Assassin's Creed Shadows presents a fractured narrative pacing, particularly highlighted by long travel times and limited exploration. After 15 hours of gameplay, a journey to the next objective reveals the game's ambitious yet flawed terrain design that restricts shortcuts. While the environments are beautifully crafted, steep hills and dense forests hinder movement. Furthermore, the absence of map objectives makes navigating overwhelming, reducing engagement with the rich landscapes of feudal Japan. These design elements lead to frustration, causing players to question their investment in the game.
About 15 hours into Assassin's Creed Shadows, it was finally time to take a journey I had been avoiding. Six-ish hours of gameplay earlier, I had unlocked second playable protagonist Yasuke, and saw in the gorgeous objective screen that he had two objectives tied to his narrative, in Omi.
All journeys in Shadows are made longer by the game's ambitious but flawed fealty to matching real terrain as closely as possible. It is nearly impossible to take shortcuts - hills are too steep to climb, forests are too thick to cut through.
Even more critical is the lack of ways to engage with the world around you, such as the beautifully rendered wildlife and the lush landscapes of feudal Japan.
It seems Ubisoft overcorrected here, especially because Shadows also doesn't show any objective on your map unless you know exactly where it is.
Collection
[
|
...
]