Assassin’s Creed Shadows Review — Don’t Lose Your Head

I was a massive fan of the Assassin’s Creed (AC) series, before stepping away from the franchise after Assassin’s Creed Origins. This extended break from the Assassin’s Creed series was due to franchise fatigue, as each instalment continued to grow and grow in size and scale, making each new entry feel like an overwhelming investment. I believe my relationship with the Assassin’s Creed series gives me a unique perspective, allowing me to experience Assassin’s Creed Shadows from the view of a returning series fan. So, does Assassin’s Creed Shadows offer a fresh experience on the long-running series, or does it find itself in the shadow of its predecessors?

Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes place in 16th-century Japan, during the late Sengoku period —a location and time period that AC fans have been wanting to visit for over a decade. Unrest spreads across the country under the rule of daimyo Oda Nobunaga as foreign interference continues to grow. The main narrative follows two protagonists: a young Igan woman named Naoe and an African man named Yasuke. The adventure begins when Nobunaga, with Yasuke by his side, attacks Naoe’s hometown of Iga. This invasion ultimately ends in tragedy for Naoe, with this introduction spurring her on a quest for vengeance.  

Narratively, the AC franchise has rarely excelled at creating memorable villains (AC2 aside), and Shadows is no different. Naoe and Yasuke must track down and assassinate a variety of targets across the 40-hour main adventure. Some targets introduce interesting story threads, but most feel like just another name on your list, quickly forgotten once they take their final breath. AC entries are driven by their heroes, and fortunately, Naoe and Yasuke are fantastic characters in their own right, with each having their own motivations, making them feel well-rounded and likeable. It was their personal stories (emphasised by some brilliant flashback missions) that encouraged me through the narrative. Shadows also introduces allies that have their own personal story arcs, but I never found myself particularly attached to any of these side characters.

The main story’s structure becomes formulaic as the adventure progresses. Each major target requires a few hours of investigation before being eliminated, followed by traveling to a new area to repeat the process. If the typical AC mission formula doesn’t appeal to you, Shadows does little to reinvent the wheel. However, if you’re an AC series veteran and this formula appeals to you, then you will be treated with more of what you love. Shadows also introduces a variety of additional clans and groups to hunt down outside the main story, which I estimate will take players between 60-80 hours to complete – gotta assassinate them all.

The AC series has previously experimented with a dual-protagonist format, with Assassin’s Creed Syndicate introducing us to Jacob and Evie Frye. Syndicate handled the dual-hero format well, but both characters played similarly. In contrast, Naoe and Yasuke feel vastly different in terms of gameplay. Naoe is a shinobi, which means she controls like a traditional AC protagonist. She specialises in stealth, is agile enough to scale tall structures, and has access to items like bells, smoke bombs, and the hidden blade to eliminate her enemies. While she can fight hand-to-hand, she’s not built for brute strength, relying instead on agility to avoid attacks while using a katana, kusarigama for crowd control, and kunai or shuriken for ranged combat.

Yasuke, on the other hand, is a samurai. He is less agile, struggles to climb tall structures, and instead relies on raw power to take on multiple enemies at once. Yasuke can still take a stealth approach, but he is ultimately built for close-quarters combat. With brutal finishers, he can behead enemies with his long katana, smash through the environment like a raging bull, and withstand heavy punishment as he does it.

Naoe and Yasuke feel incredibly different to control, and players can switch characters at almost any time. I often used Naoe to explore the open world and Yasuke for combat encounters. Front-kicking enemies (300 style) as Yasuke never gets old, and his bloody decapitations are immensely satisfying. This adds gameplay depth and variety, as many missions require players to use one character or the other, encouraging replayability by allowing different approaches to each mission.

Combat is incredibly satisfying with either character, with blocks and parries adding strategy and on-your-feet thinking to battles. Moment-to-moment combat feels responsive, and the camera generally kept up with the action, though it struggled within confined spaces. On normal difficulty (one of four options), players will experience a great deal of challenge, especially during one-on-one fights with main targets, difficult side missions, and castle infiltration activities, where you can be quickly overwhelmed by the sheer number of enemies.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an RPG and, like recent AC entries, features a loot and leveling system. Naoe and Yasuke share a level, meaning you won’t be penalized for favouring one over the other. Stronger loot will offer improved stats and special buffs, as well as aesthetic changes, with late-game loot looking particularly majestic. As you level up and defeat powerful enemies, you earn Mastery Points that unlock abilities for your preferred gameplay styles. However, as someone returning to the series for the first time since Origins, I was surprised by how little the loot system had evolved in eight years.

The biggest issue I have with Shadows involves the parkour mechanics. Parkour has always been a core feature of the Assassin’s Creed series, but somehow, over that extended period of time and many different iterations, the parkour mechanics are still frustratingly inconsistent. Nothing breaks immersion more than when Naoe, a shinobi, struggles to climb a small ledge, gets stuck on a rock, or can’t walk up a slight incline. Environment inconsistencies are also apparent, as some rock faces with prominent cracks are unclimbable, and sprinting is often halted due to small obstacles. Parkour is integral to Shadows; it’s a key gameplay differentiator between Naoe and Yasuke, and each viewpoint requires it. So, when a shinobi fails to walk through a door without trying to climb the doorframe, it becomes painfully noticeable that something has failed.

Mission objectives offer hints to the location of your target, but you must explore the environment to find the exact location. For example, a mission might indicate the general area of your target’s location with additional directional clues, encouraging players to explore the environment or use their scouts to reveal the exact location. I loved this system, as it always felt exciting and rewarding to stumble upon a target utilising the hints given.

Speaking of scouts, these are unnamed characters that can immediately reveal target locations, basically a form of instantaneous reconnaissance. Scouts can also collect resources that are used to upgrade and decorate your own hideout. Your hideout services as your base of operations, where you can build rooms, add trees and even pets to customise your hideout. However, resource gathering is tedious, and benefits like XP boosts and weapon upgrades feel underwhelming, as experience points and high-level weapons are abundantly available. Some players may love customising their perfect hideout, but personally, I never felt the rewards incentivised the time investment.

Shadows features a significantly sized map, and the main story will take you across almost every section. While the open world is visually stunning, exploration simply emphasised just how sparse the open world actually was when it came to interesting side content. Instead, I found myself moving from one fast travel point to the next to simply mitigate future travel time. The castles are fun to infiltrate, but the meditation and samurai-focused mini-games, hidden collectables, and explorable caves do not justify the size of the open world, especially due to how few and far these activities actually are.

One of Shadows’ best features is its soundtrack, which blends traditional Japanese instruments with modern rock and hip-hop to create a distinct audio experience that sounds phenomenal. The environmental sound design is also brilliant, with immersive details like the wind rushing by while on horseback, the ominous sounds of distant thunderstorms, as well as the visceral clash of steel in battle. The sound design and unique musical flair must truly be applauded.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows features incredible cinematography, with cut scenes benefiting from a stunning visual direction. Shadows also offers a beautiful open world to explore, with lush forests, expansive mountain ranges, and intricate architecture.

Featuring dynamic seasons and weather, the world will look completely different during different seasons, and storms can occur at any time. Summer brings gorgeous lighting and colourful flowers, autumn-adorned trees with orange and brown leaves, while winter covers the entire map with snow as far as the eye can see. The attention to detail to make each season distinct and beautiful is impressive. Combat is equally striking, as blood from your enemies will erupt onto the nearby environment, transforming every post-combat encounter into a blood-soaked work of art. Shadows is not only the best-looking AC game to date, but it is truly one of the best-looking games of the generation.