Assassin's Creed Shadows Review

A Bloody Good Time in Feudal Japan

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Title: Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Release: March 20, 2025

Platform: PS5 PC Xbox X|S

Developer: Ubisoft

Publisher: Ubisoft

Genre: Open World RPG Stealth

ESRB: M

Reviewed on: PC

Time Played: 30.5

Intro:

Assassin’s Creed is back, but not like you remember. Two protagonists. One burning Japan. And a story soaked in blood and vengeance. Whether you’re a stealth master or a brute-force brawler, this game lets you choose how history is rewritten. But does it break the assassin mold… or just sharpen the same old blade? Let’s dive into Assassin’s Creed Shadows.

Where it starts

Power struggles and wars are rampant in Feudal Japan. One night, the conflict reaches Naoe’s home in Iga. Nobunaga’s forces are setting everything ablaze, aided by his right-hand man, Yasuke. During the fight, Naoe’s father informs her about a secret item they must retrieve and protect; however, their enemies are one step ahead, seizing the item and propelling Naoe on a journey of vengeance and discovery.

Can the kids watch

Assassin’s Creed Shadows language was clean, however it is full of graphic combat, blood, and dismemberment. After a fight the floor and walls will be covered in blood, and some fights don’t end until you chop off the head of your foes. But, if the kids wanted to watch and the graphics are to much, you will have the option to turn off the visuals for blood and dismemberment.

Naoe or Yasuke

The beginning of the game introduces you to Naoe, eventually unlocking the option to play as Yasuke. They offer very different playstyles: Naoe is the sneaky assassination type, while Yasuke relies on brute strength to make his point. While you can swap between characters freely while exploring there are a few quests or optional areas that can only be accessed with a specific character, but most of the time, you will decide how you want to play.

Naoe

The master shinobi can take advantage of her environment to move stealthily. She always carries a grappling hook, enabling her to quickly ascend to the tops of buildings or hide on ceilings in certain areas. Most of the time, her goal is to avoid direct combat by assassinating enemies with her wrist blade or kunai. If she does find herself in combat, she has a few weapon choices to defend herself during a fight. Relying heavily on parries and dodges, her health diminishes significantly whenever she takes a hit.

Yasuke

What he lacks in stealth, he more than makes up for with strength. Not to say you can’t sneak around with Yasuke; he has his own form of brutal assassinations if he catches enemies unaware. Yasuke has more weapon choices than Naoe, including a rifle and a bow. He is a walking tank, capable of taking on multiple enemies and walking away unscathed. You would play with Yasuke if you enjoy smashing faces as opposed to sneaking by.

Focus!

Both characters could focus their senses to detect enemies and treasure; however, Naoe had the advantage of Eagle Vision, allowing her to see enemies through walls from a distance. As the stealthy one, it was much more important for Naoe to know where the danger was. Yasuke could roam in the open without fearing multiple enemies at once. This ability was essential for locating every bit of loot in a castle.

Equipment

While raiding castles or searching the bodies of your foes, you will discover a plethora of equipment for both Naoe and Yasuke. Each will have their own type of weapons and armor to wear and can share trinkets and mounts. You can equip two weapons at a time, allowing you to swap between them depending on your situation. If you find a piece of gear with an amazing ability but the stats don’t keep up with your level increase, you can take it to the blacksmith to upgrade while destroying your unwanted gear for materials.

Skill Trees

Available for both player characters will be their own skill trees. Filled with points gained from leveling up or assassinations. Any experience gained with one character applies to both. The skill trees enhance weapon and character skills. If you don’t like where your points ended up, you can remove all points from a tree and redistribute them freely, allowing you to experiment with any playstyle you prefer.

Knowledge Points

The game doesn’t allow you to quickly grind levels and skill points to max out a skill tree. Knowledge levels block your progress. To increase your knowledge level, you need to earn knowledge points by completing various side tasks, such as exploring old dungeons or finding all the pages in a temple. These minor tasks are hidden and scattered throughout the world, making it a chore to achieve all knowledge levels.

Much to do (objectives)

You always have the option to mindlessly explore the vast open world; however, if you need a job, there will be plenty to find in the objective tree in your menu. That is, if you talk to NPCs and agree to help them. The objective tree plays like a journal of sorts, showing you available quests. After selecting the objective you would like, more often than not, it will give you a vague idea about where you need to go, requiring the use of scouts to identify your destination.

Using Scouts

Scouts are essential companions used to explore areas and transport resources. While using them on your map, they don’t reveal any fog of war; however, they will show you any objectives in the area where you deploy them. During raids into enemy territory, you may encounter large amounts of resources- much too big for you to carry. You can mark these for your scouts to recover later. You only have a limited number of scouts available before you need to wait for the next season for them to replenish, or for a small fee, you can expedite their recovery.

The Hideout

Your base of operations will be the Hideout, a large area that you can customize with buildings and objects. A few buildings will be essential for things like scout recruitment and a blacksmith to help with your gear. Beyond that, everything you place will be cosmetic. If you wish, you could easily spend hours creating a beautiful hideout to explore on foot and enjoy yourself. You can even find animals to place throughout the area after locating them in the world first.

Exploring the world

The open world may not be as vast as in earlier games, but it will still take considerable time to explore everything. Divided into sections with recommended levels, you’ll be stuck in some areas for a while until you gain some experience. Once you reach the minimum level, everything around you will scale up. Although the world is large, there is still quite a bit to explore that offers little to discover. There are mountains filled with trees and not much else to find, just a tiring effort to unveil all the fog of war on the map.

Outro:

I would love to hear any thoughts or questions you have about the game or my review, so leave me a message in the comments below. While you do that, let’s move on to my final thoughts and ratings.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is another open-world addition to the franchise, featuring great enhancements that refresh the series and prevent it from becoming too stale. Instead of controlling one character with mixed abilities to fight and quietly assassinate, those skills are divided between two characters who can specialize in those playstyles. It’s hard to believe that a giant, muscular character could sneak around in the shadows to defeat enemies quietly, only to then take on an entire castle at once in an all-out fight. I loved the ability to switch between playstyles with different characters at any time, making immersion much easier.

I preferred Naoe for most of my gameplay; it was fun kicking people across the room and dominating fights with Yasuke, but I enjoy sneaking around more. I’ve always favored speed over strength in nearly every game I play with options. I had a blast sneaking through castles and taking out all of the enemies without being noticed. It takes a long time to thoroughly clear a castle this way, but it’s a fun test of skill.

The open world was gorgeous, and with the changing of seasons, it transformed before my eyes. Once pretty green landscapes suddenly became a portrait of orange and brown in the fall. Additionally, there were gameplay changes with the differing seasons. In winter, I couldn’t run as fast due to deep snow in some areas. If I was caught in a snowstorm before a cutscene, there would be snow and wet spots on my clothes; the attention to detail in this game was phenomenal. Hiding spots like bushes could accidentally be destroyed if I swung my weapon too close, forcing me to find another place to hide if needed. The environment felt alive throughout the world.

It’s a very large game that takes a long time to complete, especially if you want to finish everything it has to offer. With the optional missions and points of interest to discover, you would have your work cut out for you. However, due to its size, many missions can start to feel quite repetitive. People have problems that only you can solve through an assassination or some investigation. Thankfully, you can mix things up in your gameplay by swapping characters or weapons, but that can only take you so far. Eventually, it can feel like mindlessly roaming the land, stabbing people and collecting loot.

The developers offer a few weekly objectives for you to explore, providing a special currency that levels up a kind of battle pass, rewarding you with unique gear and additional currencies for the digital store. Weekly and daily items were available for purchase there. Alternatively, you could spend real money on yet another currency to buy unique armors and mounts. I’m fairly certain you could also purchase the unveiling of the entire map or some in-game resources. To me, items like that would diminish the value of the game experience, but to each their own.

With that, it’s time to boil it all down to the numbers to figure out what shelf this game belongs on.

The visuals boasts stunning graphics with vibrant, changing landscapes that reflect the seasons beautifully. The attention to detail, from snow accumulation to foilage interactions, creates an immersive worth that feels alive. It’s getting a 4

While the story follows the traditional Assassin’s Creed themes of good versus evil and revenge, it can sometimes feel overshadowed by the repetitive mission structures. That’s a 3

The dual character system allows for diverse playstyles, combining stealth and combat skills effectively. Switching at will enhanced gameplay dynamics. I only ran into a few minor bugs while play. That’s another 4

With numerous missions, optional objectives, and an expansive open world, there’s ample content to explore. However, some may find the repetitive nature of missions limits the desire for extended playthroughs. I’m giving it a 2

The game excels in offering enjoyable gameplay, particularly in stealth mechanics and the thrilling feeling of clearing areas undetected. You can mix things up with character swaps to keep the feeling alive. I’m giving it a 5

Giving Assassin’s Creed Shadows an average score of 3.6 out of 5, earning it a spot on the Top Shelf. This title is an excellent addition to the franchise, especially if you enjoy the open-world playstyle and are really into a land full of ninjas and samurai battling it out constantly. I’ve had a blast for over thirty hours and look forward to many more.