8Bit/Digi

American Ninja Warrior

Even as a longtime Assassin’s Creed fan I wasn’t necessarily craving an installment set in feudal Japan, being more amused by playing the parkour-ninja characters in non-traditional locations, however, I’m glad to say that I get it now. Other games have certainly done the setting better, but it feels right for the franchise and many of the elements synergize well. It isn’t perfect. Still, Shadows is a solid step forward for modern Assassin’s Creed titles.

This is an intimidating series to go into cold, but Shadows may be the best jumping on point since Origins in 2017. Here we travel to the end of the 16^th century, during the last part of Japan’s Sengoku period, a time of attempted unification, rebellion, foreign traders, and, of course, bloodshed. There’s a smidge of the modern-day story stuff early on as we use the Animus EGO to hack into some of those tasty DNA memories Abstergo has been hiding and visit the Land of the Rising Sun.

Revenge Again? How Passe

We’re taking on the role of two characters again: the young girl Naoe, a skilled Shinobi who excels at stealth, climbing, and tactical thinking, while her cohort, Yasuke, is a devastatingly powerful samurai who acts as a walking arsenal and juggernaut, but comes across as a gentle giant who murders sometimes. I love playing as Naoe, she’s like my little stabby friend who’s perfect for infiltration and precise objectives. She feels smooth with all the flips and that wonderful grappling hook—working as her is a treat. I do appreciate Yasuke, he’s like an M4 Sherman tank with a Ferrari engine I pull out when someone has crossed my bullshit line or I just want to feel like a wrecking ball. He has a killer set of weapons and some fantastic abilities – I will kick people for days – but he’s also shit at hiding and climbing. Although I love when he lifts someone off the ground with his sword to watch the life drain from their eyes, he’s more of a brutal hitman than an assassin and I’m here to try and relive my glory days in Tenchu.

Naoe is my favorite, which is good because we play her through the majority of the first half and even then we’re given an option on who to pick for most missions. Swapping is easy and I enjoy having choices, especially when the playstyles are so different, but I can’t help but buy into the rumors that Yasuke might have been a late addition or even an afterthought in development. It is nice to see how random NPCs sometimes react differently to the two, even if those important to the story don’t always seem to realize who they’re talking to.

The main reason someone should pick up Shadows is for the gameplay. All of the controls feel right, at least to someone who plays all of these titles, with the parkour flowing exceptionally well and having a silky execution. I still get caught on edges sometimes or mess up my intended direction, though it happened way more in previous games. There is always room for improvement, sure, but traversing with Naoe is much more satisfying. Marking enemies and locating important items is simple, just holding down L2, Eagle Vision is helpful and doesn’t feel limited, while there is a way to activate paths we can follow to markers (just check the map and make sure it’s on the right one first). These small quality-of-life adjustments don’t seem too big, but together they make for a better gameplay experience.

Live By the Sword

Combat is mostly similar to the other recent games, feeling slightly more polished and precise than in Valhalla. The attacks are still light and strong, parrying is always important, as is looking for openings, and I’m more of a defensive player anyway, so I’m a huge fan of Naoe’s rolling dodge, and though she can’t block, Yasuke does. I am filled with reckless abandon as Yasuke. I described him once as a charming oaf because of his proficiency for sneaking, but why would you want to do that with him when the mantra should read ABCMFD: Always Be Cutting Mother Fuckers Down! 

Stealth takes practice, but when the fights inevitably break out they can be a bit tough, especially when Naoe has to take on more than two or three people together, and even rougher when the consumables are all used up. The enemy AI is a bit smarter at noticing us and our actions – most of the time – and hilariously bad at keeping track of the targets, having some disturbingly dumb moments. They have mastered ganging up on people though and that camera is in on this conspiracy too (along with an almost worthless lock-on function) when it comes to foes with ranged attacks.

Death is a likelihood in this line of work, but treat it as an opportunity to reevaluate an approach, as most of the castles and strongholds we face, along with a couple of tougher missions, are more like puzzles when playing as Naoe. Her stealth path and item use can alter encounters greatly. It’s a shame Ubisoft still hasn’t figured out how to do that with the boss fights, they’re often a breeze, only tricky because of excessive minions or offensively tight quarters. There are some excellent options for making combat more approachable, customizable settings that aren’t just a simple on or off, while also having the ability to adjust certain aspects of the difficulty or turn on abilities like Guaranteed Assassinations.

Ninja, Vanish!

In most AC games it starts with stealth, but most missions end in a courtyard filled with mangled corpses and the hero covered in a lot less blood than one might expect after a savage massacre. Shadows wants to live up to its name and make stealth feel more viable, not just like an opening volley. Sneaking feels easier in many ways, I personally love extinguishing candles like a feudal-(Sam)-Fisher, throwing kunai to break lamps, and using the environment as some of these enemies test my patience. Light and dark play a huge part in this challenge, not just the time of day but the player’s positioning in rooms or on top of structures, as there is a neat meter at the top to give an idea of the character’s visibility while standing, crouched, or fully prone. Just remember, pray at shrines for extra health, hide the bodies when possible, and smoke bombs are for people who planned to go home tonight – a.k.a. quitters.

When it works the stealth mechanic kills. Combat is going to break out and that’s fine because these are the stronger parts of the gameplay and they are mostly only hampered by small issues and some poor collision detection. Also, are they ever going to make trees as fun to climb as buildings?

We have the RPG elements again with characters leveling through XP and gaining ability points, but players can only buy so many of those before being forced to gain more Knowledge Ranks, which gate off higher tiers of our skill trees (most based on weapon styles). Knowledge points are earned through smaller annoying, time-wasting activities that would have been entertaining to do a couple of times, but instead remind players that the modern games feel they need this artificial bloat. Better do those side quests to grind for experience and gear, need slightly better stats, and get those numbers up so we don’t get trounced in the next region. How did they get the best fighters? We suck.

Back to a strong positive, this presentation is stellar and has that old Japanese film stylization many people love. Hitting a special ability on an enemy turns the screen black, white, and blood red as the player deals a devastating attack that looks badass and builds morale (at least for me). There are certain visuals and musical cues that make moments feel like classic cinema, including a specific scene that shows the passage of time early on that felt perfect. Like Kurosawa, this game makes mad films, and there are plenty of samurai. 

I know some people aren’t thrilled about the music, especially some of the modern rap, but I’m genuinely digging the soundtrack and score. The songs with lyrics come in during exciting moments and still have a Japanese flair, just modern, while this promo had me shouting. Fantastic marketing. My wife has been playing with the Japanese voices in Immersive Mode and I stick to the English, but I highly recommend subtitles either way because there are other languages in some parts and certain characters speak quite low. Some don’t like the voice acting, but most examples I’ve seen have been from a few small random encounters out of hours of vocal work. Not all of the smaller NPC vendors and such are great, a few of the accents sound overdone, and there are moments when even I questioned if they tried any retakes. But the two leads sound wonderful and exceptionally charming, masterfully bringing these characters to life and making them feel relatable. I’d drink sake with them.

Choosing the Immersive Mode for those who want the Japanese voices comes with a small drawback, as the Narration feature can’t be used with it. This makes sense, of course, but may affect a few people. Ubisoft has some solid accessibility options, but nothing new or spectacular. It’s a shame that some of the same issues have been present for so long, but there’s still more good than bad in those menus. 

Paint a Pretty Picture

Japan itself is one of the best performers in Shadows, as it is downright gorgeous and filled with so much to look at. Once the world opens up and we can explore the countryside, ride through the fields (watch those woods), find hidden paths or these neat little tombs that act like environmental puzzles, there is so much to love. Some of the visuals are stunning and this is one of those games where I don’t fast travel nearly as much as I could, especially in new areas. Well, I did more when I realized I could switch characters during that screen also to save me a loading screen. The details are fantastic, so many of the smaller objects in the environment are destructible and add to the experience – I get so excited cutting down bamboo. It’s a big chunk of Japan and things change with the seasons, slight variations that affect the gameplay, like having less tall grass to hide in, frozen water to walk across, snow slowing our traversal progress, or being careful about knocking down icicles that could alert guards while NPCs huddle up more for warmth, making them harder to pick off. The weather system is spectacular with this crazy wind and I love feeling like a stalking force of nature raiding these fortresses while a storm is raging and lightning strikes behind me in the background. Sometimes, I am death incarnate.

I wish I could say everything worked because even with its flaws there was this awesome synergy to the game. They made stealth and combat enjoyable and gave me an incredible playground to go ham in, but one of the things that didn’t sync up quite as well was the story. Anyone who has played the majority of these games will recognize the familiar narrative beats right away, to the degree it feels almost rote at this point, even if there are some differences. Shadows suffers from something many of the recent games have, a lack of flow and connective tissue in the main path as we run around dealing with side quests, flashbacks, mini-games, and extra mechanics. The game takes a while to get started and open up, encouraging the player to stop and do other activities or build up resources and stats while losing interest and forgetting who our enemies are.

WHAT’S IN THE BOX!?

Near the beginning, we are saddled with starting a group, bolstering our ranks, fortifying the hideout, and constructing new buildings for bonuses. Don’t misunderstand, it’s a neat distraction for those who like that sort of thing, letting players customize and decorate a homestead, as well as having all sorts of animals run around that we’ve pet out in the world, but I mostly ignored it later on. We have to use scouts, a resource that helps track down objectives and can take some time to refill if we aren’t constantly recruiting, so another element that feels like Ubisoft is trying to waste my time. Thankfully, this can be turned off in the options, but having that there makes me think they knew it would annoy some players. I liked the missions that tested your memory and how much we pay attention, like the tea ceremony. It was an appropriate build that led up to a lackluster kill, but that felt earned and will probably be one of the quests I mention from this game for quite some time. 

The game’s mission structure feels disjointed, somewhat easy to follow, but not enjoyable. I’m not huge on the objective board and current narrative structure, especially in an open world with so much to distract us, I forgot about that box we were looking for. There are also some choices in discussions the characters have that only seem important at that moment and thankfully there is a conversation log if players miss something. It felt good to get to spare people when it looked like they earned it. I was also allowed to flirt and play high school counselor a few times. I love the lore for this series, but individually the last few games just feel like their narratives have been missing something. The story isn’t bad, just lacking.

For a game this size, I had surprisingly few glitches. My character levitated a couple of times, a few enemies dropped out of the sky on me, and one NPC didn’t do what I needed them to until I ran away and came back, but there were no crashes or major interruptions. I will be putting many more hours into it, however, so there is still time.Shadows is an impressive beast, one that I didn’t even realize I should have been more excited for. In this case, the game met and exceeded my expectations. That doesn’t mean it’s perfect by any means, but it’s such a good step closer to an experience I know I’ll love one day. I’ve been writing this piece, itching to get back to the game so I can mop up all of my loose ends, and I think that adequately says how much I enjoyed it.

Disclaimer: The publisher through a PR representative provided the game used for this review.

This review is the critique and thoughts of one writer. If you want to see how other critics felt, then check it out on OpenCritic.

8Bit/Digi is an independent media outlet that provides insight into the gamer community of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Assassin's Creed Shadows (PS5)

8

Excellent

8.0/10

Pros

• Improved gameplay mechanics with fluid movment and action.
• A breathtaking vision of Japan with changing seasons.
• Two different characters with varied styles of play.
• Improvments in the stealth mechanics.

Cons

• Lackluster story and mission structure.
• Too many distractions and some bloat.