Assassin's Creed Shadows

It's so great to see so many new features added to the world of Assassin's Creed. The game feels familiar but fresh, with the same foundational elements that we know and love, mixed with new elements that have been fun to learn. Building the HQ snd sending out scouts has been a fun twist on the traditions of the earlier games. The characters are enging, the landscapes are beautiful and the added bonus of bring able to play teo completely different fighting styles is a welcome addition. What I love about the series is that every game feels a little different. It makes the idea of living the memories of vastly different lives more 'realistic'. It's fun, exciting and another great addition to my favourite game series.

Shadows is absolutely superb. An incredibly rich story that manages to draw you in and tug at your heart strings. Amazing mechanics. A vast amount of content that never grows old. A true return to form. The only downside are the completely baseless and totally predictable negative reviews from the die-hard anti-Ubisoft brigade who delight in hating anything from this studio. You should just go back to Fortnite and keep your prepubescent opinions to yourselves!

Ignore the 1/10 reviewers, I guarantee they have never played it or have any intention to.

This game is not Ghost of Tsushima. It's far deeper and more varied. There's room enough for more than two accident Japanese RPGs however. If you are a fan of well written and well acted stories, Shadows won't disappoint..

I'm only 5 hours in but I'm having a great time with this game so far. For those saying they don't enjoy the voice acting, I can genuinely understand - it's a little clunky. This goes double when comparing it against its predecessors AC Odyssey (a masterpiece) and Valhalla. However, I did find that a great fix was switching to immersive mode. Some may not enjoy reading the subtitles, but as an anime sub enjoyer I found the voice acting to be much more dynamic and, well, immersive.

Graphics are awesome when playing on Series X in 4k, especially considering my TV over 5 years old. The level of detail is incredible. Seeing cherry blossoms floating in the wind, dynamic weather, sweeping vistas, it's everything you want in an AC game.

Gameplay-wise, it feels like it's somewhere between Odyssey and Valhalla. The world is absolutely huge without feeling quite as bloated as Valhalla did. The inclusion of the base-builder is already a personal favorite of mine. Again, this mechanic feels quite similar to what we've seen before with Valhalla, but has been expanded to a significant degree. Rather than tracking down materials just to simply unlock a building that can be given a handful of different flavors, you can now merge buildings, place them around a space equivalent to about an acre, and customize specific details of each building's exterior and interior. This may not be everyone's cup of sake, but I am a sucker for base building and I can already tell I am about to comb every square inch of this game for resources to feed my base building addiction.

The game feels pretty polished to me. As I am only a few hours into the game, I have yet to encounter any bugs. So, I'll update again once I'm further in.

The only gripe I have so far would be that the intro does feel a tad long. This is somewhat understandable given that we are being introduced to two separate characters with entirely different stories. The cinematics are enjoyable, but I was also really keen to start playing and would've liked to have had these introductory scenes spaced out between more opportunities for gameplay than the 3 or 4 short times that we get them.

Overall, this is a great game though. I've played a lot of AC over the years and I can confidently say that this is a really solid entry to the franchise.

People need to play the gamebfir themselves. I can already tell some of these reviews bashing the game is just trolls. It's how everything is worded. They are so desperate to throw disdain it's entirely possible they may have started the game and immediately got off it without even getting past the menu. Or they are complaining about traditional things with the series and then saying it's nothing new. If you don't like the traditional gameplay that make it assassin's creed then you were never gonna like it anyway. Your review isn't really valued as you went in with a preconceived notion you were gonna hate so you look for anything to support that theory and then call it justifiable when it's not.

Now so far I've made it a little past the prologue and it's pretty good so far. They do push you to play the characters as they are intended. The female is fast and agile and very deadly when used as intended. If you try to take out more than two enemies at a time there's a likely chance you won't survive it. She's stealth based. Use her that way. As far at the tank goes. He's quite formidable. I haven't played as him much but don't really intend to. The samurai gameplay isn't really my cup of tea. The Shinobi is more assassin based and what I prefer. So all in all it feels more origins toned but at the same time the girl coming to acquire the hidden blade seemed very ezio story inspired but take it how you will.

Wow! A surprisingly rich narrative, genuinely stunning graphics and gameplay that's the best of both Assassin's Creed eras. I know the haters will probably sink this game into the abyss but to me - this is the best game in the franchise since Black Flag! (So far)

I'm only 10h in which sounds like a lot but for a game of this scope it's nothing. I've loved every second, so far and my 10/10 score doesn't mean Shadows is flawless, it just means that the enjoyment level has been sky high. Special shout out to the new dynamic weather and lighting system. Possibly the most effective I've ever seen on a video game and gave the already amazing world of Feudal Japan even more life.

Please give this game a try for yourself and don't let Ubisoft's reputation or that review bombings deter you. Definitely not a perfect experience but an absolute blast!