Assassin's Creed Shadows might be the last minute effort to save Ubisoft or a suicide note.

Alright, I'll try to be as grounded as possible but its not going to be easy.

It took me around 35-40 hours to beat the game on Expert difficulty and sticking as much as I could to the main quest, barely doing anything secondary except at times that I saw myself forced to do so because of the level gating.

I finished the game at level 34 (max is 60) with my gear upgraded on par and level 3 knowledge rank that gave me enough options to properly build my arsenal to overcome almost every challenge presented to both Naoe and Yasuke even though I struggled at times but emerged victorious nonetheless, having to abuse of passives that granted health on hit or on critical hit in order to survive without rations at times, specially because of how spongy bosses are for no reason. (*coughs* Odyssey).

Japanese World & Parkour.

First things first, two days from now, you will be roaming the lands of the Kansai region at your pace with the beautiful score composed by The Flight (If you spent 100H+ on Odyssey you'd know) and honestly, that alone is pretty awesome. But, with every new innovation there is always something that is downgraded along the way.

That is what Marc-Alexis Côté said back in December at the BAFTA awards in regards to how the narrative in upcoming games will be handled from Shadows onward, and back at the center it is, no doubt.

Assassin's Creed Shadows is what I believe to be the most "virtual tourism-oriented" game in the series given the amount of details and non-stop cultural homages scattered under the form of side activities in the likes of meditating atop a mountain with a gorgeous vista on valleys or practicing Kendo katas with your katana in the middle of a pond with ducks struggling to comprehend what you are doing and why.

It is all there for the average Japanese enthusiast to experience and enjoy.

Truly, if I were to compare the level of beauty this game has (not personally being a fan of Japanese culture myself) to other games in the franchise like Origin's recreation of Egypt or Odyssey's Greece which I'm more fond of, I believe this one wins the round. The graphics are just good and the textures very well detailed. This new entry I believe is what Unity was to the franchise back in 2014 and we can really see the engine upgrade Anvil Pipeline is.

Granted, movement is similar to other games in this new trilogy, assets were obviously going to be reused, same as sounds like that darn screeching rabbit sound that was introduced in AC III back in 2012 but that's not the point. The gameplay is good, it has been polished and it shows, parkour feels fluid and it is actually cool to have its practicality and fluidity adapted to environments in the wild and around the world (Cliffs, Caves, Narrow Mountain Trails, Dense Forests, among many other environments in which parkour is actually fun to use) something that was totally forgotten and simply compacted into one full sandbox where everything was climbable because the protagonists were able to glue themselves on flat walls for some reason.

No, not at all. That kind of immersion-breaking-albeit-fun climbing system has been overhauled. It is now more grounded and realistic clearly marking a difference between what is "realistically" climbable and what isn't for someone with the sufficient training. I actually was one of those rancid fellas that disliked the constant vaulting and acrobatics used just to descend from a 1-meter wall, but damn it if its not actually addictive. A few minutes in the game and I just couldn't stop using it.

Actually, it is a step up from previous games, it gives you a reason to engage with parkour and actually pull off cool traversal sequences in order to avoid enemies or to reach the higher end of a Tenshu tower in contrast to the three previous games were you literally climbed everything in a straight line when you didn't feel like taking your horse to take a detour or simply did not wanted to play how it was indented, reaching your objective in an almost cheat-like way, but then you remember that it simply is the trade-off enticed with the RPG transition of the franchise, having the character built around the world and not the other way around.

Well, forget all that.

Now, everything is designed in a way that you have to plan where and how you're going to go, not everything is climbable and the hook is only really useful to climb towers that are otherwise not climbable without it or if you want to quickly acscend a wall instead of manually climbing it yourself (which comes in handy when you want to quickly pass by a guard's patrol detection view) and it is in these little moments of gameplay, specially at night, that you feel like a true Shinobi with Naoe.

However, since the focus of it all was to actually and almost forcefully make you stick to preset parkour-made routes out in the wild, the traversal of certain regions of the map -specially the ones that are mainly populated with dense forests and steep hills- is hellish in almost every way, you will be forced to follow dwindling paths and small trails that realistically circle mountains and hills as an human being would do, but we are in a videogame after all, so the fact that the map is heavily dense with vegetation that you literally can't see in front of yourself when you "try" to take a shortcut is criminal.

Also, the geography is mainly hills and steep mountains in almost every province in Kansai (the region in which the game takes place), so you will find yourself sliding downhill most of the time if you choose not to follow the path you were on just because you wanted to take a shortcut through the forest. It's irritating.

Other than that, the recreation of Japan and its biome diversity is incredible, I didn't have the time to fully appreciate everything but from what I could gather during my rushed playtime was enough to know that I'll fall in love again when taking in the game's atmosphere in the following days where I'll be completing everything.

You are going to love it if you're into Japanese culture, that's for sure.

Combat & Loot.

If there is one thing I hated in this new trilogy, that would be the combat.

Except for maybe Valhalla. You see, people have an insane obsession with Dark Souls and The Witcher and in truth, I couldn't care less about any of the two, I was actually happy with older AC's combat and recently I replayed AC1 for the sake of getting all those flags so I had time to appreciate the combat once again and it was actually pretty good.

What do you expect from a medieval game, actually?

It is well balanced between waiting for your opponent to strike and you observing when it was ok for you to land your hits without being hit by another NPC from the back, which, they loved to do when you decided to finally engage after a 2-minute staring contest with the AI.

When you compare AC1's "tactical" approach on combat to the rest of the games in the franchise you can see how it has progressively deteriorated until it eventually became a simple-button-press scheme where you could be playing the game and tearing through armies with one single hand, specially more so when they added the "chain-kill" mechanic that completely cancelled the point of even attempting to use the appropriate combos that were "required" to take down bigger enemies as all enemy archetypes could be taken down with a simple chain kill.

However, The RPG Trilogy attempted to change this for good by taking inspiration from the aforementioned games (The Witcher 3, Dark Souls, etc) by focusing on response time; Blocks, parry, dodge and so on.

This not only changed how you play but also how everything is tailored around the character (Space, Locations, Arenas) etc, trading off enclosed or even, claustrophobic environments more akin to an Assassin for plain out "arenas" that once you see them you know a boss fight is incoming.

Shadows does not fall short on this either, however, the combat is polished indeed. Naoe's combat is "doable" but clearly not your main focus and you will find yourself abusing of the classic "smoke drop-hide-stabby stab-" moves when tougher enemies spot you which can be fun but tiresome, specially in higher difficulties. You could argue that that's why there's the "One-shot" assassination but let's be real, turning it on after three games of full on RPG is a low blow and actually a hit to your Ego. At least for me.

Plus, the game is intended to be played in Expert if you ask me. You basically become more careful and attentive to your surroundings which in the long run reward you with better executed approaches to your targets.

Yasuke's combat on the other hand is highly addictive. There's nothing else to say. I got into the game thinking I would only play with Naoe (specially after three games playing as a mercenary-like figure) but God only knows how brutal the slap in the face was when I actually played with him and realized how good it is to play with him. The only thing I will say is this; you will instinctively know when and how to use either Naoe or Yasuke in the story.

However, one thing you do not know when you will be able to use, is Naoe's legacy outfit.

There is ONE thing that Assassin's Creed has always been known for and that is the cool-looking attires each Assassin has worn in each game. It is basically a staple in the series. Each Assassin has one. Even Naoe right?

Well, no. It is random and I actually got it in the early hours in a random chest without any explanation or plot-related reason as to why Naoe chooses that specific gear with, mind you, an actual Assassin crest holding together the many belts and ropes across her back. This genuinely pissed me off. And the worse part? It was in a completely different color too. I actually spent the game without actually acquiring the full set.

Well, yes, technically I had it. But in another color and look I know it isn't a big deal but it is actually for me. Other than that, the loot system is Odyssey 2.0 with no major overhauls.

Essence & plot.

Honestly, the story is weak.

Don't get it wrong, it starts on a good pace, there's a lot of intrigue, the characters are mysterious and actually introduced in a badass allure.

The Onryo (Main antagonists) are cool successors to the Cult Of Kosmos and Order Of The Ancients but as you progress in the game and begin tracking them down, the story quickly becomes yet another story of revenge. The Assassin presence is almost non-existent and the Templars are a joke, it was basically a hook to lure us in, sadly. At least for me.

The Templar presence didn't really seem threatening nor important, not quite memorable to be honest. And their endgame is not really that well explained, there is of course your typical "control everything" theme but if just feels generic and frankly, one would ask himself why even put them in the story at all other than to make the audience remember that the franchise was once about these two factions clashing throughout history.

Now, this is the most "sensitive" part of this review as I'm not allowed to disclose anything about more than the first 20 hours of the game, so, I'll just say it like this; If you complained about too much Isu presence in previous games, well, we went from 100 to 0 without cashing in the 50.

Make of this what you will.

Modern day wise, it is a miracle that I managed to pull off something from my contacts that got the game before the press review teams and myself, (yes those who were lucky enough on Facebook's marketplace) otherwise, you wouldn't have what I managed to prepare for you guys on the 20th.

I'll keep digging on my end to bring the MD out and have it freshly dissected, but for now, it is basically about whoever is able to spend the most hours playing and completing the weekly missions to progress through the free battle pass in order to get more files and it is only a handful of rewards that you can get because then you have to wait for a weekly reset.

This is for now all I can say on the game.

Here's how I would rate it;

Combat: 8 (Grounded but spongy).

Exploration: 8 (Immersive but clunky).

Progression: 8 (Skills are useful and some of them are OP).

Control: 7 (I don't like the new layout and crouching with X|◾️ after three games being with B|⚫️ is not a smart decision).

Loot System/Reward: 7 (Nothing out of the ordinary).

Hideout Building: 9 (Probably the coolest feature but I can't give it a ten because of how janky it is, needs an update + frame drop on Series X|S and PS5 in the Hideout's area).

Side activities: 5 (I see why Japan fans would get a boner but paiting animals, meditating and practicing katas is not for me).

Side Quests: 9 (Extremely varied and in quantity, numerous characters and different sub-plots + your league's allies have personal missions like in Far Cry 5 to 6).

Database: 5 (Descriptions are mainly historical but there is a lack of in-game character descriptions + nothing on the antagonists or detailed entries on individual characters like the ones that are part of the Templars or historical figures).

Quest System: 3 (Structure of the narrative is horrible, abuse of flashbacks that are important, yes, but the game should have followed a traditional "memory block" flow to properly and chronologically understand the whole thing).

Personally, I wiped out pretty much all of the Order of The Onryo and then I realized that I needed to complete a certain side activity in order to unlock a flashback for Naoe that allowed me to continue the main story when I thought it was only to kill the baddies, plus, those flashbacks lead to a revelation that is narratively important and by the time I did it, the shock of such a revelation and impact weight to the natural character development of Naoe was not the same.

Ubisoft Québec thought that bringing back Assassin's Creed Mirage's Objective Board was good because it worked. Yes, but in that game because it was short and smaller, specifically designed as an homage to AC1 using the same style of "investigation missions".

This doesn't work here and the game is so vast that you can easily loose track of what you were doing and what you have already done.

Assassin's Creed Origins and Odyssey's quest logs would have been, in this case, more appropriate.

In short, I'd give this game a 7.5 to 8.

We'll see what the DLC's have to offer as the ending is left open.