[h1] TL;DR: I dislike this game and don't recommend it. [/h1] I don't like this game. I'm not sure what fit of nostalgia I had that made me purchase this, but it feels worse than Valhalla, which at least had its own moments. I think the characters (so far) are flat and boring. I find the sudden shifts in emotion in the SAME CONVERSATION to be baffling and whiplash inducing. To be fair, I had that same criticism for Valhalla at times and I've heard similar about Mirage, to say nothing of the goofy facial animations they use on occasion in all of the modern AC games.. The combat feels clunky for how I try to play. I play with a lot of deflects, and hitting the parry window still doesn't feel quite right. I don't know why. Compared to For Honor, another Ubisoft game, this one feels like every action has a slight delay between input and action. Maybe that's my hardware, but I thought at 13700KF and a 3070 would be sufficient to run Shadows on medium settings at the minimum and custom settings even higher at 1080p and 60 fps. Sometimes I can barely hit that, and sometimes it's buttery smooth up at 120 fps. The environments look pretty good, which has often been Ubisoft's strength. The destruction of so many parts of the environment is incredible. Seeing actual holes, fibers, splinters, and bamboo move and be destroyed and sometimes persist and not despawn the moment I looked away was awesome. The intracacies of the actual world and what all is in it is incredible, and I like that they did that. But it feels like a dead land. Compared to what I know they can put to field, there's so few people. It's shocking, but advancements always come at a cost, and I personally don't think it was a good trade. The music is... Alright so far. I feel i haven't actually noticed it enough for it to be good or bad, and so far, whenever I have noticed it I'm just annoyed by it. Other than the rock music. Good music, terrible placement and timing. It nearly made me uninstall the game because I thought it was gonna be a running thing, but I haven't yet. And to be clear, because someone is gonna say it, yes, I know the games have had modern music before. I didn't particularly enjoy the modern stuff being in the games then either, but them using period accurate instruments alongside a future/science-y sound and having the modern day setting be somewhat more sci-fi made the strange and eerie soundtrack of the Desmond games and AC4 (I stopped caring about much of the music in the series after that) feel like it fit the tone and historical settings. I didn't usually notice the modern instruments as much, because they fit in most of the time. There was that one electric guitar in Ezio's Family that I can remember, because it was jarring but cool, and I would like more like that. The eagle sense is closer to original AC games, but that doesn't always feel like I want it to. That's just me being finnicky and tainted in my opinion because I got used to how they did the new eagle sense in the modern games with a bird and a pulse, but now they've shifted back, sort of. I like the idea of Observe, and it is nice to use, sometimes. But I use it the most to tag enemies, through walls, but the other half of that is that I use the new Eagle vision, which kinda sucks. It sucked in Ghost of Tsushima to, until I was able to move faster, and now I like their version the best. Can't see through walls unless you're in the mode, and no tagging methods that I can remember. It was fabulous because it made me aware of my surroundings and actually learn how to track people through walls without eagle vision. It was great. Now it feels like I have to use it, and even when I do, half the time the UI won't load for 3 seconds after exiting a menu. I wanted to like this game so bad when it was announced, so long ago. Although "announced" is a geneous word. We got a picture and a project name, and even then we already knew it was in development. I wanted another real AC game. I like the RPGs as RPGs, but they're not Assassin's Creed. They're interesting sometimes. I got Origins day 1 and was dissapointed it wasn't what I had wanted, but I was fine with it. I thought they were trying something new and would keep trying new and different things, but actually making it into the series it was. And then Odyssey. I skipped it, and having looked into it a bit, I would have hated that game with every fiber of my being. Valhalla was a present from a friend, and I doubt I'm every going to go back and finish the Odin stuff and all the random new garbage they keep adding to that mess of a game. Then Mirage. Mirage, is closer, but I don't like all the magic and other ridiculous things. some of the best stuff Mirage did, looks almost accidental. I never played it but watch multiple full playthroughs, and will say that I would not enjoy it. And now I'm at Shadows. I wanted to be early Ezio, kind bad at stuff, and growing incredibly competent over time. But, the fighting feels old now. It was old in AC4, and it was old in Revelations. It was Old in Valhalla, and it feels like a worse version of that. I wanted someone in a specific outfit, with a hidden blade, to fight Templars. Now I'm in a revenge story that I've already heard before a dozen times, and in better ways, with boring characters I don't care about, in a setting I love, in a beautiful world, I desperately want to like this game. But the more I play it, the more I hate it. Everyone who loved this series has said it, but this isn't Assassin's Creed. It's an RPG, set in feudal Japan, and it's not even better than the other game I played with that almost was the same thing. Don't bother buying this, until it goes on sale for $10 or less. And even then, I wouldn't recommend it. Go play Ghost of Tsushima if it's the Japan part you're after or one of the old AC games if you want that kind of an experience. This is just another RPG, where you choose what kind of person your character is, from a mostly boring set of choices, that has a parry and dodge system, along with gear and levels. You've probably played better elsewhere, and to anyone who enjoys this game, power to you. I will never understand, but I wish you fun times regardless.
I've played all of the games in the AC franchise except Mirage. The only game that I've hated has been Valhalla which was very repetitive, Shadows is probably a step in the right direction which Ubisoft has been advertising with the introduction of MIrage and now Shadows. The story looks compelling, parkour has got an update, more tools to navigate around the map, more weapon types, the world is beautiful like any other AC game, Naoe feels good to play with and if you just want to kill, Yasuke also feels good. The one thing I hate about this game is how less interactive the world is, like in any GTA or Witcher 3, the world felt very alive. NPCs would make comments if you did something that affects them in some way in those games. In AC, the NPCs just are bots with no dialogues, no interactions, no activities or routines. This has somewhat changed in AC Shadows, to be honest.. but still the game world feels voided at it's core. Similar to Ghost of Tsushima though. Talking about Ghost of Tsushima, the game had some mini games and we also have them in this game, but it doesn't really make sense to have them.. at least not in the way they are played. Overall, I'll recommend this game, but only if it is available at a discounted price.
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