I Was Wrong About Assassin's Creed Shadows' Biggest Flaw After 100 Hours

For a considerable period, I was deeply captivated by “Assassin’s Creed Shadows”. It managed to fulfill the anticipation of Assassin’s Creed in Feudal Japan more effectively than Ghost of Tsushima ever did, and it presented one of the series’ most compelling narratives in recent memory. There are numerous aspects that make Assassin’s Creed Shadows worthy of admiration, which is why I ardently defended and lauded it to my friends, family, and the online community for quite some time. However, as often happens with Ubisoft games, the initial enthusiasm gradually faded, and I soon began to identify its major shortcomings.

Though I initially believed that Assassin’s Creed: Shadow’s generally favorable reviews would remain valid for the most part, I’ve found one significant aspect that I suspect many players, including myself, might grow weary of quite swiftly. It isn’t because Shadow has suddenly transformed into a poorly made game in my opinion, as I have genuinely relished much of my time exploring its expansive world. Instead, after investing more than 100 hours delving into everything it offers, I’ve come to acknowledge that I was mistaken about the game’s most significant drawback.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Exploration Becomes Boring

It Is Extremely Repetitive After A Handful Of Hours

The initial playthrough of Assassin’s Creed Shadows offered a novel and distinct exploration experience. One debatable feature in Shadows, the segmented areas on the map accessible only at certain levels, surprisingly facilitated my adjustment to the vast open-world environment. The game’s sequential world design, coupled with its impenetrable geography, kept me directed towards intriguing destinations, making it an enjoyable adventure for a brief period. For a while, Shadows seemed to address Assassin’s Creed’s primary design issue, and I was genuinely excited about this improvement.

Initially, I remained engaged in the game’s exploration for quite some time, even advocating for it publicly. But after a while, my enthusiasm started to wane. This wasn’t due to the game sharing the same flaws as previous Assassin’s Creed titles, though there is an element of truth to that. Instead, it was because the game failed to keep me interested in exploring its expansive terrain beyond thirty or forty hours of gameplay. Despite having spent extensive time on AC Shadows and attempting to complete every aspect, I grew weary of its exploration well before I found myself repetitively grinding every minor feature.

In my opinion, it wasn’t Yasuke’s suboptimal movement mechanics that ruined Assassin’s Creed Shadows for me. On the contrary, playing as Yasuke initially offered a refreshing change, especially considering he was introduced at an ideal time, not too early and not too late after unlocking Naoe, to prevent either character from becoming monotonous quickly. Instead, what detracted from Shadows’ exploration was the lack of engaging activities during travel from one point to another, as well as insufficient visual diversity to make each new location feel distinct and exciting, rather than just an extension of what you’ve been observing for extended periods.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Needed More To Do While Traveling

There Aren’t Enough Activities On The Open Road

One significant missed chance in AC Shadows could have been capitalizing on the time spent traveling from one location to another, a common aspect often overlooked in video games. Instead of focusing on fast travel to bypass its monotony, the game could have innovatively transformed this process into an engaging element of the gaming experience. For instance, Shadows might have made the journey more captivating by allowing Naoe and Yasuke to converse during their travels, which unfortunately was not done. As a consequence, each lengthy voyage across thousands of miles comes off as a solitary and laborious adventure.

Unfortunately, when you delve into this world, there isn’t much you can engage with meaningfully. Unlike games such as ‘Death Stranding’ or ‘Season: A Letter to the Future’, where interaction with the environment is a significant part of the exploration experience, interacting with the surroundings in Shadows feels rather minimal. Features like creative traversal mechanics found in ‘Death Stranding’ or environmental integration seen in ‘Season’ are absent here.

In your journey across the map in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, you find yourself revisiting familiar locations as if on an endless loop, facing enemies who seem to respawn after every defeat. While there are occasional characters to interact with, these encounters soon become monotonous. To put it simply, the exploration in this game falls short when compared to RPGs that were already out years prior, which is unfortunate.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ World Isn’t Varied Enough

It More Or Less Looks The Same No Matter Where You Go

In “Assassin’s Creed Shadows,” exploration isn’t as diverse as one might hope. Unlike the stunning, almost unreal landscapes in “Ghost of Tsushima,” the environment design in “Shadows” doesn’t offer much variety. This is primarily because the game heavily relies on its season-changing mechanic, which makes the seasons switch intermittently. While this creates an illusion of visual diversity, it essentially conceals the lack of true variation by simply changing the scenery with each new season.

In contrast to the vivid and surreal landscapes of “Ghost of Tsushima”, “Assassin’s Creed Shadows” focuses on a more grounded, realistic atmosphere. This approach prevents it from featuring striking combinations like golden forests next to pampas grass fields or blue flower-filled areas, as seen in “Tsushima”. While I appreciate the commitment to realism in the “Assassin’s Creed” series, it’s somewhat disheartening that the regions in “Shadows” don’t vary much from one another. The excitement of exploring a new region and immersing oneself in its unique characteristics is dampened by this lack of diversity.

Revisiting a location offers no sense of fulfillment because it appears similar to the one you’ve left behind and the one you’re about to enter. This repetition makes traveling feel quite routine, even with stunningly beautiful standard environments. It’s unfortunate because Ubisoft’s often underestimated game, Star Wars Outlaws, demonstrated that by using multiple open areas instead of a single open world, you can introduce more diversity into the world design and maintain freshness.

In my opinion, if Assassin’s Creed Shadows had opted for an open area format instead of confining itself to a single open world, many of its exploration problems could have been avoided. Regrettably, I don’t foresee Ubisoft making that shift anytime in the future. Admittedly, this insight has left me feeling disheartened, as I was quite fond of Assassin’s Creed Shadows prior to this revelation. Despite my ongoing appreciation for the game, this realization has made it clear to me that Ubisoft is unlikely to alter its design philosophy, no matter how many intriguing ideas they present to conceal their underlying flaws.

2025-05-26 02:58

I Was Wrong About Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Biggest Flaw After 100 Hours