Assassin’s Creed Shadows: 5 things I wish I knew before I started

After years of teasing and fan requests, Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally takes the series to feudal Japan. Although it may be impossible to live up to quite that much fan expectation, Ubisoft has pulled off the best game in the series in ages.

For what may feel like the first time, Ubisoft has executed the formula expertly, blending and weaving the tools of the two contrasting protagonists to offer a more complete gameplay experience than ever before. Naoe and Yasuke both feel incredibly different in-game — one the sneaky stealth master, the other the super-strong samurai, building on the two-protagonist approach first seen in Assassin's Creed Syndicate in 2015.

I’ve been playing the latest Assassin’s Creed for a while now and am loving it, but it’s hard not to recognise that if I could start my play time again differently, I would. Here's five things to know before you kick off your ninja-knifing adventure.

1. It’s a slow burn, but stick with it

The first ten hours or so can be pretty slow, but it is still a strong start—one that surprised me after seeing all the promotional material for the game. Outside of a brief encounter, Yasuke doesn’t enter the fray for the first ten hours; until that point, this journey very much belongs to Naoe and her stealthier approach.

It makes for a more natural introduction to the world, especially considering that of the two characters, she is the assassin, not Yasuke. The shinobi Noae favours sneak attacks, with her health being much more limited. As few as two or three hits are enough to finish her during the early stages. The beginning is much more focused than previous iterations, ramping up to the gluttonous open world the series has become known for, enticing players in without overwhelming them. But if you're expecting to start ass-kicking with Yasuke straight away, hang tight.

2. Different tools for different problems

This leads me nicely onto my next point: the two characters are so fundamentally different, there is a time and a place to use them both. In the simplest of terms, Naoe is suitable for exploration and stealth, but if you know you’re going into an area where the heat's going to be on, Yasuke is your pick – the giant samurai can’t climb walls, but he can lop the head off an enemy with ease.

When entering a combat situation with Naoe, it's easy to become overwhelmed by two or more enemies, but that’s light work for her counterpart, who can rinse through multiple enemies like they aren’t there. When he comes to traversal, however, he is useless, and thanks to the bloke's colossal stature and clunky armour, he’s about as subtle as Homer Simpson after two boxes of Lard Lad Donuts.

It means I did most of my exploring as Naoe, the shinobi, because Yasuke’s lack of mobility makes a large part of the world inaccessible — quickly traversing the Japanese forts and countryside relies heavily on a grappling hook that he doesn’t have access to.

3. Explore, but not too much

Assassin’s Creed has always been known for giant sandboxes, where whatever you see, you can trot on over to, letting you climb the highest peaks and leap off of them in physics-defying dives that would no doubt smush the average person into a blood and bone broth. That is all still present here. However, the key advice I'd give is not to stray too far from the path, because you will eventually hit a point of no return, have to turn around and go back on yourself, and with a map this size, you don’t want to get lost.

Fortunately, when riding to a destination on your horse, a button prompt at the bottom of your screen will offer a guided path – use this, and you’ll get to your destination in a flash. Sadly, it does break the immersion slightly, but without it, you’ll be as lost as Hansel and Gretel. The key is to stop off at any landmarks or points of interest along the main road, and there is certainly plenty to see and do on your travels.

4. Personalise your playthrough

The transmog option (giving one weapon the appearance of another) has been present in the last few Assassin’s Creed games, but now you can also alter how your game plays to be more personal to you.

Want the game to be more historically and geographically immersive? Flip the audio language over into Japanese. Miss the power fantasy of old, where any enemy could be assassinated in one swift movement before the RPGifiction of the series? That’s fine, there’s a setting that lets you pop that on, making stealth even more effective in the process.

If, like me, you cannot stand the new way of finding missions — which sees you sending out scouts to a region to explore on your behalf — then that’s also fine because you can turn this off, too. This iteration of the game is there to cater to however you wish to play, so make sure you tinker with the settings early on to maximise your experience.

5. At any opportunity, target knowledge points

As you progress, levelling up your character and earning new skills, a ceiling is enforced on what you can unlock next. Chances are, you haven’t earned enough Knowledge Points to enable the next part of the skill tree. It’s here where we see typical Ubisoft design truly kick in, because to earn Knowledge Points – which are separate to skill points – there are a few different tasks you can complete in the open world. These are listed below:

• Hidden Trail
• Horse Archery
• Kata
• Kofun
• Kuji-Kiri
• Shrines
• Temples

The above all have little collectibles or mini-games to complete and will offer Knowledge Points so you can reach the better skills in the game – including the ability for double assassinations. In truth, completing the majority of the above objectives will be nothing short of mundane over the course of such a long game, but at least it isn’t as daunting as the overwhelmingly large skill trees of previous entries in the series.

The only other thing I’ll say is make sure you pet every animal you see. I won’t entirely spoil why, but it’s worth doing so that you can make your customisable hideout a proper home.

• For more Assassin's Creed, check out the latest collab with Anti Social Social Club to celebrate Shadows.

Image credit: Ubisoft