Assassin’s Creed Shadows | Anteprima Hands-on

  • Share
Assassins Creed Shadows anteprima hands on apertura by Ditible

After a couple of delays, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is about to hit store shelves. Ubisoft gave TGM the opportunity to try out a portion of the game, and the burden of venturing into feudal Japan fell on yours truly.

Developer / Publisher: Ubisoft Quebec / Ubisoft Price: €69.99 Localization: Complete Multiplayer: Absent PEGI: 18+ Available On: PC (Steam, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft Connect), PS5, Xbox Series March 20, 2025 Genre: Action RPG

Arriving at the event, so to speak since it took place remotely, I was greeted by a message recorded by Jonathan Dumont, the creative director of Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Dumont illustrated the philosophy that drove the development of the game and the various innovations of what finally seems to be a truly next-gen chapter of the flagship Ubisoft saga.

Not only from a technical point of view, the difference between the most recent Valhalla and Mirage is quite noticeable, but also on the conceptual and gameplay front. The change of pace materializes in the ways of exploring the game world, on paper less guided than in the past (but I’ll talk about this aspect later, I promise), and in the presence of two completely different and complementary protagonists, almost antipodes: Naoe and Yasuke. The first is an agile native shinobi, the second is a massive warrior from afar.

THE WAY OF THE OCCULT

The test opened with Yasuke, or rather Diogo (this is his real name), who accompanies a handful of Portuguese Christian missionaries to the court of Oda Nobunaga. Led by the Jesuit Alessandro Valignano, the Portuguese mission intends to push into Japan to convert the Japanese population to Christianity, but to do so it needs the approval of the daimyo.

Almost immediately the story turns into a fictionalized version of events

Up to this point, Assassin’s Creed Shadows follows the historical sources of the time to the letter, which tell of a meeting between Valignano and Nobunaga in which the latter imposes the transfer of the missionary’s African bodyguard in exchange for the passage of the Jesuits into the territory under his control check. And this is actually how the prologue of the game opens, but almost immediately the story turns into a fictionalized version of the real events, as per the tradition of the Ubisoft series.
Assassins Creed Shadows anteprima hands on 03 by Ditible

From what little we have seen, Yasuke and Nobunaga seem very close.

Fast forward and Diogo, now ascended to the rank of samurai under the name Yasuke, finds himself fighting alongside his daimyо̄ during the battle to conquer the village of Iga. This is where the game actually becomes interactive and throws the player into the fray, pitting Yasuke against the Iga militias in a highly spectacular action sequence.

Unfortunately I am not allowed to further describe what happens in the prologue, but know that during this first part lasting about an hour we also get to know the second protagonist of the game: the young Naoe. In both game sequences, both that of Yasuke and that of Naoe, the prologue acts as a long tutorial useful for becoming familiar with the basic mechanics, from the combat system to the renewed stealth gameplay, placing emphasis on the substantial differences between the two protagonists.

HOWEVER, YASUKE

Predictably, Naoe is much more fragile than that mountain of muscles that goes by the name of Yasuke, which is why it is strongly discouraged to face more than a couple of enemies head-on. In this case it is better to move in stealth, taking advantage of the opportunities offered by the shadows. In this regard, one of the new features in this new chapter is represented by an on-screen indicator that shows how visible the main character is. The more this bar fills, the more likely the protagonist is to be spotted by enemies. To minimize this eventuality it is possible to turn off the light sources, make use of the vegetation, crouch down and – an absolute novelty in the series – crawl on your stomach. All this reminded me a bit of another Ubisoft series, that of Splinter Cell, even if Assassin’s Creed Shadows in no way wants to restore the same depth of stealth inspired by Tom Clancy’s novels.

The stealth reminded me of a rosy version of Splinter Cell

Yasuke, on the other hand, is the classic tank capable of fighting against a myriad of enemies at the same time. Suffice it to say that on one occasion I entered a place full of soldiers by breaking down the main door (yes, Yasuke can destroy various elements of the scenario) and I had to face a dozen enemies ready to scalp me. I fought by exploiting first of all the size of the African warrior, kicking the poor unfortunates, impaling them with the long katana and occasionally using an arquebus skill that allows you to vigorously reload the firearm by exploding the gunpowder to push away and disturb nearby enemies.
Assassins Creed Shadows anteprima hands on 02 by Ditible

The hidden blade does not always eliminate an enemy in one fell swoop: it depends on Naoe’s level and that of the target.

While I played and tested both protagonists, alternating them at will during the exploration of the world and in the missions, I had the impression that Ubisoft Quebec wanted to take Eivor – the protagonist of AC Valhalla – and then split him into two distinct and separate characters like this to avoid repeating the same mistake made by our colleagues in Montreal. Which error am I referring to? It’s a bit of a paradox that a Viking warrior finds himself employing a stealthy approach, just as it would have been very strange to see a samurai embracing the shadows (without being a carbon copy of Ghost of Tsushima), or a shinobi facing dozens of enemies in hand-to-hand combat. It therefore makes a lot of sense that the two protagonists present completely different skills and characteristics, both from a purely gameplay point of view and in terms of narrative coherence.

Assassins Creed Shadows anteprima hands on 06 by Ditible

Yasuke can use various heavy weapons, including the mace and the naginata.

For this reason you will never be able to see Yasuke move between one roof and another walking in balance on the typical ropes that have always characterized the Assassin’s Creed levels. And I can say this with certainty after having tried to test the samurai’s abilities: after a couple of steps, the rope broke under his weight and the poor warrior fell to the ground, falling like a salami. Likewise, Naoe can try to fight more than a couple of enemies at a time, but – although not impossible – the battles could be extremely difficult. Luckily the shinobi tools come to his aid, primarily the inevitable smoke bombs to make him lose his tracks and return to take refuge in the shadows, but also the kusarigama, the typical chain with a sickle attached to one end, useful for keeping more opponents at bay.

IN THE HARIMA PROVINCE

Events that arose in the second part of the preview test, when I was catapulted into the Japanese province of Harima in a more advanced phase of the game. Here I found Yasuke and Naoe in the service of the local lord, while they investigate a mysterious character in the service of what will probably turn out to be the group of main antagonists.

Assassins Creed Shadows anteprima hands on 01 by Ditible

A lot of care was put into the creation of the cutscenes.

I decided to start this part of the adventure by taking on the role of Yasuke, who participated in a solemn ceremony of writing and reciting haiku. It’s a shame that this social event was soon interrupted by the attack of some ronin who kidnapped Ukita Hideie, the pre-adolescent son of the daimyо̄ Ukita Naoie (both characters who actually existed in feudal Japan at the end of the 16th century). Needless to say, the next three hours were spent investigating the boy’s kidnapping, searching for those responsible through the analysis of the few clues that Yasuke and Naoe found at the crime scene.

The black box mission concept already seen in Mirage is revived

Here the game offered me a series of objectives that I was able to complete in the order that best suited me, but also in the modes best suited to my style of play (and of the protagonist active at a given moment). In this sense, the “black box” mission concept already seen in action in AC Mirage is revived, leaving a greater margin of freedom of action to the player. Also interesting is the absence of any mission indicator that points the protagonist towards the objective. Instead you need to deduce the location of the target based on the information you have (for example: “South of Harima and near a large temple”). For less patient people, however, it is possible to rely on the network of spies serving Yasuke and Naoe to narrow down the area of ​​investigation via the world map.
Assassins Creed Shadows anteprima hands on 04 by Ditible

The headquarters management component also appears to involve the manual positioning of buildings.

Well, this is an aspect that unfortunately I wasn’t able to delve into properly during the test. I was told that we will have the possibility to build, improve and manage a headquarters, more or less as already seen in AC Valhalla. Furthermore, during the adventure we will be able to recruit various types of allies who can be used both as spies in the ways I wrote about earlier, and as support NPCs during the actual action. The latter can be “summoned” with the press of a button and can act as a diversion during stealth sessions, or as allies in combat in case of clashes with enemies. During the test I had two of these AI-controlled companions at my disposal: a warrior and a shinobi, who behaved exactly as you might imagine. In fact, however, they are simple skills with a longer cooldown than the others available to Yasuke and Naoe. I would have expected a little more, but I repeat that I haven’t had the opportunity to delve into this feature of the game in depth. We’ll talk about it again in the review, therefore.

SPRING DOES NOT FEAR AUTUMN

In any case, I must admit that this first taste of Assassin’s Creed Shadows moderately satisfied me, although I didn’t feel like I was in the presence of a revolutionary chapter. There’s no shortage of new features, but from what I saw during the preview event, they seemed to me to be more or less important tweaks to a game formula that’s now well-established.

This first taste of Assassin’s Creed Shadows left me moderately satisfied

It’s difficult to give a judgment after a full immersion of just four hours, especially because there are various aspects to verify. Not only that management of the base and allies which I have already mentioned in the text you have just read, but also with regards to the enemy artificial intelligence (which did not seem particularly brilliant to me, to put it mildly) and the technical sector . In this case, important steps forward seem to have been made, especially with regards to the polygonal models of the characters and the animations, but it must be said that having played via streaming it is very difficult for me to express a coherent and definitive evaluation due to the obvious limitations of the half. For this reason I can’t help but give you an appointment for the review since we’re almost there now: barring further postponements, Assassin’s Creed Shadows will be released on March 20th. In the meantime I start sharpening katana and kunai.

Previous article

prettyPhoto(image 286499) by DitibleAssetto Corsa EVO – Preview

  • Share

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *