Assassins Creed Shadows gets new parkour system as Ubisoft faces difficult yearMichael BeckwithPublished January 9, 2025 3:38pmUpdated January 9, 2025 3:38pm Is this enough to encourage you into picking up Assassins Creed Shadows? (Ubisoft)Ahead of Assassins Creed Shadows launch next month, Ubisoft has shared a surprisingly thorough breakdown of its revamped parkour mechanics.It is not hyperbole to say Assassins Creed Shadows may be the most important release in publisher Ubisofts history, considering the tumultuous year it had in 2024.The companys shares were already dropping all last year and between a string of underperforming titles and cancellations, there have been serious discussions of Ubisoft selling itself off to Tencent.Time will tell if Assassins Creed Shadows is successful enough to pull Ubisoft out of the fire, but in the meantime the publisher is trying to drum up hype for the February 14 launch, with a lengthy breakdown of the games parkour mechanics.Parkour usually comes as standard in an Assassins Creed game, especially one with ninja protagonist Naoe as one of its playable characters (although the playable samurai, Yasuke, can do parkour as well).A recent blog post from Ubisoft reveals that the parkour system has been given an overhaul for Assassins Creed Shadows. For starters, long time fans will need to get used to the crouch and dodge buttons switching places.This is to take into account a new prone stance and the ability to transition from a dodge move into parkour, as explained by associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois:In Shadows, dodge has been merged with parkour down mechanics, which unlocks a whole bunch of new parkour moves, says Lemay-Comtois, This new mapping also disconnects stance-switch (e.g. standing, crouching, prone) from parkour, ensuring you can use any stances without accidentally going down a rooftop when you dont want to.The blog goes on to break down all the different parkour moves at your disposal, but despite the wide array of techniques, it also sounds like parkour will be slightly more restrictive than usual.Compared to previous Assassins Creed games, youll only be able to scale and climb surfaces that actually have physical handholds to grab onto. This doesnt mean there are fewer climbing opportunities, but youll need to be more creative with how you traverse the world.This is a pretty big deal for us, continues Lemay-Comtois, This means we had to be more thoughtful about creating interesting parkour highways and afforded us more control about where Naoe can go, and where Yasuke cant, making our two playstyles even more contrasted.Why is Assassins Creed Shadows so important to Ubisoft?While these changes might be important for established Assassins Creed fans, a reworked parkour system isnt necessarily something thats going to attract new players.Maybe thats what Ubisoft is counting on and is now prioritising keeping hold of the current player-base and maybe winning back anyone who has dropped off the series.Ubisoft is certainly putting all its eggs in the Assassins Creed basket with how many games it has planned for the series, but those plans could radically change if Assassins Creed Shadow underperforms even a little bit.Ubisoft needs a big win after the messy 2024 it had. Star Wars Outlaws was clearly meant to be what propped the company up that year but, despite being a solid game, it wasnt the blockbuster Ubisoft wanted.It had what Ubisoft called a soft launch last August, and was what apparently spooked them into delaying Assassins Creed Shadows into 2025.More TrendingAccording to analyst Chris Dring, it was also only the second-best selling Star Wars game of the year, meaning EAs Star Wars Jedi: Survivor sold more copies in 2024 despite being a year old at that point.This isnt even mentioning the half-hearted launch of Skull And Bones (a game that took over 10 years to be completed), the abrupt cancellation of XDefiant, and Beyond Good & Evil 2 still being stuck in limbo.As for the proposed Tencent buyout, talks have apparently stalled due to Ubisofts current owners, the Guillemot brothers, being unwilling to relinquish control, according to Reuters.Assassins Creed Shadows being a hit would give the brothers more leverage in a potential sale. Conversely, its failure would reinforce the idea that Ubisoft needs new leadership. Assassins Creed Shadows two playable protagonists will have slightly different playstyles (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.GameCentralExclusive analysis, latest releases, and bonus community content.This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Your information will be used in line with our Privacy Policy