pretty funny to see an elderly NPC – who was clearly slowed down and doubled over by extreme age a moment ago – literally sweep out of your horse’s path, but while NPCs don’t always stand out, Assassin’s Creed cities manage to convey the feeling that they’re busy and busy. mostly because of the quantity things they are supposed to lie around each other. Barrels of goods, petals strewn on the ground, carts loaded with goods; all of which add to the idea that this is a residential area. All that to say, being able to completely demolish all of this with Yasuke’s kanabo will probably be very nice. This latest game showed a bit of that aspect, but we’ll have to wait and see how many things we’ll actually be able to destroy.
Help for horses
Finally the horses… When I wrote before about my hopes for the next AC game, I said that I hoped they would solve the horses. Admittedly, this is more of a personal request for what is a very small part of the game, but after seeing the arthritic movement of Ubisoft’s poor Assassin’s Creed horses, their stringy manes, and the fact that nobody (horse or rider) looks happy. situation, I was really hoping to see some improvement. …Unfortunately, it doesn’t look like the Shadows are going to do much about it. Sure, there are more important areas he should be focusing on (like the actual Assassin stuff we’re playing this for), and there’s still time if Ubisoft decided to help out their hapless horse creations, but from this trailer, it doesn’t seem that way. doesn’t seem likely. On the other hand, I’ve seen some cool horse armor, and it seems to indicate that I’ll be going back to the old Ubisoft arrangement: I’ll accept their sad horses in exchange for nice armor to put on them.
These are just a few of the things we’re looking forward to from what we’ve seen of Assassin’s Creed Shadows so far. As we still rank Assassin’s Creed Odyssey as one of the best open-world games for Xbox, we’re excited and (cautiously) optimistic about how the next Assassin’s Creed game could fare.