PlayStation 5 played
If you look at old Assassin’s Creed discussions on social networks, you can see that for many years the audience wanted to see a game of this series in the feudal Japan setting. However, even the platformer trilogy Chronicles did not have a place in the Land of the Rising Sun, let alone a full-fledged “assassin”. Japan as a location is obviously a popular decision that would have brought in a lot of money, but Ubisoft was in no hurry. Ironically, it kept this trump card for the most extreme case, when it found itself almost two steps away from being acquired by another corporation. The French were not afraid to postpone the release twice, since the price of a mistake was very high.
⇡#We got there
At first glance, Assassin’s Creed Shadows seemed like a hodgepodge of successful ideas from previous parts. Instead of bloated quest lists, like in the last trilogy, there is a board with allies and goals, like in Mirage. Instead of one playable character, there are two at once, like in Syndicate. Instead of clear pointers and quest markers, there are hints, like in the exploration mode in Odyssey. And a minimum number of icons on the map, like in Valhalla. Perhaps that is why they were in no hurry with Japan – they wanted to make this part of the series as best as possible, to find the ideal formula for Assassin’s Creed. For the most part, Ubisoft succeeded – there were some rough edges, but they are lost against the backdrop of the colossal work done.
You get to play as Yasuke in a short prologue, after which you spend about ten hours with Naoe – only when the heroes meet, you are allowed to control the samurai whenever you want
The main innovation is, of course, the presence of two characters who are strikingly different from each other. Evie and Jacob in Syndicate were more or less the same – even their skill trees were identical, with the exception of a couple of skills related to stealth and close combat. In Shadows, we have two complete opposites: the petite girl Naoe, whose equipment and set of skills are tailored for stealth, and the huge samurai brute Yasuke, ready to meet in battle with at least ten opponents.
Naoe is a typical Assassin’s Creed character: she runs on roofs, easily climbs walls, and silently jumps from heights (landing in a haystack or on the heads of guards). She hasn’t lost the assassin skills from previous games, but she has acquired new ones — now, for example, you can crawl, hiding in tall grass or climbing under buildings, and then sneak inside buildings through hatches. She also has a grappling hook in her arsenal, allowing her to cling to roofs and balconies and quickly disappear from sight — opponents won’t climb that high, so she can hide if the alarm is raised. In extreme cases, she can “stick” to the ceiling, like Spider-Man.
Even though the pagoda is on fire, you’ll have to climb it – it’s a teleportation point after all
Yasuke is different from Naoe in literally everything. He is an elephant in a china shop: it is harder for him to hide in the bushes, the guards can hear his stomping a mile away, and the idea of silent killing is not close to him – even if you manage to lure the victim into the shadows, Yasuke will stand up to his full height, whistle or shout, impale the enemy on his katana, and then chop off something else. Most often, this attracts the attention of other enemies, after which a hack-and-slash begins, in which Yasuke is always happy to take part – he is stronger than Naoe, and he hits much harder.
The result is two completely different types of gameplay, and in almost every mission, Shadows offers you a choice of who you want to play as. It’s clear that most fans of the series will take Naoe more often, especially given the slightly reworked stealth mechanics – the number of light sources now affects how quickly enemies will notice you. Stealth turned out to be one of the best in the series: you distract enemies with a whistle, throw kunai at them with precision, jump from one roof to another using a hook – there are many options and more become available as you level up.
You miss the eagle drone at first, but it made clearing locations too routine
But sometimes you want to take a break from stealth and smash everything to pieces, and that’s what Yasuke is here for. He’s not immortal, but he’s very tenacious and strong, and he feels more confident in battle than his partner. Of course, Naoe can also stand up for herself – it’s not for nothing that she carries two types of weapons at once. But her attacks are weaker, and she can’t constantly block – she can only parry enemy attacks. Yasuke can defend himself as much as he wants, and then unleash a flurry of blows on his opponents. And he kicks heartily – if this was your favorite pastime in Odyssey, then here you will never remove the kick from the ability menu either.
Both Naoe and Yasuke are fun to play, especially when you unlock new abilities for them. But exploring the world as Yasuke is not so fun, including because of his weight and inability to climb walls properly. For example, he won’t be able to climb to the roof of a tall pagoda, which serves as a teleportation point, even if he wanted to, but Naoe can do it in no time, including thanks to his grappling hook. The same thing happens when trying to climb a mountain or a high hill, especially considering that the parkour in Shadows is not nearly as forgiving as in Valhalla. While there you could cling almost to thin air, here you have to go around fortress walls, waterfalls, sheer cliffs and other similar objects – while Naoe has difficulties, for Yasuke these are generally insurmountable obstacles.
The cinematics have improved considerably – there are some odd facial animations, but overall it’s a step up from the previous trilogy.
⇡#Not everyone is cut out to be an assassin.
Yasuke’s clumsiness wouldn’t be a problem if switching between characters was fast — for example, they would replace each other, like in Zenless Zone Zero, or the glitchy “Animus” would quickly swap one model for another. Instead, the player is required to open the inventory, hold down a button there, and wait ten (!) seconds before another character appears in the same place. Since Naoe is more useful in most situations, it is often impossible to run after Yasuke — parkour challenges, searching for “gatherings”, activating travel points, and many other entertainments force you to play as a girl even when clearing outposts. Because of this, Yasuke seems like a supporting character in the gameplay, not a protagonist. He is good at fights, and in locations where stealth is not very convenient, he has no equal, but I would like to see the switching mechanics somehow changed and made more convenient in future patches.
But exploring the world as Naoe is a pleasure. As in the latest Assassins, the map here is huge, and at the beginning of the game it is covered with a “fog of war” – only the location of teleportation points is visible. So you discover the world gradually, and it is not strewn with countless chests, outposts and collectibles – each “question” that appears on the compass leads to something interesting, be it a large enemy fortress, a test or a settlement with a merchant and valuable trophies. The entire gameplay is built around the fact that the player must find everything himself, so they even abandoned the eagle drone here – you need to search and mark targets using focus. And the vast majority of tasks only hint at which area to look for something. You can send scouts through the world map so that they can study the area using clues, but even so you will not get exact coordinates.
Why the game itself can’t quickly switch between characters is a mystery
The world is stunningly beautiful, no matter which region you visit. This is true for most Assassin’s Creed games, but the bar has been set so high here that the artists and designers of Ghost of Yotei are hard to envy — they’ll have to work hard to make their feudal Japan look any cooler. Dense forests, vast plantations, turbulent waterfalls, settlements with small streams and red bridges, motley pagodas — ordinary, ruined, burning… Every frame is a work of art, and here the seasons change, not according to the plot, but in real time. You rush through the forest on a horse, whirlwinds of golden leaves under your hooves, teleport to another region — and bam, it’s already winter, everything is covered in snow. In the summer, the plantations bloom, in the winter they become empty, in the spring they come alive — watching the environment change is fascinating. Even the snow melts before your eyes, if you’re patient enough to notice it.
The behavior of the enemies also changes, but it is not as noticeable as you might think. In winter, the guards really do huddle around fires, and when trying to walk along the edge of the roof, there is a high chance that falling icicles will attract the attention of enemies. And small lakes and ponds freeze, so it is impossible to hide in them. But you do not change your tactics globally – perhaps because you do not clear the same place several times, and there is nothing to compare it with. But at least it is obvious that in a heavy autumn rain Naoe is not noticed as quickly as on a bright summer day.
The change of seasons is accompanied by a display of beautiful panoramas
I haven’t mentioned the plot yet, and that’s because the central storyline is far from the best in the series. The main story in Shadows is built around Naoe’s desire to take revenge on her father’s killers; it will be difficult to find everyone at once – some are good at hiding, and some are too high-level. Revenge stories have become quite boring, and it is difficult to come up with something new in this subgenre – and Ubisoft failed to do so. Apparently, this is why the structure is unusual for the series – there is no chain of story missions in the usual sense. Your ultimate goal is to defeat the villains who offended Naoe, and you pave the way to this goal as you please. The board is filled with tasks hour by hour, and only the player decides what he wants to do in order to level up and go in search of the next villain.
There are a lot of options – here are the backstories of Naoe and Yasuke, which greatly reveal both, and interaction with new friends who can move into our shelter, where a forge, stables and other useful buildings appear. Numerous quests are also usually associated with the villains, as we go through them we visit different regions – we will get to know Japanese traditions and meet historical figures. It is clear that this is a story with the prefix “pseudo-“, but the main thing is that the missions are not boring – this is not Ghost of Tsushima, where everything always ends in a massacre with the Mongols. Shadows is not about one main storyline, like many “assassins”, but about immersion in the virtual world and the desire to collect several “puzzles” at once piece by piece.
If you don’t want to make decisions in dialogues, you can always start the game in canon mode, where everything is done for you
***
Ubisoft waited so long to bring Assassin to Japan that several games from other developers that fit the description have appeared in the meantime, including Ghost of Tsushima and Rise of the Ronin. It might seem like the French publisher was too late, but no — feudal Japan in Shadows turned out to be the most beautiful, and the classic Assassin’s Creed gameplay with its parkour and stealth is still unrivaled. Gameplay innovations made stealth more fun, the map design encourages active exploration of the environment, and the ability to switch to a samurai bully and just throw everyone left and right adds variety. It’s just a shame that switching between protagonists is implemented so poorly.
Advantages:
- The most beautiful game version of feudal Japan;
- Changing seasons make each region beautiful in its own way at any time of the year;
- The huge world does not tire you with the amount of entertainment and encourages you to explore every corner;
- Two dissimilar characters with different mechanics in and out of combat;
- The familiar stealth has been enriched with new possibilities – now you can crawl and use a hook;
- Likable main characters whose backstories are interesting to explore.
Disadvantages:
- The central storyline is outdone by the events around it;
- Strange and awkward switching between characters.
Graphic arts
Just look at the screenshots – such a beautiful, diverse and charming feudal Japan has never been seen in games before.
Sound
Compared to previous games in the series, Shadows makes a noticeable use of vocal tracks, be it singing or even recitative, and they greatly complement the atmosphere. And the game is best played with Japanese voice acting interspersed with Portuguese – this option is offered in the start menu.
Single player game
You gradually open up a huge map, immersing yourself in the world, unlocking tasks and making new acquaintances. Numerous gameplay improvements make both stealth passages and fights with a crowd of guards more fun than in previous “assassins”.
Estimated time of completion
If you want, you can complete all the story objectives in 35 hours, but, as always in Assassin’s Creed, you will be distracted by secondary entertainment at every step.
Collective game
Not foreseen.
General impression
A great balance between staying true to the series’ roots and trying new things. We’ve been waiting a long time for a Japanese Assassin’s Creed, and it’s been worth the wait.
Rating: 9.0 / 10
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