AC Shadows (Ubisoft - PC, PS5, Xbox Series X/S) is the latest in the long running franchise, finally set in Japan. How is it? Let's talk.
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00:00Hey, we're back with another episode of Before You Buy, that show where we give you some
00:05straight up gameplay and our first impressions of the latest games releasing.
00:09As usual, it's me, Jake, and today we're talking about Assassin's Creed Shadows.
00:13After years of waiting for the setting that everyone has been asking for, and multiple
00:18delays, it's finally here.
00:20As a resident Assassin's Creed fan at Gameranx, I was able to put aside my nostalgia for the
00:24old style games and just jump into this head first, and I wasn't sure what to expect.
00:30Well, here's the verdict up front for you guys, and I'm sorry it's just not that extreme,
00:35but it's the truth, or at least my truth here.
00:37It's that Assassin's Creed Shadows, for me, is just fine.
00:41For some people, fine is alright.
00:43For other people, fine just isn't quite good enough.
00:46Life might be too short to play a game that's just okay, I guess, and I fall in the latter
00:51camp.
00:52But have you ever played or watched something that you know is technically good, or it's
00:57an improvement upon a previous thing, and doesn't do anything really egregiously wrong,
01:02but it still doesn't click with you?
01:04Something you might mildly enjoy, but it's missing something, where you may ultimately
01:08forget it over time?
01:10That's Assassin's Creed Shadows, for me.
01:12Putting some of my personal whining aside for a second, the good news, it is an improvement
01:17upon Assassin's Creed Valhalla.
01:19From a technical standpoint, it's in way better shape performance-wise and glitch-wise,
01:24it has way better stealth, and the world is gorgeous and incredible.
01:29I really think the extra time in the development oven helped this one out, but unfortunately,
01:34repetitive quests and side activities, some weird design choices, and some real rough
01:39story sections unfortunately just drag it all down.
01:43When you don't care about the story, and you start to feel like you've seen everything
01:46after the first 20 hours, you might end up just kind of feeling like you're just going
01:50through the motions, turning off your brain and just grinding through another big Assassin's
01:55Creed game until you stop and ask yourself, what for?
01:58Still, it's an interesting game to talk about overall, and all of this just comes down to
02:01your preferences.
02:02I know some people that put 200 hours into Valhalla, and they loved every minute of it,
02:07so I might not be talking to that type of person, but either way, let's just dive in
02:11more.
02:12And just so you know, I've been playing a review copy, and this footage is spoiler-free
02:15and is captured running on a PS5 Pro.
02:19First things first, it's an Assassin's Creed game featuring two full main playable characters.
02:24Not just swapping between guy and girl, they have real, substantial, and distinct playstyles.
02:30This isn't like a Jacob and Evie Frye thing.
02:32This is like deliberate, and they really committed to two completely different feeling characters
02:37and playstyles.
02:38So, there's Naue, the shinobi stealth character, and Yasuke, the big strong samurai.
02:44Two complete, polar opposite playstyles.
02:47Now the game starts with Naue.
02:49You learn the ropes of the world with her, and surprisingly, the game commits to not
02:54bringing Yasuke fully into the playable fold until quite a few hours into the game, depending
03:00on how much you explore and mess with side quests first.
03:03So by the time you do finally get to play as Yasuke and switch to him whenever you want,
03:09he just feels worlds different.
03:11Now Naue is fast.
03:13Really fast.
03:14She runs around.
03:15She crouches.
03:16She slides.
03:17She grappling hooks.
03:18She assassinates.
03:19She parkours.
03:20She is the Assassin's Creed experience.
03:22Yasuke is powerful as hell.
03:25He sprints much slower, but he's larger.
03:28He can bash through doors.
03:29He can take a bunch of hits, deal a ton of damage, but he can barely do any assassin
03:34type stuff, and he can't really climb very much.
03:38Sure, like I said, he can break through doors, but still, you're very limited in terms of
03:42just how you get around.
03:44This leads to him being a ton of fun to play as in a pinch when you just want to be strong
03:49and chop off a bunch of heads, but it makes him far less enticing to play mainly as you
03:54ride around and explore, because when you can't climb much in an Assassin's Creed game,
03:59you really have a hard time getting anywhere or doing anything.
04:03So on the one hand, they committed to these characters feeling starkly different, which
04:08is cool.
04:09I commend them for that.
04:10On the other hand, it just feels kind of forced and weird in certain moments.
04:14One of the main ways you progress your character with skill points is exploring temples and
04:18climbing around to earn points, and one of the characters can't really do too much of
04:23this.
04:24They give Yasuke his own version of it, but still, it just doesn't feel like enough.
04:28So while they made creative choices with this and they stuck to their guns, to me, it can't
04:32help but feel like trying to please everyone.
04:35You know, the sneaky assassins in Assassin's Creed fans and the newer fans who just love
04:41these massive big RPGs and loved killing dudes as a Viking or a Greek warrior previously.
04:47So for me, Yasuke was really fun in the select story missions and moments where you just
04:53needed to play as him.
04:54I actually really enjoyed him for that.
04:56The brutality, you know, his special abilities, his ranged abilities, and just really, really
05:01good gore and decapitations made it, well, nice.
05:06But Nae, on the other hand, she's kind of more well built for what these games still
05:10are.
05:11The running, the climbing, the jumping, you know, climbing up towers and swan diving off,
05:16all that stuff.
05:17The stealth also, it's very, very good.
05:19It's still Assassin's Creed, right?
05:21So it's still pretty smooth and streamlined and simple, but it just works well here.
05:27You get the right amount of actually useful tools, no real filler or fluff with them.
05:32You get just the right amount of hiding places just to make it feel fresh enough for this
05:38series.
05:39Look, this series always gets flack for this, and this is still the case.
05:41Like you'll still just sit and hide in a bush and then you whistle and then a dumb guy walks
05:46over and you stab him in the face and you pull him into the bushes with you.
05:50But they introduce clever, creative ways to kind of keep you on your toes, like some enemies
05:54just being able to see you coming a bit better, some challenging combat and cool tricks like
06:00some interior areas having like Shinobi proof floors and traps that make noises and alert
06:05people you're trying to sneak up on.
06:07You can also hold the crouch button and go completely prone and just crawl around kind
06:10of like The Last of Us style.
06:12It's only really needed in very specific instances, but still, it's nice to have and I think it's
06:17a good addition to the series.
06:19I do miss social stealth, but I'm glad they didn't just toss some of it in here in a half-ass
06:24way like Valhalla did.
06:26It's honestly the best stealth in these newer games.
06:29I guess since Assassin's Creed Origins, so I'm giving it a lot of credit for that.
06:34It has some issues, like when you go to some of the smaller interiors and the towers, the
06:38controls get really fiddly and the camera can get stuck and screw you up.
06:43But otherwise, it's all pretty good.
06:45It's no Splinter Cell Chaos theory, but I think it saved the game for me personally.
06:50It's also way better with the difficulty turned up.
06:52Just a heads up for some of you.
06:54Unfortunately, what you're actually doing can dry up after a while.
06:57A lot of encounter areas and bases just start to feel familiar and you get into that rinse-repeat
07:02mode.
07:03It's a big world filled with things to do, but you only occasionally find real, genuine
07:09surprises.
07:10Something that delights you or just changes things up.
07:13They are here, they are deep in this world, you just gotta dig for them.
07:16The main stuff and the main side quests on the surface just aren't very enticing.
07:22This is because the objectives usually boil down to something extremely simple, like get
07:26this item or kill everyone here.
07:29And with the game so fluid and accessible and trying to please everyone here, it doesn't
07:32really ever want to put up too many walls or limiters to shake things up very much.
07:37A lot of the game is structured around groups, main groups and side groups of people that
07:42need to be killed.
07:44Each requires a mission or a handful of missions to actually find out where they are and meet
07:49up with them and take them out.
07:50This is great when, say, there's a select handful of evil bad guys at the top that you
07:55slowly get to know and figure out over the course of the game.
07:59We've seen it in other games and we've definitely seen it in other Assassin's Creed games, but
08:03the way it's paced here and how both the side and main stuff is often structured like this,
08:08like everything, it just leads to you not really caring much about your target.
08:12You're not spending too much time or when you are, it's just few and far between or
08:16scattered.
08:17It's just really, really muddled and it's hard to stay interested.
08:20And I say that as a bad thing because, well, the game does double down on storytelling.
08:25Lengthy dialogue sequences and surprisingly long cutscenes show the game is really committed
08:30to it.
08:31Unfortunately, nearly all of it fell flat for me, mostly because of the voice acting.
08:36You encounter dozens and dozens of characters on your adventure, and only a small select
08:42few had voice acting that didn't get on my nerves.
08:45Corny dialogue writing mixed with awkward voice acting is just not enjoyable, especially
08:51when the game has lots to talk about.
08:53Now, I can shrug that off in a lot of other games or situations, but unfortunately the
08:58two main leads here also fall into that camp.
09:01Just stiff, awkward, dare I say, rizzless people that I found really hard to care about.
09:08And you're going to be spending a lot of time with them.
09:10Naoe's story is a bit generic, where Yasuke's at least actually has some interesting flavor
09:16to it.
09:17The game has some really cool moments and a few good story sequences that are just peppered
09:24and surrounded by a bunch of way more bland, way less excitingly directed stuff.
09:29All that stuff gets in the way of a few really cool moments that make the game really feel
09:33like a proper Assassin's Creed game.
09:35All that good, solid stuff is buried in hours and hours of stuff that, frankly, I found
09:41boring.
09:42Long dialogue sequences about characters that don't matter, that quickly the game moves
09:46on from.
09:47And again, stiff characters just really hurt the experience.
09:50I want a story to chase.
09:52I want a vibe or a feeling to play through.
09:54I want to see what's going to happen at the end of stories.
09:56That's why I play through them.
09:57But I didn't really get any of that here.
10:00What I did get, sort of, is this world.
10:02It is absolutely staggering and gorgeously detailed.
10:07Think Ghosts of Tsushima, but like with way, way more people living there, higher population.
10:12Big cities, castle towns, fishing villages, woodsy hunter encampments, all peppered through
10:18a big and very varied map.
10:21This Japan feels alive and compelling and really is just straight up awesome.
10:27Finding a temple in the mountains as the sun sets is stunning.
10:30Slicing away through a bamboo forest in a foggy morning is badass and beautiful.
10:36Leaping from a castle in the snow or sneaking through a village lit by candle in the pitch
10:41black darkness of the night, it's all just really cool shit.
10:44The detail and the art direction gives life and legit detail to a virtual Japan, while
10:50also still preserving some of its more mysterious, ethereal beauty.
10:55I don't know if the map had to be this big.
10:58There are still plenty of stretches where it's just like mountains or endless trees
11:01with nothing really else going on.
11:03But still, it all collectively just makes it all feel like a big, massive, and actually
11:08real convincing place, especially with seasons.
11:12So as you progress, seasons naturally change.
11:16The refreshing alerts and wanted status and given you a few extra things to consider.
11:21Snow can be deep and slow you down, for instance.
11:24But the visual change ups are really awesome.
11:26Being wanted in a whole area of the map is still chaotic and especially the guys that
11:30chase you this time around, they are like really over the top and actually pretty cool.
11:34But the visual change ups really are the thing here.
11:38It's awesome.
11:39It's a great way to pace the game because once you start getting bored of looking at
11:43it one way, it nearly completely changes to something else.
11:46The looks are over the top and just really nice looking.
11:49You know, they're not perfect.
11:50Every so often you'll come across a perfectly blossoming, beautiful, bright spring tree
11:56in the middle of winter, but it really is a hell of a technical accomplishment here.
12:01And that goes for the rest of it because I can only speak from my experience playing
12:04on PS5, but it all ran decent and looked good.
12:08And most importantly, I didn't encounter any bugs or weird glitches or crashes in my
12:13playthrough.
12:14Combat is a fairly simple affair.
12:15A few different weapon types with heavy and light attacks and dodges and perfect time
12:20parries.
12:21You can call in allies for quick little assists, almost Brotherhood style, like having an ally
12:26stealth kill an enemy from a nearby bush or have a heavy character jumping in to help
12:31fight.
12:32You also have your own special abilities mapped to holding the trigger and pressing a button,
12:36like a big, powerful lunge, a multi hits, like, you know, pretty straightforward stuff.
12:41And really the combat overall here is straightforward.
12:43If you played Valhalla or Odyssey, it's in a similar vein, but here the clash of swords
12:49is very satisfying and the gore is actually really, really good heads, lop off and blood
12:55sprays on walls.
12:56And the player attack animations are pretty great.
12:59No matter what weapon you're using now in terms of progression, the skill tree is broken
13:03out into different weapon types, tools and assassin skills.
13:07You level up and earn points to spend to unlock things in these different trees and they work
13:12well and good enough, you know, game changing abilities and better use of tools or just
13:17a melee damage increase.
13:19Either way, the types of things you unlock are very useful and it just feels pretty good
13:24to acquire them.
13:26Unfortunately, better and better skills are actually locked behind knowledge rank tiers
13:30that you got to open up first, and those require separate points to earn.
13:35The easiest and main way to earn them is by exploring and doing stuff, archery challenges
13:40and little different meditative things for Yasuke or finding shrines and temples and
13:45exploring them for Naue.
13:47These places either require you to pick up X number of hidden things like find three
13:52hidden scrolls or pray at four different altars with this long pray animation or engage in
13:58a couple of kind of meditative style but frustrating minigames.
14:02And frankly, this stuff is just not thrilling.
14:04I like that they want you to explore and really see these locations they created, but it's
14:10not all as meditative as I think they were trying to go for.
14:13I just want to get the points so I can unlock a new sword attack, please.
14:17Unfortunately, this kind of deterred me from pursuing knowledge ranks for a while in my
14:21playthrough.
14:22I went through like half of the game with only one special ability attack for one of
14:25the characters and I fared just fine.
14:28Oh, eventually I did slog through them to get better, but it just wasn't that fun
14:32earning those knowledge ranks.
14:34It felt like a lot of things in the game, busy work and a grind.
14:37One thing I forgot to mention is you're also building out your own home base, a hideout,
14:41like Valhalla, but more customizable here.
14:44Building a workshop to craft and upgrade your weapons, rooms to hold allies and gain extra
14:49scouts to use in the field, and just kind of have some fun customizing.
14:54I put dogs and cats everywhere and cool statues I found out in the wild.
14:58Come to think of it, actually, fun loot comes kind of few and far between.
15:03When it is good, it is good, like a white sword or a cool spooky mask, but the stuff
15:08you get more regularly is fun things to place around your hideout, and I really like that.
15:14I guess technically it's not the longest of these modern AC games, but you're definitely
15:17going to be able to spend a ton of time in it, probably at least like 70 hours if you
15:22love it all and want to check a lot of boxes off, but towards the end of the story, which
15:26clocks in at about 35-45 hours depending on how you play, I was already pretty checked
15:31out.
15:32Bland characters and rinse and repeat missions and bases really dried up my good will as
15:36a player.
15:37The awesome story stuff, I'm glad it's trickled in there, but is it worth the grind?
15:42That's going to be up to you.
15:43I might be in the minority with this one, I know I've complained quite a bit.
15:47Hey, I can't always steer you right, that's why I always recommend to watch other reviews
15:52All I can do is talk about my experience playing it, and that's a before you buy.
15:56You know how this goes by now, I give you some pros, some cons, and some personal opinion,
16:00and now I want to hear yours down in the comments.
16:02It seems like when you look online in the gaming world, it's either people's most anticipated
16:06game ever, or the worst game to ever exist in humanity.
16:11I think the reality is probably a little less extreme, so let me know in the comments what
16:14you think about this game.
16:15Were you looking forward to it?
16:16Have you been begging for an Assassin's Creed game in Japan?
16:20Do you like Tenchu as much as I do?
16:22Is that maybe clouding your judgement on all of this?
16:24I don't know for sure, but look, let's talk anything Assassin's Creed Shadows down in
16:28the comments.
16:29If you liked this video, and maybe just seeing some gameplay and stuff like that just helped
16:32out, informed your decision, clicking the like button helps us out.
16:37But, as always, thanks for watching, and we'll see you guys next time.