It’s that time of the year again, no, not the GOTY (which, if I were doing it, would most likely be The Drifter), but what I mean is this year’s Christmas game: Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Each and every year, I indulge in a big open-world type like Yakuza, or years ago, Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and more or less live in that world for a week or so. With this being a tried and tested formula, and taking place in one of my favourite eras, feudal Japan, this should be a no-brainer.
Disappointed that Ghosts of Yotei is still £70 for a digital copy during the holidays, I nabbed Ubisoft’s latest on PC as 1) it was £5 cheaper than the PS5, and 2) I could tinker with the visuals a little more and play anywhere. Was I disappointed in my purchase? Yes and no, for reasons about to unfold.
So, there was controversy when Assassin’s Creed: Shadows was announced, as one of the protagonists is a big black dude, and the other, a muff-diving woman. Get over yourselves – not everything is woke. While the ins-and-outs of Yasuke’s history aren’t entirely reliable, was Miyamoto Musashi really a badass? Was the Land of the Rising Sun formed by droplets from a blade? There’s a decent and compelling story for both, and I could give two tits about Desmond Miles or the Animus.
No spoilers, but the Templar versus Assassins is all a bit of nonsense now. Broken Sword first formed my keen interest in the thrifty knights and their links to that bloke off the cross, then Ubisoft blew that out of the park by making them the baddies. Or are they? Regardless, the ‘history repeating itself’ and chaos versus order is timeless, and the existential Animus and bullshit that rode with that story put me off for some time. Fortunately, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, while still having some nonsense glitch platforming sessions, keeps it mostly on the down low.
Instead, we have a female ninja outta Iga who seeks vengeance on Oda Nobunaga for destroying her home, and a foreign samurai revisiting how he ended up in Japan and his captors. The two are chalk and cheese, though a formidable partnership. Naoe is the assassin, favouring stealth and assassinations, Yasuke the idealist, but with a penchant for storming through the front door and beheading footsoldiers. I quite like the latter approach when there isn’t much time, favouring a knucklehead melee finesse. However, as this was my Christmas game, I treated myself to and had ample time, I played Naoe for 80% of the time – my only reasoning for switching to Yasuke was for mission specifics, or trying out new gear.
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is fluid once again with its parkour mechanics, and having a ninja theme is spot-on. Naoe can scale castle walls with a grappling hook and take out enemies afar with kunai, or stealthily lie in a rice field with a reed sticking out for breathing, all the while bandits are stomping around looking for her whereabouts. It’s about time we got to play like a ninja like this in an open world environment, and I can’t think of anything similiar outside of the original Tenchu and maybe the Nioh series. Alas, this is very much an Assassin’s Creed game.
Value for money, yes, but it’s such an arduous task to complete even the simplest mission. It’s like having a ‘quick go’ at Fallout 4. You can’t do it. My methodology for the series has always been exploration: unlock the viewpoints as swiftly as possible, then start to do the missions. While Assassin’s Creed: Shadows doesn’t cover the whole of Japan, it’s MASSIVE. There are so many viewpoints, and in addition to that, hideouts called kakurega that allow you to fast travel, store gear, and replenish scouts who can help you sniff out a target or nab some supplies from a castle.
As with most of the games, combat is slick, but assassinations are the way to go with the insta-kills. This isn’t always the way, as higher-level enemies can block you, or won’t take all the damage. To counter this is to level up both Naoe and Yasuke’s skills. For Naoe, it’s a path of the ninja with specialist weapons such as the tanto, bo and kusarigama, plus the default katana. Additional abilities allow for higher damage, shinobi skills and more. Unlocking these comes through story progression and exploration – notably, shrines to unlock master points to unlock new tiers.
Yasuke’s path is mostly similiar yet has a more direct approach to combat. He specialises in the long katana, the naginata, kanabo, plus two ranged weapons: the bow and teppo (a musket). In addition, both characters have a narrative thread of their own, plus mini games to develop their skills – Yasuke with katas and Naoe with kuji-kiri, a meditation QTE of button presses. Undoubtedly, Ghost of Tsushima was heavily influenced by Assassin’s Creed, but the latter borrows a lot of the mini-games and develops them in its own way. I have to say that Ghost of Tsushima is the better experience, though Naoe is my preferred protagonist. The optional romance options are bent, however.
So far, so good. Now, what’s my issue? Runtime is subjective, as perhaps you want to play a single game for the rest of your life. I don’t have that luxury due to more important commitments, though I wouldn’t want to anyway. However, completing the ‘main’ story is just the tip, as there are seemingly endless quests throughout. That might be a good thing, but if you’re a completionist, it’s a journey, that’s for sure. Each time you unlock a new area, there’s a new wheel of assassinations, items to collect, or scenes to chew. It’s not the worst part, nor are the obnoxious Animus scenes, which I could easily have skipped both in terms of story and gameplay. It’s a chore.
The worst part is the technical issues. I very, very rarely complain about technical aspects, as I don’t care about visuals or frames per second. What I do hate is having to exit the game repeatedly just to reset a scene where one of the characters teleports into the ground or appears off-screen and doesn’t resync or die. It was terrible and resulted in multiple save files. On one occasion, I lost about three hours in a mission, potentially abandoning the game. I essentially had lost all fast travel privileges and was unable to change from Yasuke to Naoe.
Apparently, this is a common issue in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows due to a specific Naoe mission where if you exit one of the caves, you’re told to speak to Yasuke at your hideout, but when reaching him, you can’t interact with him at all. A couple of missions later, you switch to Yasuke but can’t switch back. I eventually found the mission I had been softlocked to and spent repeat saves and exiting the game for a further 45 minutes, as every time the video completed with Yasuke and Naoe talking, though the latter was invisible and a glitch had caused Yasuke to speak Naoe’s parts(!). Once the sequence finished, Yasuke would drown when previously on land. In fear of this going on, after those 45 minutes, I managed to load an assassination that could switch to Naoe, went back to the original mission and came out alright.
Since buying Assassin’s Creed: Shadows a week ago, I have accumulated 51 hours of playtime. That’s insane for me as I usually have other games on the go, but I dedicated myself to this, y’know – Christmas and whatnot. Without a doubt, I have been, and still am, addicted to this; switching between contracts, or revisiting corrupted castles to unlock new treasures or weekly loot from the Animus glitches. At the time of this write-up, I’ve completed the stories and am around level 80. What a slog, but still a game that was worth the wait, but without question, not worth the full price tag. When it came out, the price was shocking. Valhalla was similiar, yet I paid £50 on launch. Steam currently has it on sale for £5. Will I wait that long for Ghost of Yotei? Probably not. As for Assassin’s Creed: Shadows? Much of the same for series, less Animus, more ninjas.
Top Assassin’s Creed games? Odyssey, Shadows, Black Flag. Perhaps in that order.
