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To say Assassin’s Creed: Shadows has had a troubled few months would probably be putting it lightly. The game, once due out in November of 2024, was pushed to February ’25 once it became clear that the game wasn’t ready, and that Ubisoft fans weren’t pleased with the buggy launch of last year’s Star Wars Outlaws.
The game recently got pushed again to March 20, 2025 to finish up a final layer of polishing ahead of release, which I’m sure frustrated die-hard AC fans, but I think was probably a good call, given that I got a chance to play a few hours of the game a couple of weeks ago alongside some other games writers and I came away with some mixed impressions.
I’m not really going to talk about story here, as that’s better experienced on your own. Rather, I want to focus instead on the feel of the game in your hands. It’s also worth noting that the preview build we played is probably already out-of-date, and some of the things I noticed might already be fixed, but they also might not be.
To put it simply, I think the game has a lot of potential, but also that the execution just isn’t quite there yet. People have been asking for an Assassin’s Creed game in Japan for as long as I can remember, so I’m hoping there’s quite a bit more polish on the way in the coming weeks.

The Way of the Samurai
I’ll start with a positive: I like the split in play styles between the game’s dual protagonists, with Yasuke serving as a fairly beefy Samurai, capable of literally running through wooden doors and kicking grunts into the distance (which was always fun), while Naoe acts as a stealthy ninja that can’t take as much punishment but is better at infiltrating and assassinating.
I mostly played as Yasuke during my time with the game, as I really wanted to dive into the combat systems, and came away feeling like it was mostly good. You’re not getting anything as in-depth or honed as an Elden Ring or a Devil May Cry, but the Assassin’s Creed combat style is mostly a tried-and-true system that works just fine.
It might be worth noting that I haven’t really played an Assassin’s Creed game since Assassin’s Creed III launched back in 2012, but I know the combat system has changed a lot in the most recent games, and it felt a lot like the Witcher 3 to me but without some of the depth, strategy and grace that game delivered.
You’re largely parrying enemy attacks to stun or stagger them, which then allows you to attack them unimpeded. If they have armour on you’re not going to be chipping away at their health bar, so you’ll need to break through that first. It’s all pretty simple and intuitive when it works, but it doesn’t always function the way it’s supposed to.
It’s video game logic that if an enemy throws out a heavy, slow attack, and you dodge it, you can use their recovery time to get in some attacks: not so here.
Sometimes I could hit them during their recovery time, but other times enemies would recover instantly to defend themselves, including some grunts that had been knocked off their feet only to magically teleport back into a defensive position to block my attack within a frame or two. It doesn’t feel natural, and, for me at least, pulled me out of the game and made me remember the artificiality of it all on more than on occasion.
Either way, as you fight, you generate ‘Adrenaline’, which fuels your combat skills. We were dropped into the middle of the game so I got to play with a few of the skills, and they’re strong. Against your run of the mill enemies they’re pretty much one-hit kill-buttons, and against bigger, armoured enemies, they’re an easy way to chunk off a bunch of health or armour. They also felt completely safe to use, with enemies not able to punish them in any way: it’s not really a risk-reward system, more so just a reward.
I definitely died in combat though – even with mid-game armour, Yasuke can only take a few hits before he’s down, and Naoe is even squishier. This got a bit frustrating when enemies would do things like attack through a parry and combo my samurai to death, or, again, unnaturally defend themselves when I had the opportunity to end things.
In saying that, healing and ammo is plentiful. I could hold five healing pellets at once, which was enough for probably two to three full heals, but there were refill stations almost everywhere I looked, and were sure to show up before every major encounter. Not necessarily a negative, as if the game was stingier with healing I think the combat issues would become even worse, but it does feel a bit like a band-aid.
This is probably old news to people that have played some of the newer Assassin’s Creed games, but both characters have their own skill trees: about six each, which seem to directly relate to each of their respective weapon types, as well as their profession (i.e. samurai and shinobi). You gain experience by questing, killing, exploring, etc, and can then spend them on unlocking some new skills.
By the end of my time with the game I was getting into a bit of a flow with the combat, using Yasuke’s powerful draw attacks to break enemies’ guards before taking down the group’s leader with one of his unblockable abilities. It was fun, in all honesty, but isn’t quite as deep as some other titles I’ve played in the past few years.

The Way of the Shinobi
While I did focus on Yasuke for the majority of my time with Shadows, I used Naoe for some side objectives and to test out the game’s stealth mechanics. Much like combat, they felt just a little off.
I’ve played my fair share of stealth games in my life (largely the Metal Gear and Dishonored series), and this one doesn’t quite meet those standards, in my eyes. For starters, Naoe moves like a typical Assassin’s Creed character, which means she tends to handle like a tank that, if you press the wrong button, can suddenly run up a wall and throw stealth out the window. If you’ve got years of experience with the series you’ll probably be a pro, but for me stealth (and controller either character, honestly) felt unwieldy at times.
I do like moving through areas while prone, though, and it was pretty clear when I’d be seen and when I wouldn’t.
Plus, given the fact that Shadows takes place in an open world, with environments changing with the seasons (not something we saw happen), you should theoretically be able to approach an infiltration mission in multiple ways: during the day, at night, in winter, in spring, etc.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ level design director Luc Plante explained to me that depending on when you approach a particular place will change how guards are placed: in winter, they might be huddled around the camp fire, whereas they might be staying undercover if its raining, changing your method of approach.
We were stuck with clear skies during the day, and try as I might, I couldn’t find any way to wait it out until night to create a bit more shadow for stealth other than potentially just waiting ourselves. I didn’t have time for that, so I tried to infiltrate a brewery in broad daylight and got spotted and killed quickly. What a noob, I know.
Then again, we did play a segment during the night-time, and this game is dark. I mean, we were in a brightly lit office environment, playing a stealth game, so it was next to impossible to see anything. Was the coast clear? I have no idea. Was I just crawling up against a wall? Yeah, probably..
Naoe does have access to the series’ staple ‘Eagle Vision’, which highlights enemies through walls and helps you navigate even in darkness, but honestly she should probably just be able to see better in the dark. One of my favourite games of the past decade, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, handled this easily: the titular character, Wolf, has honed senses, so when you enter a dark area his eyes adjust. You might have a few seconds of darkness, but you can quickly see what you’re doing, and where the enemies are patrolling. In Shadows, Naoe has a few seconds of Eagle Vision to get some bearings, but then you’re left in the dark. Maybe that’s a passive upgrade tree I missed or something, but it made stealth very, very difficult to play.
I didn’t have time to toy around with Naoe’s kit too much, honestly, but did make use of some smoke bombs to escape from enemies, some bells you can throw to distract guards, and extinguished lanterns and candles to create more darkness – this worked well, but also often drew guards to investigate, which could either lead to an easy assassination or getting spotted.

Exploring Sengoku-era Japan
We weren’t given access to the full open world, with some invisible barriers stopping us from exploring too thoroughly during our allotted time, but we were given quite a bit of leeway to explore a south-western segment of the map. I climbed to the top of a nearby tower and looked around to note some important looking areas by holding L2 and scanning the horizon, and then set about exploring some of them.
Honestly, the world feels quite well realised, and it’s clear a lot of work has gone into making Shadows’ version of Japan feel authentic. I wasn’t a farmer living in Japan during the Sengoku period, so I can’t be entirely sure how authentic it is, but it felt interesting to traverse and explore. One of the main reasons I used to love the Assassin’s Creed games was exploring recreations of real-world places, and this game seems to deliver on that fantasy.
Between shrines hidden amidst the forests, rice fields that became combat arenas when I approached somewhere I shouldn’t have, and the quiet of the Japanese wilderness, it’s a world I wouldn’t mind spending more time in.
As I mentioned above, I had the chance to talk to the game’s level design director Luc Plante about the team’s approach to making environments that serve dual purposes: one focused on infiltration and stealth, and the other about combat and killing.
According to Plante, it largely depended on the location itself, but the team isn’t focused on creating an artificial place that serves only to suit each character’s play style. Rather, each location, and the NPCs within it, should feel authentic and make sense.
“It’s really to make them believable to the player,” Plante said. “As far as how we’ll challenge the player, with Naoe it’s about considering the tools she’ll have, and how they’ll attract attention to make sure she can create a path into a city, whereas with Yasuke it’s a bit simpler: he can just fight his way through.”
I can’t disagree with that. The session ended with an assault on a castle, with Yasuke cutting through dozens of shinobi and guards to reach his target. The path to this target was essentially a single line that was occasionally disrupted by a reinforced door to break through, or a clearly signposted place to climb to circumvent something you can’t break down. That isn’t a knock against the game, it’s how a castle would be laid out, with a single, easily defensible path to the inner sanctum, but it did mean there wasn’t a lot of strategy to Yasuke’s approach. It was fun though.
Once you reach the target, you choose between facing them with Yasuke or Naoe. You’re trapped in a room with a swordsman that pulled out a few new moves I hadn’t seen in other fights, but which ultimately fell within a minute or so. It was a breeze with Yasuke, but I could imagine being a bit more difficult with his ninja counterpart.
In fact, I imagine that whole assault would play very differently with Naoe, who would be taking to the rooftops and shadows to circumvent the encounters put before you, or drawing enemies one-by-one into assassinations, but I didn’t get to test that.

So, What Do We Think?
Put together, all of this might sound a bit negative, but I actually came away from the preview wanting to play more of the game. We only got to see a few hours of what is likely to be a pretty sizeable time sink, and one of my favourite things in the world is gaining experience to unlock new abilities which meaningfully change how you approach combat or exploration, which Shadows certainly seems to deliver.
“Our goal is to create the ultimate Assassin’s Creed Experience,” Plante said. “It’s about creating a world that is more believable and dynamic than we’ve been able to before, and to take that immersion one step further.”
Despite the jank, and the sometimes fiddly controls, if you love all things Abstergo, Assassins, and Apples of Eden, I think you’ll probably have a lot of fun with Shadows.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S and X, on March 20, 2025.