The latest chapter in Ubisoft’s signature Assassin’s Creed series will be out in just a couple days, and while we had an early copy, we likely won’t have a full review and score of the game until next week.
I’m the one reviewing the game for the site, and it’s the middle of the 2025 Game Developer’s Conference. In addition to actually being here, a lot of time last week was spent preparing for the work to be done during the event. That said, I’ll talk about what I think of the game so far.
Let’s just address the elephant in the room first. This game isn’t Ghost of Tsushima. And this story isn’t FX’s Shogun. Both that game and that show, especially as a big fan of the ways of the samurai and samurai films, were absolutely fantastic. I can’t say the same about Assassin’s Creed Shadows yet, not because it isn’t good — I’m actually really enjoying my time with it. All I can say is with the huge world there is to explore, again, expect much of the same as we saw with the last big, open world Assassin’s Creed games.
As awesome as it is to once again be back in the thick of a big Ubisoft open world title, I’m not a fan of the way the game handles uncovering objectives. When I see an objective on the map, and make my way to it, I expect that to be it. In Shadows, as you make your way towards objectives, the game sort of forces you to do more exploring and investigation in order to find what or who it is you’re supposed to find. There are even times in which objectives aren’t clearly on the map at all, and the game forces you to utilize your scout system in order to give you a better determination of where your destination actually is. I prefer to have exploration as a tool to make something more interesting, not as a way to lengthen the experience, and this is all that actually does.
With so much attention pre-release about Yasuke, 15 hours in, this game hasn’t even been about him.
Speaking of lengthening the experience, I’m about 15 hours in, doing what I think are “golden path” objectives, or what I believe would progress the story more quickly. While I’m expecting this to be your typical 40-hour action RPG spectacle, I’m not a fan of having to have played as much as I have but not getting to use Yasuke yet. 15 hours in, and aside from the tutorial mission, I’ve never used Yasuke. I don’t know if this is a result of all the backlash that occurred when he was first unveiled as a protagonist, but it’s a bummer to have been playing this long and not getting to enjoy his story up to this point.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows also has pretty extensive base growth and upkeep system in its hideout. In your hideout you build all sorts of buildings and recruit villagers to prepare you for the missions ahead. I don’t typically like this stuff in any sort of game, but I do enjoy the banter that Naoe, the female protagonist in Assassin’s Creed has with her followers.
My favorite part of the experience so far are these meditation sidequests which do a solid job of both world building and giving you a look at Naoe’s origins. You learn about her family and why she’s on this thirst for revenge. The missions also work as solid training and give you a better grasp of how the game plays. Unfortunately these quests aren’t without their issues. My biggest problem with them is that if you die, and as Naoe, that’ll happen a fair bit on Normal difficulty, the checkpoints are hardly forgiving. I was stealthing for a full 20 minutes one time before I was killed, and I respawned pretty much at the beginning of the quest.
The latest chapter in Ubisoft’s signature Assassin’s Creed series will be out in just a couple days, and while we had an early copy, we likely won’t have a full review and score of the game until next week.
I’m the one reviewing the game for the site, and it’s the middle of the 2025 Game Developer’s Conference. In addition to actually being here, a lot of time last week was spent preparing for the work to be done during the event. That said, I’ll talk about what I think of the game so far.
Let’s just address the elephant in the room first. This game isn’t Ghost of Tsushima. And this story isn’t FX’s Shogun. Both that game and that show, especially as a big fan of the ways of the samurai and samurai films, were absolutely fantastic. I can’t say the same about Assassin’s Creed Shadows yet, not because it isn’t good — I’m actually really enjoying my time with it. All I can say is with the huge world there is to explore, again, expect much of the same as we saw with the last big, open world Assassin’s Creed games.
As awesome as it is to once again be back in the thick of a big Ubisoft open world title, I’m not a fan of the way the game handles uncovering objectives. When I see an objective on the map, and make my way to it, I expect that to be it. In Shadows, as you make your way towards objectives, the game sort of forces you to do more exploring and investigation in order to find what or who it is you’re supposed to find. There are even times in which objectives aren’t clearly on the map at all, and the game forces you to utilize your scout system in order to give you a better determination of where your destination actually is. I prefer to have exploration as a tool to make something more interesting, not as a way to lengthen the experience, and this is all that actually does.
With so much attention pre-release about Yasuke, 15 hours in, this game hasn’t even been about him.
Speaking of lengthening the experience, I’m about 15 hours in, doing what I think are “golden path” objectives, or what I believe would progress the story more quickly. While I’m expecting this to be your typical 40-hour action RPG spectacle, I’m not a fan of having to have played as much as I have but not getting to use Yasuke yet. 15 hours in, and aside from the tutorial mission, I’ve never used Yasuke. I don’t know if this is a result of all the backlash that occurred when he was first unveiled as a protagonist, but it’s a bummer to have been playing this long and not getting to enjoy his story up to this point.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows also has pretty extensive base growth and upkeep system in its hideout. In your hideout you build all sorts of buildings and recruit villagers to prepare you for the missions ahead. I don’t typically like this stuff in any sort of game, but I do enjoy the banter that Naoe, the female protagonist in Assassin’s Creed has with her followers.
My favorite part of the experience so far are these meditation sidequests which do a solid job of both world building and giving you a look at Naoe’s origins. You learn about her family and why she’s on this thirst for revenge. The missions also work as solid training and give you a better grasp of how the game plays. Unfortunately these quests aren’t without their issues. My biggest problem with them is that if you die, and as Naoe, that’ll happen a fair bit on Normal difficulty, the checkpoints are hardly forgiving. I was stealthing for a full 20 minutes one time before I was killed, and I respawned pretty much at the beginning of the quest.
by Danreb Victorio
