Assassins Creed and Call of Duty are the 2 IP’s that have stood the test of time. Where their competitve counterparts have fallen into obscurity or just no longer exist, Assassins Creed has had its ups and downs now and again but Shadows reminds me of what made Assassins Creed good, while still pulling me back and reminding me that this is an Ubisoft product.
It has its ups and downs but for the most part of my review, I enjoyed my time with the game, as someone who barely played an hour of every AC after Black Flag, I enjoyed my 15+ hours with Shadows.
Story
For the first time in the series history, we go to a setting that fans have been wishing for since the time of the Ezio Auditore games - Japan. We go into the shoes of Yasuke and Naoe, both the characters reminded me of Cloak and Dagger from Marvel with each having their own unique strengths, weakness, and play style.
Yasuke is a slave following some merchants and is part of a bigger plan to help take over Japan, Naoe is is on the other side fighting back the takeover of Japan. However, amidst all of this territorial turmoil, a mysterious artifact comes into play and this is where the story truly becomes more than just something out of a history book.
You will take story opportunities between the two characters to take missions where they both shine their skills - Yasuke is a heavy-hitter and is more than capable of holding his own in a fight where he is outnumbered but at the cost of speed, and stealth. Naoe however is the opposite - she is light, nimble, stealthy, and will easily get overpowered in a fight where she does not have a numbers advantage.
Gameplay
The game plays like most other Assasisns Creed games in the modern generation - like an RPG but it has some liberties. You can level up the two characters by completing missions, side quests, and more to further invest into their skill trees to improve them.
In addition there are a plethora of side-quests and content to get lost in. With the ability to revist the pasts of the two characters, Shadows encourages you to go out into the wild and get lost in the paths to find new quests, shrines, temples, and more to admire the beauty of Japan, amid other things .
WHen you are not doing the story missions, the map offers a lot of opportunities to explore and with the ability to fast travel, the game is really a wonder.
I had a few gripes with my game though., as they are known for, there were several times in the early game where I could not progress despite loading any saves for a mission. NPC’s would glitch or the object I was supposed to find would not be anywhere in the area. This happened to me in story missions and side story alike. As a reviewer, I was unable to get help in solving these issues until I got lucky with some glitches actually working when I tried to play again before sleeping or another day.
In addition, when other games have got fast loading times and more, Shadows takes its time to get you into the game with the limitless animus being seen frequently when you boot into the game or fast-travel. I would have expected for the first current-gen only version to feature seamless loading between the game but I was disappointed when loading screens were a frequent occurrence.
Presentation
I played the game on fiedelity mode on my PS5 Pro. I had to sacrifice FPS but it was absolutely worth it. The beauty and splendor of Japan truly felt breathtaking and there were times while playing or just admiring where I felt the FPS was not an issue, similar to Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PS5, i had the illusion of playing at a higher FPS when I know it wasn’t.
The game is visually great especially when it comes to draw distance. Red Dead Redemption 2 is still the undefeated champion of that but this game comes close. However some of the characters in the game still feel a little bit like previous entries and still are in the fine line between being current-gen and previous-gen.
These are minor visual complaints but if you do have a PS5 Pro, I highly recommend playing it on the Fiedelity mode to enjoy the true power of the console.
Conclusion
AC: Shadows is a great game when it worked. The few glitches that prevented me from playing the story at times did really annoy me and I hope these are fixed in the future, but otherwise this is absolutely a game I loved. Where I struggled to get past the first hour of any Assassins Creed game starting with Origins, I am looking forward to pushing for the platinum trophy on this game. It is truly a remarkable game that I see a bright future for.
