If you’ve played all the Assassin’s Creed games like I have, you are no stranger to the evolution of the franchise. The biggest jump in evolution we’ve seen in Assassin’s Creed Origins. When you went straight in to action as Bayek, you knew Assassin’s Creed was going to a whole new level. Fast forward to Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where the world expanded so vastly, that people started to complain it was too bloated.
The fans have clamored long enough for an Assassin’s Creed game based in Japan, and we are finally getting one. But what kinds of new changes can we expect from this game?
One of the biggest changes is how they waypoint your activities. Most Ubisoft games are known for simply marking your map, and following the yellow brick road to your destination. They are taking a different approach with Shadows, by not cluttering your screen with more hud items and having you use your D-Pad to search for your path. Once you’ve spotted your path, there with be a faint white line guiding you to your destination. Nothing is being taken away, just more options given to the players.
As for something familiar, of course you can rely on an Assassin’s Creed game to feature more synchronization locations to uncover the map. These viewpoints will open up fast travel points as always. The new feature here, is that you can go to a high point and use a 360-degree observe function that will allow you to mark special locations on your map.
With a touch of familiarity, there is also a touch of new when it comes to how you unveil the map. You won’t need to rely entirely on traveling on foot or horse to unlock the map. While you play the game, you will come across people who will join your league as “scouts”. Scouts have multiple functions. They can help you locate quest objectives, gather resources to upgrade your Hideout, and even cover your tracks by resetting Provincial alerts.
Yasuke and Naoe will also have their own character-specific activities. Naoe can find meditation points allowing you to unlock more of her backstory. While Yasuke can look for experts to help show him how to use his Kata and also take part in horse archery events.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches March 20th. It will be available on PlayStation®5 & Xbox Series X|S, Ubisoft+, Amazon Luna, Macs with Apple silicon via the Mac App Store as well as Windows PC through the Ubisoft Store, Steam and the Epic Games Store. Also coming to iPad.
