Here we go again. Assassin's Creed Shadows is the fourth of the post-refresh Assassin's Creed games and the first without Layla as our present-day protagonist. This time round, the focus is pretty much entirely on the in-Animus action; ignoring a post-launch addon, there's no content that references the Isu at all.
I'll get one thing out of the way first: I don't think there is a very good game here. I've normally got a lot of patience for the formula—I've played Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla to completion. Across these four games, that's at least five-hundred hours! I can say with some confidence that this is the weakest so far, but I don't think the reasons for this are simple. There's a beautiful world with some of the prettiest weather effects I've ever seen in a game. There's some solid player agency in how to approach things: Naoe with stealth, Yasuke with brawn. It just doesn't quite manage to be fun or engaging.
The story is far more nebulous than in previous games. The Templars have arrived in Japan but are not the focus. Instead, Naoe hopes to avenge the death of her father by hunting down the Shinbakfu, who act as this game's equivalent to organisations like the Cult of Kosmos. Again, we are given adversaries with single-word codenames and here each of them can be treated like a "main quest". I won't talk further about the story, but suffice to say that no story beat stood out as particularly memorable. Generally speaking, I preferred Yasuke's arc more than Naoe. The expansion, Claws of Awaji has a tighter plot with a more focussed goal but is offset by certain encounters that are more irritating than the base game.
Mechanically, it's more of the same, but a little less reliable. Bad user interfaces slow things down, unreliable behaviours make interactions arduous, and combat that I found surprisingly clunky generally made me regret being spotted by enemies. I have no idea why I have to hold a button to open a treasure chest instead of looting with a single press, but it's made a hundred times worse by the likelihood of accidentally extinguishing a candle instead. Or the interaction prompt moving off camera slightly and being reset. Or the thing I'm trying to open being up on a raised platform I don't seem able to stand on. Still, I did find satisfaction in clearing out castles with Naoe and did several of the optional, corrupted repeats for experience and resources.
Finally, the steady ratcheting up of the optional paid extras continues here. There's boosts. There's armour and weapons (with new legendary perks!) There's skins. It just never ends.
Is it Worth Playing?
Not really. Shadows has a beautiful world but no substance.
👎
Loot for the Hoard:
A mikan (a small, sweet citrus) and 160,152 mon.