REVIEW
ASSASSINS CREED : SHADOWS
Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is an excellent game that is a far better game than I expected it to be. Especially when compared to the previous entries in the Assassin’s Creed series. Combat is better than it looks in the videos. The graphics are great, and the audio is incredible. The audio dynamically changes to represent the situation in the game in real-time. The background score and ambience are done very well, and they match the Japanese aesthetics and setting to near perfection. However, what does not match is certain animations of the main character, as it feels like Naoe acts like an American instead of a Japanese, especially in certain scenes where she is shown exhibiting certain emotional behaviours, like laughing. I think if the developers had hired some actual Japanese people to design her, it would have been better. That being said, one of the main Naoe definitely looks very Japanese.
GAMEPLAY
Combat has a slight weight to it, or at least the controller vibrations seem to convey that feel. Combat is nowhere near as floaty as Odyssey or Valhalla, and while the animations are somewhat poor, they are not as bad as the enemy animations in Rise of the Ronin. While enemy animations feel somewhat unpolished, and so does the character movement, especially the sprinting animations, which could use a bit of refinement, the overall combat is very satisfactory. Both main characters, Yasuke and Naoe, have satisfactory combat. I prefer Naoe. Parry timings are not hard, and dodging is easy; the main difficulty comes from the attack patterns of the enemies, as sometimes they are hard to predict, so as to know what they will do next. The enemy AI seems to defend if you defend, and the enemy seems to remain in that position, which I find a little funny. There are multiple weapons to choose from for both characters; I mostly used the katana for the majority of the game while playing as Naoe.
GRAPHICS & AUDIO
Graphics are simply superb. With colourful tree leaves, forestry and mountains and the most natural-feeling terrain in open-world games that I have experienced yet, which contains both horizontal and vertical traversal, which feels very realistic. To complement the graphics, the audio provides an amazing natural ambience that ranges from various birds chirping and animals, as well as other various natural sounds, including the sound of water and wind. While previous games in the series had excellent open-world design, literally every part of the open world in this game is very beautiful and scenic; it surpasses not only the older games in the series but also most open-world games in recent times. Going through a thick patch of small woods and leaves is extremely realistic and something I do not remember experiencing in any other open-world game.
STORY
The story is very intriguing. It held my interest from start to finish. Side quests seem to have multi-layer progress with depth. I did not expect any presentations of Japanese culture, but I was pleasantly surprised by the detailed presentation on various subjects, like in a side quest which involves getting a kimono to join a tea ceremony, where the player learns about the etiquette of bowing and more, including how to act during a visit to a noble’s house, where you learn about how others interact with each other as well. It showed various aspects of a part of a Japanese noble’s social life, where you see other characters of a similar class but from various walks of life. There is a lot of polish in the storytelling this time around.
SIDE-QUESTS
Ghost of Tsushima’s influence is visible here; however, Shadows has its own original game flow that does not directly copy anything from Tsushima. One of the side activities, such as Kuji-Kiri, is original and is on par with Haiku in Tsushima. Kuji-Kiri is a mini game that is unique in that it explores the past of one of the two protagonists, Naoe, which feels rewarding. As a matter of fact, nearly all side activities and side quests are worthwhile in this game. Another particular side quest was also surprisingly longer than I expected, which ended up having a plot twist near the end. That being said, side quests do get repetitive; there are too many evil groups of enemies to tackle, not just the main story ones.
OVERALL
While you can expect the same Ubisoft formula throughout the entirety of the game, there is enough depth to everything, which does make this a pleasant surprise.