Assassin's Creed Shadows Review - Through the Shadows of Japan

*This review has been updated with the full verdict. The review-in-progress was updated with my final impression of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, completed with a score. The impressions and details mentioned in the review-in-progress version remain inact.

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows is Ubisoft’s next big title as a publisher, delivering a much-awaited scenario for the storied Assassin’s Creed franchise - 16th century Japan. I’ve played over 60 hours, finishing loose ends in the story, and have visited each region in the game. This game is massive, reminiscent of the Odyssey and Valhalla days, as there’s a crazy amount of content and land to explore.

Shadows is intimidating in size and thankfully packs various features and design choices that make it the first game to find a solid middle ground of mixing what made the older titles iconic and the newer titles so popular within the Assassin’s Creed community. I have a few issues with the game, but overall I had a blast traveling through Ubisoft’s interpretation of 1500s Japan.

Seasonal beauty

Based on recent entries, I’ve been impressed with the visual environments seen in Assassin’s Creed games. Valhalla and Odyssey have blown up the open world series’ scale, and it’s really no different here in Shadows. Almost all Viewpoints in the game are a treat for the eyes, as the artisanal developers that craft the worlds of the Assassins Creed games are truly the best in the business. Long-time fans know this all too well, but the big surprise is how each location has different variations thanks to the game’s day and night cycles, seasonal changes, and weather effects working together to create this visual spectacle.

For example, an area that starts as a lush, vibrant landscape transforms into rustic autumn hues as leaves fall in strong winds. Hours later, I return during the winter. All is now covered in snow, which alters both the aesthetic and the atmosphere. This dynamic environment is still rare in open-world games and adds a refreshing layer of immersion.

Nothing about the game’s environment feels static; everything feels organic and alive as I travel from one area to the next, either by foot or by horse. Weather effects help the stealth part of the game, as formed icicles from winter suddenly become interactable objects that I used to distract nearby enemies. Heavy rain muffles footsteps as well, but this is hard to see in full effect, but a commendable inclusion even though I forget that it’s a thing.

Performance and Technical Stability

What’s doubly impressive is how infrequently I encountered technical issues. With Shadows’ scale and visual fidelity, it’s impressive to rarely experience glitches or bugs that pull you away from the immersion. Frame rates most of the time feel like they remain steady during key moments, but obviously drop when you return to the player's Hideout, a space where you can build and customize your Hideout space with new structures and decorations for upgrades and features such as having more scouts to help pinpoint the location of your objective to building a forge to upgrade and breakdown your weapon and armor. Although I’m playing on the PS5, I can’t seem to stop it, as every time I fast travel back to the Hideout I can clearly see the frames dropping close to 30-40 for a few minutes and eventually evening out.

This is consistent in just the Hideout area, as combat, cutscenes, and even riding around the countryside felt mostly smooth. Throughout my time with the game, I’ve experienced environment textures not popping up in time to sudden crashes, but nothing so consistent that it felt like something was broken each time I turned a corner. This level of polish for this kind of game’s scope is still commendable, as I never hit significant technical roadblocks.

A solid take in stealth

The other beauty of Assassin's Creed Shadows is its stealth approach. Valhalla and Odyssey pretty much benched the concept of stealth gameplay while Assassin’s Creed Mirage brought it back to front and center, reliving the series’ roots. Shadows, thankfully, steps it up, improved with two additions – lighting affecting stealth, and the ability to go prone.

It may sound simple on paper, but it really opens up the game in a refreshing way, as taking out light sources to create these perfect pocket shadow spots to conceal your presence is a concept that should have been implemented years ago. It’s like Ubisoft was reminded that they did this in Splinter Cell, and have finally implemented the concept of taking out light sources like lanterns and candles resulting in your creating opportunities to hide.

They then added the ability to go prone, an option that again opens up new ways to approach certain angles to the objective. It’s satisfying to close the distance by simply crouching and hiding in short grass, receiving the same effect as hiding in a bush, or crawl slowly to not give out too much noise as certain floors can now give sounds that could expose your position. The game is finally beyond bushes and haystacks, as I didn’t find myself doing the same approach or even doing the same motion when stealth is my approach. Despite the sheer scale of the game, this added layer to the game’s stealth made each guarded location I found feel like an inviting place to dismantle silently.

When stealth breaks out, actual combat is pretty fun for both protagonists, with one’s fun factor thinning out the longer you play. Naoe is naturally more capable through stealth, but can hold her own when she needs to fight. Each weapon in her arsenal has its own set of skills and movesets that expand and grow stronger depending on the gear you have equipped.

The Enemy AI for stealth and combat feels almost identical to past games. There’s no improvement there from what I can tell, so don’t be surprised by hilarious moments of enemies being dumb or being easily manipulated.

Each attack and parry animation doesn’t feel clunky and doing them looks fluid, as it didn’t feel awkward going head-to-head with an enemy. With me playing the game on the hardest difficulty, I like that there’s a chance that retreating is your best option as you can slowly be swarmed, but taking them out right there was not out of the question. I’m an assassin, so I should fall back and find a more advantageous engagement, but if put into a corner, it’s thrilling to come out there as the victor. This is why I preferred playing the game on the highest difficulty as there’s little room for error in those modes when play Naoe.

Accessibility and Customization

Accessibility options abound, as I was able to fine-tune my playthrough by setting the difficulty for combat and stealth separately, and I also removed a lot of unnecessary UI clutter - Ubisoft open world games are notorious for cluttering the players view with too much information. It's good to know that players will have the option to customize their preferences on various parts of the game, as I was able to remove motion blur, increase text size, and even pick the Japanese voices over English - a big plus, as while the English voice cast does a decent job, it just sounds like i’m hearing an anime badly dubbed in English at times. 

Progression and gear are thankfully straightforward compared to Valhalla or Odyssey, as it’s not about stats or set bonuses but more about what perks you need that would support your current playstyle. You won’t feel completely behind or struggling against enemies if your gear is 3-4 levels lower than your current enemy level, but you’ll see yourself constantly upgrading your go-to loadout, changing perks depending on what you need. I’ve made a gear loadout that utilizes the bleed effect on Yasuke’s Naginata, or strengthen Naoe’s assassin kills for one-hit take down to even the toughest enemies, or include an engraving where kills have a 50% chance to refill tools. The variety is there, as I found enjoyment in mixing and matching what perks complement what, as I barely thought about stats.

This fueled my interest in clearing the many castles in Shadows, compounds filled with enemies, a space to either slowly break down the opposition as Naoe or literally go through the front door as Yasuke. Each Castle poses its challenge in approach due to its design. I always find it a joy to go through each one, as opening the main chest in each castle always results in a unique gear piece that introduces a new perk that, at times, entices you to create a loadout to support that new item.

Unlocking skills is pretty straightforward and similar to past games, as you gain skill points from leveling and doing side activities in the open world. There’s enough variety for both characters that there isn’t an obvious choice as to where you want to spend your points on, as I found interesting passives and skills on all available trees so far, pushing me to go off the beaten path to get a skill point by praying on a nearby temple, boost Yasuke’s ability with the bow in horseback archery contests, or draw animals with Naoe just being in their natural habitat, uninterrupted. 

It’s the usual Assassin’s Creed formula packed to the brim that slowly opens up as you go from one area to the next.

What doesn’t work

Yasuke’s Gameplay Feels Out of Place

Yasuke is a completely different experience if you compare him with the nimble and acrobatic Naoe. His raw strength is undeniable, but his heavy, slow playstyle often feels at odds with the game’s core stealth mechanics. His lack of agility makes exploration cumbersome and combat repetitive over time. Unlike Naoe, who thrives in both stealth and direct engagements, Yasuke feels restrictive—his climbing limitations even make basic traversal frustrating.

Gameplay-wise, Yasuke feels disconnected from the series' core mechanics. He feels out of sync with the game’s flow as I struggled to find more reason to play him beyond utilizing his immensely powerful strength, as he felt like I had a cheat code activated. I was hoping his role as a playable character would be expanded beyond this, but the game never materialized to the point that when I need to play Yasuke, I’m excited to do so. Maybe this will change in the latter parts of the game, but I highly doubt it now that I'm over 30 hours into the game. For the most part, I use Naoe 90% of the time and dread the times when I need to use Yasuke.

When I use Naoe, everything feels right. The fluid parkour Assassin’s Creed is known for is well established in this character, as climbing remains easy but satisfying in most areas. At best, Yasuke gives me perspective on how great it feels to have this much mobility in an Assassin’s Creed game.

The Notoriety System Feels Half-Baked

The notoriety system feels underdeveloped—I didn’t even realize it existed until 10 hours into the game. If you don’t allow enemies to trigger the alarm bells (which I did unintentionally), you’ll likely never see the special Guardian enemies that patrol the area when you’re in the game’s Wanted state. 

You can't kill or even harm innocents, as they’re completely immune to your attacks. Strangely, taking out guards in the streets doesn’t put you on the Wanted list either—they just keep calling reinforcements until there’s no one left. This feels like an odd choice, given the freedom Shadows offers, as a proper consequence system could have kept players on edge when resorting to violence. It would have made sense for the Wanted state to trigger after missions involving assassinations, forcing me to adapt to the aftermath—or even just deal with the consequences of causing chaos in the streets. This mechanic could have also complemented the fact that only one character becomes Wanted at a time, adding more incentive to switch between them strategically.

A not-so-Assassin’s Creed story

The whole narrative revolves around the height of Oda Nobunaga’s reign, a pivotal period in Japanese history. Without revealing too much, his feudal war against neighboring regions in Japan spawned the likes of Naoe, a shinobi who loses her home and family, and goes on a revenge journey to hunt down those responsible. On the other hand, we have Yasuke, a black warrior deemed a samurai by Oda himself, who goes on his journey that eventually leads to the two characters teaming up to go against an even bigger organization operating behind the scenes. 

The story follows a familiar Assassin’s Creed formula—a shadowy organization pulling the strings behind historical events, slowly dismantled by the protagonists. Ubisoft takes its time establishing each protagonist’s origins and gives players the choice to pursue further context on each of the protagonist’s personal story as once you’ve unlocked Yasuke (which could take awhile depending on your desire to explore) the game just becomes a choose-your-own adventure where there’s no real order on how to progress through the game. One night, you can spend finding more context on the connection between Naoe and the Assassin’s order, or simply visit a new region to hunt down one of the main targets of the game.

Most of the game’s story beats felt a bit too obvious and predictable, but entertaining enough to make it difficult to stick to one path. It has a familiar narrative and structure that I wouldn't be surprised if some fans see similarities between this story and previous Assassin’s Creed games before it.

In Shadows, players are given the opportunity to make major decisions at key scenes, which at first glance felt like pressure moments that could steer the overall narrative. That sadly wasn’t the case in some major story beats, as it’s mostly dressing - your choice determines how a scene will play out, not necessarily guiding the narrative’s path. These decisions have their moments, but it’s disappointing to feel like whatever I choose in the most heavy moments might not impact much in the end. 

One particular moment that came to mind was, without spoiling, the option to spare or kill a particular character. I chose to kill and found the result of either choice to be minimal. In another major quest, I was given a similar choice, and it felt significant. It literally can be a hit or miss, though I do appreciate that you can choose to outright deny help from key supporting characters who become like summons for Naoe or Yasuke to call for aid to either distract enemies or come out to fight alongside you.

The story feels more akin to Odyssey than anything, as I'm not feeling a deep historical depth that would remind me of Assassin’s Creed 2, or an intriguing narrative filled with constant plot twists and political drama. It's more straightforward, guided by vengeance and loyalty.

Beyond the main story, the game is packed with various side stories that populate each region of the game’s massive map. As you progress through the story, various organizations start popping up as potential targets. Key characters have their own storylines that lead to them joining your cause, and hidden treasures come to your attention due to your stumbling on a conversation about it, or intel from a random farmer you saved from bandits.

The real problem I see is Shadows struggled to remind us that this is an Assassin’s Creed game. Beyond the game’s Animus elements, landing on haystacks from a high point, and Naoe wielding an Assassin’s Blade, nothing else in the main narrative or the setting pulls back on the fact that this is a series about the Assassins versus the Templars, and that there are people using devices to relive their ancestors’ memories.

More elements of it show up later in the game, but feel like remnants of something lost and forgotten. Those looking for the bigger picture won’t be happy with what is available here, though. I wouldn’t be surprised if I’m wrong or haven’t experienced it as Assassin’s Creed can be that convoluted at times. Hardcore fans will likely find something, but those jumping in won’t feel as if they are missing a big piece, or they feel looking back at other games is needed to appreciate certain elements in this game.

As far as how this epic and lengthy game ended, I wasn’t much of a fan of how it concluded. It felt open-ended, as while they did close key stories, it felt like a bridge for something bigger. There was one particular question I wanted answered ever since I started playing the game, and what I got was me going “that’s it?” when they finally addressed it. I didn’t feel much of a satisfying conclusion ending on a high note, as it felt like I just finished watching the first half of a two-part story. The story is serviceable so far, as expected from Assassin’s Creed. I just wish I had been given a more satisfying punch to close the chapter in Shadows, as I’m just left wondering about those unanswered questions.

Despite my feelings about the story and its conclusion and my issues when playing as Yasuke, I had a great time with Assassin’s Creed Shadows. It’s a solid entry that fully embraces the franchise’s stealth roots while offering a vast, immersive world packed with reasons to explore. Slowly dismantling fortresses, shaping my Hideout to my liking, and simply soaking in the world’s beauty made for an engaging experience. But while it excels at delivering a refined Assassin’s Creed formula, it doesn’t reinvent the series. Instead, it’s a polished adventure that will satisfy longtime fans and anyone looking for a rich open-world game to lose themselves in.

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Verdict: 3.5 / 5 (Great)

PROS

• Stealth Feels the Best It’s Ever Been

• Naoe’s gameplay is the perfect Assassin’s Creed experience

• Gear customization is plenty but simplified

• Performance is spot-on where it counts

• Feudal Japan is brought to life through various seasons

CONS

• Yasuke’s Gameplay Feels Out of Place

• The Notoriety System is Underdeveloped

• Predictable and open ended story

What I’ve Played 

• Visited all regions in the game

• Reached level 46 when I hit the credits

• Playtime of 65 hours with tons of content to go (experience each type of content)

• Completed main story and concluded each personal storyline to get the epilogue

*This review is based on a PS5 review copy provided by the publisher

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