A few steps in the right direction

Things are not going smoothly at Ubisoft at the moment. The publisher had approximately 2024, with Star Wars Outlaws He failed at that Meet sales expectations And a word XDefiantdeath It comes about six months after the tactical shooter’s debut. Skull and bones It finally arrived too, but it was a bit of a damp sarcasm.

Amidst rumors about The company being sold Or transfer some of its assets to Joint venture with TencentUbisoft really needs to win. She won’t have a better opportunity to do that anytime soon than she had with Shadows of Assassin’s Creed. After several delays, the latest entry in the company’s flagship series is It is scheduled to arrive on March 20.

After a few hours with AC shadesThere are positive indicators. The game at least looks and plays well enough for what Ubisoft needs, with the company straddling the line between playing too safe and trying something different.

After the successes he achieved AC Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla (And also On a pleasantly smaller scale mirage), Shadows It represents somewhat new territory for Assassin’s Creed. It is the first game in the series to feed directly into the Animus Hub (formerly known as… Infinity).

Before you take your swan dive Shadows of Assassin’s Creedyou will enter the Animus Hub. From here, you will be able to access many Assassin’s Creed games (Shadows and the previous four main entries) of the Memory section. They’re laid out on an easy-to-navigate schedule.

The center’s anomalies section includes quests for ShadowsWhich will offer exclusive rewards such as weapons and gear. You can modify your characters’ gear from the Trading section and explore the stories of recent AC games through the Vault.

The Animus Hub will be expanded in the coming years as Ubisoft releases more games. This is an ambitious project that aims to tie the series together. It has been reported that the company will attempt to adapt the series In the live service project With the Animus Hub, we see glimpses of that with those tasks. There’s not much to it now, but it’s clear that Ubisoft has big ambitions here.

Shadows It brings the action to the long-awaited frontier of Assassin’s Creed: 16th-century Japan. The other big development this time is that you can switch between two characters. Various points in the story will have you choosing to play as Yasuke or Naoe, and at least in the open world, you’ll be able to switch between them on the fly. Swapping can be useful when one character is wanted by enemies, as the other can remain unknown.

Yasuke is the tank of the two, with the ability to crash through certain doors while running. He can make use of ranged weapons like rifles and bows, so some players may want to use him to take out a few enemies from afar at the start of the mission. He can hit bad guys with it Kanabo War Club as well

Naoe plays more like a traditional Assassin’s Creed hero. She is much more agile and her parkour skills are spot on. Shinobi can quickly climb the sides of buildings and have a grappling hook to help them reach higher parts of structures and swing across gaps. In close combat, Naoe can spin and kick an enemy in the teeth, or flip behind them to slit their throat.

Perhaps more importantly (at least from what I’ve seen in the game), Naoe is the only one of the duo who has the classic Hidden Blade. Yasuke can still sneak up on an opponent to eliminate them with the push of a button, but his “Brutal Assassination” causes him to swing his sword at the enemy and raise them into the sky. Not entirely accurate.

The switch between Naoe and Yasuke is almost as seamless as the switch between, say, Peter and Miles Marvel Spider-Man 2. The latter requires some quick in-game actions, and the action quickly transitions to the other Spider-Man. in Shadows of Assassin’s CreedSwapping characters means entering the menu, pressing a button, and waiting just a few seconds for the other hero to replace them.

However, there is no immediate character exchange in the prologue, which is one of the two sections I played through. Not surprisingly, this serves as an introduction to the story and how to actually play the game.

In the first Assassin’s Creed game, one of the playable characters actually existed in real life. It won’t take players long to learn how Yasuke, a black African man, became a samurai. After a short information drop, we jump forward six months to the battle sequence. It’s an effective way to start getting familiar with what Yasuke can do, including special attacks like the sword slash.

Once his short action sequence ends, we flash back to earlier in the night and Naoe’s introduction. After stealing an important box (its contents remain a mystery), she heads out to retrieve it from the compound. This short mission highlights some of the stealth features.

One great addition to this game is the ability to bring out light sources at night to create customized hiding spots in the shadows. Naoe can blow out candles and destroy lamps from afar using Kunai or Shuriken. This may not be needed depending on the terrain (and difficulty level) and how quickly you get up over the rooftops when you are spotted.

The second part I played was an investigation mission. I had to get to the bottom of the puzzle by completing some quests and collecting information. All of this leads to the inevitable but fun boss battle and a satisfying resolution to the quest.

structure Shadows of Assassin’s Creed It will lend itself to multiple playthroughs for those who really dig it. I spent most of my preview as Naoe, but I’m interested to see how different things are playing as Yasuke. There are dialogue choices throughout the game but there is a Canon mode that will remove these choices and present you with the basic story. Players may also be tempted to switch dialogue languages ​​to Japanese and Portuguese for deeper immersion after beating the game in their native language.

Some gameplay changes that Ubisoft implemented this time around really shake things up. The Eagle Vision ability now allows Naoe to locate and tag enemies through walls. Its smoke grenades and distraction bells come in handy when there are too many enemies to fight head-on. Both characters can also lie down, providing more opportunities for hiding and stealth.

I quickly tried out some side activities, like the peaceful act of sneaking animals into certain situations to draw them. In terms of slowing things down to get a little bit of peace, this seems a bit similar to the haiku composition sequences in Ghost of Tsushima (It is worth noting that the sequel to that game, Ute ghost It is scheduled for release in 2025 and could provide competition for it Shadows of Assassin’s Creed.)

It’s not entirely clear based on what I’ve seen, but it seems as if Ubisoft has cut back on a lot of the stuff that typically fills Assassin’s Creed maps, which will help this game feel less stressful. Climbing to a viewing point and synchronizing reveals only the sites of interest, rather than everything worth seeing in the area. The company backed off the bulging map a bit mirageSo you may have drawn some positive lessons from this approach.

Add it all up and I came out of the session feeling satisfied. The game looks quite good. It’s just about what you’d expect from an Assassin’s Creed game these days, but with enough tweaks, new wrinkles, and quality of life updates to make it compelling enough. It feels like a good entry point into the series while still holding enough interest for fans in the long run. For what it’s worth, I’m ready to play more, as a finished person Assassin’s Creed Mirage But it dropped from Valhalla After about 10 hours.

I look forward to playing more Shadows of Assassin’s Creed And seeing, for example, how the weather system changes things. The lakes freeze over in winter, preventing them from swimming or hiding underwater. Snowflakes can be used as a distraction as well. I wasn’t able to try out the spy recruitment system, which seems like it could come in handy during investigations.

Shadows of Assassin’s Creed It inherently has an advantage over many other Ubisoft games due to the popularity of the series. He already looked like he was poised to do well, but he appears to be in a good enough position to succeed. If so, this could help Ubisoft finally steer its ship back from the rocks.

Shadows of Assassin’s Creed It will arrive on PS5, Xbox Series