YoIt’s no secret that the video game industry is struggling. In the last two years there have been more than 25,000 layoffs and more than 40 studio closures. Thanks to the rising costs of game development (blockbuster titles now cost hundreds of millions), overinvestment during the Covid-19 pandemic, and a series of failed bets to create the next “forever game” that prints money, The pressure for blockbuster games to succeed is now greater than ever.
It is a situation that is especially pertinent for Ubisoft. With a staff of around 20,000 people at 45 studios in 30 countries, its most recent big licensed games, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws, underperformed commercially. It has had two expensive and failed live service experiments over the past year, Skull and Bones and X-Defiant. With Ubisoft’s stock prices plummeting and investment partners circling like sharksRarely has the fortune of a major gaming company depended so much on a single release. It has already been delayed several times to ensure its quality.
Against this grim backdrop, I find myself wandering the gleaming halls of Ubisoft Quebec to see the world’s first hands-on test of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. The company’s historical action game series returns after a two-year hiatus, and this time it takes us to feudal Japan. This has been the most requested scenario by fans, according to creative director Jonathan Dumont, but ironically, some of those so-called fans have turned against Ubisoft during the development of this game.
Shadows stars Yasuke, a documented historical figure known as the Black Samurai, and a shinobi named Naoe. This ignited a mini culture war, as X posters and YouTube commenters raged about the “historical inaccuracy” and wokeness of video games. (Interestingly, these complaints of historical inaccuracy have never been raised in the series before, even though it stars a secret order of assassins who essentially travel back in time and carry out side missions for Karl Marx and Leonardo da Vinci.)
When I ask nervous Ubisoft developers about the avalanche of nasty comments and online harassment they’ve received over the past year, they seem understandably scared. No one is willing to address it directly. “We like to play games, this is what we do every morning,” says Dumont. “Obviously, if the criticism (we receive) is nuanced or if it’s good feedback, it’s always accepted.”
When I pick up the controller, Yasuke is the first character to take the stage. After a fascinating opening scene, the Portuguese missionaries present their African slave Diogo to the ruler of the Oda clan, Lord Nobunaga. The influential warlord falls in love with Diogo, employs him as a samurai and renames him Yasuke. As he wanders silently through the cobblestone streets of Harima, he is greeted by the kind of shocked looks one would expect from an African man arriving in 16th century Japan. Children and adults alike rush to take a look. It’s a smart, eye-catching opening, reminiscent of the 2024 Emmy Award-winning series Shogun; here Yasuke echoes John Blackthorne’s character from the TV show, a key for players to experience this era of Japan through the eyes of a foreigner.
After an hour or so prologue, this war-torn world finally opens up. Gallop across the green fields of Iga Province and Shadows’ Sengoku period adventure truly begins. There is nice visual variety and attention to detail. The reeds sway in the wind convincingly as laborers work in the roadside rice fields; Fishing boats float on the horizon while villagers chat in bustling markets.
In open worlds, it’s the small details that really bring the simulation to life, and in Shadows, I’m told, there are over 1,000 different situational behaviors directing its 16th century characters. Wandering through the port city I see a fishmonger cutting his fish, a woman cleaning a firearm, and a shiba inu jumping happily as merchants and villagers haggle over their wares. Wild deer frolic in the tall grass, fleeing in fear as I pass, and noble ladies gather idly at Buddhist shrines. The weather and seasons also change dynamically, adding a nice layer of unpredictability as a sunny walk through the countryside suddenly turns into a sinister, rain-soaked affair. As I ride bravely into battle, scale Osaka Castle, and gallop through serene landscapes, I forget about the difficulties surrounding the development of this game and lose myself in feudal fantasy.
It’s very fun to play. In recent years, Assassin’s Creed has strayed from its stealth roots, adopting RPG-style inventories and swapping infiltration for all-out action. Yasuke embodies this, but in Shadows, players who prefer their Creed on the more cunning side can step into shinobi Naoe’s tabi boots, trading their heavy power for agile parkour and stealthy takedowns.
In a touch of Grand Theft Auto V style, you’re free to switch between Yasuke and Naoe as you wish, tackling each new mission as the protagonist: cunning shinobi or assassin samurai. In the main missions, this plays out when the pair split up to divide and conquer, with Naoe silently running across rooftops and slitting throats while Yasuke brazenly charges through the front door. Yasuke’s weight leaves him unable to perform aerial assassinations or do many things resembling the series’ signature stunts, but he can wield katanas, bows, and rifles. Having the freedom to switch between protagonists and their very different play styles keeps things fresh, providing a welcome antidote to the quest repetition fatigue that so often plagues open-world games.
On first impressions, Shadows marks itself as the most overtly violent Assassin’s Creed to date: Yasuke’s katana blows heads off; the arms are separated from the bodies by the force of a spear; and skulls smashed in with a mace. An explosion of blood and gore accompanies each of Yasuke’s cinematic executions (these gory animations can be disabled for the more squeamish player). At key moments during Shadows’ 700 scenes, players can decide which lords they will swear allegiance to, how they navigate relations between Japan and Portugal, and what romances they pursue.
Shadows also takes surprising inspiration from the other AC: Animal Crossing. Once you unlock a hideout for your characters, you can deck it out with furniture and decorations, and the people you recruit along the way will relocate there. I was fascinated by setting up a tea room and placing a beautiful bamboo forest around a pond. It was a nice contrast to all the bloodshed.
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You can also hang wildlife paintings in your hideout, because instead of hunting and skinning animals, Naoe and Yasuke respectfully draw Japan’s wildlife. Crouching out of sight, you silently approach the perfect vantage point, allowing you to paint two deer antlers colliding or capture a heron mid-dive. This made me feel like an old Japanese Attenborough.
Despite Shadows’ recent second delay, I’m pleasantly surprised at how polished and bug-free my six hours of gameplay are – a marked improvement over the fun but bug-ridden Star Wars Outlaws. It’s shaping up to be an immersive and pleasantly inventive adventure, offering perhaps a more detailed and varied simulation of feudal Japan than Sony’s Ghost of Tsushima.
Brooke Davies, the game’s associate narrative director, tells me about the team’s painstaking efforts to create beloved, relatable characters. “We had the great privilege of working with consultants, historians and experts at every stage of production,” he says. “That gave us a lot of interesting ideas about how to tell stories about very ordinary people caught up in this very extraordinary moment in history.
“One of our central narrative themes is community and people coming together to make the world a better place and, despite loss and hardship, truly persevering and having the courage to start again. It is a really encouraging message for me, to imagine and learn about the courage of these people and to be able to explore it alongside our protagonists Naoe and Yasuke.”
With a series as big as Assassin’s Creed, it’s very easy to forget that these pieces of fiction are made by very real people, people who just want to entertain their audience. “Games made by humans and no one wants to do something wrong,” says art director Thierry Dansereau. “We are working hard. We want to make the best Assassin’s Creed we can… So I think (people) should keep that in mind. “People who make video games just want to have fun and create great products.”