This review has been updated with the full verdict. The review-in-progress has now been completed with final impressions and a score. All observations from the earlier version remain intact.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows marks Ubisoft’s long-awaited return to one of the most fan-requested settings in the franchise: 16th-century Japan. After spending more than 60 hours exploring every region and wrapping up the main narrative and its loose ends, I can confidently say this is one of Ubisoft’s most ambitious open-world games to date. Massive in scale—reminiscent of Odyssey and Valhalla—Shadows offers an overwhelming amount of content across a beautifully realized world.

Thankfully, while the scope feels intimidating, Shadows finally strikes a strong balance between classic AC stealth and modern open-world design. It isn’t without flaws, but overall, my time in Ubisoft’s vision of the Sengoku period was memorable, atmospheric, and often breathtaking.

🌸 A Stunning Display of Seasonal Beauty

Recent Assassin’s Creed titles have consistently delivered impressive environmental design, and Shadows continues that streak with some of the series’ best visuals to date.

Nearly every Viewpoint feels like a hand-crafted art piece.
The world dynamically shifts through seasons, altering terrain, vegetation, and lighting.
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Weather effects—not just aesthetic—impact gameplay.

One moment, a region is lush and green; hours later, autumn winds sweep through, carpeting the ground with red and gold leaves. Return again in winter and everything is blanketed in snow, transforming atmosphere and stealth possibilities. The seamless transition between these natural states is rare in open-world titles and elevates immersion tremendously.

Environmental interaction plays into stealth, too—icicles can be knocked down to distract guards, and heavy rain muffles footsteps. It’s subtle, but impactful.

⚙️ Performance & Technical Stability

For a game of this scale and fidelity, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is surprisingly polished.

Few glitches or immersion-breaking bugs
Stable framerates during combat, riding, and cutscenes
Occasional texture pop-ins and rare crashes, but nothing persistent
The only major performance drop appeared in the Hideout, with frames dipping to ~30–40 FPS after fast travel and gradually stabilizing

Outside the Hideout, Shadows performs smoothly on PS5. Technical stability is a bright spot for such a massive open-world game, especially given the franchise’s history.

🥷 Stealth: The Best It Has Ever Been

Shadows makes stealth meaningful again—arguably for the first time since the Ezio era.

Two new features redefine the experience:

1. Light & Shadow Visibility

You can extinguish lanterns, candles, and other light sources to create darkness—finally bringing Splinter Cell-style mechanics into Assassin’s Creed. This adds a long-overdue layer of strategy and creativity.

2. Going Prone

Simple, but transformative:

Crawl through short grass
Stay low to reduce noise
Maneuver under floorboards or tight spaces
Approach enemies from angles impossible before

It pushes stealth far beyond “bushes and haystacks,” making every infiltration feel fresh rather than formulaic.

⚔️ Combat: Fun—but Uneven Between Protagonists

With stealth intact, combat becomes the fallback option—and it’s generally enjoyable.

Naoe excels in both stealth and direct combat, with fluid animations and diverse weapons.
Enemy AI remains mostly unchanged from older Assassin’s Creed titles—occasionally competent, often hilariously easy to manipulate.
On higher difficulties, combat feels tense and rewarding, especially when forced to retreat and re-engage intelligently.

But the two protagonists’ differences introduce a major issue…

❌ What Doesn’t Work

1. Yasuke’s Gameplay Feels Out of Place

Yasuke’s heavy, slow playstyle contradicts what Assassin’s Creed fundamentally is. While powerful, he:

Lacks mobility
Struggles with traversal
Feels repetitive in prolonged combat
Makes exploration less enjoyable

Compared to Naoe’s nimble, classic AC gameplay, Yasuke feels like a “power fantasy mode” rather than a cohesive part of the game. After 30 hours, I still avoided him whenever possible.

2. The Notoriety System Is Half-Baked

The Wanted system rarely activates unless you make major mistakes:

Killing innocents is impossible—they’re invulnerable.
Taking out guards in public doesn’t trigger notoriety.
Guardian enemies rarely show up.
I played 10 hours before even noticing the system existed.

It’s a missed opportunity in a game that otherwise emphasizes stealth and consequences.

3. A Story That Lacks Assassin’s Creed Identity

Set during the height of Oda Nobunaga’s rise, the narrative follows:

Naoe on a revenge path
Yasuke on a journey of loyalty and duty
A familiar AC structure of uncovering a hidden organization influencing historical events

The story is:

Entertaining
Predictable
A bit too reminiscent of Odyssey
Often feeling disconnected from the traditional Assassin–Templar conflict

Player choices appear meaningful at first but ultimately have limited long-term impact—more cosmetic than structural.

The ending feels open-ended, almost like the conclusion to Part 1 of a larger narrative, leaving too many questions unanswered.

🧩 Accessibility, Customization & Gear Systems

Shadows shines in giving players control over their experience.

Accessibility & UI

Separate difficulty sliders for stealth and combat
Option to remove UI clutter
Motion blur toggle
Larger text sizes
Japanese or English voices (Japanese highly recommended)

Gear & Progression

The gear system avoids the overwhelming stats of Odyssey/Valhalla.

Perks matter more than numbers.

Examples:

Bleed builds for Yasuke
One-shot assassination builds for Naoe
Tool-refill builds based on kill probability

Each major Castle offers unique rewards, encouraging exploration and experimentation. Skill trees for both characters offer meaningful abilities across stealth, traversal, and combat, making progression consistently engaging.

🧭 A Massive Open World Packed With Content

Shadows sticks to the established Assassin’s Creed formula:
explore → discover → upgrade → infiltrate → repeat.

But the scale, environmental diversity, and flexible structure keep it engaging for dozens of hours. Optional content—from shrines to archery contests to unique wildlife encounters—adds character and variety to the world.

⭐ Verdict: 3.5 / 5 — Great

Despite shortcomings in story cohesion and Yasuke’s gameplay, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a polished, enjoyable entry that:

PROS

Stealth is the best in series history
Naoe’s gameplay feels perfectly tuned
Gear customization is deep yet streamlined
Performance holds strong in key moments
Feudal Japan is stunning across four seasons

CONS

Yasuke’s gameplay conflicts with core AC design
Notoriety system lacks depth and consequence
Story is predictable and ends without impact

What I Played

Visited all regions
Level 46 at credits
65 hours of playtime
Completed main story and both protagonist epilogues

Review based on a PS5 copy provided by the publisher.