Assassin’s Creed Shadows Review: A Step Forward or a Step Back for the Franchise?

The Good

I have to immediately mention the seasonal changes; this is something the video game industry should have implemented a long time ago, both visually and gameplay-wise. Honestly, we probably waited longer than necessary for systems like this to finally feel alive, and I’m genuinely happy to see it properly implemented in Assassin’s Creed Shadows. I was already a big fan of how this worked in Forza Horizon 4, and I also loved how environments changed in Mafia II; the point is, I’ve always been a sucker for seasonal systems in video games. Here in Assassin’s Creed, seasons don’t just add minor gameplay variety; they also make previously explored areas feel fresh again by completely changing the scenery. Particle effects vary, forests react differently to wind density depending on the season, dynamic lighting shifts throughout the environment, and heavy rain can suddenly roll in. It genuinely feels like one of the bigger pushes the series needed when it comes to environmental interaction. Seasons also affect navigation and gameplay mechanics; lakes can freeze, ice formations hanging from rooftops can potentially be used against enemies, although I didn’t get the chance to fully test that yet. All of this ends up being the icing on the cake. The environments look absolutely stunning.

The environments are pretty much what you’d expect from a Ubisoft game; they look absolutely stunning. If I’m being honest about whether this game truly looks next-gen or really deserves the hardware requirements it demands; at first, I genuinely thought it barely looked better than Valhalla. Aside from increased mesh and foliage draw distance, plus what I assume is a physics-based wind and nature system combined with moving shaders and pre-baked particle animations, it didn’t immediately impress me. That said, Ubisoft did an outstanding job selling the experience once everything clicks. One of my biggest issues at the beginning was the lack of color vibrance. Especially at night, I honestly couldn’t see anything. The image looked washed out and blended together, making it hard to spot enemies in darker areas. I ended up downloading a ReShade and manually adjusting levels, saturation, and contrast just to make things pop enough to clearly see where the enemy actually was. That completely changed once I enabled ray tracing and set diffuse lighting to “everywhere,” even on low; combined with HDR, high particle effects, and a decent vegetation draw distance. This is where the game truly shines. The color grading feels like it was designed with ray tracing in mind, almost exclusively. With these settings enabled, the game finally looks and feels truly next-gen. Without HDR, ray tracing, and proper vegetation and particle settings; the game looks washed out again and dangerously close to Valhalla. Ubisoft really should suggest this during the intro or in a settings guide.

One thing I absolutely love in recent Ubisoft games is the level of customization. If you find a piece of gear whose appearance you like, but its level is too low or its stats aren’t ideal; you can simply equip another weapon or armor piece and keep the look you prefer without affecting gameplay stats. Ubisoft figured out a long time ago that players love customizing absolutely everything. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, this system feels more generous than ever. So far, I’ve been able to unlock everything naturally through progression, without feeling pushed toward microtransactions. They’ve also gone a step further in how deeply you can customize your equipment. Yes, some items look a bit silly, but the freedom is genuinely fun. On top of that, the hideout system surprised me. I didn’t expect to care about it nearly as much as I do. I often found myself exploring the world just to see if I could discover something new to use in my hideout. I even started visiting settlements specifically to talk to traders and buy decorations. As someone who used to play Cities: Skylines a lot, I never thought I’d be this invested in a feature like this; but here we are.

The gameplay loop is fun as hell, and I’m not just talking about those little “you got 10 XP,” “new area discovered, nice,” or “collected stone, amazing job” serotonin hits; the actual moment-to-moment gameplay is genuinely fun. I do have to say, though, it took quuuuuuiteeee a while before I finally got to play as Yasuke. When that notification popped up and I realized I was still only in Act 1, I was like, “dafuq.” So yeah, the game can get pretty lengthy. Another big positive; Naoe moves like a graceful swan between obstacles and feels fairly fragile in combat, which makes her an excellent assassin-type character. On top of that, there are very distinct skills that can only be used by either Yasuke or Naoe. When I finally got to play as Yasuke, it was immediately obvious that this man enters the scene like an indestructible tank built by a company that fully believes in its product and is not afraid to show it off. With Yasuke-specific skills, he becomes an absolute force that just destroys everything in his path. I was genuinely surprised by how clearly you can feel the difference between the two characters; especially once you start stacking engravings, allocating samurai skill points, and shaping their builds. You can make them play completely differently from one another, and that contrast works really well. I’ve been enjoying the combat a lot so far; almost as much as I did in Ghost of Tsushima. That said, GoT has a much more polished feel that Assassin’s Creed Shadows lacks. To be fair, this is something most Ubisoft games struggle with ever since they leaned heavily into the formulaic open-world approach. Still, Ubisoft absolutely nailed the “feeling badass” aspect of combat here. Whether you’re fighting head-on or assassinating enemies, it’s genuinely fun. I’ll even go as far as to say that with Naoe, you can be almost as fast as one of the protagonists in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate; depending on where you start your parkour, of course. I also have to mention that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a very laid-back game. It’s perfect for those “I just got home from work, let me game a bit before dealing with chores” sessions. It doesn’t demand too much attention and feels reasonably balanced in that regard. Origins, for example, felt too automated for me. Here, you actually need to pay attention to parkour; especially if you enable the free parkour option in the settings. If you haven’t done that yet, go do it already; side ejects alone make it worth it.

No crashes. I can’t believe we’re listing this as a positive, but here we are; you know how the story usually goes. The last time I tried to play Valhalla, it kept crashing on my GPU, and it seems like a lot of people are still dealing with that issue. The common solution back then was reverting your GPU driver to an older version. For me, that specific driver caused problems when I needed to work on my own project in Unreal Engine 5; and yeah, I obviously preferred having an up-to-date driver for work over rolling it back just to play a game. For some reason, after a certain update, Valhalla started introducing crashes, and that never really got resolved on my end. Luckily, I haven’t experienced a single crash in Assassin’s Creed Shadows so far, and I’ve already put a decent amount of time into it.

There are also some nice little details I noticed the more I played. When enemies are close to death, they sometimes throw their weapon away and go into a full “bring it on” stance with their fists up. I’m not entirely sure if this happens with Naoe as well; I believe it does. With Yasuke, though, it was a genuinely cool and unexpected touch.

I also want to give a quick mention to the team at Ubisoft Québec, who developed Assassin’s Creed Shadows. They’re kind of an unlucky team, honestly. They also developed Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and you can clearly tell they have a real passion for this franchise. It shows in how they design characters, how weapons are concealed, and how much care goes into visual presentation. London in Syndicate was beautiful, animations were top-tier, and the rope launcher introduced a fresh way to traverse the city. Most importantly, assassinations and planning your way in and out of missions were among the best in the franchise. I don’t think the story in Syndicate was as bad as people make it out to be. It wasn’t anything groundbreaking, but it did its job. That said, the city layout wasn’t designed with a parkour-first mindset. The rope launcher clearly took priority over parkour and other interactive systems, which often led players to rely on that gadget. Assassin’s Creed Shadows suffers from a similar issue when it comes to smooth traversal; but once again, you can see the same level of care and passion put into the game, within the limits and constraints the developers were working under.

The Bad

I can’t believe I’m saying this, but the music is the weakest aspect of the game. In my personal opinion, aside from Syndicate, every Assassin’s Creed soundtrack had at least a few absolute bangers. This one has none. Literally none. Either the instrumentals feel overly simple, like something pulled from an audio stock library, or completely out of place, leaning into random hip-hop-style tracks that don’t fit the setting at all. Does it get the job done? Sure. Does it ruin the experience? Not really. But you can definitely feel that strong musical identity Assassin’s Creed always had is missing here; and once you notice it, it’s hard to ignore.

This next issue is a big one, and it’s something that has been bothering me more and more in recent Assassin’s Creed games. Just like Valhalla, this game heavily relies on recycled modular assets. Way too much. Large portions of the world end up looking almost identical. It’s like visiting different cities in the same country and realizing every house, temple, and structure is built exactly the same; same layout, same materials, same textures. Nobody goes out of their way to add small personal touches. No ornaments on doors, no pots hanging around to make a home feel lived in, no structural adjustments for practical reasons. Castle entrances all share the same layout, with no imperfections, no signs of history, and no environmental storytelling. You never see things like a partially collapsed wall from a past event or unique construction choices that hint at a backstory. Even within the same country, different regions should reflect different traditions, architectural styles, and cultural choices. Think about how cities in Skyrim or The Witcher all feel distinct in their own way. I understand that the time period limits how large cities can be; but considering the manpower and talented environment artists Ubisoft has, creating more distinct communities without massively increasing file size should be well within reach. Back in the day, storage limitations were a real concern. Today, aside from development shortcuts and keeping production from spiraling out of control, I don’t see a good excuse for such visual repetition.

The story is, honestly, really bad. I’ll admit there were a few twists I didn’t see coming, but that’s about it. The narrative pacing is painfully boring, the animations are almost ALWAYS unintentionally amusing that they completely kill the mood, and the overall presentation makes it hard to take anything seriously. The narrative feels disconnected almost all the time. Animations don’t help, and the voice acting, with the exception of Yasuke, is pretty rough. On top of that, the list of targets you’re supposed to eliminate just keeps growing and growing and growing. Recent Ubisoft games honestly feel like a McDonald’s burger; enjoyable at first, but at some point, you’ve just had enough.

From an optimization standpoint, the game is a mess. I understand that there are a lot of actors in the open world, dynamic lighting reacting to physics, and systems trying to simulate a living environment. Still, the game feels unnecessarily heavy on hardware. Either the engine is starting to show its age, or the optimization simply isn’t where it should be.

The Ugly

If you’re a cannabis patient, I have to say; this game is a must-play. Not because the gameplay loop is insanely fun, but because the character animations are unintentionally hilarious. At this point, we all know how facial expression animations in recent Ubisoft games have somehow evolved backwards. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is packed with these awkward, robotic, “I am a machine” animations, even during scenes that are supposed to be emotionally heavy. You honestly can’t help but burst out laughing.

Combat feels floaty, but the finishers are genuinely satisfying. Especially when activating certain personal traits; those moments look pretty badass. That said, the combat still feels noticeably floatier compared to something like Ghost of Tsushima. It’s enjoyable, just not as grounded or polished.

Credit where it’s due; the developers clearly tried to make the world feel more alive. Guards will warn you to back off if you linger too close to castle entrances, and they’ll tell you to sheath your weapon if you draw it in public, instead of instantly attacking you. This is exactly the kind of environmental interaction Assassin’s Creed needs more of. That said, these systems still feel underdeveloped. We get some basic prop destruction and interaction, but nowhere near the level you’d expect from a production of this size, with this much manpower behind it. This feels less like a technical limitation and more like a case of poor management.