Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji

Claws of Awaji condenses the strengths of the main game onto a small island and finally brings the plot to a satisfying conclusion.

It may not be one of the best expansions the series has seen, but Assassin's Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji still has some neat ideas that make it worth playing.

Claws of Awaji provides a more satisfying conclusion to Naoe’s narrative than players got in Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, though it clearly suggests that Shadows was really her story all along. Awaji is a beautifully designed playground, filled with content. The new enemies and bosses are an appropriate challenge for the high-level players that the DLC demands. It’s a bit disappointing that Yasuke gets no new weapons and that the basic mission design remains relatively unchanged. It’s also a shame that Awaji Island and its enemies are gated from all but endgame players. However, for anyone frustrated by Shadows’ inconclusive finale, Claws of Awaji will bring some much-needed closure in DLC that rewards committed players.

You can tell there's a big effort to give personality to the main fights and we are thankful for some new ideas, but all of this is scattered among some more derivative sidequests and objetives. If you got the DLC for free with your pre-order, give it a chance. If you have to pay 25 bucks for it... Maybe it's wiser to wait for a discount.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji is a decent but uneven expansion. The island looks great and the staff weapon adds some welcome variety to combat, with a handful of missions that feel true to the franchise’s roots. Still, too much of the content falls back on recycled mechanics and padded objectives, dragging down the pacing. The story does get closure, but the payoff feels more functional than memorable, leaving this DLC closer to optional add-on than essential chapter.

Claws of Awaji is a difficult recommendation, but I do recommend it. The DLC wraps up the three lingering narrative threads of the main game's story, while transforming the main gameplay loop into a more enjoyable cat-and-mouse formula where the hunter becomes the hunted. Yasuke continues to drag this experience down, and is now impacting the emotional payoff of Naoe's story, but at least Naoe's shinobi fantasy is still one of the best Assassin's Creed experiences to date.

The Claws of Awaji expansion offers plenty of new content for Assassin’s Creed Shadows and satisfyingly wraps up the cliffhanger in Naoe’s story that was hinted at the end of the base game. The expansion’s pacing with Yasuke is better, too, but it’s a shame that he didn’t get a new weapon while Naoe did. Still, Claws of Awaji is a worthy send off to two of the best Assassin’s Creed characters in recent memory.

Claws of Awaji offers a solid new location to explore, a fun new weapon for Naoe, and a good conclusion to the game’s story after having felt initially incomplete.

The Claws of Awaji is a DLC that reflects both the strengths and weaknesses of Assassin's Creed Shadows: some narrative elements are interesting, but the story ends without much excitement, nor does it sufficiently delve into the renewed conflict between Assassins and Templars. The introduction of a new weapon for Naoe livens up the combat a bit, but the gameplay remains more or less the same: ultimately, Awaji is an island that replicates the same exploration loop as the base game on a smaller scale, without adding anything new. Although it is free for all those who pre-ordered at the time, it is still a significant expansion at €25.

Ubisoft has brought the first, more realistic and dramatic DLC to the story of Nao and Yasuke in Claws of Awaji. You get a new small island with a short side story, a few nice missions and a new weapon. It's just a very basic content offer for the expansion and the whole thing sounds so much poorer in terms of story.

Complaints aside, I enjoyed my time with Claws of Awaji, even if it didn't exactly light my world on fire. Would I have specifically sought it out if I wasn't reviewing it? Probably not. But that's simply because I'm a little burnt out on open world adventures at this part of the year.

With average quest design, a lack of polish, and a forgettable story, Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji shows how the series’ quantity-over-quality approach is continuing to fail. While the Bo weapon for Naoe and the excellent Nowaki questline stand out, they’re drowned by questionable design choices that undermine the experience, making the expansion worthwhile only for the most die-hard fans.