I previewed what could very well be one of Ubisoft‘s most important games of all time: Assassin’s Creed: Shadows. Set in the ideal assassin’s world of feudal Japan, this game has been delayed a couple of times so that Ubisoft’s developers can whip it into shape.
The company’s reputation is on the skids with gamers after the weak launches of Star Wars: Outlaws, Skull and Bones and more. Ubisoft has had under-performing games like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, and it canceled games like The Division: Heartland and its free-to-play shooter XDefiant.
So much is riding on Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, Ubisoft’s all-important flagship franchise, as the last big game to launch. The Japanese setting has been the No. 1 most-requested setting for the series since it started in 2007. There have been 12 titles in the series, with $4 billion in revenue, and Shadows is lucky No. 13. And it may be the last game that comes out before Ubisoft’s strategic advisers determine what will become of the company.
I started my gameplay session at the beginning of the game and learned how to fight and get around. I went into the Animus, the sophisticated VR machine developed by Abstergo Industries, the modern-day incarnation of the Templar Order. It took me back to the genetic memories of my ancestors, putting me into the worlds that they lived in like feudal Japan. It looked different, but it was familiar experience. I kind of felt like I was inside the world of Shogun, the Emmy-winning television show.
I had to remember, with my Xbox controller on the PC, to use the up D-Pad button to eat rations that quickly restored my health, even in battle. The right D-Pad swapped my weapon, and the down D-Pad let me whistle to distract a guard or whistle to summon my horse.
I used the RB and RT controls to attack and LB to parry attacks. In movement, LB was my grappling hook. I dodged with the B button used A for parkour and X to crouch in stealth or go prone. These were the staples of the controls for me. It was easy to forget I had rations and special attacks in combat.
In Japan, I traveled back in time to 1582, in the era of Oda Nobunaga, one of the daimyo warlords who fought for control of Japan in the late 16th century in the Sengoku period of continuous warfare and political intrigue. The year is significant as it’s the time when the historical warlord was betrayed by enemies and had to commit seppuku (ritual suicide).
I watched long cutscenes where I met the protagonists: Naoe, the daughter of a lord who is murdered in an attack during Japan’s era of warlord. The murderer takes a box that Naoe’s father entrusted to Naoe before he was killed. Trained as a shinobi assassin, she seeks to get it back.
The other playable hero is Yasuke, a historical figure and a slave from Africa. At the outset, he serves the Portuguese priests who are trying to spread Catholicism in Japan. He goes to a meeting with the priests as they try to manipulate local politics, and a lord, Nobunaga himself, notices Yasuke, liberates him, and then turns him into his chief samurai warrior. Yasuke goes on to slaughter Nobunaga’s enemies.
Meeting through circumstance, Naoe and Yasuke band together to try to get to the bottom of a conspiracy, and they have to do work as warriors for the different daimyos throughout Japan as they seek justice. Along the way, they face ethical dilemmas about which lord — or lesser evil — to serve.
Then I moved to the Harima level, an area of Japan where the towering Himeji castle is the major landmark. It is one of the most impressive buildings in Japan and one that is fun to navigate, especially as Naoe. This level showed off the beauty of Japan and the danger of its intrigue.
There are a couple of lords who are vying for power in the region, and Naoe and Yasuke go there to serve the lords and find out what is happening. I enjoyed wandering around the city and patting the dogs that I met along the way. The scenery of cherry blossoms, waterways, water fowl and green grasses looks amazing. The wind blows in the grasses and the trees sway. It reminded me of the scenery of Ghost of Tsushima.
In this level which is about 25 missions into the game (maybe halfway through), a boy heir to the lord is kidnapped in an attack. I had to find one of the guard leaders who goes missing and wasn’t among the dead. I have to go to his home and figure out if he’s a traitor or something else is happening.
I could choose to play either as Naoe, who moves by stealth and kills from the shadows, or Yasuke, a big African soldier who is a former slave. He can wield impossibly heavy weapons like a mace and tear through enemies.
As Naoe, I climbed to the top Saifukuji Temple, using her grappling hook to quickly ascend. Then I synchronized the map and located more missions as I stared across the beautiful landscape. The mission takes Naoe to infiltrate Himeji castle. Naoe has powers like sensing where the enemies are around her through the thin paper walls and such. That helps her sneak up on enemies and take them down by assassination.
Along the way, I had to fight lots of guards and so I switched to Yasuke as he was far stronger in a real fight. Even so, when I fought as Yasuke, I fired my rifle once and then it took so long to reload I had to switch to fighting with a sword. The bullet didn’t even take the soldier down, so I felt like the weapon was fairly useless.
Then I made short work of the defenders before smashing through a gate and then taking on one of the bosses. The boss fight was tough, but Yasuke had a couple of special attacks like a heavy charge that helped me run over the boss and keep him off balance. I eventually wore him down and then he fell.
The next task was to get justice for one lord and then deal with another. Using Naoe, I used my grappling hook to scale the castle walls and go up one roof at a time on the pagoda-roof palace. Fortunately, the guards left one window open. I went in and went into stealth mode, killing the guards and defeating a tougher one in a longer fight. Then I went into battle with the lord and I chose Yasuke to fight. That turned out to be a wise choice and I’m still here to tell you about it.
It was a couple of hours of work to get through the different parts of the mission, and if it’s any indication, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows is a long game with a lot of content. I’ll have to wait and see how it plays without the delays in remote play. But I think it’s going to be good.
I played the game remotely on the PC with an Xbox controller.
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