by Anthony O’Connor
Worth: $13.50
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Intro:
… lacking the magic the series once had so very long ago.
It would be fair to say that Ubisoft, the massive French studio behind Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six (to name but three of their bestselling franchises), have been having a rough go of it lately. The severe underperformance of Star Wars Outlaws, various sexual assault and harassment scandals and tanking stock prices have led to the impression that the once unbeatable gaming giant might be on the way out. The ailing company needed a hit, and more specifically, it needed Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the latest iteration on the long-running series, to blow the bloody doors off. Well, after many years, several delays and much gnashing of online teeth, the game is here and it’s… pretty good? With some major caveats.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally takes the franchise to Feudal Japan, giving players the chance to step into the silken booties of Japanese shinobi, Naoe, or the enormous shoes of mountain-sized African samurai, Yasuke. Whichever character you pick (and you can switch between the two fairly easily on the fly), you’ll be acting out a revenge plot against a bunch of masked bastards who did you wrong and exploring the fascinating land of 16th Century Japan.
On paper, Assassin’s Creed Shadows sounds like an absolute winner. And to be fair, it’s certainly the most enjoyable AC game in a good while. Presentation-wise, things have been improved noticeably, with environments and character animations looking slick and smooth. Combat too, has been beefed-up significantly, with stealth in particular boasting a bucket of upgrades and feeling snappier than ever before. So, if you’re the sort of gamer who has been happy with modern Assassin’s Creed titles like Odyssey and Valhalla, you’ll likely have a decent time with Shadows.
If, however, you’re starting to find Ubisoft’s non-linear approach to storytelling unsatisfying and a bit of a drag, Shadows won’t do much to change your mind.Assassin’s Creed Shadows commits the terminal sin of never spinning a yarn that engages. Sure, the opening few hours are engrossing enough, but when it opens up and gives you a confusing map of convoluted objectives, things start to get dull and repetitive. All the pretty environments in the world can’t disguise the fact that you’ll be going to a brand new village, chatting with some people, killing a couple of enemies and moving on before rinsing and repeating. Over and over again.
It’s a pity too, because Naoe’s story is a great one conceptually, it’s just that in execution it feels more like a checklist of goals, all of which you’ve done before. Also, Playstation or PC players who’ve had a chance to check out Ghost of Tsushima will notice that title from 2020 is better than Shadows in almost every way, from combat to storytelling to exploration, which makes Ubisoft’s continued lack of innovation kind of a bummer.
Ultimately, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a solid entry in a franchise that feels like it ran out of new ideas a long time ago. Yes, the combat is improved, and the graphics look great, but the fundamental flaws in the writing and tedious mission structure make the 30-hour or so mainline experience feel at times bloated and inessential. What Ubisoft needed was the sort of game that would make players sit up and murmur “holy shit”. What Ubisoft delivered was the kind of game you’ll play with a podcast or audiobook going in the background. By no means terminal, but lacking the magic the series once had so very long ago.
