Assassin's Creed Shadows

First and foremost i must tell you guys i'm no die hard fan of this franchise. I'm not emotionally attached enough to ubisoft to send death threats if theyre not sucking my dick and meeting every weird fetish demand most seem to have. So take this review however you want. This is theoretically my 4th one. Ive played assassin's creed 1, Rogue and Odyssey and those were fine. This was pretty good. Not to ruffle people's feathers ik some of them have the mental fragility of a 10 year old. Which somehow seems to be from grown men? Clearly not grown enough.

I personally don't vibe with long games but i couldn't put this game down. The storyline is very compelling which further transcends ideology of "oh woman, oh black man." I always found it interesting that it is always heterosexual men that seem to have a distaste for women in media? Not feminism just an observation. Yall switching lanes???? Dont answer that it's rhetoric.🫢

Playing as both characters was very good, they both had their strength and weaknesses. Naoe was a bit stealthier. Yasuke definitely had the more brutal attacks. Sometimes it was even comical how he would send people flying with just a kick. Naoe can wrap people up with her chains and pull them around it's creative gameplay. Not only that but design wise this game is stunning, not as gorgeous as ghost of tsushima but close enough. The colors of the seasons reflect so well with its aesthetics of setting a mood.

The story is pretty good. The characters are different in personality with Naoe being more blood thirsty than Yasuke. Yasuke's story felt mature and realistic. Im not even black and yet i empathized with as he felt like an outsider and thats something ive always felt in real life. So i saw myself in him. Skin colour doesnt define someone. Who they are, is what defines someone. Stories matter. It isnt about colour or gender is about the person. Which is something most of you fail to see cause of egos.

There are a few things id change because in no way shape of form is this a flawless game, it has its flaws but this isnt a review to give people more reason to spread bigotry and negativity. Im merely trying to show you the positive impact it had on me. YOU EVEN GET TO PET CATS. COME ON PEOPLE. As a cat dad of 2 it felt wholesome. I recommend this, i really do. Until next time. Wishing you all a good weekend.

'Assassin's Creed Shadows'

I am exhausted.

Story:

The experience of AC shadows starts off strong. With foundations that I had hoped would have been expanded on. From the get go, there's a mysterious subplot driven by a character called 'the guide.' A Hidden blade, and cyrptic messages from Naoe's father.

We get a story ark build up for Naoe and Yasuke, leading into their encounter. The symbol of the Creed that Naoe finds, the Hidden Blade that for a reason stuns Yasuke. Act 1 builds up, then the game takes a drastic turn. The Shinbakufu, they get introduced and it starts to get good.

Which sets both Naoe and Yasuke up on their personal and dynamic journeys. This is a large section of the game where the story becomes 'disconnected' up until Act 2.

Killing the Shinbakufu didn't feel like it progressed the AC lore for this story, even though it should. Instead, it feels like a 'knock off Assassin's Creed' game trying to be an RPG with a story set in feudal Japan.

Loosely connected lore to the original games. Assassin's who aren't Assassin's, Templars who aren't Templars. Outfits from the Creed while the protagonist wearing the robes has no idea what they mean... honestly...

Despite the return of motion capture cutscenes. The dragging on of needless subplots for each Shinbakufu member. I began to get burnt out, and it takes far to long for the story pick itself up again, and start hitting the right notes.

In this case - it doesn't make sense. The game so early on clarified what it was going to be, Assassin's Creed? It then turns into a bloated pointless Ubisoft open world, partnered with what felt like a never ending objective board.

Eventually, the story picks up and the linear segments start to get good. Act 2 and 3 are strong and hit the 'right notes' as mentioned.

Unfortunately, the game feels like it is just getting started and then it ends. With what feels like cut or missing content and an underwhelming epilogue.

Gameplay:

Stealth - in this game, it is the best it has been in years. I had the most amounts of fun with what the stealth had to offer. New animations, brutal takedowns, added variety.

Traversal is disappointing - you made clean new animations. But didn't make new parkour systems. Instead Valhalla's was pasted, why? A game set in Japan, and you couldn't be bothered to make something worthy of recognition?

An innovation I did like is the alternating gameplay styles. Naoe and Yasuke play differently. Naoe's gameplay is tailored to the traditional Assasins Creed experience. stealth, quick hand to hand combat, and parkour.

Yasuke has limited parkour but in combat he's a beast. Both characters have multiple different weapon types but I think this better applies to Yasuke. His weapons and choice of builds can amount to huge damage.

Accessibility:

At the start of the game you are presented with a variety of options. Canon, you can choose to have options or witness the true story. I opted for canon as I've spent the last titles choosing the options.

Immersive mode, this blends Japanese and Portuguese voiceover plus dialogue for the characters. Although I did notice glitches using this mode.

Difficulty - expert will cause tougher enemies and they will spot you more. Which makes me laugh, because when you go back to the standard difficulty mode, it feels like an unfinished cheap prototype... hence Ubisoft games.

Exploration, you just search for the location instead of being told. In this one though you have scouts so it's a pointless mode anyway. Initially I started the game off on exploration.

However, it doesn't work well. because the open world of Shadows is not really an open world. It's paths you CANNOT properly traverse mountains or forests. Ubisoft, did you forget to add traversal to the open world?

I ended up switching to guided mode due to this. I recommend you do. You discover more content. I had the map explored and switching to guided revealed more at locations I'd already visited.

Open World:

DO NOT even bother with clearing the map. I did, and I can tell you it is not worth the rewards nor time you spend. You enjoy a couple of tasks for 10 minutes, and then it becomes laughable. Indie devs could create one level and make something more fun than Ubisoft open worlds.

Viewpoints in the game are clearly out of place. They seem to have been added as a last minute addition due to player backlash. The scout system was the replacement for viewpoints, so it would have been interesting to see the map exploration if that change wasn't reverted.

Due to the revert, a lot of the viewpoints are in ridiculous places covered with foliage, a lot of them you climb and they reveal nothing.

There is a more attention to detail. You'll overhear NPCs and then you'll get a new story ark, places of interest, boss fights. It's additions like this that make the world feel alive. Side activities can be interrupted by enemies of Naoe and Yasuke, leading to boss fights.

Extra criticisms:

Why... are there missions that require you to wait until nightfall? when there's no option to change the time of day. This happened around five times and each time the day took twenty minutes to reach nightfall. Ubisoft, this is unbelievable.

I never like microtransactions. It's greedy to offer players paid content that helps progress the game faster. You could have those in as unlockable rewards for playing, you know... after you already bought the game??

Drama:

I am tired of drama surrounding this game, It is pathetic. I mean this to both of the groups causing drama. There's nothing wrong with constructive criticism, and pointing out issues. However...

There's a limit. Pointless hate, unnecessary comments, and overblown reactions. What happened to people playing a game and deciding what they think on their own? I guess that's too difficult nowadays.

Final Verdict:

Assassin's Creed Shadows starts off with strong foundations, getting much right early on with it's storytelling and linear stealth gameplay. But it takes to long to progress from Act 1 to 2, dragging out unnecessarily.

In this time the game becomes a chore to play and failing to the exact same mistakes that Odyssey and Valhalla made. It does eventually become AC, but by the time it does you're already burnt out and the story abruptly ends.

Recommendation:

If you're from the set of original AC games like me. You'll likely be fed up with this as I was, if you're newer then you'll probably think this is amazing. I appreciate the stuff they got right, but the rest of the game is Ubisoft in a nutshell.

Haven't played it but since it's a new assassin's Creed game its trash even without playing it

🟢 The best stealth in the series

🟢 season system evolutionary

🟢 Attention to detail

🟢 balance gameplay between characters

🟢 6 different weapon with special abilities

🟢 cannon mod and granite Assassination good choice

🟡 mid story

🟡 lot of fetch quest

🟡 city creator mod nothing special

🟡 Writing needs to improve a lot,there's a ton of cringe dialogue ( especially in romance scenes)

🔴 after 3 target, other targets more like side story than main story

🔴 The loot system is disappointing.

🔴looks like they forgot about immersive mod after act 1,even Portuguese speak Japanese with yasuke

🔴 weak epilogue

🔴 lot of bugs

+20 hours in the game so far.

The hate is so unnecessary... I admit the game has quite a bit of flaws and lacks with gameplay and open world which both are a bit repetitive but besides that it's a great game and I'm having a lot of fun. In the right direction just need improvement.

Fun ass game and probably the best thing ubisoft has releases since origins. Beautiful game, interesting story and fun enough combat. Also clearing out areas as naoe actually feels like old AC. Don't hate it just because some anti woke creator told you to so they could feel better about dying alone.