The much-awaited next game in the Assassin’s Creed series Assassin’s Creed Shadows is now upon us. This time it takes us to Japan and with it two protagonists who are very different from each other. Normally, the Animus will only work with one DNA but this is the first time that the Animus gives us two different people from two different DNAs. Both of them still have some connection to the Assassins of old.
Our characters this time are Naoe and Yasuke. Yasuke is a samurai who works for Lord Nobunaga, while Naoe is a shinobi who made a promise to her father to take back what was rightfully theirs to protect.
The gameplay for each character is very different from each other. Yasuke uses brute strength to defeat enemies and overcome obstacles. While Naoe uses stealth and her tools to gain an advantage over her enemies. You get a bit of a taste of the gameplay that each character has at the beginning but you don’t get to choose who to play as until much later in the game.
For this iteration of the game, they have brought back levels. For those who have played Assassin’s Creed: Origins, this might be a little familiar. Your characters will equip weapons and armor but they are gated by levels which means you can’t equip high-level armor and weapons if you don’t meet the level requirement.
However, you can also level up your low-level equipment and armor if you find yourself liking a certain weapon or armor. This can be done in the forge where it will allow you to level up and also engrave perks to your weapons.
Although, I do like the idea of leveling because it makes the game feel more like an RPG. I think it doesn’t really fit well into the Assassin’s Creed formula. Your character is an assassin who can supposedly kill someone by stealth and yet because you are not high level enough or not at the level when you’re targeting certain opponents, you only end up damaging them a bit for some reason.
Your characters will also have Mastery skills which are based on their weapons and abilities. You can earn a Mastery point by leveling up and you can unlock Mastery skills and passives with it. Each Mastery tree has up to Rank 6 of unlockable skills and passives. However, for you to reach a higher rank of Mastery you will need to upgrade your Knowledge Rank.
Leveling up your Knowledge Rank is done through getting Knowledge points which you can get from Shrines and Points of Interest which will ask you to search or do certain things in able to get the Knowledge Points. For someone who just wants to play casually on their free time, all these gates to improve your character just seems very restrictive and that your progress relies solely on being able to explore as much as you can in a world so big it feels exhausting just thinking about it. I’m not really sure I understand why there are these many hurdles just to become more powerful in the game.
I can kind of get that they are doing this to encourage you to explore the world a little more but somehow it just feels like a chore trying to level up your character. They are making something as leveling up more complicated than it should be and they forcing people to do more than just doing the main missions.
Take for example, the building phase of the game. Just like in Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, you have these buildings that you can build to improve your base. You can build the forge and other buildings that can help you with your progress. Right at the very beginning one of the main quests will ask you to build the forge. But in order to build the forge, you need to gather materials. The materials are very difficult to find and when you find them you’d still need to wait for the season to cycle in order to be able to use some of the materials you gathered. Sure, there are merchants that can sell these materials but then you also need to have the money to do so which you also have to find by killing enemies or looting.
Another hurdle you need to overcome is something as simple as finding your next objective on a quest. You can’t just merely explore the world or walk up to someone to enable you to continue your quest. You will need to use scouts to scan the map to reveal your next objective. I don’t understand why gatekeep quests like this. I would have been okay with using eagle vision to reveal your next quest but using scouts that you need to replenish to find your next quest feels unnecessary.
Don’t get me wrong though, although the game mechanics itself is a little bit unnecessary, the world itself is so beautiful that it would really entice you to explore it. You can even pet animals! The graphics itself is really stunning and just like any other Assassin’s Creed games, the viewpoints are a sight to behold. I do like that you don’t need to press anything once you get at that perch. It automatically syncs for you and that’s one less job for you to do. It’s a simple quality-of-life change that I can welcome happily.
Combat is also very fluid and seamless. Just seeing Naoe in action is very impressive and you can feel like you are a master assassin yourself. But then again, you really can’t enjoy her full potential unless you unlock the necessary skills that make her very powerful.
Overall, Assassin’s Creed Shadows tried to be this big massive open-world RPG. While some of its elements are a welcome sight, the gatekeeping can feel very offputting at times if you just want to soldier on through the main story. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is best played when you have a lot of time on your hands to play it. But for those of us who can only chip in an hour or two of gaming, it may not be the ideal game for you to play.
This review is based on a PS5 review code provided by the developer/publisher.
Assassin's Creed Shadows (PS5)
Assassin's Creed Shadows tried to be this big massive open world RPG. While some of its elements are a welcome sight. The gatekeeping can just feel very offputting at times if you just want to soldier on through the main story.
The Good
- You can pet animals!
- Fluid combat
- Breathtaking sceneries
The Bad
- Too many gatekeepers that impede progress
