Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ protagonists provide both extremes of the AC fantasy

Assassin's Creed Shadows offers great innovations on combat and a beautiful open world, but will the RPG's dual protagonist approach land?

Feudal Japan has probably been the most heavily requested setting for an Assassin’s Creed game, and we’ll soon see it realized. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an important game for both the series and Ubisoft as a whole, and after two delays, expectations are very high. After playing just over three hours of Assassin’s Creed Shadows, I came away fairly confident that Ubisoft will do this long-awaited setting justice, yet I remain unconvinced that it’ll set new standards for the open-world series.

I most wanted to get stuck into Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ combat innovations and explore how the dual-protagonist approach works from a gameplay perspective. Narratively, it’s a strong concept, and I saw flashes of its potential in the prologue and an early story quest. But how does it shake out when it comes to AC’s core tenets of combat, stealth, and exploration? Ubisoft has made no bones about the fact that Naoe the shinobi and Yasuke the samurai don’t play similarly, but I was still surprised at just how radical that difference is.

Assassin’s Creed was of course founded on its slick, stealthy combat and agile parkour movement. While its most recent entry in the series, the shorter and more compact Mirage, was something of a return to those roots, there’s no escaping that the full-sized, gigantic open-world games of recent years have allowed for different approaches to assassination. The eye-wateringly huge Valhalla in particular is just as happy to let you charge into massive raids and battles, roaring war cries and swinging axes, as it is to let you sneak through bushes and silently slit throats.

In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, that difference in combat styles is more apparent and intentional than ever before, and Naoe and Yasuke take both approaches to new extremes. Naoe feels like one of the most agile, stealthy, and assassin-y assassins ever – while she’s still enjoyable to use in open combat, she can turn the Assassin’s Creed fantasy up to 11. Her grappling hook makes vertical traversal speedy, she performs flips and leaps while ascending and descending, she wields a hidden blade, and despite not having an avian companion, she can still harness the power of Eagle Vision to detect and highlight enemies.

Yasuke is the polar opposite. He is a tanky god in open combat that wields powerful and heavy melee weapons, he can charge through certain barricades and walls, and instead of assassinating targets silently, he will shout at them to turn around and face him before knocking their heads clean off their shoulders. While he can still climb some surfaces, he is extremely sluggish and there are certain actions he just can’t perform. I found he couldn’t even climb up to the first synchronization point. An Assassin’s Creed protagonist that can’t synchronize? It’s certainly jarring at first.

Of course, by design, Naoe should be much better at stealth and traversal than Yasuke, and Yasuke should be much better at soaking up damage and turning enemies into smoothies than Naoe. I do fear though that there will be too many instances where my hand is forced into switching to either character because I have to, not because I want to. Even in my short time with Shadows, I felt myself slipping into a routine: exploring and snooping with Naoe, switching to Yasuke for a big fight, then switching back once things cooled off. You don’t even have to lock one character in for an entire quest – unless you’re in an actual combat situation, you can swap whenever you want. Despite their glorious individual strengths, I’m worried that their limitations could make Shadows a bit too prescriptive.

Thankfully, the combat feel in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is excellent. Every melee weapon I used, from Naoe’s katana to Yasuke’s hefty kanobo, felt satisfying and unique from one another. Naoe’s inventory full of throwing knives and shurikens grants her some range, while Yasuke has access to both bows and a rifle, marking the return of firearms to Assassin’s Creed for the first time since Syndicate. Both characters come with individual mastery trees for their weapons, where you can unlock adrenaline skills. When executing these skills, a stylized filter turns the action into what looks like a bloody, ultra-violent manga for a brief moment. It’s a great touch.

Shadows also introduces other new mechanics. As Naoe, you can use your grappling hook to hang from ceiling rafters and then drop down on enemies to assassinate them. You can also break or extinguish lights to stay hidden. Holding your light or heavy attack puts you in a vulnerable stance but charges up your attacks for extra damage. Alongside the adrenaline skills, you have access to some ally abilities. This wasn’t fully explained to us in the preview and isn’t something I’ve seen mentioned in Ubisoft’s gameplay breakdowns, but throughout Shadows, it appears that you can recruit NPCs and then call one into battle to help you out. Each has different skill sets and uses, but it’s yet another tool in your arsenal.

Taking a step away from combat, Assassin’s Creed Shadows continues the series’ streak of crafting stunning environments and expertly recreating landmarks. I explored the Harima region featuring Himeji castle and its surrounding village. I wouldn’t say the region took my breath away and set a new standard, but it was certainly impressive. The main streets of the towns and villages bustle with noisy NPCs, while shrines and the great outdoors offer some real peace and serenity.

While I didn’t get to play any side quests, I did see a few world events, including shrines where you can stand and pray. Another new activity sees you creep up on animals in their habitat and sit peacefully alongside them while drawing the scene in ink. There’s no hunting here.

As for the main quest, I won’t give specific story spoilers, but it was of a similar quality and formula that we’ve come to expect from modern Assassin’s Creed. An evil force is out there somewhere meddling with affairs, you snoop around to find clues and locate them, then storm the Himeji castle where they’re hiding out to take them down. It’s serviceable and delivered a somewhat surprising twist, but it all felt very familiar. I’m hoping that when the Assassin’s Creed Shadows release date arrives, there are a few more unexpected moments and surprising quest structures to enjoy, otherwise things could quickly get repetitive.

Going into this event, I largely expected Assassin’s Creed Shadows to be a slightly prettier and slicker AC Valhalla set in feudal Japan. In many respects, that is what it feels like, but it’s also encouraging to see some attempts (most of them successful, from what I played) to innovate. I wouldn’t say they are collectively transformational and take Assassin’s Creed in new directions, but they were certainly welcome.

I am still on the fence about its split protagonists though. In one way, it’s brilliant to have two different RPG fantasies (the silent assassin and the bone-breaking warrior) so well-realized and so immediately swappable to fit your mood and situation. However, while it was fun to experiment with them in the few hours I played, I’m not convinced yet that it’ll remain enjoyable over the dozens of hours that Assassin’s Creed Shadows will demand.