I gaveAssassin’s Creed Shadowsa good ol’ college try. After putting 15 hours into the game and trying desperately to meet the series where it’s at nowadays, nothing about it clicked with me. I kept with it for much longer than I normally would have because the feudal Japanese setting reminded me of playingGhost of Tsushima, another open-world game I love.
This week, I finally put down Assassin’s Creed Shadows thanks to theGhost of Yoteirelease date reveal trailerthat unceremoniously went live on the PlayStation Blog. Now that I have a concrete date to look forward to, it’s time to leave Shadows’ flat line delivery andclassic Assassin’s Creed jankbehind.
Sorry, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, friendship ended. Ghost of Yotei is my new best friend now.
An Unflattering Comparison
When Ghost of Tsushima first released back in 2020,a lot of people compared it to Assassin’s Creed. To be sure, there are plenty of gameplay similarities between the two. But Ghost of Tsushima’s story was also pretty similar to what many people imagined an Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan would be. If one already exists, was there really a genuine reason for the other to show up years later?
Once Assassin’s Creed Shadows was revealed, though,it took a very different direction with its story than Ghost of Tsushima, while delivering relatively simple mechanics. Unfortunately for Assassin’s Creed,I find the combat to be obnoxiously shallowand not nearly as layered and nuanced as Ghost of Tsushima’s swordplay. What’s more, I find exploration in Sucker Punch’s epic to be a breath of fresh air – or maybe ‘wind’ is the right word for Ghost of Tsushima – from the cramped, icon-filled maps of Ubisoft’s work.
Ready For The Main Course
Now that Ghost of Yotei, Sucker Punch’s long-awaited follow-up to Tsushima,has a set release date, my interest in putting up with Assassin’s Creed Shadows has quickly diminished. I know there’s a version of Shadows I’m probably going to like much more coming in just a few months after extensive updates and patches, but it’s difficult to stay motivated right now to continue checking off assassination targets.
Obviously, Ghost of Yotei is not deliberately trying to kill anyone’s interest in Assassin’s Creed Shadows; there’s plenty of space for multiple triple-A games set in feudal Japan. But as far as my attention goes,I’m much more interested in what Sucker Punch is doingwith the setting both from a story and gameplay perspective.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ combat is flashy but shallow. It relies heavily on parrying incoming attacks and then mashing the attack button until your enemies go down in one of two repeated animations that grow stale after seeing them three or four times. If Ghost of Yotei is anything like Tsushima (which it certainly seems like it will be based on trailers), I imagine it’ll have a more complicated sword-fighting system that requires players to assess their enemies’ stances and counter them with the Ghost’s own stances and abilities.
Ghost of Yotei has a premise similar to Assassin’s Creed, centering around a woman named Atsu who’s out for revenge against six masked villains who killed her family. Anyone familiar with Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ story knowsjust how close that premise is to Naoe’s tale. That said, I find the writing and acting in Assassin’s Creed Shadows to completely let down its revenge plot. The framing for a good narrative is there,but its presentation is lacking. While I can’t speak about the quality of Ghost of Yotei’s writing and acting, looking at Sucker Punch’s past work fills me with hope that the game will deliver a narrative worthy of its premise in a way that Assassin’s Creed Shadows simply didn’t.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows got the job done for me. It satiated my craving for a samurai power fantasy and a ninja sneak-em-up, but it was never going to be a main course. Now that I know exactly when I’m going to be eating when Ghost of Yotei launches in October, I know that I need to stop picking at the appetizer so I can make sure I’m good and ready for the full meal.
