Assassin’s Creed Shadows already feels like a return to form for a sneaky, stable franchise

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the game fans have been wanting for a long, long time. It just makes sense. Kill an assassin in feudal Japan and you already have gold. But of course it’s never that easy. Shadows tries to do a lot, including bridging mechanics from the older stealth-focused games to the new ones while still offering satisfying combat. Based on a four-hour demo of the game, I can say that they did a lot to help me get back into the fold of Assassins.

I love history and I love stealth games. The Assassin’s Creed games have to be my favorite franchise right? Well, I’ve enjoyed most of the 13 main series titles (excluding the numerous spinoffs, mobile titles, VR game, and game-sized DLC). I didn’t like it when the series switched to the modern RPG-lite identity. Slowly, games began to drop their stealth mechanics in favor of ship-based roaming and empty open worlds filled with boring content.

Ubisoft invited me to a closed-door session where the game was streamed from a separate computer. Going in, the one thing I didn’t want Assassin’s Creed: Shadows to feel like is your mother telling you, “We have Ghost of Tsushima at home.” After all, Sucker Punch’s feudal stealth action epic set in Japan was one of my favorite titles of the PlayStation 4 generation. I’m surprised at how much I enjoyed it, considering the whole open-world structure turned me off the last three Assassin’s titles Creed. I didn’t want to hunt down 50 separate fox lairs or climb yet another shrine, but I kept playing for the excellent stealth mechanics and Jin Sakai’s truly personal story.

Assassin’s Creed touted its promise of “social stealth,” or the idea that you can use the crowds in the city to blend in with the environment instead of just sticking to the shadows. The last game in the franchise to have really effective social stealth mechanics was underrated Assassin’s Creed Unity. That hasn’t changed with Shadows. Instead, it’s half stealth game. When I say that, I mean it literally. There are two main characters in Shadows, and one of them feels like it belongs in a stealth game.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Includes fully dubbed Japanese dialogue for those who really love FX Shogun

The setting is half as attractive as any Assassin’s Creed game, and I can say for sure that Ubisoft Quebec has made late 16th century Japan look beautiful. The world is colorful and vibrant, much more so than the gloomy Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. The weather effects and the wind blowing up dust on the dusty dirt roads were particularly breathtaking.

My demo started with a bit of intro to the game where we were introduced to our two main characters. Naoe, a shinobi and member of the deceased Iga Iki clan, and Yasuke. This is the first time you play as a historical figure in the history of the series, in this case a former slave who became Japan’s first black samurai. You see how Yasuke became close to Daimyo Oda Nobunaga after impressing the warlord during a visit by Portuguese missionaries.

I was already intrigued by the setup. Like other recent Assassin’s Creed games, you can choose multiple lines of dialogue during some conversations, though each choice may not immediately affect the story. You can make Yasuke remain silent when Nobunaga asks him a direct question, or make him speak, showing that he has an independent mind. Of course, I chose the latter. Later, during Nobunaga’s historic raid on Iga Province in 1581, Yasuke worries about the war’s effect on the population before we cut to our other main character. Naoe is young and wants to show her capabilities to her father. To avoid spoilers, all I can say is that she’s tasked with finding the MacGuffin before events go south, and we cut away just before she’s bleeding out on the ground surrounded by her enemies.

Shadows was in the works long before FX’s Shogun series premiered. Still, if you enjoyed this adaptation of the 1975 novel. of James Clavell, you’ll see similar political themes permeate Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Ubisoft told me that players can play with full Japanese and Portuguese voice and subtitles, including accurate lip syncing. I only got a little taste of it in the prologue, but I know that would be my preferred way to experience the game.

The rest of my Assassin’s Creed Shadows demo was centered around Himeji, with the famous Himeji Castle as a constant backdrop. The task was to kill the “noble”, which required players to deal with numerous challenges before finally being able to attack the main objective. There are lies, politics and (obviously) backstabbing involved, but as usual for this series, there are a lot of names to learn in a very short amount of time. The setting intrigued me enough to see what the other missions had to offer. I just know that I would play one character a lot more than the other.

I prefer my stealth games with actual stealth

The last game in the series to feature dual protagonists was Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate. This was when the game faced a setback The crazy decision of the CEO of Ubisoft to remove female characters in Unity’s co-op mode. Both Odyssey and Valhalla let you choose between a female or male protagonist, but here you can switch between Yasuke or Naoe at any time while out on a mission. In the game’s black box missions, you’ll have multiple opportunities to switch between each main character.

Switching between characters in Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t as diegetic as switching characters in a game like Grand Theft Auto V, although at least I have a choice when starting most story-based missions as to how I want to go about it. Should I enter a fortress gate with a massive kanabo – aka the famous spiked two-handed club used in feudal Japan – or hide among the rooftops as an assassin?

I wanted to like Yasuke’s gameplay, but I had more of a challenge handling missions involving palace infiltration with Yasuke’s thick frame. The game is built so that the two main characters play very differently. Yasuke can climb, but is much slower than Naoe when flipping over a chest-high wall. He may walk the branches of trees with his arms outstretched for balance, but he does so with as much panache and grace as any massive man walking a tightrope.

Instead, Yasuke can break down doors. Watching this big man sprint around the street, indiscriminately shoulder checking random pots that dared to stand behind him is hilarious. Minute-by-minute battles in Shadows can be enjoyable. However, when I encountered swarms of enemies rushing in with daggers alongside armored samurai, I would run away and shoot them repeatedly in the head with a musket. I could spend time perfecting the parry times and learning to understand the advantages of each weapon, but I don’t know if it would be as satisfying as playing Naoe.

Naoe can use a grappling hook to climb walls. She can climb effortlessly and sprint over any precarious ledge. She can throw smoke bombs to escape enemies and silently destroy them. Yasuke’s kill is him literally running over a person and lifting them off their feet. Cool? Absolutely. Good for silence? Obviously not. Yasuke can lift and move bodies more easily than the small and agile Naoe, but why would he need to if he’s going to break down the door to the next room anyway?

It wouldn’t be an Assassin’s Creed game without Spots of Jank

The best new addition to the Assassin’s Creed games is the ability to walk prone. Naoe and Yasuke can do it, but the shinobi gets a lot more out of it, and she uses it to stick into tall grass or sneak under porches to get behind enemies. I wish there was more to it than haystacks and benches that barely wink at the series’ past promise.

I enjoyed what I played a lot more than I originally expected, especially considering how much I didn’t enjoy the last two titles in the franchise. However, the climbing and parkour still can’t measure up to what it was in Assassin’s Creed II 16 years ago. I still found myself jumping to objects I didn’t want to do, or getting stuck climbing while enemies knife-checked my back. Climbing animations lack weight, though kills and combat look as good as ever.

Coming off of Dragon Age: The Veilguard, I also appreciated the simple strong and heavy attack system. You can instantly combo attacks by holding down the right bumper or the trigger, and there’s the addition of various abilities and weapons that add variety. It’s not perfect, of course. The battles became too claustrophobic during the final assault on Himeji Castle. The camera was pinched and cut off enemies constantly surrounding me.

But I know I’ll keep playing despite all my worries. I should be in the mood for another secret game. So while I wait for the next Sucker Punch game, The Ghost of YoteiI’ll be looking to see what else Ubisoft’s latest semi-stealth game has to offer.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows launched on March 20 this year for PC, PS5, Xbox Series S/X and macOS.