Regular readers of the blog may have noticed that I’ve done several of these “three early impressions” pieces, and not all that many reviews so far this year.
There’s a reason for that. I’m not completing any damn games! I realized this week that I still haven’t beaten any AAA game this year. I’ve only completed indie titles. I have started Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, Avowed, Pirate Yakuza, and Split Fiction, and still haven’t crossed the finish line on any of them. After starting Assassin’s Creed Shadows last week, it seems unlikely that this will change any time soon.
A big reason for that is that Shadows is a huge game, and I’m having a blast with it so far. From a gameplay perspective, this feels like the ultimate version of the Assassin’s Creed RPGs. This is as polished as the experience has been in just about every way. I think Ubisoft learned a lot of lessons from Valhalla, and they’ve used it to make one of the best Assassin’s Creed games to date (at least from my 12 hours so far).
Here are my three early impressions from a game that seems primed to be in my top 10 at year’s end.
You Are No Longer Allowed To Shit On Ubisoft For Their Open World Design
Ubisoft is essentially synonymous with the aspects of open world design that people hate the most these days. Too many icons. Too much handholding. Worlds where you do nothing except go straight to where the game tells you to go.
After Star Wars Outlaws last year and Assassin’s Creed Shadows this year, I think that someone else needs to be the whipping boy for the way some modern open world design can be. Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t reinventing the wheel or going fully organic exploration like Elden Ring, but it’s a very happy medium that I’m enjoying a lot.
First off, I think the number of icons to go to on the map is a nice number. There is certainly plenty to do in Shadows. The map is huge, and there are a lot of activities. But they are spaced out nicely. I never feel like I have an overwhelming amount to do, but I always have a few goals in mind. It’s exactly where a game like this should be.
I also really love the systems in place for going to objectives for quests. The game doesn’t just give you an icon to go to when you have an objective. You get the information for where to go, and you have to search through the map to figure out the general area where you need to explore to find your destination. These little navigational puzzles aren’t terribly complicated. It’s pretty easy to figure out the general area to go, but it takes just enough effort where simply getting to an objective feels more like an accomplishment than a task. If you are really struggling with finding an ojective, you can use “scouts” in a general area to find the objective. These scouts can also be used to get extra resources for your base, so I don’t like using them up unless I have to, but it’s great that the option is there.
In the end, I think the dream for a lot of us when open world games became more of a thing was to be able to play games where there was a lot to do, but also that captured that feeling of exploration and discovery. One of my favorite memories ever is when I went on a hike in a town called Traverse City, and I ended up wandering off the main path, and I stumbled into this amazing meadow. It was absolutely beautiful, and because of how off the path it was, no one else was there. It was cool on its own merits, but it was extra neat because I felt like I “discovered” it. The best open world games can replicate these kinds of moments in their virtual worlds.
There are good elements to having quality of life icons in open world games. Those icons make sure you don’t miss the good stuff. Some games that force you to find objectives without assistance can be really annoying when you can’t quite locate where you are supposed to go. I don’t think an Elden Ring-esque design would fit what I want from an Assassin’s Creed game at all, but I also didn’t want what Valhalla offered. I’m really happy that Ubisoft seems to have found a pleasant middle ground with its default settings.
Hard Difficulty Brings The Best Out Of The Game
Unlike the navigational elements of the game, I did not stay on the default settings for the difficulty with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I moved Shadows to hard, and it has been a fantastic decision thus far. I got my ass absolutely handed to me early on, and there are still moments where I do, but this feels like the best difficulty to play the game on if you want to truly experience all this game has to offer. It’s intense, but it’s not frustrating, at least so far.
In games like this where as you play as a normal person and not some superhero or super soldier, I never feel great about being able to kill dozens of enemies at once and watching the bodies pile high. It doesn’t feel right, and the game often loses its intensity. Playing on hard means I need to use stealth as often as possible, and fighting is more of a last resort. Fighting multiple enemies is quite difficult, as enemies can be pretty relentless, and don’t just let you fight someone one on one like some other games do in combat against groups of enemies.
The beauty of hard is that stealth is no joke either. In so many stealth games with verticality, rooftops are a cheat code. No enemy seems to have the slightest ability to look up, so roaming above means you can strike whenever you want. This is not the case at all in Assassin’s Creed Shadows on hard. I was stunned early on when I immediately got spotted on a rooftop, but I also loved it. This adds an entirely new dimension to the stealth. The way a roof is shaped can be vital for if it is actually going to serve as decent cover so I can do an air assassination. It makes it so that nothing is completely safe, and it’s way better.
When the game gets to combat, I am having just about as good of a time. The parry feels great, as well as the slow motion perfect dodge. Playing with Naoe also means that I can’t take much more than two hits from tougher foes, so every moment has me on edge. Once again, this is why I try and use stealth as much as possible.
Surprisingly, I haven’t unlocked the ability to fully use Yasuke yet, despite being around a dozen hours into the game. From what I understand, he is significantly more powerful than Naoe in combat but doesn’t have the same amount of stealth capabilities. Once I do have him, I don’t anticipate myself using him much at all, as I really like the way Naeo is balanced on hard.
The Story Seems A Ways Off From Being Good
I was actually relatively excited to see how the story would be handled in Shadows. Having a black man in this era of Japan and a woman warrior seemed like interesting hooks that would give the writers a lot of material to work with. So far, there just hasn’t been as much going on as I’d like.
Naoe’s story is a simple one of revenge. I mostly feel like I’m playing Kill Bill in Japan. There have been a few cool moments, but nothing has me particularly locked in. Naoe as a character hasn’t been terribly interesting either, and I think her voice acting is really mediocre. The voice acting throughout the game isn’t wowing me at all, which is surprising from such a major franchise.
Yasuke has only really made a cameo this far. At this moment, Naoe and Yasuke are on opposite sides of this conflict. Whenever Yasuke gets involved, perhaps things will get more interesting. There have been a couple of cool moments to be clear, but the bad outweighs the good here. The early going is especially egregious, as it takes way too long for the game to put you in the open world, and this is all with narrative points that are nothing special.
I’m kind of pessimistic about this getting any better, but I’m so happy with the gameplay that it isn’t upsetting me all that much. If the story gets better, this might genuinely be a game of the year candidate for me. If it doesn’t, this still feels like a top 10 game of the year type of experience. I’d probably put Assassin’s Creed Shadows at a very solid 9.0/10 so far. I could see it going as high as a 9.5, and I have a hard time seeing it going any lower than an 8.5.
I will have my full review when I finish the game. I’ve had no desire to touch any other game since this dropped, so even though the game is massive, perhaps it’ll be out sooner than I think (but probably not).
There’s a lot more I could talk about. I absolutely love the menus. The photo mode is tremendous. The game is beautiful. I think the hideout system is a big upgrade over Valhalla. But I’ll save all those thoughts for another day. I look forward to talking more about this game when I finish!
Big Nerd Gaming 
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