Since we’re going to be waiting a bit longer for the game, we’re diving into one of its most intriguing features to talk about what we’re hoping to see with Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Hideout and how we’d like it to improve on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s settlement, before we get the chance to start hunting down the Assassin’s Creed Shadows achievements next month.Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Hideout feature will offer more freedom with building and decorating as well as impacting gameplay The Hideout will offer “greater freedom for customization” than we had in Assassin’s Creed ValhallaRelease date: March 20, 2025Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC The Ravensthorpe settlement in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla was an important addition, but it still fell short in certain areas. It functioned as your hub/home/town, and while it might not have been to everyone’s taste, with the size (and number) of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla’s maps, this hub area worked well to anchor Eivor in the game. It made sense in the story, giving Eivor a settlement to invest in and a home to build, but also ensured that we, the players, had somewhere central to return to instead of being left to wander across what often felt like an almost endless open world.Key characters could be found in Ravensthorpe, as well as shops with everything we might need, and letters about quests and characters found their way there too. While this personalized hub area was a great addition and gave us a bit of freedom when it came to decorations and personalization, it did feel like the idea of Ravensthorpe could have been taken further in some areas. From what Ubisoft has said so far, it sounds like Assassin’s Creed Shadows might do just that.“In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the Hideout is your base. Compared to the settlement in Valhalla, we wanted to give players far greater freedom for customization,” Ubisoft devs said in a Reddit AMA. “You can simply also go there and decorate, adding fences, trees, pets that you collect in your exploration, connecting buildings, adding ponds, etc.” Assassin’s Creed Valhalla had fixed locations for buildings, but this has apparently been changed for Shadows as “you will be able to build new rooms and upgrade them. When building one, you can place them almost everywhere, even connecting them to already existing rooms.”Heidi — I have (tentatively) high hopes for the HideoutIt is kind of fun when decoration and building customization make their way out of traditionally cozy games. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s Animal Crossing-style Dondoko Island was a genius idea, for instance, and while an Assassin’s Creed game is unlikely to ever go full Animal Crossing (what would that look like? Assassin’s Crossing? Animal Creed?), AC Shadows’ hideout does sound like it might give us a lot more freedom for personalization. Being able to choose where and what to place in terms of rooms and decorations sounds like a much more alluring invitation to invest time in this Hideout. Assassin’s Creed games usually have a pretty nice photo mode, for one thing, and it’d be a welcome change for players who love their decorating to have a play around with designing, rather than snapping pictures of the same settlement layout with slight decoration changes and being shoehorned into the placement of key buildings. Plus, I sort of love the idea that you can tag out from the Assassin lifestyle to go into full decoration mode.The devs add that “Each new thing you build will have a gameplay impact, like improving your Scouts, upgrading your Allies with the Dojo, unlocking new engraving opportunities with the Forge, even things like a Tea Room that improve your ration efficiency.” This sounds good too, but I’m still hoping these features will be taken a bit further in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. You could get some gameplay benefits via your settlement buildings in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, but in the case of feasting at your longhouse, for instance, this translated to a quick cutscene and stat buff.“The more you build, the more the Hideout gains levels and unlocks new rewards,” the devs continue. “What I like the most is seeing the characters I met that have become my allies interacting with each other or with me. Some have things to say to Naoe or Yasuke, so as you progress, you see your hideout becoming more and more alive.”This could be interesting too, but I’m also interested to know how it’ll look to have “pets that you collect in your exploration” hanging about too. We could get a wolf companion in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (with the stellar naming options of Dwolfg, Chewy, or Mouse), but since we won’t have an eagle in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, it would be nice to have some extra animal buddies hanging about.Most major game releases suffer their fair share of leaks, and one such Assassin’s Creed Shadows leak suggested we’ll have an acre of land to work with for our Hideout, and a grid-based system to use when building on it. This would be far more in-depth than anything we’ve had in Assassin’s Creed yet, but since there’s been no word from Ubisoft on what building in our Hideout will look like, it’d be just wishful thinking on that front until we hear more.Since Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed again, we’ve got a bit longer to wait until release, so hopefully we’ll hear more soon on how the Hideout will work. At least we’ll be free of Tom Nook-style debt (hopefully). What do you think of how the Hideout is sounding so far? Let us know in the comments, and if you’re looking for more Assassin’s Creed info, we’ve also rounded up all the Assassin’s Creed games in order to get us all caught up before release!
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