Assassin's Creed Shadows – Review

Since Assassin’s Creed He first left the streets of the Middle East to visit a different place in the world in each delivery, fans have been wishing them to take them to feudal Japan. It makes a lot of sense, because the members of the Brotherhood of murderers are practically ninjas. Finally —18 years after we play Altair – we go to the Land of the Rising Sun in Assassin’s Creed Shadows And although there are many fans excited for it, others believe that it is too late and will not be able to save one of the most popular Ubisoft franchises, one that has fallen into the comfort of the repetition.

I knew very well what to expect from this game. It was going to be a massive adventure in Japan of the 16th century – during the unification wars of the Sengoku Period– That he was going to combine the playability of stealth that characterized the saga in its beginning with the RPG elements and the focus on the most recent deliveries. Although the mixture is successful, many of the same sins of their predecessors continue to commit with some new ones.

Like the previous saga games, Assassin’s Creed Shadows impacts with its representation of the scenarios and historical moments that it shows. Their landscapes of feudal Japan are based on real places and data, beautifully recreated and accompanied by academic information of very good source. We can visit the Great Castle of Azuchi, the fields devastated by the war in Harima and the imposing Lake Biwa. We will also know such important personalities as the Shogun Ashikaga Yoshiaki, the Portuguese missionary Luis Fróis, the legendary Ninja Hattori Hanzo and the same Emperor Oda Nobunaga.

This is a dream come true for the 'gamers' lovers of the history of Japan, although obviously many details of the real story change to accommodate the original elements and characters of the game. On the contrary, lovers of the 'lore' of Assassin’s Creed They can be a bit disappointed with the way the plot is handled. His main theme is how difficult it is to adhere to the principles and beliefs in the midst of the horrors of war, but treats him in a very dispersed way. The absolute approach is found in Naoe's revenge against the secret organization Shinbakufu responsible for the death of his father and Everything related to the War of murderers against Templar and the ISU civilization goes not to second, but to the third plane. More than 30 hours of play passed before the brotherhood of murderers was mentioned for the first time.

Although the story is not bad, it can be generic and not very surprising. Naoe's revenge plot works only thanks to the way it is linked to historical characters and events since the characters manage to win our love. Neither the ninja nor the huge Yasuke are especially deep, but they have a lot of personality and charisma. The way in which the friendship between the two evolves is tender and there are some relationships with other characters that are extremely interesting. But to reach this point you have to have played many hours. For example, although we play with Yasuke at the beginning of the game for about 15 minutes, They spend about 15 hours before we find it again and join the adventure.

15 hours to play with the deuteragonist? 30 hours to find the brotherhood? That's how it is. Assassin’s Creed Shadows It takes too much time developing its history and revealing its gameplay. It is a huge game that will test the patience of many players. Despite the variety of their scenarios and the versatility of their game mechanics, you can feel too repetitive. The development of its history has an atrocious rhythm and Many of the activities that distract us from the main objectives feel like filling.

We not only have to look for the members of Shinbakufu to kill them. Every two steps we take, another evil organization arises with half a dozen members that we must look for, complete terrible rhythm minijugos with katas, get objects to decorate the protagonist's lair and the map tempts us with a watchtower or an interrogation symbol that diverts us several minutes of our goal. Even if we stick to the main missions, this is not a game that respects the time of its players. Doing everything you offer can take us about 100 hours And although some are attracted to this kind of mass games, others feel it as an impossible task. Another activity that “devours” our time while we play is simply traveling the map from one point of interest to another. Although I enjoyed these travel trips because of how meditative that results and the beauty of the landscapes that I was visiting, they are the best example of how empty “the map is despite the numerous points that mark it.

Even those who appreciate that a game can last them for the rest of the year they have to accept that much of what makes it so long is nothing more than filling. I played less than two years ago Assassin’s Creed Mirage And although that game also has its own defects, it is remarkable how much that improves the experience thanks to a more direct story and a more compact map.

But I'm being very negative and I want to make something clear: I liked it Assassin’s Creed Shadows. The problems that I have mentioned did not prevent me from enjoying the general experience and play and much of it is due to its main elements of playability: stealth and fighting.

Infiltrating in enemy territories such as Naoe remains as exciting as ever. Once we have unlocked the main tools of 'Shinobi', these scenarios become interesting puzzles that we solve finding the right moments to hide, kill, flee, and use tools. These places are always full of useful resources that tempt us to risk to obtain them and get rid of camps leaders always reward us with good equipment. If you discover us, fight is also an option and For the first time in the saga I can say that I had a lot of fun fighting. Naoe is fragile – it can be defeated by a couple of blows – and the controls can be somewhat inaccurate, but we can create combinations of weapons, equipment and skills that make us true glass cannons.

Initially I felt disappointed because the team had such boring characteristics as “+3% poison accumulation” or “+2% damage”. But eventually we get ankle boots with characteristics that have great synergy between them and that make the fight more fun. For example, create a Yasuke 'Build' that allows me to block unpronsate attacks, stun the nearby enemies after blocking and damaging the enemies if I block them. Thanks to that I finished very difficult fighting without even pressing the attack button.

Since I mentioned the black samurai, he is the opposite of Naoe. Trying to be stealthy when controlling it is a futile task, but it is a true battle tank capable of containing a dozen enemies alone. The combination of melee attacks, at a distance, use of tools, skills, invocation of allies and counterattacks caused me to have both bursting into the midst of the enemies and drawing a route of hiding places so that they would not see me. Eventually we find annoying enemies that are true damage sponges, but they didn't ruin my time.

Other new mechanics of Assassin’s Creed Shadows They are not as useful or interesting as those introduced to combat. The explorers system – which allows us to mark areas of the map to know if our goal is there – is a good bad idea implemented and station changes do not have so much impact on playability as they should, although they make the scenarios look more varied and beautiful. As for bugs, glitches and performance problems, I did not find many. On one occasion I saw a stuck guard and in another it was launched by the air, but it is not as serious as in other Ubisoft pitches. In performance mode, the game ran at 60 FPS fluids in almost all areas. The only one that was “tied” at 30 fps was the den.

The option to start romances with certain characters is very welcome and lends itself to short and adorable stories, but does not contribute anything to the plot or playability. We applaud the diversity it offers – NOE can fall in love with both male and female characters and Yasuke also has a non -binary gender character among their options – but it is so irrelevant that these characters do not be mentioned again after consummating the relationship.

I must emphasize something I said above and it is that Despite its multiple defects, I enjoyed Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It is more of the same and does nothing special or revolutionary, but it makes important things very well. Combat and stealth are very solid, the protagonists are pleasant and the world is beautiful. For me, that was more than enough.

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Review made with a digital copy of Assassin's Creed Shadows for PS5 provided by Ubisoft. This game is also available for Xbox Series X | S and for PC.