Assassin's Creed Shadows

With Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft has finally delivered on the feudal Japan setting fans have always wanted. However, some elements have been left behind in the wake of the modernization of Assassin's Creed.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows represents a new era for one of the most well-known and successful franchises in gaming history. Reaching adulthood in 2025, when it will celebrate 18 years since the first game, the series is more mature and complete than ever. As Origins did back in 2017, this could be a great first step towards a new age of Assassin's Creed, who keeps reinventing itself and adapting to what the community needs and wants.

While Assassin's Creed Shadows is unlikely to win over those who struggled to push through Odyssey or Valhalla, this is still one of the strongest overall entries in the series — and arguably the best of the open world RPG bunch. The storytelling is largely fantastic, the main characters are deeply likeable, and the open world itself is a thing of beauty.

Although Shadows gives the Assassin's Creed formula a much-needed update, it continues to falter in some areas. The long cutscenes and dialogues are still present, and you encounter so many enemies that the battles get boring at times. We know that sounds crazy in a game where you play an assassin, but sometimes you just want to achieve your goal instead of killing one guard after another. Those two shortcomings are especially noticeable at the beginning of the game, which is a shame, because it kind of took away our desire to continue playing. Fortunately, we bit through, because the further we progressed, the more Shadows blossomed. There is an enormous amount to experience, and Ubisoft clearly invested where it was needed: in the storyline. It is vastly expanded and rarely bores.

Shadows is best played with hidden blades as a stealth-action game reminiscent of what Assassin's Creed used to be, but its greatest strength is choice.