Assassins Creed Shadows a relatively dynamic duo (Ubisoft)Ubisofts pivotal new entry in the Assassins Creed series features two different playable characters in 16th century Japan.The Assassins Creed franchise is notionally about the millennia-spanning conflict between the Order of the Assassins and their arch-nemeses the Templars. Experienced in the modern world via the Animus, a machine that lets people inhabit the memories of long dead ancestors, early releases in the series made a big deal of current era interludes between bouts of remembered historical assassination.At some point, Ubisoft realised those were easily the dreariest parts of the games and decided to abandon forays into the modern era. But while Assassins Creed Shadows doesnt bring them back, it does feature mysterious glitches in the Animus that let you hear the voice of The Guide, a sort of digitally enabled Deep Throat who wants to lead you to discoveries beyond the memories youre playing through.Moment to moment though, Shadows is still all about quietly creeping up on unsuspecting characters and stabbing them in the neck, and while its Feudal Japanese setting provides an entirely new architectural style to leap around, thats still the games focus. Or at least half its focus, because in this instalment you play not only as stealthy ninja assassin Naoe but also as hulking samurai Yasuke, whos not nearly as stealth orientated.Yasuke is a real historical figure and a former slave, having arrived in Japan with Portuguese Jesuit missionaries. Thats also the case in the game, where hes taken under the wing of enjoyably evil warlord Oda Nobunaga, who trains him as a samurai before setting him to work burning villages and brutalising fellow clans in the name of unifying Japan. Yasukes colossal, muscular frame does not lend itself to climbing or creeping about, but it does make him feel like an unstoppable Terminator style killing machine.While most extremely large video game characters are slow and ponderous, his bulk is accompanied by fearsome speed and, especially in the first part of the game before baddies get more wily, he can feel practically untouchable. Running straight through locked castle gates, enemies stand about as much chance against him as bread does against an electric slicing machine, with approximately the same outcome.Naoe is more in line with traditional Assassins Creed protagonists. Her shinobi skills make her exceptionally fleet of foot and her grapple hook gives an instant escape route, allowing her to scale pagodas or nearby rooftops in seconds, so she can strike rapidly and then disappear.Because enemies level with you, In the latter parts of the game they get tougher and more resourceful and you quickly find that Naoes skills lend themselves to taking out entire castles full of guards and daish samurai, where she can scuttle up onto roofs without getting mobbed.Meanwhile, Yasuke is better at laying waste to smaller, more rustic enemy camps. Typically, that means facing off against half a dozen soldiers without much cover or opportunity to hide, where his tankiness, extra health rations, and brutal damage give him the advantage.Its actually quite refreshing to abandon stealth and charge in like an angry bull, especially in a game of this enormous scale, where fatigue regularly sets in through endless repetition of the core mechanics. If it were all simply hiding in tall grass, things would start to feel one note worryingly early.What never feels monotonous though, is its glorious setting. 16th century Japan looks utterly spectacular, from its majestic towering pagodas to the fleeting pink cherry blossom in spring. Youll be seeing plenty of that, not just for its ability to render the setting recognisably Japanese, but because the turn of the seasons plays an important role in Shadows.As well as controlling Naoe and Yasuke, you recruit allies who you can call for assistance when the going gets tough. Its a call back to Assassins Creed Brotherhood, when Ezio Auditore da Firenze could wave a hand and have his assassins materialise from thin air to annihilate nearby foes. Shadows goes a little further with that meta game, in a twist that also addresses the series map marker overcrowding. Naoes activities are more traditionally Assassins Creed (Ubisoft)Past complaints about the sheer number of quest symbols that pop up in Ubisoft games have apparently not gone unheeded, and Shadows borrows its structure from stablemate Tom Clancys Ghost Recon. Framed as a series of investigations, you gradually pick off members of different bad guy cadres in your pursuit of the real, hidden enemy.Each target offers clues to their whereabouts, but even with all elements of the HUD switched on, youre not simply given a location. Instead, you need to read the hints and then use your map to assess roughly where they might be, before sending scouts to confirm a precise location. Send your reconnaissance team to the wrong area and theyll come back empty handed, and while you can recruit new scouts, theyre a finite resource that only refreshes when the seasons change.Like previous outing Valhalla, youll need to engage in a little base building, which has been slightly beefed up in Shadows. Now, rather than just unlocking preset structures, you can lay out your hideout as you see fit, constructing and upgrading buff-conferring rooms, and adding cosmetics -from gravel paths to statues to pets that you unlock or buy from merchants as you explore.While there are other distractions from your main business of quietly killing hundreds of people, theyre not particularly well formed. There are all sorts of collectibles, including the above mentioned pets, and updates to your codex about the wealth of authentic historical detail, along with a series of basic rhythm action mini-games that let you learn new weapon techniques for Yasuke or meditations for Naoe.Those activities reward you with knowledge points, which youll need to open up the more powerful techniques in the games skill trees. Experience levels characters up, improving their base stats, while knowledge points unlock new abilities. Fortunately, no matter which protagonist youre playing, the other receives the same amount of experience and knowledge points, maintaining parity in their progression.Unlike the vaunting ambition of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, which used its immense scale to inculcate you into an entire medieval life simulator, Assassins Creed Shadows conforms to the expectations of its long running franchise. Its lightning fast combat has been given a distinctive new feel and switching between its contrasting characters creates broader dynamics within its fairly narrow core stealth and assassination gameplay loop, but much else about the game feels familiar.The opening 20 or so hours are probably its least inspiring, with both Naoe and Yasuke feeling overpowered. Its only as both start to unlock more skills and equipment from their huge sets of historically accurate ancient Japanese weaponry that enemies start getting more persistent, making it trickier to simply vanish into the rafters like a stab-happy Batman. The open world is very nicely designed and rendered (Ubisoft)Is Assassins Creeds Shadows worth playing?For Assassins Creeds detractors, and those filled with ennui by Ubisofts formula, there will be little here to change minds. However, for those who still enjoy its schtick, this is a lightly refreshed take that at least deals with some of the series more frequent complaints, namely the profusion of quest markers, the endless stealth/homicide repetition, and the bugs.More TrendingDespite its scale, and apart from a couple of memorably macabre moments when headless corpses sprang back up and continued to fight, this is an almost completely bug-free experience.Its also beautifully acted, its story attempting to explore the tension between a desire for murderous revenge and the possibility of forgiveness. Considering that central thesis, its odd that you can still assassinate unarmed servants in return for a modest XP reward, the game only penalising you for accidentally hacking bystanders to death.For Assassins Creed nostalgists, its unlikely anything will ever beat tooling around renaissance Rome as Ezio, or the magical first half of Black Flag before it got bogged down in unnecessarily tricky combat and naval engagements. Assassins Creed Shadows walks a fine line between modest innovation and delivering on longstanding expectation, but it does so with polish and panache, even if things inevitably start to feel repetitious long before the closing credits roll.Assassin's Creed Shadows review summaryIn Short: If youve never liked Assassins Creed this wont win you over but Shadows is a well-made and exciting iteration thats impressively well-polished, even if it lacks any significant new ideas.Pros: Ultra-fast shinobi and samurai combat thats genuinely fun. Ancient Japan looks gorgeous with a huge, and hugely impressive, open world. The script and voice-acting are very competent.Cons: Dull mini-games and an inevitable sense of repetition and shallowness. Despite some minor innovations you cant help feeling a more significant reboot is overdue.Score: 7/10Formats: PlayStation 5 (reviewed), Xbox Series X/S, and PCPrice: 69.99Publisher: UbisoftDeveloper: Ubisoft QuebecRelease Date: 20th March 2025Age Rating: 18 Yasuke is not a subtle fighter (Ubisoft)Emailgamecentral@metro.co.uk, leave a comment below,follow us on Twitter, andsign-up to our newsletter.To submit Inbox letters and Readers Features more easily, without the need to send an email, just use ourSubmit Stuff page here.For more stories like this,check our Gaming page.GameCentralSign up for exclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. 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