AC series fans have long been wishing for an entry set in feudal Japan, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally delivers that wish. After diving into the stories of dual protagonists Naoe and Yaskue and exploring the game’s gorgeous world, here are my thoughts for our Assassin’s Creed Shadows review. Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like a rejuvenation of the RPG formula introduced with Origins, Valhalla, and OdysseyShadows is 14th main entry of the Assassin’s Creed games in order, and sees dual protagonists Naoe, a shinobi Assassin, and Yasuke, a powerful samurai, navigate the political turbulence of Sengoku-era Japan on their mission to hunt down their targets. We haven’t seen two main characters since Assassin’s Creed Syndicate’s Frye twins, and it’s a big shift for the series.The main story is a sweeping, epic tale of rival powers, intrigue and betrayal, and the fight against corruption. Of course, it wouldn’t be an Assassin’s Creed game without plenty of people to assassinate, and there’s almost an overwhelming number of evil organisations to take out on the side of your main story. It is a nice feeling when, every time you go to your Objectives screen, you see a new mysterious group appear with new targets to hunt. The freedom you’re given to choose which path to pursue means you might often kill a target before you’ve even had a chance to read the cryptic clues meant to tell you about their backstory and location, making it feel as though you’ve wandered into the quest backwards, but it is a cool detail to know they’re just wandering around the map waiting for Naoe or Yasuke to bring justice upon them.Dual protagonistsAfter the usual introductions and prologues, you’re unleashed into the world. The first chunk of the game is spent as Naoe, learning the basics of stealth and assassination. She’s a good choice for your introductory character (this is Assassin’s Creed, after all), but after progressing further through the story, you unlock Yasuke’s character too. You can easily switch between the two protagonists in your inventory, and if they both need to appear in cutscenes, you can choose who gets to speak, and who you’ll play as once the scene is over. The difference is immediately clear when you switch to Yasuke — there’s a major contrast in how easily he can dispatch enemies which would have overwhelmed Naoe. Yasuke feels especially powerful in combat and, until you get into tougher regions, can often almost one-hit kill his way through a crowd.The trade-off for Yasuke’s strength is his speed. This isn’t like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where Eivor could go into full-on combat while also moving and climbing with agility; Yasuke moves much more slowly, especially when contrasted to Naoe (the fastest assassin in the series so far). He can climb, but not with anywhere near as much agility. This can lead to frustrations when trying to clear areas like temples — while Naoe can climb to hidden loot in trees or on the tops of buildings in seconds, Yasuke needs to find a longer, slower way around. This makes sense in the context of the game, and encourages you to think about how you want to approach each objective, but it is sometimes frustrating not to have that speed and agility readily available when playing as Yasuke. When you first unlock his character, it almost feels as though the game would have preferred you to stick with Naoe; most initial quests can only be started by her, castles and temples feels more speedily and efficiently managed with Naoe’s stealth, and to add insult to injury, people in the Hideout only seem to want to speak to her.Of course, Yasuke gets more to do the further you move through the game. He also has some of the best combat abilities, including a spinning leap with the Naginata which comes in handy when surrounded by enemies (side note: he also has some of the coolest armor and horse cosmetics in the game, too). Those abilities come with dramatic, black-and-white scenes with spurts of vivid red as you slice up enemies. You really do slice, too: heads and arms go flying all over the place with Yasuke’s awesome finishers. So far, I’m still more interested in playing as Naoe; her speed alone is a major benefit, but the ease of her stealth abilities makes clearing quest objectives hugely enjoyable. It is fun to switch back to Yasuke and have that ease in combat, but if you prefer to play with stealth and assassination mechanics, Naoe’s tools, agility, and especially her grappling hook are a clear winner.That grappling hook is a major benefit of playing as Naoe. The architecture of the temples, for instance, mean it’d be near impossible for her to climb between those tiered roofs without it. Stealth gameplay with the grappling hook feels smooth and speedy, and it hugely expands her capabilities. It’s fast enough to use that you can quickly dodge onto a roof if your assassination attempts aren’t going too well, and it adds a level of ease to the gameplay which is much missed as Yasuke.Another big difference between the two is that only Naoe can use the Observe mechanic on top of the Eagle Vision, which is a big help in identifying and tagging enemy and loot. It feels like Yasuke’s missing something when you first try playing without Eagle Vision, but you quickly get used to it, especially since he can still tag enemies in a more limited way. Naoe has far more options for assassination, but Yasuke isn’t without abilities there, either, since he can unlock skills for more brutal assassinations. Admittedly, that brutal assassination involves yelling at your victim to get their attention first, so you can’t always go back into stealth afterwards, but still.Weapons and gearAnother major difference between the two are their weapons. Yasuke has his long katana while the Naginata is ideal for dealing with multiple enemies, and the Kanabo adds to his power even more. He also has a bow and teppo rifle for ranged attacks.Naoe has a katana too, as well as the tanto/Hidden Blade combo. I like that both have good options for dealing with crowds of enemies, as Naoe also has the ball and chain-style Kusarigama for wide, sweeping attacks to push enemies back. Naoe also has much more in the way of stealth and throwable tools, and when it comes to assassination antics, she can do the leap of faith, while Yasuke… can’t. Really. Try it out for an achievement and see how he fares.Both characters have some gorgeous armor and weapon options, and you can often find major loot hidden around the world by chatting to NPCs and having them reward you with rumors and world info. What’s more, you can transmog armor by unlocking and upgrading the Forge in your Hideout, so you can keep the look you like best while getting the benefits of a better piece of gear.Levelling up and progressionOne very useful thing is that both characters level up together, so you don’t need to worry about one being completely underleveled if you’ve neglected them. They also have their own Mastery Points, so you don’t need to choose between investing in Yasuke or Naoe. It feels like there are more options in Naoe’s arsenal for approaching quest objectives, but at the same time, Yasuke’s combat abilities do help spice things up a bit. Progression involves earning Mastery Points to spend in individual skill trees, where you can choose to invest in particular weapon abilities or more general boosts to assassin skills, for example. One thing to watch out for here is your Knowledge Rank. Skills are locked behind Knowledge Ranks, so having enough Mastery Points to unlock them won’t help you if you haven’t levelled up your Knowledge Rank too. You do this by earning Knowledge Points out in the world: finding lost pages or praying at temple shrines, for instance. The amount of Knowledge Points you need to move up your Knowledge Rank increases rapidly, so unless you make sure to complete these activities as you go, you can wind up having more than enough Mastery Points but nowhere to spend them, meaning you’d need to fast-travel all over the place to grind away at Knowledge Points.ExplorationShadows’ map isn’t exactly uncluttered, but it is much cleaner than we’ve had in recent entries. You don’t have your eagle friend in this game, but when you climb to vantage points you can observe the world around you to reveal new points of interest, which then appear on your map. They still don’t show what they are until you’re much closer, so it’s a nice encouragement for natural exploration: highlight the POI while observing it, and then travel to it yourself to see what it might be. There’s also a helpful Pathfinder ability to show you which road to follow so you don’t wind up bogged down somewhere in the countryside.Scouts also play an important part in exploration. You’re given the usual guidelines for where to find quest objectives, but can also send out scouts to pinpoint where to go. You can tag resource stockpiles for scouts to smuggle back to your Hideout, and if they haven’t been busy that season, they’ll bring some extra resources back too. World activitiesNaoe and Yasuke have their own activities in the world, too, which is a nice touch. Naoe can engage in Kuji-kiri meditation, which takes us back into her memories to learn more about her and her shinobi skills. Like all AC games, this one jumps all over the place with its timeline, and the dates of these flashbacks can feel confusing at first when you’re trying to juggle all the other info the game is throwing at you. But they soon start to flow, while the activity itself gives you a brief, lovely glimpse of a black-and-white painterly art style of Shadows’ world before you dive into Naoe’s memories.Yasuke’s options are more combat-focused, with people to teach him Kata maneuvers or horse archery events, but both characters can engage in one of Shadows’ lovelier activities: painting the wildlife of Japan, which comes with the reward of a new decoration to use in the Hideout.You’ve also got the usual assortment of contracts to complete, which you can pick up either at your Hideout or in the safe rooms you unlock in the outside world, and which refresh each season. Then there are time-limited Animus Projects. You can access these in the Animus menu, and they usually require assassinations or other resolutions of “corrupted” data. The rewards for following these Projects through to the end do look pretty awesome: extra fancy gear, for one thing, or extra resources and so on. They also reward you with Keys to be spent in the Exchange (also found in the Animus menu) which is another way of unlocking store content instead of spending real-world money.A beautiful settingShadows’ world is lovely. It’s more akin to the bright colors of AC Odyssey rather than the rainier setting of AC Valhalla, but there’s something beautiful everywhere: cherry blossom trees, temple complexes, vast fields, bamboo groves, and forests stretch into the distance, and the changing seasons and atmospheric effects give extra depth to this backdrop.You can see mountains fading into the morning mist, wind swirling across the land, and the varying scenery as the seasons shift. This season change is reflected in small details, such as a tree flowering once more in your Hideout, as well as in bigger gameplay elements: contracts, scouts, and shop stock changes every season, for instance. The atmospheric effects of rain or fire and lightning also add some pretty epic backdrops for fights.It’s easy to see how many hours you could lose to making use of this gorgeous world in the Photo Mode, but I do love that they’ve kept one silly AC detail: people still hurl themselves away from you when you’re riding past, even if they wouldn’t have been in the way. Old women, little kids, everyone; they practically backflip across your path as if you’re out to get them.As for the things you can charge through: the destructible environments are a nice touch, as you can slice away at bamboo groves if you’re stuck and need a fast escape. Enemies are able to do this too, however, so if they know you’re hiding in the area, they’ll go chopping away at bushes and hedges to try and flush you out.It looks especially cool when you’re fighting inside: Yasuke is able to burst through things when he’s sprinting, but while this is a helpful resource in a fight, it’s a bit awkward when you were just trying to exit the door of one of your own safe areas and demolish it instead.Hideout and rewardsAnother big change in Shadows is the Hideout, which functions as a fully customisable base to build a shinobi league. We’ve covered that at great length already in our impressions of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ best feature so far, but it’s worth noting that aside from XP and cool new weapons and armor pieces, rewards will often come in the form of decorations for your Hideout, or resources to upgrade its buildings. I love the decoration options for the Hideout — you can place buildings anywhere and customize the inside with your paintings, gear, or other cosmetics, and the outside with different roof styles and so on. You can connect rooms and build paths and covered corridors, as well as decorate with trees and gardens. Perhaps the best bit is that petting animals in the world will often give you a new creature to place in the Hideout (I’ve got 4 dogs, 2 puppies, 2 cats, 2 oxen, 2 monkeys, a deer, and counting).Even if you’re not fussed about decorating, it’s worth investing in and upgrading the buildings. Weapons and gear can be levelled up at your Hideout, once you’ve unlocked the Forge, and engraved there too for extra combat boosts. Upgrading other buildings will give you more spies, a place to train allies, or other gameplay benefits, and before long you’ll have a busy Hideout complex to return to.Achievements You’ve got the choice of Performance, Balanced, and Quality modes, as well as the more particular options of whether you want to enable Canon mode or make the important story decisions yourself. It’s worth noting here that while you can change the difficulty options at any time, some achievements can’t be unlocked if you have the guided exploration option switched on.It’s a welcome surprise to see that achievements have been unlocking at a nice pace so far, feeling more attainable and more of a natural challenge than the grind we had to do by the end of some of the older AC games. It feels like more fun has been had with these achievements, such as the Adventurer achievement for shooting an enemy in the knee with an arrow. While some late-game map-related achievements might take more work, it feels like there’s a much bigger draw to chase those down.SummaryAssassin’s Creed Shadows feels like a rejuvenated new entry for the series: more polished, more streamlined, and more feasible in terms of completion than some of the recent games. I appreciated how quickly this game gets going — especially when compared to slower openings, like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It still boasts a massive open world, something which those older games struggled to make as rewarding to explore as they could have been, but I’m itching to see everything Shadows has to offer. It really does feel like that feudal Japan setting is more worth the wait.8 / 10* Heidi spent over 20 hours hurtling through feudal Japan, earning 15 achievements on the way. A review copy was provided by the publisher and played on an Xbox Series X.
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