REVIEW: Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Dancing in the Dark

Ubisoft’s latest installment in the lore of the Assassins,  Assassin’s Creed Shadows, takes a bold leap into feudal Japan, offering a mixed bag of stealthy elegance, complex world-building, and interesting choices. As a geek from Brooklyn whose penchant for ninjas sparked from 80’s Kung Fu Theatre, I found myself both enthralled and bewildered by this journey. But, after years of fan cries, Ubisoft delivered Shadows, a game that lets us live out our shinobi fantasies in a world of samurai and stealth. And they even gave us, well… Yasuke. Cool, right? Yes… but also, why?

 

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The Good

Assassins in Japan

Let’s start with the good stuff. Feudal Japan looks stunning. Every village, temple, and stormy battlefield is dripping with detail. Be it facing off against a ronin in tranquil cherry blossom gardens or sneaking through a storm-lit battlefield, every scene is immersing and enchanting. The dynamic weather is a stroke of genius, as the environment adds another character to the game.

Shadows’ stealth mechanics are a masterclass in design. Navigating through moonlit rooftops and dense bamboo forests felt like a poetic dance. The game’s emphasis on silent takedowns and strategic planning harkens back to the series’ roots, reminiscent of the original Assassin’s Creed and less on the more battle-focused Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. The introduction of the grappling hook adds another option for exploration, making each infiltration a unique puzzle. It’s exactly what an Assassin’s Creed game should feel like.

Combat, too, has seen a significant overhaul. With an assortment of weapons unique to each character, each battle is both challenging and rewarding, demanding precision and timing. The duels are intense, often leaving you on the edge of your seat.  It’s clear that Ubisoft took care with refining these core mechanics, while it takes a little to get used to it, and I think the hitbox, especially when it comes to parrying and blocking, could use some tweaking, it pays off.

But it is also here where the game strays a bit for me. When you play as Naoe, our kunoichi assassin, the game is firing on all cylinders. She’s fast, deadly, and moves like a whisper in the dark. It’s the AC we know and love. Then there’s Yasuke….

Dual Protagonists: A Tale of Two Warriors

Shadows introduces us to two protagonists: Naoe, a swift and agile assassin, and Yasuke, the historic towering warrior of African descent that ever science he was spoken of has sent every blerd’s heart a flutter. Playing as Naoe aligns with traditional Assassin’s Creed gameplay—fluid parkour, silent assassinations, and a seamless blend into the environment. Yasuke, on the other hand, is a tank. His brute strength and straightforward combat style provide a fresh perspective, though it deviates from the stealth-centric approach the series is known for.

This duality is both a strength and a weakness. While it offers variety, the abrupt shift in playstyle can be jarring. Yasuke’s segments, though rich in narrative potential, often feel disconnected from the core gameplay loop, leading to a fragmented experience.

The Meh

The Yasuke Situation: Cool, But…

First, in a sea of stagnant copy-and-paste character designs, Ubisoft has stepped up in this area previously, like Marcus from Watchdogs 2 or Aveline from Assassin’s Creed Liberation, etc..…, So kudos to Ubisoft for even attempting Yasuke. The man was an anomaly, and it’s great to see a Black character front and center in a major game. Representation is important, and it can’t be said enough how significant the intention was to even decide to do this. But was he necessary in Assassin’s Creed Shadows? I’m not sure. In a game about assassins, Yasuke is a tank. He’s about power in a franchise about finesse.  His combat is more brute force—charging into fights, breaking defenses, smashing enemies. 

Now, Yasuke, the character in the game, is cool. When he is on screen, he is everything we love about samurai and then some. Cool armor, powerful, honorable, living up to bushido. His character design is immaculate. His assortment of weapons are more diverse than Naoe’s giving him both close-range options like the katana, naginata, and kanabo or long-range with the bow or teppo. And playing with him feels powerful albeit a bit sluggish copmpared to what I am typically used to with AC.

Add to it there’s the missed opportunity that you put a Black man front and center in an Assassin’s Creed game, and instead of diving into the obvious themes of identity, belonging, and being an outsider in Japan, they just… don’t. Aside from the beginning, where we are introduced to Yasuke, there isn’t much character-building after that.  He’s here, he’s big, he fights people, and that’s about it. His presence feels more like an aside than a fully realized character arc. 

And that’s the thing: Yasuke isn’t bad—he’s just out of place. He doesn’t fit the assassin mold, and his playstyle is so different that it almost feels like Ubisoft built two separate games and stitched them together. Meanwhile, Naoe is doing all the cool ninja stuff while Yasuke is a samurai, which, even in their code, couldn’t be more contrary to Assassins. Even his combat style seems to be more suited for For Honor. While I commend the thought, and I think the idea and even what they did with him was good, he seemed more like a playable ally character in the game. Taking into account his playstyle, storyline, etc… Yasuke should have been given the Adewale Treatment in the Creed mythos.

The DLC Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry was a master class in exploring themes like race, slavery, being an outsider, etc… It was a self-contained story that gave the protagonist Adewale a platform to really shine and exist outside of the shadow of Kenway and AC Black Flag. I think introducing Yasuke in Shadows as an ally character, then doing a DLC or spinoff with Yasuke would have made more sense and gave everybody what they wanted. A move that would have given Yasuke his shine, allowed them to explore some of the themes they weren’t able to, and mad ethe inclusion of Yasuke an easier integration.  

The Bad

Side Quests: The Usual Ubisoft Stuff

The side quests are… well. If you’ve played Assassin’s Creed before, you already know the deal—fetch quests, Kill quests, random NPCs begging for help, repetitive “protect this person” missions that make you question why you ever revealed yourself as an assassin in the first place. The sneaking up on animals to draw them ones, oh and the Kuji-kiri are particularly … annoying. They’re not bad, they just feel more like obligatory padding than meaningful content. And yes, I know with Assassins Creed you go in suspending some belief because the franchise is so fun, but I can still dream. 

The Ugly

The Upgrade system: ARPG or Looter Slicer Game

Ok if there is something that singularly annoys me about Assassin’s Creed Shadows it’s the upgrading and loot system, which I affectionately label their ARPG and Looter Slicer systems. First, let’s look at the ARPG, which is the Assassin’s RPG system. It is split into mastery points and knowledge points. You earn mastery points by leveling up and then can spend them on unlocking skills. You earn knowledge points by doing tasks like performing Kuji Kiri, praying at shrines, etc. Those unlock the skills levels wherein you can spend the aforementioned mastery points, which seems unnecessarily convoluted to me. Now I get the idea of building in aspects to encourage point dispersion and building a path that fits your playstyle, but some aspects like having to put a certain number of points in one branch to get a nominal increase in health, is annoying. Especially when you realize just how squishy Naoe is if she is actually in a battle. 

The other is the loot system. Now being a Division fanboy, I love loot as much as the next person. But even in the Division, you earn loot. Yeah the regular stuff is just out there. And you can happen upon something exceptional, but the really good stuff you have to work for. So, there is some sense of reward for it. Shadows seems to be giving their top-tier stuff away, like participation trophies. And I get the desire to make everyone feel like they are getting the good stuff, but what happened to earn the good stuff? If you’re just giving it to me, are we all just going through the motions to speed-run the game? 

Final Verdict: A Fun Game

At its best, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a masterclass in stealth, world-building, and atmosphere. When you’re playing as Naoe, it feels like peak Assassin’s Creed. When you’re playing as Yasuke, it’s fun—but it also feels like a completely different game. Ubisoft deserves some credit for trying something new, but in the end, Yasuke’s role was unnecessary. A good attempt? Sure. Essential to the experience? Not really.

If you’re here for the classic AC experience, you’ll have a great time—just know that you’ll be ignoring Yasuke unless he is absolutely essential, which is thankfully very sparse. If you want the full Shadows experience, just realize that half of the time will feel like you’re playing AC and the other half will feel like you’re playing For Honor with an AC mod. Which might be an enjoyable experience. Not everyone enjoys stealth game play, but then, I’m not sure why you’re playing Assassin’s Creed. But mine is not to reason why …