Assassin's Creed Shadows in the test: I was completely wrong

Assassin's Creed Shadows is a pretty big surprise.

The signs stood bad for. And even more: for Ubisoft as a whole. Group-wide loss of sales of over 30 percent last year, various failed or sawn-out projects such as Xdefiant and The Division: Heartland, in the summer of 2024 the supposedly brilliant gameplay reveal from Shadows will be founded by a fairly maues community-echo.

But the biggest hammer follows in autumn: Shadows is the first Assassin's Creed in series history. Multiple. In January 2025 - just a few weeks before the release - colleague Jesko can finally play the game in Quebec, but only on the short line: the open world remains severely restricted, side activities are removed, and as a fan of JapanandAssassin's Creed I slowly rip off my hair. That stinks in the basement after some body.

Behind closed doorsDo not tear off the bad omen: In the first days of the review phase, we can only play the trial version of Assassin's Creed Shadows via streaming via GeForce Now-with a PC configuration provided by Ubisoft including powerful RTX 4080.

So I'm sitting here and I am prepared for everything: a technology fiasco, a broken open world, a disastrous story, another flap for a group that cannot actually afford any further flap.

After over 60 hours of testI played assassin's Creed Shadows on my own computer and can say: I was rarely so happy to be completely wrong.

The first big surprise: the story

With the Gameplay Reveal from 2024, Ubisoft has mainly proven a fighting service from Shadows: there the two main characters of the game-the Japanese assassin Naoe and the African-born Samurai Yasuke-fire around the ears. "I am justice for the people, I am never really alone with the shadows", a blubbeldiblubb like from a Saturday morning cartoon. It is no coincidence that there is no trace of the quest shown there in the final game.

The Shadows story is the opposite of stupid platitudes and blunt blubbeldiblubb. I go even further: The story of Naoe and Yasuke is the best that Ubisoft has told about Ezio and Connor since the days. I don't spoil here and therefore stay abstract. On paper, a classic revenge story full of conspiracies and intrigue awaits you, but Shadows' story trumps with four great strengths:

1. Shadows takes timeto introduce the main and secondary characters, to give space to their relationships instead of scoring the entire family tragedy in the first five minutes like a Valhalla. If someone dies in Shadows, it really hurts.
2. Shadows focuses onA single main storyinstead of fiber. You don't hunt mythical gods for hours in order to celebrate Halloween in Scotland and also to eradicate a Templer. The revenge history is and remains the center of the game; This Assassin's Creed is about assassins. Everything else is subordinated.
3. Shadows is the first to take Assassin's Creed since Rogue (2014)Defects with gray stationswho do not come like Marvel's world domination. Sure, you still don't expect incredibly deep character portraits, but significantly less wooden shooting booth figures than in Valhalla and Odyssey.
4. Yasuke and naoe areSau Coole parish.

Shadows plays in 1579, the feudal Japan has been in the civil war for decades, dozens of princes struggle with their troops for supremacy, alliances arise and decay faster than TikK trends. Of course, the simple population suffers from this. So we talk about a time when black and white drawing has no place; And I think it's great that Ubisoft respects that.

Spoiler -free example: Oda Nobunaga, one of the most important generals of the Japanese historiography. He contributed massively to Japan's agreement during this civil war, for Yasuke he acts as a patron in the game who freed him from slavery and trained it into samurai. For Naoe, however, the guy is the devil. Because that is also part of the historical Nobunaga: the slaughter of thousands of people, including innocent men, women, children.

Ubisoft confronts me with both sides and luckily leaves me alone. No finger, as I have to interpret, but an appeal to me: draw your own conclusions, and assassins are after all.

The story is ultimately carried by its two main characters. And here, too, Shadows does a lot right.

What about contemporary history?
Shadows screwed back the contemporary part of Assassin's Creed Massiv. As in Unity and Syndicate, there is only occasionally a cryptic cutscene, but 99 percent of the game take place in the Japan of the past. Ubisoft at the same time saws off the story around Layla Hassan and Basim from the last series parts.

The Causa Yasuke

I was extremely skeptical whether Ubisoft would not take over with Yasuke - especially to Valhalla, where the devs hardly daring to the moral mixture, that I actually play looting invaders. Instead, it is wrote around Eisin, so that my actions are always asty, because all of England is dissatisfied with their own management. Such an egg dance would simply not work with Yasuke.

The African giant is kidnapped from his homeland, driven by Portuguese to slavery, in Shadows he has to prove himself in a country that is often a wide position against strangers in this era. Yasuke stands in the middle of the turnstile of so many cultures and influences - you cannot write such a figure convincingly without addressing topics such as racism, slavery and xenophobia.

And in front of it, Shadows, surprisingly, doesn't duck away. The first ten minutes of the game are amazingly complex for an Assassin's Creed, both with regard to the Jesuits/Portuguese, as well as with regard to the Japanese. Fortunately, Yasuke is not just "the stranger in Japan" for 60 hours, so that (and me as a player) can constantly explain to him how the country ticks during the Sengoku era.

Yasuke does not just reflect his environment, but acts as an independent figure with an exciting background story and an interesting perspective. Through him, Ubisoft can continue than a Ghost of Tsushima with its Samurai representation: Yasuke jeops into the ideal image of a noble warrior on the one hand, but also sees corruption, low costume and cruelty of the samurai caste. Yasuke carries secrets that remain exciting across the entire story.

And Yasuke is - now I'm simple - just a badass. His story moments are among the highlights of the whole game; Especially towards the final, I was sometimes cheering in front of the screen. This amazes mainly because he is only one of two main characters.

Don CAUGES

Naoe acts as the assassin of Assassin's Creed Shadows. So if you are concerned that the focus slips too much from the actual core of the series: the opposite is the case. Shadows takes a lot of time for his Shinobi or Kunoichi (female ninja). And "a lot of time" is not a phrase: the first 10 to 15 hours of the game (depending on how disciplined you the main story follows) you almost exclusively slip into your skin before switching to Yasuke is activated at all.

This is intentional: the world of the Shinobi is introduced in great detail, you get to know all the actors around Naoe so that the actual catalyst for her heroic trip also looks emotionally - comparable to Ezios family time in Assassin's Creed 2nd Naoes Journey from a young villager to the master Asassian forms the framework of shadows.

You build an organization with her, chases conspirators, recruited companions, strive for revenge. It is all the more important that she establishes an emotional connection to this assassin stuff - and the story succeeds very well.

No question, the story of Shadows is not perfect. In the middle in particular, like many open world games, it drags itself through one or the other length, some of the supporting characters are really bad (others very good!), The around eight possible romances in the game fluctuate strongly in quality.

And if you have not accidentally sunk 100 hours in other Sengoku games such as Nobunaga's ambition or Samurai Warriors, then the sheer number of historical characters will sometimes let you smoke your head.

But I am so happy that Ubisoft finally tells a stringent assassin story with strong characters in a fascinating world in an Assassin's Creed again, which does without infantile farting snake eggs as well as on dumbled relationships. Shadows's story also risks to overwhelm me, but it also takes me seriously as a (adult) player. The series lacked that.