In more than a few ways, Assassin's Creed Shadows feels like two different eras of the franchise trying to fit into the same experience. Two different playable protagonists let you choose between a more stealth-action approach or a pure action approach, for example, and before you start playing, you must pick whether the story will be driven by dialogue choices or follow the canonical timeline (which omits choices from dialogue). It's as if Ubisoft Quebec is attempting to squeeze together both of the experiences of the past two Assassin's Creed games it helmed: Syndicate and Odyssey. It results in what feels like a hybrid beast of an Assassin's Creed that I largely enjoyed playing for six hours. However, there are parts of the experience in which it seems like Shadows is straining to keep both sides of the equation happy.The introduction of a canon mode feels like the most clear-cut example of this, as it adds a means by which players can forgo all roleplaying choices and see Shadows' story play out as Ubisoft Quebec intends--basically how Assassin's Creed worked prior to Odyssey."Yeah, [canon mode] came from the fans," game director Charles Benoit told me. "We're the first that brought the choices in the dialogue [in Odyssey]. In Odyssey, we had a mixed reception. The core fan said, 'We're in the Animus. History is predefined--why do you have choices?' But, in another way, we have an RPG and it's cool to have the roleplay. So [for Shadows], we made it so the fan that wants to have the true story [can], while keeping the cool thing about roleplaying choices."Continue Reading at GameSpot