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Due to a variety of reasons, I have not quite finished Assassin’s Creed Shadows at the time of this review, preventing me from giving it a final score in good conscience. I’ve played enough of the game to expect that almost none of my thoughts will change once the credits roll, but I will update this review with my proper final thoughts and score then.
Ubisoft has had a rough few years, and that’s an understatement.
Its most successful franchises have withered under repetitive, bloated, and outdated open-world game design, its attempts at new successes have failed thanks to half-hearted trend-chasing or truly broken launches, and the few gems have been subsequently abandoned because they weren’t immediate financial successes.
Ubisoft has fallen from the height of video game publishers to one of the most derided and least trusted in the industry — and Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the long-awaited sequel for Ubisoft’s hero franchise, is one of its last chances to reverse the tide and restore community confidence.
When I went hands-on with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, hours of gameplay were more than enough to convince me that Ubisoft at least deserved the chance at redemption. Now that I’m dozens of hours into the finished game, I can say with (nearly) complete confidence that Ubisoft is back.
Well, that’s as long as Ubisoft learns the right lessons from Assassin’s Creed Shadows achievements and if there are still enough people willing to give the publisher one more chance by purchasing this game.
I’ve completed many dozens of games and played many dozens more over the years, including plenty of Assassin’s Creed titles and lots of other RPGs beside that. I’ve been patiently waiting for Ubisoft to return to form, so I know exactly what I’m looking for to give AC Shadows a passing grade.
This review was made possible thanks to a review code provided by Ubisoft. Ubisoft had no input nor saw the contents of this review prior to publication.
AC Shadows review: What is it?
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the long-awaited sequel at Valhalla.
- It’s a massive, open-world action-RPG set in feudal Japan.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a brand-new, mainline entry in the storied Assassin’s Creed franchise, following 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla as an action-RPG rather than the classics-inspired Assassin’s Creed Mirage released in 2023.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows
• Price: From $69.99 at CDKeys | Best Buy | Amazon
• Release date: Mar. 20, 2025
• Developer: Ubisoft Quebec
• Publisher: Ubisoft
• Genre: Action-RPG
• Players: Single-player
• Install size: ~115GB
• Playtime: 50+ hours
• Platforms: Xbox Series X|S, Windows PC, PlayStation 5
• Xbox Game Pass: No
• Reviewed on: Xbox Series X
Developed by the flagship Ubisoft Quebec studio and published, of course, by Ubisoft, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is the most important video game the French publisher has released in years.
Steady declines in trust and regular struggles to win over modern players have heavily impacted Ubisoft, led by years of increasingly formulaic, repetitive open-world games and half-hearted trend chasing.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is Ubisoft’s latest attempt to rectify its mistakes, with a lot of hopes and expectations riding on this ambitious action-RPG.
Set in 16th-century feudal Japan torn apart by bloody conflicts between indifferent warlords, AC Shadows follows the adventures of young shinobi Naoe and legendary samurai Yasuke, giving players two entirely different playstyles from which to choose.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows officially releases on Mar. 20, 2025, for Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, Windows PC, and PlayStation 5. If you preorder any edition of the game, you’ll receive the bonus “Thrown to the Dogs” quest at launch and gain immediate access to the major “Claws of Awaji” expansion, releasing later in 2025.
AC Shadows review: Performance and stability
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows may be the most polished Ubisoft game in years.
- Performance is great on Xbox and PC, and I’ve encountered few bugs.
- There has been nothing more serious than some animation glitches.
One component contributing to Ubisoft’s current dour standing is a reputation for launching games in a sorry state. Major performance issues, game-breaking bugs, and crashes have been common in many Ubisoft titles at launch.
I’m happy to report that Assassin’s Creed Shadows has exhibited none of these traits for me. The additional time in the oven Ubisoft gave the game has clearly paid off, as AC Shadows doesn’t feel half-baked at all.
Performance has been excellent across the board, even in busy environments or during heated combat segments, and I’ve only noticed a handful of dropped frames or stutters.
That’s true on Xbox Series X, too, which lets you choose between the framerate-prioritizing “Performance” mode and resolution-prioritizing “Quality” mode. The latter feels like 30 frames per second, but it’s a very smooth 30 FPS that’s aided by responsive controls and fluid animations.
I won’t claim Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been flawless, of course. There have been various glitches with animations, especially with assassinations and clothing, and you can certainly find ways to get caught on the terrain or find small steps that the accomplished, acrobatic ninja Naoe can’t seem to get over.
The lighting engine can misbehave at times, over or under-exposing when transitioning between outside and inside areas, or washing out characters so their skin looks plastic and fake. Your trusty steed is prone to randomly changing directions or stopping whenever it feels like it.
All minor issues, though, and many of the bugs I discovered are reportedly being fixed in the game’s day-one update, according to Ubisoft.
The only major bug I’ve encountered in dozens of hours of playtime is when all game audio suddenly cut out on Xbox Series X, including the soundtrack and menu sound effects. This has only happened once, and restarting the game immediately fixed it.
On PC, matters are also quite positive. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a heavy game on your system, but it gives you a ton of options to tailor the game to your setup, including ultrawide monitor support, High Dynamic Range (HDR) support, an uncapped framerate, in-depth graphical customization, and AMD FidelityFX Super Resolution 3.1, NVIDIA DLSS 3.7, and Intel XeSS 2 integration for dynamic resolution, upscaling, and frame generation.
On ASUS ROG Ally X, I was able to enjoy playing the game at around 40 frames-per-second (FPS) on the lowest preset and AMD’s Super Resolution and Frame Generation features enabled. This was on one of the most powerful handhelds, though, so others may have very different experiences.
AC Shadows review: Visual and audio presentation
- It shouldn’t be surprising that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is beautiful
- Environments, weather and seasonal effects, and animations are top notch.
- Audio design, music, and voice acting are also quite great.
Assassin’s Creed games have been known for their visual and audio presentation since the series’ inception, with previous titles like Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag helping set the graphical standard for an entirely new generation of consoles.
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla looked incredible, whatever weaknesses the game may have had, but Shadows comfortably surpasses it at every turn. Japan is already a beautiful country, and this game’s idealized and polished visuals more than do it justice.
You’ll find a stunning spectacle around every corner, with Assassin’s Creed Shadows boasting varied, vertical, and vibrant landscapes adorned with swathes of lush foliage, dotted with intricately constructed buildings and temples, and teeming with worn roads, overgrown trails, and hidden secrets.
This game is beautifully rendered, with perfectly over-saturated visuals that highlight the immense detail in the environments. Towering mountains, tranquil oceans, vast tilled fields, shrouded groves of flowering trees, it’s all tied together so well in a lovely clash of browns, blues, greens, whites, pinks, and more.
There’s even a surprisingly vast variety of wildlife to encounter, including herds of deer, mischievous monkeys, lone foxes, families of tanuki, flocks of herons, geese, and crows, pairs of pheasants or hares, sniffling boars, and more.
Settlements will have their own ecosystems, too. Horses, pet dogs and cats (and their puppies or kittens), hungry strays — they’re all there.
Don’t worry; you can pet many of the animals, and those you do can actually be added to your hideout to visit at any point, while other pets can be collected from vendors, quests, or simply finding and painting them in the world as Naoe.
It’s not just the natural environments, though. Castles, cities, villages, and even random farmhouses possess unmatched character.
There are entire districts of cities that you’ll never need to visit (because there are no quests, vendors, or secrets) that nonetheless faithfully recreate the industries, markets, and houses that comprise it. Ubisoft has never struggled with the world-building aspects of its games, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows showcases the publisher at its very best.
This isn’t a static world, either. AC Shadows makes sure you, the player, know you have a presence in this rendition of Japan. Snow and mud defamation leave a persistent mark of your passing in your wake, while wind, rain, and snow leave their mark on your clothing and body.
Many of the environments you pass through acknowledge your existence, too. Plants and cloth will move as you pass, carts, doors, and furniture will suffer the consequences of heated combat and violent attacks, and animals will react to your approach (normally by running).
The world changes over time, too. The wind comes in any form, ranging from a light breeze to a bustling gust, while overcast clouds can bring misty mornings and light drizzles or violent torrents of cascading sheets of rain and deep peals of thunder following sharp cracks of lightning. Blizzards can wash the world in frozen white, disguising the horizon from your view.
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The world does change as day dynamically shifts into night and back again, and the weather further impacts the world by whipping plants and trees, casting leaves and petals into the sky and on the ground, and more, but the most dramatic changes come from the passing of seasons.
We knew Assassin’s Creed Shadows would boast seasonal shifts marked by progression through the story or occasionally while fast traveling, but I was expecting four distinct, wildly different seasons.
Instead, Ubisoft divided Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter into different stages — you don’t just get Winter, you get the first snow blanketing the lingering, orange and red foliage of Autumn, then you enter deep Winter and its frozen lakes, before finally transitioning back into the new green of Spring and its humid downpours.
I’ve not even talked about the beautifully detailed animations for animals, characters, and clothing, either. This game is spectacularly gorgeous in every sense of the word, and that does apply to audio, too.
AC Shadows delivers swelling and moving music, captivating ambient soundscapes, spontaneous and tactile gameplay effects, and more. It’s all very well done, but you’ll be too busy taking screenshots to really notice.
AC Shadows review: Gameplay experience
- AC Shadows continues the action-RPG evolution of the mainline series.
- It plays similarly to Valhalla and earlier titles, but with refinement.
- There’s less bloat, while gameplay and exploration are more engaging.
Assassin’s Creed retired the action-adventure gameplay that defined its life up until that point when it pivoted to the action-RPG genre with Assassin’s Creed Origins.
Love it or hate it, Ubisoft continued to polish and refine that RPG gameplay with Odyssey and then Valhalla. On the other side of the coin, though, those open worlds felt overtly bloated and overwhelming, while the gameplay drifted further and further from what made Assassin’s Creed one of the biggest video game franchises of all time.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is still an action-RPG, but Ubisoft has done an excellent job paring down the excess fat, polishing gameplay and traversal, re-incentivising exploration, and giving players a proper, distinct choice between the fast-paced gameplay of old and the heavier combat of new.
Enter: Naoe and Yasuke. The twin protagonists (although Naoe definitely feels more like the main character, especially in the Prologue and Act 1) each play a huge role in the story. You can spend most of the time as either one after Act 1, and your choice will dramatically impact how you approach the game.
Naoe is the possessor of the iconic hidden blade, passed down to her by her father, and she is an accomplished, highly trained shinobi. The smallest and lightest assassin we’ve seen in the series yet, Naoe is also the most acrobatic and agile.
Using a vast arsenal of tools and weapons in addition to her physical talents, Naoe is able to find her way into places Yasuke could never reach. Her climbing prowess allows her to scale almost any wall, her grappling hook allows her to reach the places she can’t climb, and her compact stature allows her to crawl or slip into areas no man could follow.
It’s here where you see the most dramatic changes Ubisoft has made to the modern AC formula. Finally, parkour feels revitalized with a suite of new animations specific to Naoe. More importantly, it also feels more controlled despite the flashier animations.
How Naoe approaches ascension or descension depends on your approach and how you command her, with three of the four face buttons on your controller playing a role in her traversal abilities.
You’ll still experience moments of frustration when Naoe doesn’t respond the way you expected, failing to smoothly leap, roll, flip, or slide as she normally does, but my frustrations were far lesser than Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Origins (I skipped Odyssey).
Yasuke, by contrast, can only climb the surfaces that give him adequate support to handle his increased mass and generous handhelds to accommodate his armored gloves.
You’re not entirely limited to the ground (far from it), but Yasuke absolutely faces life head-on, while Naoe has the freedom to find every back entrance you didn’t even know existed.
When you’re not elegantly sliding across the boulder some idiot put in your path or gracefully flipping off a rooftop to assassinate some other idiots in the way of your landing, AC Shadows also shows its gameplay improvements through combat.
Yasuke and Naoe are equally gifted fighters but in very different ways. Each can utilize a unique set of tools, weapons, and abilities (that you can customize, evolve, and customize to your heart’s content) that complement those styles.
Naoe specializes in diversion, distraction, and discrete assassination and, in a pinch, can rely on her parrying and evading skills to keep her in the action. She may not pack the punch that Yasuke does and she may not be able to take the same hits, but she’s more than capable enough to come out of a heated battle unscathed.
Yasuke, on the other hand, does not find the word “subtle” in his vocabulary. His massive frame provides ample strength to wield an arsenal of weaponry that allows him to control entire battlefields with ease.
That size gives him space to don the toughest armor, too, so Yasuke can dish out damage in a wide area just as well as he can take it — and that’s very well indeed.
Both play wonderfully, with interesting and engaging weapons and abilities that force you to think differently. I personally prefer Naoe, the successor to the golden age assassins we remember fondly, but Yasuke’s brutal strength is extremely satisfying, too.
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Beyond those two elements, Assassin’s Creed Shadows also, finally, meaningfully improves Ubisoft’s open-world formula. No more is your map inundated with endless icons and a depressive grind to obtain 100% completion.
You’re incentivized to explore because of the opportunities and secrets you may uncover, not to find one of a hundred collectibles you’ll never actually care about.
Side quests and activities are more varied and dynamic than ever, although you’re not entirely free of the open-world bloat. Side quests aren’t quite as numerous as I’d hope, and many are shorter than I’d like, while side activities can feel repetitive after a while.
Still, I’m far more engaged with Assassin’s Creed Shadows than I was with Valhalla, even after playing AC Shadows for longer, and that’s a great sign. I’d talk more about the customizable Hideout that acts as your home, but I already mentioned that you can keep all your pets there… so what more do I need to say?
AC Shadows review: Story and characters
- AC Shadows boasts an interesting — if fairly predictable — narrative.
- It’s largely carried by the characters and faithful worldbuilding.
- I’ve remained captivated by the story, even before finishing it.
If you’re marching into this section of the review with thoughts of “Ubisoft isn’t respecting Japanese culture” and “Yasuke wasn’t a real samurai” on your tongue, you can go ahead and leave.
I’m not going to claim that Assassin’s Creed Shadows boasts the most realistic depiction of ancient Japan we’ve ever seen in video games, but I never expected it to — this is Assassin’s Creed, a fantasy series grounded by a seed of historical truth.
What I can say, though, is that Ubisoft has done a great job paying respectful homage to Japanese culture while also retaining the fantastical, over-the-top elements that make this an Assassin’s Creed game.
As always, it’s clear that Ubisoft invested significant resources in researching this era of Japan, using the spoils of its efforts to inform the meticulous, deep worldbuilding in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
Ultimately, that’s what carries this game’s narrative and single-player campaign. You’re a part of an alternative, dramatized Japanese history, but you can also immerse yourself in the unique culture and its arts, customs, religions, and traditions.
AC Shadows is happy to take its time with cinematics, animations, or dialogue to remain faithful, too.
To be frank, I don’t care if Yasuke was a storied warrior or a simple sword-bearer; Assassin’s Creed Shadows explores the former within its fictional realm, including the course of his life after the death of his lord.
Yasuke is, in a single word, a complete badass. He’s an awesome character, and it’s interesting to see how the world around him reacts to his unfamiliar appearance before adjusting to acknowledge him as an honored samurai.
The vast majority of the people you’ll meet are born-and-raised Japanese, of course, including Naoe, but there’s also a fair number of Portuguese merchants, missionaries, and diplomats.
In the “Immersive Mode” (which I highly recommend), you’ll experience the world of AC Shadows with everyone actually speaking Japanese or Portuguese as they would, with native speakers lending a ton of credibility and emotion to the voice acting.
Yes, the worldbuilding and characters make Assassin’s Creed Shadows because the actual narrative treads safer paths. Naoe seeks revenge for the death of her father, unknowingly embroiling herself in a heated conflict that will not only decide the fate of her homeland… but also possibly the world as a whole.
It’s a well-done story, and the writing is of decent caliber, but I doubt we’ll see AC Shadows winning heaps of “Best Narrative” awards at the end of the year.
AC Shadows review: Microtransactions and DLC
- Yes, Assassin’s Creed Shadows features an in-game store.
- Yes, there are microtransactions that can give you an edge in game.
- Yes, AC Shadows will be getting DLC after launch.
Modern Ubisoft games have especially been criticized for in-game stores laden with microtransactions on top of the premium price tag attached to its games, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows does not buck that trend.
You can buy unique, legendary gear for Naoe and Yasuke, cosmetics for your allies and hideout, crafting resources to give you a leg up, and even a map to highlight the location of treasures and secrets in the world.
It’s dumb, but the “pay-to-win” elements don’t actually matter in a purely single-player game, and AC Shadows has felt perfectly balanced — to the point where I’ve never once felt tempted to dive into that store to skip some grinding.
You can also earn premium items just by playing the game. AC Shadows features a number of live service elements that stay completely out of your way unless you look for them.
You can complete time-limited events and mini-missions for in-game currency that you can use at the Exchange, a periodically refreshed shop offering random premium items. It adds more endgame content, it lets you pick up some sweet gear, and I’ve earned quite a bit just by playing the game (I never once sought out any of these features).
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will get more content after launch, too. Sure, that means more optional purchases in the store if you care about it (most people won’t), but we already know this game is getting post-launch expansions. The first one, coming later in 2025 with over 10 hours of new content and a new area, is actually free for preordering players. Nice.
AC Shadows review: Accessibility design
- Ubisoft did a great job making AC Shadows approachable for all players.
- You also get a ton of accessibility options to customize your experience.
- There are some changes I’d make, but this is an excellent foundation.
Ubisoft is one of the more underrated publishers when it comes to building approachable, accessible games, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows is one of the company’s best efforts.
While a complex game, AC Shadows’ menus are quite legible, and you have a ton of options to customize your gameplay experience, including tuning the combat, exploration, and stealth difficulty (even enabling guaranteed assassinations), toggling sensitive content and visuals, and more.
When it comes to accessibility, you can toggle post-effects, bind individual controls with distinct profiles for controller and keyboard, adjust the mechanics for combat, events, and more. You even have individual deadzone and threshold sliders for each thumbstick and trigger.
Customize the Heads-Up Display (HUD) and adjust every element of the audio (including the frequency of music and the mix between loud, soft, dynamic, and ambient noises) — there’s a lot here.
I wish Ubisoft had condensed the most important options into a dedicated “Accessibility” menu (like what you get when the game first starts), though. There are also some gameplay elements — like dismantling your gear — that feel needlessly tedious and time-consuming.
AC Shadows review: Final thoughts
You should play this if …
✅ You’ve been waiting for Ubisoft to rekindle its flame
If you have fond memories of all the hours spent inside the incredible worlds Ubisoft built during its most innovative years, then Assassin’s Creed Shadows may offer you that magic once again. This is a really well-made open-world game, period.
✅ You’re looking for a massive, beautiful world to occupy all your time
Some people really love devoting huge amounts of time to a single game, and while it’s possible to finish AC Shadows in less time than I invested, those who are willing to commit to seeing everything there is and everything yet to come will be fed and then some by this game.
You should not play this if …
❌ You really don’t like the modern Assassin’s Creed games
In my opinion, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is easily the best the franchise has seen since its golden years, with games like Black Flag surpassing Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla without breaking a sweat. If you truly didn’t enjoy the previous three Assassin’s Creed games, though, Shadows is fundamentally the same kind of game.
I won’t label these words as “final” until the credits have rolled in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and that may take some time. It’s a personal rule that I review games exactly how I play them, and that means caring less about embargoes and more about enjoying the experience and passing that on to you.
I’ve put dozens of hours into Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and it has been incredible. Will the game continue that energy through to the end? Will it successfully win Ubisoft my faith back, or at least enough to allow me to give the publisher’s future games a chance?
Those questions will have to wait to receive a definitive answer, but for now, I can tell you I’ve been having more fun with Assassin’s Creed Shadows than I have since roaming the high seas as Edward Kenway.
The gameplay is more refined and fluid than ever; it actually feels meaningful to explore beyond checking off a list, and Ubisoft has somehow outdone itself when it comes to bringing a real slice of history to life and blending it with fantastical elements.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is also more polished than I’ve seen from a flagship Ubisoft game in a very long time, and that counts for a lot. It all comes together to create what may very well be a game-of-the-year contender for 2025. I at least know I’m not forgetting this game any time soon.
I’m not ready to set all these words in stone quite yet, but I’ve spent enough time in Assassin’s Creed Shadows to know that — even if it falls off in the latter hours — it’s still easily the best of the modern, action-RPG AC games. It’s beautiful, fluid, immensely detailed, and exactly what Ubisoft may need to kick off its redemption arc.
