WithAssassins Creed Shadowsreleasing finally within touching distance (assuming it doesnt get delayed again), weve spoken quite a bit about the action RPG in recent weeks. Ubisoft has, however, revealed a significant amount of details, of which theres still plenty we havent yet touched on. Here, were going to continue ourAssassins Creed Shadows coverage going, and go over some more notable details that you should know about the upcoming title.SIDE QUESTSAssassins Creedgames never have any shortage of optional content on offer, and therell be plenty of it inShadowsas well, unsurprisingly. You can, of course, expect a hefty chunk of side quests, many of which, according to creative director Jonathan Dumont, will revolve around specific characters that players will forge bonds with (and maybe even recruit to their cause). Speaking in an interview with Screen Rant, Dumont said, So a lot of characters that you meet, youll have pretty long quest lines with them. So you can meet them sometimes in the main path, sometimes just on the side. And then you build relationships with them. So sometimes you can recruit them, sometimes you can have romantic options if you feel like, and then youre building those relationships.FLASHBACKSInterestingly, another category of optional in Assassins Creed Shadowswill go hand-in-hand with flashbacks. Tied to meditation mechanics, these flashbacks will reveal bits and pieces from Naoe and Yasukes past lives. In the aforementioned interview, Dumont said, Theres a couple of surprises where some of the side content is sort of hidden behind a couple of meditation mechanics, where we do get to experience the past of Naoe and then Yasuke as well. So these are flashbacks that we get. So at first, you play, you dont know exactly who they are, and then you get the full, oh, thats why hes here, or something like that.SPLITTING TIME BETWEEN BOTH PROTAGONISTSPlayers will be spending a good amount of time with both Naoe and Yasuke, but asShadowsdevelopers keep stressing, it wont be too often that youll be forced to play as one or the other. According to Dumont, though Yasuke and Naoe do have their exclusive missions each, the vast majority of the game is designed to be playable as either of the two, with the gameplay adapting to the choice that you make. Speaking to Screen Rant, Dumont said, They get individual introductions and then they get their own questline also.So that one is, lets say Naoe, a personal questline cannot be played by Yasuke and those are two distinct things.But the core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts.RUMOURED CO-OP MODEThough a single-player experience like its predecessors, with two central protagonists with unique play styles, Assassins Creed Shadowsseems pretty well-suited to co-op gameplay. As luck would have it, leaks have claimed that a co-op mode is in fact currently in the works. Insider Gamings Tom Henderson claimed in a report last October that a co-op mode forShadows,in development under the codename LEAGUE, will release following the action RPGs release and allow Naoe and Yasuke to be playable simultaneously by two players. When the mode will arrive exactly remains to be seen.MORE DETAILS ON SEASONSWeve spoken in the past about how changing seasons will affect the gameplay inShadows heres afew more fun examples on that front. During winter, youll frequently spot icicles hanging off of roofs, which youll be able to break to distract enemies with the noise theyll make upon impact. Meanwhile, when its raining, youll notice that enemies will also change their patrols in stealth, with units belonging to higher social classes seeking out shelter indoors or under roofs while the grunts stay outside.OBSERVE MECHANICEagle Visions return to mainlineAssassins CreedwithShadowsis exciting enough, but where it will only be available to Naoe, the new Observe mechanic which functionssort ofalong the same lines will be accessible by both characters. Described as a fast and easy way to toggle additional information on screen, the Observe mechanic will highlight things such as loot, collectibles, and quest objectives, and can also be used to identify targets and tag enemies.SAFEHOUSESOn top of a customizable hub referred to as the Hideout that youll keep returning to,Assassins Creed Shadowsworld will also feature several smaller safehouses scattered in different locations. Called kukurega, safehouses will let you access your gear stash, manage scouts and allies, replenish things such as ammo and rations, accept new contracts, and more. Of course, each safehouse will also serve as a fast travel point.BRIBING OFFICIALSTherell be several ways to become better informed about the world as you explore it inAssassins Creed Shadows. One will be bribing officials, something thatAssassins Creedfans have been used to doing over the years. InShadows,bribing officials will reveal new information on your targets, making it easier to identify and track them down.PATHFINDERAssassins Creed Shadowsis seemingly putting much greater emphasis than its predecessors on organic exploration, which hopefully means getting lost in its world will be its own kind of fun. Should you gettoolost, however, the game will also feature a pathfinding tool to help you find your way back, as youd expect. Toggle the feature on and a white line will appear on-screen to show you the best path to your quest objective or map marker.NO BATTLE PASS WITH ANIMUS HUBAssassins Creed Shadowswill launch right alongside the new Animus Hub, which is meant as a central platform that all games in the series will be tied to going forward. What should we expect from it in terms of monetization, however? All the way back in November, Ubisoft confirmed that there will be no paid battle pass or subscription fees tied to the Animus Hub. How the companydoesplan on monetizing the platform remains to be seen.RAY TRACINGAssassins Creed Shadowswill tout ray tracing features on PC, and depending on how powerful your hardware is, youll be able to scale things differently. On the lowest rung is selective ray tracing, which will allow you to run the game with software-based ray tracing even if youre using pre-RTX GPUs. With selective ray tracing enabled, ray tracing features will only be enabled in the Hideout. Then theres standard ray tracing, which will tout real-time global illumination, while extended ray tracing will also bring real-time reflections.STANDARD RT PC REQUIRMENTSWeve previously spoken about the lowest and highest system requirements forAssassins Creed ShadowsPC version, but theres plenty in the middle left to cover. Many will be looking to play the game with the aforementioned standard ray tracing features, for which Ubisoft has detailed two different presets. To play with standard ray tracing at 1080p and 30 FPS, youll need either an i7 8700K or a Ryzen 5 3600, along with either a GeForce RTX 2070, a Radeon RX 6700 XT, or an Arc B580. To kick it up to 1440p and 60 FPS, meanwhile, youll need either an i5 11600K or a Ryzen 5 5600X, along with either a GeForce RTX 4070 Super or a Radeon RX 7800 XT. Both setups will also need an SSD and 16 GB of RAM.STEAMUnlike many of Ubisofts recent major releases,Assassins Creed Shadowsis going to be available on Steam right at launch. That said, it has been confirmed that youwillneed to have a Ubisoft Connect account linked to your Steam to be able to play the game.NOT STEAM DECK COMPATIBLEIf you were hoping to clamber over the rooftops of feudal Japan portably, sadly, that wont be an option- at launch, at least. Ubisoft has confirmed that the game wont be Steam Deck compatible upon its release, owing to its high system requirements. Whether we can expect things to change post-launch hasnt yet been confirmed.4K/60 FPS MODEWeve spoken quite a bit aboutShadowsPC version- but what about console players? Well, theres reason to be excited, from a technical standpoint. As per Ubisoft, on both PS5 and Xbox Series X, Assassins Creed Shadowswill feature a performance mode that will run the game at an upscaled 2160p and 60 FPS. Details havent yet been shared on the games Xbox Series S and PS5 Pro versions, however.