Assassin’s Creed Shadows: What Happened?

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the newest installment in the Assassin’s Creed series, and so far, it’s been more controversial than ever. Which can be described as a bad thing for them but is it really? 

I’ve been thinking lately about it and at the end of the day, I came to the conclusion that until the game comes out, I won’t be making any judgments. It still stands that the game is going to be a success and there’ll be more parts to come. For now, I’ll just talk about what I already know about it and some of my expectations related to it. 

Story 

The story of the Assassin’s Creed Shadows is known to be set in Japan somewhere in the 16th century. Its main focus still remains the Assassin Brotherhood and its fight against the Templar order who are still determined to achieve total control for the peace’s sake. There will be two main protagonists: Naoe (Shinobi) and Yasuke (Samurai). You’ll be able to choose between these two, which will affect the way you do some of the quests.

Gameplay

Just like its predecessors, AC Shadows too will be an action-adventure stealth game. All of the features from previous games will be there with a few adjustments and additions. 

The game is going to be open-world and as you progress with your mission, so will the seasons. Which in some cases will affect your gameplay but mostly it’s just nice to see. 

One of the more interesting changes that is happening in-game is the one related to vantage points. It’s still going to be a feature but mostly used for a nice view and scanning for current objectives. Instead, you’ll have to recruit and train a spy network to gather pieces of information and bribe certain officials to suss out the locations of targets. 

I am totally up for this change, though I can already see people not coping well with one of the staple things about AC being changed. There are also more cool features in the game that just improve the experience. 

One of them is the ability to crawl which makes it even easier to sneak up on enemies. You can also dive in shallow waters and use a bamboo stick to breathe in them. It seems like we could have some fun with it but again there is a chance for it to be very limited, an occasion meant for certain missions. I know that with seasons changing, doing that during the winter isn’t going to be an option.

As I mentioned before, you’ll be able to choose how you approach the game. Do you want to be a sneaky sneak or make as much noise as possible, it’s all up to you. There are two choices: 

Shinobi

Naoe is the one in the role of the shinobi. If you decide to play most of the game using her you’ll be able to use stealth and all other implemented sneaking. In her kit, she has shurikens, kunai, katana, and a kusarigama. A kusarigama is a type of weapon that you can use for fighting/executing enemies but you can also use it for getting around. 

Samurai

If you choose this approach most of the time, it means you’re going to brute force your way through stuff.  Yasuke is the name of the samurai and considering his size, he won’t be doing any sneaking or climbing whatsoever.  

As seen in a gameplay video, he literally goes through the wall head-on. The weapons at his disposal are katanas and kanabō (big metal sticks with spikes) spears. One is obviously made for slow heavy damage and the other for more speedy attacks. And yeah, I almost forgot, he’ll be able to use some sort of a handgun for long-range battles. 

It’s worth noting that all the weapons our protagonist uses will have a corresponding skill tree. The more you use the specific weapon, the more experience and skill points you’ll get, and eventually, you can spend them on unlocking certain skills or improving already learned ones.

Graphics & Audio

The first thing is that I gotta admit that it definitely looks more polished than any previous parts. With that in mind, graphics are improved but there is no real wow factor. Hopefully, it looks better when it is released. For the audio part of the game, I’ll refrain from making any comments but one. It’s questionable at best, another thing that needs complete rework. 

Final thoughts

Whether you like it or hate it, I would still advise against pre-ordering the game. The best course of action would be to wait and see when it comes out. And this once I’ll listen to my own advice and hold on. I’ll keep myself busy with some other games in the meantime.

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