Assassin's Creed Shadows

So, I'll be that guy and admit something that will probably upset the Assassin's Creed fanbase. While I have played the earlier games in the series, I wasn't the biggest fan. Well, that all changed when I played Assassin's Creed Odyssey. That game ended up becoming my favorite of the year—the evolution that finally got me into the series. I absolutely adored that game, so much that I put over 200 hours into it. For me personally, that new huge open world was exactly what I wanted out of this series. Though I can totally understand why some old school fans may not like the direction the series has gone. Valhalla came out and while I enjoyed it, but I didn't enjoy it as much as Odyssey.

Here we are, and the next mainline entry in the series is Shadows. The series has finally made it to Feudal Japan. Once again, personally, I am in love with an Assassin's Creed game. While that may be great for someone like me, at the end of the day, it's Assassin's Creed. It's exactly what you are expecting. Anyone that was on the fence or didn't like Odyssey or Valhalla, well, this game probably won't change your mind. 

Shadows starts off with an introduction to one of our main characters, Yasuke, and also introduces Lord Nobunaga who is impressed with Yasuke's size and strength and takes him under his wing. The game starts off with Nobunaga's forces laying waste to the region of Iga and pretty much wiping the whole population of that area.

This is where we are introduced to our second main character, Naoe. Naoe's father instructs her to go and find a hidden box which must be protected at all costs. In doing so, this leads to Naoe's father being killed by a mysterious clan called the Shinbakufu who also gravely wound Naoe, leaving her for dead and stealing the box.

She is found and nursed back to health by a hermit living in the mountains. From here begins her tale of revenge. She wants to hunt down and kill every person responsible for the slaughter of her people and the death of her father. The Shinbakufu act as your main assassination targets. As the story plays out, the narrative wraps around again to the beginning, except now we are playing as Yasuke—and Lord Nobunaga is betrayed and killed.

Yasuke goes off on his own and eventually meets up with Naoe. Together they join forces. You will play as Naoe for a big part of the beginning. Yasuke will join up later. There was one thing I was terrified of: Was I was going to build up Naoe with all this XP and equipment and have to start over as soon as I got access to Yasuke?

Thankfully, when you first play as Yasuke, he will be the same level as Naoe, have equipment at the same level as her, and all upgrade points you have earned are now shared. When I first played as Yasuke I had, like, 40 upgrade points to spend.

From here on out you can switch and play as either Naoe or Yasuke whenever you want. For a large part of the game you can play as whoever you want. There are some missions and side quests that are exclusive to each character, but not to the point where I had to play as one character for a large portion of the game again. 

One of the big additions in this game is the ability to upgrade and build your base of operations. You can acquire various resources like wood, minerals, and more that you can use to add new buildings to your hideout. A forge increases the level of your weapons and adds abilities to them. A study gives you additional scouts and the ability to reduce the cost of smuggling.

You can even build casual rooms with display cases to store and show off your weapons and gear. The whole plot of land can also be upgraded by deciding which kind of trees, walkways, and even animals you want. Your various companions that you have acquired will also walk around here. You can talk with them. Sometimes doing so will give you missions.

This mode is a lot of fun. I really like just hanging out here, especially when a major thunderstorm blows through—to me this is how you know that the world you are playing in is well done, when you get immersed and just want to spend time in it. With that said, I'm not the most artistic person, so my home base is, uh, kind of a mess of just random buildings scattered around. But I have seen pictures of what people have done with their bases, so I can see there is a lot you can do here in terms of decorating.

My only issue with this, and this seems to be an issue I have in a lot of open world settings, is that in order to build and upgrade your buildings you need resources. It always seems like you can get tons of all the materials you need, except for one. Here I am wanting to upgrade my buildings and can't because I have tons of wood, tons of fabric, and all the other things I need, but I have no minerals at all. So, it becomes this annoying game of having to track down just one single resource I need to do upgrades. 

Speaking of the home base and just wanting to chill out and admire the scenery, the game looks absolutely gorgeous. I think the best open world games are the ones where you don't fast travel a lot because you just want to explore and see what the map has to offer. This happened to me with Shadows.

The map is pretty big, with various locations in Japan to travel to. The most fun part to me was just exploring on foot or on horse and discovering what all of the question marks in the area were. The most exciting ones are the Koufun's, which are like underground challenge caves which, when completed, will earn you legendary gear.

Even better than exploring is the game having a dynamic day and night, and weather system, as it really sets the mood when you are raiding a castle or fighting an assassination target at night during a massive thunderstorm. There is also a seasons system in the game in which time passes as you play, with the seasons changing from spring to summer, then fall and winter. Fall, of course, is my favorite season as the leaves all start changing colors.

In terms of the gameplay and combat, I think Assassin's Creed Shadows is the best yet. Naoe and Yasuke play very differently. Naoe is the traditional Assassin's Creed character who specializes in stealth and assassinations. She's fast, can climb buildings, and has a grappling hook which allows her to easily climb up walls and get onto roofs quickly. She also gets equipment like Kunai and Shurikens that allow you to kill enemies from a distance. She gets access to a Katana sword, a Tanto knife, and the Kusarigama, a blade on a chain, which she can swing around and attack multiple enemies.

Naoe is good at taking out weaker enemies but she does struggle against the heavier armored enemies. She also doesn't have as much health, so you are really going to need to be good at dodging and deflecting attacks or you will be dead in a couple of hits—sometimes instantly if the enemy is a higher level than you. That said, with the right upgrades, you can build Naoe in a way that has her hold her own against the heavily armored enemies and eventually becoming strong enough to assassinate them as well. 

Yasuke, on the other hand, is a giant brute, almost comically so. He can literally run and bash his way through locked doors and walls. He has access to a long katana, a Teppo firearm, a bow, and the Kunabo, a giant club. Yasuke is a lot slower and can't climb or quickly ascend buildings or get into smaller hiding spots like Naoe can. Technically you can play him with stealth but it's probably not going to go well. One of the reasons is because his assassinations aren't like Naoe's that focus on quickly killing and hiding a body. Oh no, Yasuke gets access to "brutal" assassinations that are basically Mortal Kombat fatalities that make a ton of noise. So yeah, assassinate one person and you will have the whole enemy camp after you pretty quickly.

This, however, is where Yasuke excels the most and is the biggest gameplay change the Assassin's Creed series has seen in a while. Yasuke is an absolute tank, dishing out damage like crazy. While alerting an area as Naoe and having tons of enemies surround you is pretty much instant death, Yasuke can easily take down these enemies with ease, considering his damage output and all the weapons in his arsenal.

Honestly, I love this change because, to me, this prevents the game from getting stale. Sometimes I love sneaking and assassinating quickly as Naoe, then getting out of an area before anyone even knew I was there. But man I'd be lying if I said it wasn't fun to just charge in and blast open the front gates to a stronghold and then eradicate an entire area quickly as Yasuke. 

Another thing that I did like is that, more than ever before, your current level and the level of enemies play into how you need to approach combat. Seeing that some of the people you fight in game are masters of their craft, there are actually some targets who can't be assassinated. I think it's a nice touch. You can go for an assassination, but they are so quick that they instantly turn around, grab your hand, and push you away, which makes sense given that these people are masters of the blade and martial arts.

Enemies aren't pushovers either. You are gonna need to block, parry, and evade your way to victory, especially when dealing with enemies at your level or higher. Now, there are still cheese attacks you can use, like Naoe's Kusarigama and Yasuke's Naginata, which are long-range bladed weapons that hit multiple enemies with sweeping attacks.

You could if you want just hang back and swing attack, dodge, swing attack, dodge, until you defeat someone. But that will depend on how you want to play, really. One of the biggest additions to the game is the ability to go prone and perform prone assassinations, which comes in extremely handy if you do put an area on alert and want to hide quickly. You can even use crawlspaces under floorboards to hide. 

Personally, I had a blast with Assassin's Creed Shadows and thought it was as good as Odyssey. With that said, though, at the end of the day, this is still an Assassin's Creed game. If you like Assassin's Creed, you'll like Shadows. If you were hoping this game would have changed up the formula, well, you'll be disappointed. The Ubisoft formula is very much still here, with a huge map filled with castles you can raid for loot, fetch quests, and tons of side objectives and storylines to complete. It is going to take you quite some time if you want to 100% this game.

Also, in terms of the main story, this is one of those games where I wasn't really all that enthralled. I mean, Naoe's story is the most generic "You killed my father, prepare to die" revenge story ever. And Yasuke's story revolves around proving himself, finding all the warriors who trained under his master, and challenging them to duels to prove he is worthy.

Also, If you loved the Assassination missions like in Odyssey and Valhalla where you got an entire gang that you need to take out, then boy you are going to love Shadows. You've got multiple gangs that you need to take out here. The interesting thing, though, is that it is possible to spare some of your targets. Doing so may even lead to gaining new companions. Some targets may not be what they seem. For instance, there was one target that I took out not realizing that if I had assassinated his father first, it would have meant that he would have been free from this life he never wanted—and would have been able to go and live peacefully.

Companions you find will return to your base. They can even level up and be called upon in battle with their own skills and weapons to help you out. I even had a smile on my face for one mission as there is a mysterious man that you will meet who will invite you to a special tournament with fights to the death. The achievement titled "Test Your Might" should give you an idea of what they were going for here. I loved it. 

Overall Assassin's Creed Shadows is a great game in the series. While the story isn't anything special, I do think that the fantastic gameplay is what is going to keep you coming back here. I was already over 60 hours as of writing this review and I want to keep playing to get as close to 100% completion as I can. With that said, however, this is this Assassin's Creed you all know. So, if anyone is on the fence or is tired of the formula of these games, then this one isn't going to change your mind. For me, however, and as someone that loved Odyssey and Valhalla, this is going to end up as one of my favorite games of the year.