Comparison: Assassin's Creed Shadows finally nails feudal Japan
With two protagonists playing wildly differently, Ubisoft Quebec delivers the series' best playable duo in years — as long as you overlook the PC version.
This article contains affiliate links. Installing a game through one of them may earn PicGamers a commission. It stays free for you and never influences our recommendations.
Switching between a stealthy shinobi and a samurai who smashes through everything in his path could have diluted the experience. Instead, it makes Assassin’s Creed Shadows richer than the series has been in years.
Naoe and Yasuke, two games in one
Naoe slips through tall grass and across rooftops like any Assassin’s protagonist, but Yasuke sets a completely different pace: heavy armor, doors kicked in, combat met head-on. Swapping between the two depending on the mission avoids the monotony that weighed down recent entries, and the feudal Japan recreated here is one of the series’ most detailed settings yet.
The PC version falls short
On console, the combat staging and light filtering through temples genuinely impress (83-84 on Metacritic). On PC, though, the technical polish clearly disappoints (77 on Metacritic) — stutters and display glitches regularly break the immersion the rest of the game builds so well.
Verdict
The series’ best playable duo yet, set in its most beautiful world so far — play it on console if you can, the PC version still carries rough edges.
