Assassin’s Creed: Shadows

Without a “shadow” of a doubt, one of my most wanted games of the year is Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. I am a massive fan of this franchise and I get that the move to more RPG gameplay was not for everyone, but I have managed to have fun with pretty much every game in the series…. Yes, even the face melting janky one. With this one, I truly feel like Ubisoft has listened to the fan feedback over the last few games and are trying to give us something truly special.

What We Have All Been Asking For!

I know for a fact, that I am not the only one who is thankful Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is set during the days of feudal Japan! Many of us have been wanting the series to tackle this time period for a long time. On a personal note, this and the far future were the two time periods that I wanted to see in Assassin’s Creed more than anything else. We have the age old story of the Assassin Brotherhood and the Templar Order, but it is woven in with actual historical events, figures, places, and so on.

The Black Samurai

In Assassin’s Creed: Shadows we actually play as a real character for the first time in the franchise as we play as Yasuke who is known as The Black Samurai, there is actually an awesome anime based on him on Netflix that is well worth watching. What I like about Yasuke is that he feels more like what we had in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla where he is a straight up fighter with some heavy duty big ass weapons that he can use to tackle foes head on. There are some great games in 2024, but I do not think I am more excited to play as anyone than I am Yasuke

Sticking To The Shadows

Of course the “gimmick” of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is that we have two playable characters. The other character we can play as is a shinobi called Naoe and she plays more like a classic Assassin’s Creed character where she is quick, nimble and all about stealthily taking down her enemies. She has this grappling hook that can be used in combat, but it is how this is used to traverse the game that looks so much fun. One thing we do not know yet is how we will be playing as the characters. Will certain sections be locked to certain characters? Will it be a case where we can flip between them, kind of like how Grand Theft Auto V did it or will it be more open like Spider-man 2 where we could tackle most missions as any of the two characters?

One Thing No One Can Deny!

Look, I get that there are some people who are not into the way this franchise changed direction. However, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows has one thing that all other Ubisoft AAA games have and that is sky high production values. No one makes a cinematic trailer like Ubisoft does and their games tend to look fantastic and this game is living up to that. The visuals are spectacular and the use of actual historic castles and locations is amazing and from what I have seen, the attention to detail here is just stunning.

Pros:

• You have two playable characters
• Each character is unique and offers a different way to play
• The setting is something fans have wanted for years
• This is one of the best looking Assassin’s Creed games!

Cons:

• As I write this I do not know for sure how the two character system works
• Some fans are simply burned out by this series