Those who’ve played the Assassin’s Creed franchise throughout its nearly 20-year history know that the initial games were focused on a complicated (and often convoluted) sci-fi story.
Characters used blood-based genetic links to jump back and forth through an expansive historical conflict between an ancient assassin’s guild and a massive organization of templar knights. And it all focused on world domination through the means of an otherworldly power source.
Now that we’ve reached the 13th game in the series, however, all of that twisting sci-fi backstory, while still lightly nodded at, is decidedly relegated to a distant backburner.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is instead focused predominantly on letting gamers play through a civil war period in feudal Japan. They get to experience it as both a heavy-hitting role-playing game and a kill-from-the-shadows stealth title.
In that pursuit, gamers pick up the blades of two characters with distinctly different playstyles who stand on opposing sides of the war. Yasuke is a Black Jesuit slave who’s freed from his masters and drawn under the wing of Lord Odo Nobunaga. He’s shaped into an incredible samurai: a one-man-army of a battler who can smash through wooden gates like they were balsa wood. He’s powerful, can absorb a ton of damage and still hit like a freight train.
Opposing that slow-but-deadly head-lopper is a young Japanese woman named Naoe. This stealthy shinobi—think ninja—has suffered a great loss and concentrates all her hard-earned abilities on fulfilling her family quests and killing anyone who stands against her. Naoe is fast and slippery. She can scamper up walls and cliff sides; use grapplehooks and throwing stars; parkour flip across rooftops; and slide silently through any clump of tall grass or shadow. She is the traditional assassin of an Assassin’s Creed game. Only, in her case, she’s Japanese.
In short, these two are polar opposites. And gamers must learn to master both fighting skillsets.
However, though these two are on opposing sides, they’re not really focused on fighting each other. Instead, the game plays out as a series of individual quests that spread out over an enormous map of Japan. An objective board fills up with numerous targets: individuals responsible for treachery and tragedy. And the two protagonists collect information, speak with people, invade hideouts, find out identities and then take on the job of assassinating those enemies in their own inimitable ways.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a single-player-only game; at this point, it has no multiplayer component. And while an online connection is needed to download this title, the game itself is played offline.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is unquestionably a graphically beautiful game. The ancient Japanese world we’re immersed in here is expansive and detailed. The setting’s changing seasons and weather add greatly to the appeal. There’s also an aspect of the feudal Japanese culture that’s enjoyable to play through for anyone interested in that historical period.
On top of that, characters can take on heroic quests that give aid to others. In fact, there are elements of play that verbally emphasize family, community and service to others. And game mechanics are relatively easy to slip into, even for a newcomer to the franchise.
All of that said, however, gamers and parents of young gamers should note that this is predominantly a very bloody M-rated game taking place in a very bloody slice of history. The story focuses on slavers, brutal conquest, betrayal, gory revenge and murder. Most quests can be summarized as tracking someone down and butchering that person and any crowd of people with him. Rinse and repeat.
Players use katana swords, throwing stars, short blades and guns to obliterate foes in very messy ways. We witness rifle shots to the heads and faces of foes; loped off heads and limbs; and torturous bone breaking. And some finishing blows slip into slow motion to highlight the blood-gushing brutality of the kill. (Cutscenes render the game’s visceral violence in even more detail, including beheadings and gunshot kills.)
Some romance and implied sexuality are also implied in the narrative mix. Both Yusake and Naoe can develop close relationships with opposite- or same-sex individuals. And with the right interactions and dialogue choices those relationships can become physical—including passionate kissing and a just-offscreen crotch grope. And several of those gay and straight intimacies leave gamers with the impression that things become much more carnal off camera.
It’s stated that the Jesuits in Japan are “Christians.” But these men are consistently foul individuals who are only interested in power, money, domination and slavery.
Language rarely gets too nasty, but we do hear uses of “d–n,” “a–hole” and the s-word.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes its sneaky assassinations to feudal Japan. Some parts of that journey are strikingly compelling. But the end result is scores of hours of rinse-and-repeat hacking and slashing … no matter how you slice it.
After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.
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