The long-awaited Assassin’s Creed video game industrial complex has finally arrived in Japan – and I’ve been waiting a long time. Assassin’s Creed Shadows In feudal Japan, at the end of the 16th century, more precisely, it is during the political upheavals that the ninja was born. When I can’t play ShadowsAt Summer Game Fest 2024, Ubisoft offered fifty gameplay demos that revealed how the game would play with two different but equal protagonists.
In case you missed it initially revealed, shadows The main characters are Yasuke, a powerful outsider samurai who can pierce the armor of enemies, and kusarigama, an assassin “chain sickle” and Naoe, an assassin/ninja with traditional AC killing techniques – she has a wrist blade.
Instead of choosing a single character to play the entire game, you can switch between characters for assassination runs and exploration segments. I prefer to do my conspiracies in secret, so it surprised me how interested I was in the wild Yasuke.
Yasuke is based on a historical figure: an African man who served as a retainer to the Japanese lord Oda Nobunaga for about a year. Of course, this is Assassin’s Creed, so the team took some liberties with the historical facts. Here he plays the role of an outsider, a samurai of foreign origin on the path of honor. It is also a powerhouse. What it lacks in parkour flair and diving drops, it makes up for with the power to destroy powerful enemies, pass through doors and enemies, and terrorize the locals. As Yasuke drove through a village in the demo, the villagers rushed out of the towering samurai road, bowing respectfully, while the children were still frozen.
As the duo fight to put an end to rampant corruption in Japan, they will learn clues and tips on where to find the next assassination target. These will narrow down where you should search. After determining where they are, the characters can then instruct the NPC recruits exactly where to go, though this mechanic is not explained in any detail.
Later in the demo, Yasuke cuts through some abusive guards and goes head-to-head with another samurai, and I got a deeper look at how Yasuke fights. He would have an array of weapons, and this time he was swinging a large club, smashing skulls and armor.
After Yasuke wins his duel with his samurai rival – with swords – he is joined by another main character, the assassin Naoe. He moves like an assassin, scaling walls and kicking surfaces, plunging his hook into the roof directly above him. Like the latest AC entries, it can use Eagle vision to better see enemies and obstacles. A new addition to Shadows is the ability to kill light sources such as flashlights and fires, so Naoe can easily approach and assassinate. He’s not the only one with upgrades – I also saw Yasuke using a musket-type single-use weapon during the demonstration.
The game is also very nice. I say this as a huge fan of Sucker Punch’s style Nightmare of Tsushima. Ubisoft’s case is more detailed: there are simply more people living in this feudal Japan. Changing seasons and weather conditions also create richer environments. In a later assassination attempt during the demo, Naoe had her leak interrupted by a downpour. I’m not sure yet if this will affect the visibility dynamic, but hopefully it will have some effect on how you play. Shadows.
I am interested. I’ve long carried a torch for the cult ninja series Tenchu. It offered its own wipeout animations (in its PS1 graphical glory), hooks, and stealth gameplay. It also offered two different characters: a speedy kunoichi assassin and a powerful ninja with samurai moves. Doesn’t that sound a little familiar?
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Coming to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, PC, Mac and iPad on November 15th.
Find out all the news from Summer Game Fest 2024 here!
