Assassins Creed Shadows Review 80+ Hours Played

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Transcript

00:00Japan's always been the break glass in case of emergency location for Assassin's Creed.

00:04But as the immortal rap ninja DMX once said, it's not what you heard.

00:08It's what you'll hear it.

00:09And none of this will matter if the change isn't profound.

00:12Also, yes, there will be spoilers about 16th century Japan in here.

00:16So if you haven't read all the tweets from supposedly time traveling historians on Twitter,

00:19then watch out.

00:20How can shadows hold up not only as a single game, perhaps to a first time player, but

00:24also against current titles and against all past AC games, but in particular to Valhalla's

00:29insane success going on to make almost $2 billion.

00:33Speaking of two shadows introduced the first time where two protagonists, two vastly different

00:37ways to ruin someone's day are leading the way.

00:39Well, there was syndicate, but this is far beyond Jacob and Evie arguing over which group

00:43of children they could save from London's slavery hat shops.

00:46Assassin's Creed shadows drops players into the chaotic backstab happy world of 16th century

00:51Japan during a time when warlords played musical chairs with power and trust lasted about as

00:55long as informing the region of the latest leadership changes.

00:58On one side, you've got Yasuke serving under the current daimyo wielding brute strength

01:02weapons that hit like freight trains and a skeleton key to open most doors in the form

01:06of a 250 pound man.

01:08On the other, there's Nahoe, a shinobi, which is shadow's way of finally trying to reintroduce

01:13stealth and true assassination back into a game that's been stealing that name for years.

01:17Elusive, smooth, agile, sneaky, and equipped with a cuirassagama that swings through the

01:21air like a medieval weed whacker, a death, both sides offering two different things.

01:25Now, you could say, at least at the start, that one is on the good side and one's on

01:28the bad side.

01:30That's like not realizing the rebellion would be cancer if your body was Star Wars.

01:33It's missing a lot of the context, and this context is delivered to you across intertwining

01:37storylines that tackle themes of honor, survival, family loyalty, and political backstabbing.

01:42So basically just another Tuesday in feudal Japan.

01:44And it's not just the dual protagonist delivery that's getting a bit of an overhaul.

01:48The open world is on a seasonal cycle, meaning you'll be sneaking through cherry blossom

01:51groves one moment and slogging through snow-covered villages the next.

01:55If you've played Assassin's Creed Origins or any of the games prior, expect a world

01:59of similar scale but far more verticality, shadows to skulk in and rice paper doors to

02:03slice through like lethal home invasion ads.

02:06Oh yeah, subscriber, I'll die.

02:07The gameplay starts off with a short animus section, and then you're thrown to the world,

02:1116th century Japan, bouncing between both characters shortly for their entrances and

02:15introductions with Yasuke being tasked to confab with Japanese royalty and then transforming

02:20into a samurai.

02:21Games likes to brace those two against one another, at least for a short time, offering

02:25a glimmer of reason why you can see that they might be on the same side in the upcoming

02:29troubles, or at least leaning towards it.

02:31Open up the world with tutorials explaining movement, combat, switching weapons as you

02:34get more, riding horses, meditation, painting, and how the game moves you through the story,

02:39which is a massive objective board.

02:42As you move forward and meet new characters, you take on new jobs.

02:45Each board opens up with a display of a thematic ring of people that are involved in whatever

02:49particular aspect of the story you're investigating.

02:51A group of challenges, a series of lords, a smattering of evil SOB's bent on taking

02:56everything for themselves.

02:57And to find them, you have to investigate leads that are related to them.

03:01Play the game in discovery mode.

03:02You need to travel the world looking for those clues yourself, or once you build your hideout,

03:06you can send agents out to scout out information about whatever objective you currently have.

03:11This not only involves different storylines, worldviews, playable moments, but it also

03:15extends out their playstyles to dramatically different angles, focusing on stealth for

03:20one, outright force for the other.

03:22You can also switch between them pretty much at will.

03:25There are particular quests that are specific for each one, and there's certainly places

03:29that will be easier or more difficult depending on who you're playing as.

03:33Also, while Shadows still has fast travel and synchronization points, it doesn't end

03:37up unlocking a ton of noticeable locations by doing that.

03:41Instead, after you find a high location, you manually use focus on particular spots

03:46around the game world that you can see to get a little bit more information about him.

03:50That focus system is also used in combat, which I'll get to in a second.

03:53While both have typical light and heavy attacks, holding the attack button down on either powers

03:58up an attack into what's called a posture attack.

04:01These do extra damage, break most enemies blocks, and in some ways can be comboed to

04:05others depending on what you're using.

04:07Also, both have defensive moves.

04:09For example, both can dodge out of the way.

04:11Yasuke can parry directly backwards, which forces enemies away.

04:15Nahoe deflects them.

04:17Regardless, both of these can also result in the enemies going into what's called a

04:20vulnerable state.

04:21This is a mini state of stunned, basically with giving you additional powers and openings

04:25that can be taken advantage of.

04:27What makes this shift so impactful is that the game doesn't just let you flip between

04:31play styles, or it doesn't force you to.

04:33If you're Nahoe, combat is punishment for failing at stealth, or it's your choice

04:37if you decide to do that.

04:39And while he doesn't have the ability to focus in and see enemies, Nahoe can.

04:42She can use that focus to see the chances of her assassin's blade and its kills being

04:47successful.

04:48Because depending on the upgrades that you work through, some of the enemy's defenses

04:51with the first stealth attack may be too much for you to break through, and assassinations

04:56can go horribly wrong for both characters.

04:58The result?

04:59Every battle does feel pretty deliberate, and with some of the changes they've made,

05:02you do have more tools, or at least it feels like you do, to engage in those battles.

05:06You don't have the spiritual ones that we see in, say, Valhalla, but they feel a bit

05:10more grounded here, even if, let's be honest, kicking somebody across the mountain does

05:15seem a little overpowered, it still feels good.

05:18This also depends on the weapon, as I said before.

05:20So for example, Yasuke has the Naginata.

05:22This is a long-range weapon, but not in the same way a spear is.

05:25It's wide and sweeping.

05:26It's eight-foot defensive zones made out of offensive threat.

05:30Combos you learn both naturally as well as from a skill list can help you combine attacks,

05:34moving between katana and that in a natural way to keep attacks flowing and hold pretty

05:39much everybody at bay.

05:40While his club is shorter range, its impact strength is insane.

05:44There are others that you get as well when it comes to powers and sometimes combos, though

05:47depending on where you put your points, they'll unlock earlier or later.

05:51He also has a bow and arrow, which is almost silent and works really well to give you a

05:54small amount of stealth strategy up front, while his rifle is just a huge hard-hitting

05:59explosion that tells everybody in the area, hey, you know what?

06:02Enemy right here.

06:03With no way, it's different.

06:04Her strikes are faster.

06:05Her inability to truly block means deflecting blows to the side combined with her ability

06:10to dash more quickly is useful.

06:12She can get in and out of fights fast, but she also has the curse of gamma, meaning that

06:16both of the characters have really a crowd control item.

06:20Each of them has their own mastery lists as well that unlock when you find weapons or

06:23equip them.

06:24One way AC tries to show the development of the physical and mental is that you have knowledge

06:28rank, which goes up via none of your physical activities.

06:32It's all mental activities.

06:34As with normal levels, knowledge levels raised for both characters at the same time.

06:38So you don't have to go back and do anything else with anybody.

06:41If you decide to play with one character for a while and then switch them out, I like most

06:45of these skills.

06:46There is a number of passive ones adding percentages here and there, which let's be honest, are

06:50just boring.

06:51Now, one of the best improvements though is prone.

06:53Now you can slip into the grass, crawl under buildings, use water to mask your movements.

06:57It's a small addition when you think about it, but it makes a massive difference to the

07:03way the game feels and even way sight lines are used.

07:06And yes, both characters can do it.

07:08Now, Ubisoft has also adjusted the AI and this is important on the harder difficulties.

07:13Guards don't just exist to fill a particular spot.

07:16Does that mean shadows AI is incredible?

07:19Actually no, but it has made some changes that I think work.

07:22For example, on easy enemies wander around like they're just killing time before lunch,

07:25barely aware their coworkers are getting mysteriously transferred to the afterlife.

07:30Medium cranks that awareness up a bit, making them less like clueless extras, more like

07:33people actually want to keep their heads attached to their bodies.

07:36Hard though, that's where the game stops holding your hand and starts really just squeezing

07:39your throat.

07:40Guards noticeably track movements more realistically.

07:42They react dynamically to sound and light more quickly and turn a rooftop into a deathtrap

07:47the second they suspect that you are up there.

07:49This is where shadows feels the most alive.

07:52It's not a playground, but a bit of a battlefield that changes depending on what steps you take.

07:56They track footprints in the snow, they respond to the noises and they don't actually just

08:00give up right away.

08:01If you hide in a bush, if you blow out a lantern, they'll investigate.

08:04If you disrupt their patrol, they won't just instantly reset.

08:08To give you an example on easy, I was able to get away with a grapple hook to a ledge

08:11pretty easily as somebody was following me by just going around a corner, leaving an

08:15evaporating ghost of myself to indicate where they last saw me like a ninja fart in the

08:19wind and hard.

08:20However, climbing to the top lost the first enemy, but then two others saw me climbing

08:24and a third saw me on the roof, ultimately making the entire situation way worse than

08:29it could have been.

08:30And their reactions to it were almost instantaneously, which was to yell out and fire.

08:35That being said, when I returned to the area as Yasuke, this played out pretty much completely

08:38differently.

08:39Yasuke can't climb everything, so running around a corner needed to be almost instant

08:44and going prone was required because the dude's bigger than most bushes, namely your sextate.

08:48For example, this exact situation changed when I took Yasuke to it and I tried a heavy

08:53assassination.

08:54He does the assassinations like this, like most people celebrate a fucking soccer goal.

08:58It's even called brutal assassination.

09:00During nights and with no environmental sounds, this alerts everybody.

09:03However, I did notice that if I was able to get a guard just a bit farther away, the rain

09:07and wind actually muted a bit of that attack sound.

09:10Realize that it is a soft detection system, so risk is rewarded with either an amazing

09:15moment of killing somebody and then heavily trundling back to the shadows or with everybody

09:19in 50 feet figuring out that you just double fisted a dude above your head.

09:23Another change is that shadows does seem to do away with the sweepstakes winning gold

09:27a thons that the prior games had.

09:29There is a lot less random loot and money in shadows than any other game in the past

09:35decade.

09:36Weapons and armor start out at a particular level when you grab them and a quality you've

09:39got common, uncommon, rare and epic with each adding either stat improvements or extra engraving

09:45slots with weapons having attributes like DPS or notifications that they can cause particular

09:49afflictions like poison or stunning somebody.

09:52There is also legendary items that you get from specific moments.

09:56The same goes for the armor.

09:58You get it from merchants or from exploration around the world, sometimes in hidden locations,

10:02other times in places more dangerous like castles, which are many dungeons in a way

10:05where not only do you have to get to a chest in the center of the location, but you also

10:10have to kill the locations main protectors, which can be insanely difficult.

10:15Just a point of note, these guys are rough.

10:17Each has their own skills.

10:19Sometimes you get other characters like almost a shinobi or massive warriors with heavier

10:22armor than you even have, and they love to team up.

10:25So facing three or four normal enemies and two of these characters is just hanging out

10:30trying to see who can turn anybody else into a fucking puddle of tomato paste quicker.

10:35That doesn't include the enemies that raise alarms and flood locations with even more.

10:39Now once done upgrading weapons and armor, you can also upgrade and build that hideout.

10:43This is fully customizable as a base on a hidden parcel of land that you have.

10:47I didn't expect to enjoy it as much as I did, but going there and winter and just running

10:51around and watching the different characters interact and just seeing some of the locations

10:56that I was able to build over time was pretty cool.

10:59As a complete package, it's a game that has some paced out feelings, a slower starting

11:02than I would have ever liked, especially as it has a lot of story and a great deal of

11:06changes to deliver to the gamer.

11:08And it's really in no rush to get going.

11:10Once it does, once you get to switch between characters, once you can move through the

11:13world and just explore, then it was actually a profoundly different experience, perhaps

11:18too Spartan for some.

11:20I could see that.

11:21But what surprised me is that both characters, while fitting an archetype, while responding

11:25to the weather as well as the day night cycle and what that means, played into each other's

11:29pocket if you decided you want to accept those negatives, meaning if you take the stealth

11:35character and want to go loud or the loud character and crawl through some blood and

11:38shit to sneak up on somebody, you can't.

11:41And once you start engraving items onto the weapons and really changing these massive

11:45statistics on them, it can also make you feel like, you know what, I'm gonna experiment

11:49a little bit.

11:50Be aware, though, that if you go out and start killing a bunch of people or if you get caught

11:54killing innocents and then run away and you're painted around those locations as being an

11:59outlaw and you're wanted until the next season shows up or you switch characters.

12:03Now, that being said, I do wish the combat flow just a bit better, especially enemy attack

12:08patterns other than the bosses and the sub bosses inside of castles.

12:12The enemies all seem to be trained by the exact same leader, a true army, which means

12:15their patterns are usually three to four movesets depending on your location and distance.

12:20I don't want Dark Souls shit that's stupid, nor do I want the rock, paper, scissors of

12:23ghost, though both have their place.

12:25I just feel that there's something that's always been slightly missing from the AC games

12:29in particular, and I would have liked to have seen that stepped up a bit here.

12:32It didn't end up breaking the game, though.

12:34The game does handle leads, stealth, base upgrading weapons, enemies, new tactics.

12:39When it comes to sensing you absolutely in a better way than let's say the holiday.

12:45When it comes to better, let's see if the graphics are.

12:48First of all, there are moments of pure friggin brilliance in this game verticality.

12:52Number one, it's on display everywhere in a location where I think some people mistakenly

12:56think that there wouldn't be as much.

12:58It's on display almost right away and never stops.

13:00And the draw distance in this game is the best I've seen in an AC title by far.

13:05Seeing an ancient Japanese fortress off in the far distance and then working your way

13:08through bamboo fields, huge, massively deep forests, and then across the coast and an

13:13ocean leaping onto a boat, finding some small island that doesn't look like has anything

13:17on it.

13:18But then you find a group there meditating and discussing the current kingdom's changes.

13:21Then you trudge through deformable snow on your way up the mountain and cut through a

13:25drift and then cut through the walls of someone's ramshackle outpost, ignoring the walkway up

13:30that's covered with guards and just yelling surprise and then slicing everybody down.

13:35One of the best parts is that destruction, that ability to slice through somebody's

13:39wall or spot.

13:40While it's not perfect, not every single element can be cut, cut through cover to bear

13:44down on some dude beating a drum who expected a shitload of things in a day, but not a rampaging

13:49samurai hammering him in the head with a huge bike club is awesome.

13:53Cutting down bamboo in a forest might lose you half an hour as you just explore and try

13:57to find things that you can destroy.

13:59Also, the dynamic weather system does look good.

14:01It's noticeable not only in the difference between let's say rain and sunny, but at times

14:06like in real life when you notice that the sun is actually shining, but the rain's coming

14:10down sideways and it's preceding the clouds and you can watch it roll in or huge puddles

14:14building up all along the game world.

14:16It's fact that the weather also changes when moving between seasons that I don't like.

14:20I get it.

14:21Each of the four seasons is triggered by those story elements, but we haven't got a truly

14:25dynamic one yet that adds snow, deletes snow, that kind of stuff in a game.

14:29So it's probably too much to ask here.

14:30I'd kill for that someday in a game where you can see those in real time.

14:34Also, when you slip on a frozen pond in this game or watch an enemy do it when the water

14:39freezes over and what you passed through originally by swimming is now frozen and you end up slipping

14:45and sliding.

14:46That's some excellent physical storytelling.

14:47It just looks hilarious.

14:49The same can be said for the animations.

14:51They're good and bad.

14:52Many are AC typical, meaning they don't really feel exactly real.

14:56Others work incredibly well here.

14:57For example, Yasuke hits and just has a general King Kong smashing through shit kind of feel

15:03and the finishers with him are awesome.

15:05The first time you chop someone's arms off separately from their head for no reason other

15:09than to shut their scream hole is very cool.

15:12However, there are others that don't measure up in particular climbing itself as a mixture

15:16of old and new parkour.

15:18It still has times where it feels like the game's edges are stickier than they should

15:21be and that can look goofy as hell and climbing with a grapple can go between looking fantastic

15:25to feeling like something ancient in the very same second.

15:29Speaking of ancient and well, current textures, I would say for the most part they look pretty

15:33current.

15:34It depends on the setting that you're using design wise, however, and just worldwide.

15:38I like this better, at least the world than I did Valhalla and perhaps even at least in

15:43some places Odyssey, which is probably the only game I really absolutely liked in the

15:48AC new trilogy.

15:49That's because not only the new locations, but that huge, noticeable, profound verticality

15:54that's delivered in a different way here and that dynamic weather and vegetation when it

15:58comes to the seasons, but also because of the limited destruction, which just feels

16:02like it changes some of the gameplay graphically.

16:04I have no real issues with the game again.

16:07Some of the animations are reused.

16:08We get that kind of thing, especially because this is not a brand new engine.

16:12I would like to see those fixed in whatever series we get next, but let's discuss the

16:17requirements for getting this to your system.

16:19We're going to discuss the PC ones for now.

16:21The game has a mode called selective ray tracing, which sounds required, but it's actually

16:24not.

16:25This runs a software version of ray tracing in the hideouts only that Ubisoft created.

16:29So you don't need to have ray tracing enabled cards to play the game nor actually use the

16:33hideout.

16:34It's just that the hideout area runs a software version because they have so many changes

16:38going on that you make in the game world at any time that you want it.

16:42And then from there up, they have different levels of ray tracing from basic, which is

16:45global illumination.

16:46And that of course requires a card that supports it.

16:49And then extended, which uses ray tracing for global illumination in the world as well

16:53as reflections.

16:54Performance with a 4090 shows a couple things.

16:56The first is the game leans heavily on the GPU and while you can get 60 FPS with most

17:00settings on high with no upscaler, when the game throws a ton of environmental effects

17:04at you or changes the time or during a larger battle, this does drop.

17:09The big killer here is of course, ray tracing and the connections to it in the option settings.

17:14It does offer DLSS, XLSS and FSR for upscaling as well as in engine upscaling that can be

17:19set to low, medium or high, but you can also set a resolution target as well as an FPS

17:25target.

17:26Frame gen is also available in this and the game does have a ton of settings.

17:29The biggest impactors to FPS that I could find were of course ray tracing.

17:33Then you have level of detail, distance drawing and shadows.

17:37They may have to do some adjustments.

17:38Now an issue that I did notice for this is cutscenes for whatever reason, no matter what

17:41I did, were locked at 30 FPS.

17:43I've emailed them, ask them and I haven't heard anything, but it was over the weekend.

17:46This highlights another bit of a problem that I had with the game, which is lip syncing.

17:50I didn't feel like it was fantastic and it's noticeable in a lot of the cutscenes, probably

17:55because you add the 30 FPS to it and when you see that big drop, it's just something

17:59that's noticeable on the PC.

18:01Also there's a reason why let's talk about sound music and voice just for a second voice.

18:05This is pretty hit and missed.

18:07First I'm going to get this out of the way.

18:08You can listen to shadows in many ways.

18:09You have different voiceovers as well as fully cinematic style mode that moves everything

18:13and everyone out of English into their respective languages with subtitles that you can have

18:18show up if you want.

18:20First I suggest if you're going to do that, you make sure those subtitles are on because

18:23there are a couple that will end up having a discussion outside of the main characters

18:28where there's a lead or a little bit of information that can help you.

18:32Next up, some of the later characters, some of the more profoundly important ones are

18:34awesome.

18:35They're delivered very well from menace to mysteriousness all the way to a flirtation

18:39and fun loving.

18:40Some of my favorites were also later quest lines that revolved around finding, for example,

18:45past students of a teacher of yours and each one of them was distinct.

18:48However, the two main leads are two vastly different performances and I say this with

18:53all due respect to whatever was going on.

18:55This is something that I think a lot of people noticed in some of the trailers, not always

18:59delivery.

19:00It's not lost in translation.

19:01It's not lacking attempt.

19:03It's just everything about the way she sounds is oddly off kilter and short and stilted.

19:08And a lot of this is because the writing in shadows is fairly basic.

19:12A lot of these characters live in a world where they don't do a ton of talking, so

19:16it actually makes sense, but it just doesn't come off incredibly well.

19:20Yes.

19:21Okay.

19:22On the other hand, no real issues.

19:23A voice is strong.

19:24It's measured, carry some weight.

19:25There's a tiny bit more nuance there.

19:26NPCs and quest dialogue do take a hit in English though.

19:29Dialogue for many is really bare bones delivered in one liners and then boom about and you're

19:34done and a screen updates with a quest also.

19:37And I just don't know how this showed up again.

19:39Ubisoft's voice recordings have that weird processing that we heard in Bahala.

19:43It's not compressed in the same way.

19:45It's almost like the top and bottom though, have a bit more of a harmonic edge to them

19:50that have been changed during the actual recording.

19:52And there are times when Yasuke in particular is talking and it sounds slightly robotic.

19:58A normal gamer might play this and not ever notice it.

20:00I spent a couple hours testing it, different systems, different headsets, even going back

20:04to older Ubisoft games, much less noticeable than Bahala, but I did pick up on it.

20:09I usually play games in English first because of the aforementioned subtitles, quests, leads

20:13and barks not getting lost in subtitle drops or chaos.

20:17However, I would say this is one of the few games where switching might behoove you, even

20:22if you're like me.

20:23Next up is sound.

20:24Now, for the most part, the sound is excellent.

20:27In Assassin's Creed Shadows, the world is reacting to sounds in a way that makes stealth

20:31more dynamic, but also just because you're hearing it, you can react to it.

20:34I reacted to things like footsteps on wet stone, the rustling of branches, the creaks

20:38of doors, and that can be the difference between slipping by unnoticed or being forced into

20:41a fight.

20:42For both of you, heavy rain does seem to drown out smaller noises, which did seem to make

20:46it more difficult for the enemy to listen and understand exactly where you were.

20:51But it also does the same to you.

20:53And that balance between function and environment made every space feel a tiny bit more deliberate

20:58in its soundscape.

20:59Weather and seasons also play a big role in how sound actually is delivered.

21:03Winter dampens that sound, muffles footsteps under thick snow just a bit more.

21:08And then if you go to something like autumn, shifting leaves and wildlife can make it pretty

21:12unpredictable.

21:13And at times you're trying to figure out, is that an enemy or is that an animal?

21:17And there's a lot of information that ends up being parsed through the audio.

21:20Combat also follows that same attention to detail.

21:23Blade scrape across armor, wooden shaft splinter on impact.

21:26You can hear the chain sweeping through the air with this distinctive metallic wine, or

21:31even as you're running the small jingle of the chains.

21:34Some really good audio effects here.

21:36You can even tell the difference between two people with two different types of clubs hitting

21:39one another.

21:40There was also a good deal of environmental sampling when you were moving around the forest,

21:44whether it comes to forced animals or just the wind in the trees.

21:48When it comes to the music for a game that's based in one of the more naturally culturally

21:51solid time spans and locations steeped in tradition, AC Shadows offers a surprising

21:57amount of musical genres and diversity.

22:00It ends up having three different voices or three different composers for the game.

22:04Ubisoft didn't just stick to that usual orchestral swelling, atmospheric sounds that you might

22:09actually think, or more traditional Japanese instrumentation.

22:13They have some modern electronic music as well, and some straight up psychedelic, almost

22:17rock fusion and trap music.

22:20For the most part, the traditional pieces, pieces you would expect to hear and say shogun

22:24last samurai, others are here, but you also hear music that is, like I said, psychedelic

22:30pulse driven.

22:31It just depends on what's going on in the game.

22:34And trust me, it is noticeable when a cut scene goes on and boom, you have psych rock

22:38stylings playing out.

22:40It takes just a minute for you to go like, what am I hearing?

22:43Ultimately, once I grew accustomed to it, I actually liked it.

22:47I do expect there to be a lot of discussion around it, though.

22:50It's not the first time we've seen many groups working on games, but it's one of

22:53the first I can remember having this kind of distinctly different feel amongst the three

22:57that resolve around a particular style.

22:59And then to accentuate a pace change or a stylistic moment, something feels distinctly

23:03different and that plays out without spoiling anything.

23:07Let me say by the end of shadows, I did understand the approach and appreciated it.

23:11And if more, as I say, a fan of the slightly more traditional leaning music, I didn't

23:17necessarily feel like those styles meshed as well as maybe Ubisoft intended.

23:21Lastly, let's talk about bugs.

23:22It's actually pretty polished in the wild open world.

23:25I'm still going to notice a couple janky bits in most Assassin's Creed games than

23:29I did here.

23:30Had one or two animation bugs.

23:31I had one crash, but it is far more polished, at least in my experience than Valhalla.

23:36Now, this is an open world game, which means people are going to run into all kinds of

23:39crazy stuff.

23:40But it definitely felt a good deal more polished than that.

23:43That's also reflected in things like their accessibility options, which include color

23:47adjustment, screen narration, customizable HUD and so on.

23:51One last thing before we get to fun factors, micros, the typical Ubisoft items for supplies

23:55and map packs are here that will end up unlocking things like showing you locations.

24:00There was no EXP or anything like that that I could see when it comes to the purchases

24:05at this time.

24:06All of those follow, I would say, the somewhat traditional trend that origins Odyssey and

24:09Valhalla have followed with the more mythological mounts and cosmetics than the game proper

24:15has.

24:16How does all this come together?

24:17Well, that's fun factor.

24:18I didn't expect to like both characters this much.

24:20My time in the preview was 50 50.

24:21Hey, they had two characters in the game.

24:23I think it's my job to test them in the preview.

24:25And I did the same in the review.

24:26And after spending 40 plus hours with it, I wasn't expecting neither to really resonate

24:30more or less than the other.

24:32And it might be some of the reasons why, like I said before, you can switch if you want

24:36to take the risk.

24:37It fascinates me that it went against, I guess, my own thought processes as I played

24:41it.

24:42I found myself enjoying both more than I anticipated.

24:44I found pushing up against the game on the hardest difficulty setting in both combat

24:48and stealth to be more enjoyable than expected, sometimes playing against type sitting on

24:52a building overlooking a fortress entrance and legitimately watching guards move around,

24:57watching for the possible semi bosses inside and looking for where the alarm bells were

25:02and then deciding to go in and who to go in with, checking for locations of entrance,

25:07understanding that Norway has limited climbing ability in many locations because this is

25:11a land where fortresses are meant to stop just her type of character and then deciding

25:15to take my chance.

25:16What was better still that as long as you keep your weapons and armor upgraded or within

25:20a couple levels of the enemies, they didn't really feel spammy.

25:23That's also because your power attacks are damn powerful.

25:27Going against a warlord that's a full couple regions above you is going to take forever.

25:30And with those special moves, but it felt better than Valhalla did customizing each

25:34part of the sword to make it reflect the new etchings I'd put on it going back and forth,

25:39just offered more customization than I had actually expected.

25:43And building up that atmosphere when it comes to the hideout was very cool.

25:47Something we have seen before with hideouts in a couple of their games, but the ability

25:50to actually go in and adjust it and do so many changes was cool.

25:54Now, sure, random events exist, but riding around in this game, there is one thing you

25:58will see a massive amount of forest animals.

26:00I just have to mention this in the fun factor because it's hilarious.

26:04You're writing and without bandits consistently raging around, it's a little bit quieter than

26:09you might expect, but all of a sudden you'll realize you have an entire Disney film worth

26:14of characters moving around with you.

26:16It'll be deer, it'll be rabbits, it'll be elk, it'll be all kinds of creatures moving around.

26:22And it almost feels like every time Ubisoft makes a game, there's one part they go ham

26:26on.

26:27And when it comes to wildlife, that's where they went ham.

26:30Still as an AC game, yeah, without any doubt, it feels a lot like others.

26:34Underlying that admission is the idea that you either like one of the series or you hope

26:37to like them because if you hate them, then there's no reason to be here.

26:40And I can say, despite still having the same DNA, it's changed more than prior games between

26:45the series, even with the later stuff that I got to say would be a little spoiler heavy

26:49that I won't cover here.

26:50I'll cover in podcast.

26:51However, just as the saying goes, to sharpen a sword, you are cutting off parts of its

26:54own body.

26:55So if you ever were sitting back wishing assassins created, slow down, take a breath and let

26:58the world settle in before throwing you into instant action.

27:01Well, congratulations, because Ubisoft heard you loud and clear, stripped the engine out

27:04of the car and left you pushing it up a hill for the first one or two hours.

27:08It's slow to me and it just wasn't super enjoyable that the game dials back to action so aggressively

27:13at the start.

27:14It feels like it is almost punishing you.

27:17There's a point where hesitation I think becomes hibernation, where pause turns to paralysis

27:20and where refinement turns to removal, where shadows doesn't just strip things away.

27:25It carves them out at that starting.

27:27And that starting for me is very slow.

27:30But once I got into it, hey, the combat slices through some stuff and, you know, just moving

27:34along here in the story.

27:36That was fun.

27:37I think overall the writing is pretty basic.

27:39The story was what I could follow and what I assumed would happen.

27:43But there were some later surprises.

27:44You just got to get to it.

27:45And speaking of get to it, Christ, this is like 36 minutes.

27:48Let's let's get to the rating.

27:50This is different than what I expected, especially because of the preview time.

27:53I haven't loved an AC game as a whole.

27:55And the new ones really, I think only Odyssey worked for me initially, despite liking parts

27:59of it.

28:00And shadows is that same way.

28:01If you're new to this, this is not a bad place to start, though its initial slowness may

28:05actually confuse you, especially if you hear a lot of people complain about the AC games

28:10just being almost two action porn.

28:13The addition of prone has helped the game immensely, even though it's still got some

28:17Ubisoft jank in there.

28:19But the polish has also helped that it is an odd series where you start to look at it

28:24and you start playing it.

28:25You're like, this is great.

28:26This is great.

28:27But there's still some oddities here and there.

28:28If you're a fan of Assassin's Creed as world exploration and just all around exploration,

28:33kill fantasies.

28:34This is more than enough.

28:35And I honestly can't stress enough to turn the difficulty in combat difficulties to their

28:40highest, though stealth at its highest does require unique strategies.

28:44When up on the roofs prior to the past games, at least.

28:48Does it make the game worse that some of these issues are here?

28:50Yeah, we'd like for everything to be fixed, but they're not.

28:53I think this is a solid title, more solid than I expected, but doesn't really hit exactly

28:58where I personally would want.

29:00So if you're thinking about getting this game and you're OK with those caveats, I

29:03would say well worth it.

29:05If those caveats sound a little bit odd to you and maybe you need to see some more about

29:08the game, maybe hold off.

29:11And if all of this is not the changes that you wanted or if you thought it was going

29:15to be completely free of Ubisoft jank, well, this is definitely not the game you want.

29:20This will be available day one for GeForce now and Xbox stream games that you own on

29:24the Xbox cloud as well.

29:26See on the flip side.

29:27That's it for me.

29:28Check out the patron.

29:29Follow me on Jeremy Penner on Twitter.

29:31And of course, you can check out the podcast every single Friday, 1030 a.m.

29:34Pacific Standard Time, where we're going to dive into more of this piece out.

29:39I haven't had the honor of meeting him.

29:41I've only dealt with his agents.

29:44Yes, that is how he would have arranged it.

29:48What is the name of this agent?

29:50He told me his name was Chuta.

29:52I do not know him, but I will.

29:56Heiji, you did not fight back.

29:59I do not spill blood.

30:01I make tools.

30:02They could have killed you.

30:05Yes, perhaps.

30:09I hope I am as brave when death comes for me.

30:15Any lending you can walk away from is good enough.

30:24I've come to stay with you.

30:39What?

30:40What?

30:41There are no foes fiercer than these.

30:45Can you overcome them?

30:47I know you are undefeated.

30:49No other man has dared challenge you, but that is precisely why I have sought you out.

30:55Spoken like a samurai.

30:59I am Marume Tessai Nagayoshi, by birth Fujiwara Nagayoshi.

31:05And I gladly accept your challenge.

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