Assassin's Creed Shadows [Review]

Saying that Shadows is the best thing to have happened to Assassin's Creed in the “RPG Era” (these more recent titles) is an understatement. It is indeed the best when compared to the other “witcher clones” of the franchise like Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. But that wasn't enough to make me fall in love with the game, unfortunately.

Naoe and Yasuke are great protagonists with nice dialogue and player choices. Both compelling and complex enough, they complement each other manner, and I really felt connected to their friendship and growth during their story, even if the overarching narrative is basically not finished by the end of the game. While Naoe is better at exploring and stealth, Yasuke shines on massive fights and big numbers. I'd say that Naoe is the protagonist of the story and Yasuke serves as not only co-protagonist but also a second and accessible point of view, with the possibility of completing quests with both of them, most of the time.

The problems within Shadows lies on everything else. Not many systems were really improved, the battle system is deeply repetitive with many, many same styled enemies, and as the game progresses so do their health bars but not really their difficulty, everything has too much life, and it is somewhat easy so it starts being boring after a while.

They've successfully simplified the gearing system, and it is now clearer when we get stronger gear, but the level scaling destroys the feeling of progression. Maps and quests both scale to a point where nothing really feels interesting or new, and the gear stops being fun to acquire – the perks, also, don't really change how you play, but gives passive buffs that most of the time you can't really notice. It is a boring and derivative gearing solution that drags the game and the rewards down a notch, but it is better than what was happening with the even grindier previous entries.

The stealth is a disaster, like in any of these open world Assassin's Creed, and it really feels like a 2010 stealth game. The same could be said about the parkour, too: while better than any other recent attempt by Ubi, it is still not as good as it was on the pre-RPG era: the immense, tree-filled world barely have any climbable tree, and the cities, while impressive and good-looking, are very formulaic on its exploration and paired with a so-so parkour system, nothing really comes together.

Actually, that's one of the biggest problems for AC: Shadows: the gameplay systems that they present barely talk to each other. Sometimes it feels like different games at the same time. Guards are oblivious, there's no reputation system or any kind of role play involved with the way that we interact with the world. It is undeniably shallow, and while it is better here than Origins or Odyssey, everything still feels disconnected. The people of the world barely live on it, as they are props for the player, with no agency, personality, or utility.

Returning systems are stuff like the weather changes, that are gorgeous and really do change a bit of the exploration, and the heavy focus on assassination as a side content. Yes, it finally makes sense all these side activities as they are related to the vibe of the game, but there are too many boring and repetitive leagues to kill, with the nicest ones being difficult to differentiate from the sloppy majority. In the beginning of the game it kinda seems that the leagues will be super unique and fun, but be aware: just some of them are actually enjoyable to do, most of them are simple and repetitive.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is better than every RPG Assassin's Creed. Still, it is worse than most of the non-RPG Assassin's Creed. It is stunning, technically impressive, super well acted and with decent character arcs, but clashing systems, archaic stealth, repetitive battles, lack of variety in the activities and progression, bad level scaling, unfinished ending and weird design decisions. I like playing AC, as I play almost every entry: these aren't bad games, nor really offensive or badly made, indeed, Shadows is brilliant on its technical side, with almost no bugs and amazing performance on PS5, but if the series sometimes may feel safe, here, it is the safest it ever played.

This is their fourth fully fledged RPG in the Assassin's Creed franchise, but, most of the time, it still feels like their first.

7/10