Dam rofif banned, guess i don't have to tag him anymore lol.
Anyway, nerded out for 4 days and completed the game i didn't 100% it so there is more content obviously.
As somebody that 100% origin ( completed the main story and dlc's twice ), 100% odyssey ( completed the main story and dlc 3 times ), 100% valhalla and all dlc's, only had a few hours on mirage ( just didn't like the game at all ). i will be reviewing this game for my own playthrough.
Origin had a 45 hour main story really, odyssey about 55 hours, valhalla was probably something like 60 hours if i remember correctly ( could be wrong ), shadows clocks in at 35 hours, its the smallest AC out of the new ones far smaller then valhalla ( mirage i don't know ).
The goods:
- Visuals
The world is amazing looking, really gave me witcher 3 vibes how everything moves with the wind, i played it maxed out on PC with a high end rig and its a joy for the eyes, every single game ( besides mirage ) they up themselves on the visual department again to the point they are top level visually with there open world games. What a absolute beautiful world, just amazing looking.
- Load times and startup times
they finally fixed the dam load times with this game, the older games takes forever and here its all snappy and fast now. Huge improvement.
- Game runs incredible stable which gives it a really smooth experience ( yea looking at UE5 titles they should be ashamed )
no weird stutters or any hiccups of any kind and always around the same frame rate.
- The game is more around ac origin length and map size a bit smaller in length actually.
This will probably make a lot of people happy that complained for so long that AC games just started to become a chore and are way to long and to much copy past content. With Valhalla i agreed with this for sure and 100% both Valhalla and odyssey was a chore to say the least, i yet have to 100% shadows tho so i won't talk much about that.
- The gameplay
In general the gameplay is great, everything response well and combat is serviceable nothing special even a bit lacking. It's more tailored for the masses then something more niche where u really gotta put effort into it. For me it's perfect because i hate hard combat, so i am not complaining but some could see it as lacking. However i do wish AC games would return towards AC odyssey time of builds and gameplay in general, i think it was the peak of the new age AC games.
- Sound
Absolutely lovely sound, standing in the dark in a forest with lots of wind and the sound that comes with it, is really immersive. Really well done in general, nothing to complain about really. The voices where in english for my playthrough and nothing stood out as awful, it was solid for sure.
The bads:
- Story
The story is as predictable as you can imagine, i watched all the cutscenes for a 100% and frankly there is just not much towards it. U know exactly where it goes and u just play through it. It's the weakest story ac wise from the new gen ac games in my opinion. The story debt is also the worst of the new ac games it really misses debt most of all.
- Characters.
Oh oh the controversy about Yasuke and Naoe. I went in without any opinion on the matter ac never really dissapointed me on the characters before so went in neutral.
I must say.
Naoe
A weak budget eivor ( ac valhalla ) without the presence and a really weak kassandra ( ac odyssey ), also didn't come close to bayek ( ac origin ). but the char is more comparable towards eivor as with base building and building a settlement full of people really felt more like u could compare it towards that character. The character just didn't had a presence, felt weak and just no charisma really where people would rally behind. She's not a leader even while the game wants her to put her into that role.
If one character could use a replacement in ac shadows its Naoe in my opinion.
Her voice acting was fine tho and servicable, nothing special.
Yasuke
It's not Bayek i can tell you that, far from it. His story and character never really shines in the game, its your run of the mill slavery story u saw 1000 times before that they relay on. It would have been far better in my opinion if the whole game revolved around Yasuke completely and wrote some indept story with twists. They kinda tried to do that in a super lite way, but its way to lite. I did like the character and my playthrough existed mostly out of Yasuke.
What the game misses is a real lead that u can rally behind. Yasuke if they made his story more indebt and less run of the mill, is a fine character, naoe could be replaced in my opinion.
- The world
It's a rough pill when u first start playing the game and realize running straight to your destination is no longer a thing, forests are thick and hills are real u will get stuck sooner then u think. U also no longer have the ability to climb everywhere and on everything kinda what ac was known for. U now have to relay on roads and that's it and a wonky grappling hook that only Naoe has. It's a big downgrade in my view. They should honestly just patch it in and make the forests density's lower. I know its less realistic but the gameplay is just far better. The movement makes exploring a pain in the ass in my opinion to the point i just can't be bothered.
To much of the samy enviroment. It's probably how japan just is ( i dunno ). But while all villages etc feel unique u just have the feeling once u saw 3-4 villages u saw them all. It's the same architecture and structures its just boring really. I dunno if japan had much diversity with buildings and maybe its just what japan was. It's hard to blame it then on ubisoft, i just miss beautiful village set pieces that u had in other ac games. The Season change really doesn't add anything towards anything and is something they should just remove in my opinion, its just a stupid botw reset time gate that shouldn't be in the game in my opinion.
Not having the option like in other AC to speed up time to make it daylight or dark is really a problem in the game ( its getting patched in, in a upcoming patch ) some quests are gated behind night or day and its as bad as u think it is that u can wait up to half a hour in the game for it to become the other part of the day if you are unlucky.
Also with traversing the world map half my time was spend in the night to the point u miss out on all the beatifull views everywhere. It's a shame its not going to matter much for people anymore when it gets patched as they all completed the game.
- The viewpoints or the towers as people like to call them in ac games.
They changed them, normal its a place u can teleport towards and jump down to get going on the map to a location u want to go. Now they are almost exclusivily at the top of strongholds or other enemy area's ( some are not ), which makes them a pain to use or it takes u extra time to get out of a stronghold to be able to run somewhere. It also doesn't uncover the fog of a area anymore ( also is going to get fixed in a update ). It also creates issue's with yasuke because he really can't parcour or jump from any height really, so to use them u will need to use Naoe and then switch back again. extremely clunky gameplay.
They did have however hideouts in city's mostly that are normal teleports which costs a decent chunk of money to getm to fix this issue. But honestly it makes the viewpoints completely ueless in my opinion.
- hideout/scouts.
Honestly, waste of time in general, its a huge downgrade from valhalla and scouts thing just makes clearing out camps a pain. Just get rid of both or actually put some half arsed effort behind it.
- Gear.
Gear is very very basic and it also doesn't matter much from what i saw. Just use what u get in the game and don't bother upgrading much as it costs resources and those aren't plentyfull atleast not in my playthrough. It's better then valhalla in my opinion, but less really good pieces. Everything just feels like meh. No real unique weapons or legendary weapons u had in valhalla. It's a far cry from ac odyssey tho which was the best in my opinion.
- Combat
Naoe is a ninja
yasuke is a warrior.
Normally u could build whatever u wanted on a single character, now u have a wonky two character setup where u often find yourself switching ( or want to switch but u can't because u are in a stronghold ). U can't even reach stuff in the world but also in strongholds if u didn't pick the right character at the start. ( world u can switch whenever so doesn't matter much its just annoying ). Just wonky all around. The game would have been better by letting you play 1 character and let u build differently. This is not the way for upcoming assassin creeds.
Combat skills are all super basic and stuff u already saw in other ac games with some new twists for some. I found the combat to revolve mostly around just smash until u win with yasuke, and 1 shot assassinate everything with Naoe.
Nothing to write home about. Its super dull actually.
- objectives page in the game
Here all the "cults" are showcased and quests u have going with different characters. There are to much cults that are meaningless really or any meaningful content really. It's all so shallow. Wish they reduced this by 70% and actually spend some time on making some good content.
- lenght of the game
I probably get some flak for this but its to short. I expect with AC games to really have a grindy single player world game with a ton of story to unfold. Maybe valhalla was a bit to long but origin and odyssey where great on this. The game really feels like its missing content. I hope the DLC will add a ton of new content or they will patch new content into the game as time goes on like they did with valhalla and odyssey. I got he game for cheap 35 euro's, so i won't be complaining but if u bought it for full price i could see people being dissapointed by it.
- Lack of meaningful collecting stuff in the world or side content
Finding thors hammer / spear or going to america to reset your progress was fun things u had in valhalla, there is nothing really in this game other then just random meaningless stats gear u can farm i guess. There are also no legendary beasts in the game which was dissapointing to see ( maybe i didn't found them yet but no clue how to find them really as traversing the map is a pain for new area's ).
- Lack of mythical content ( maybe dlc will go into that ),
I really like that about origin/odyssey/valhalla. Sad to see the base game not have anything of such sort in it.
Conclusion.
Enjoyed my playthrough but i felt a bit like eating food without seasoning. I hope the 2 characters where 1 is basically a tank is not something they will continou in next AC games, go back to 1 character that is a assassin and that is that. Also go back to how world exploration worked in the last ac games instead of the somewhat wonky gameplay it is now. And spend in general a lot more time on the story and make it feel unique and fresh. Still i had my fun with it, and for cheap enough and u want the that AC drug its a solid game. Its from the new AC's however in my opinion the weakest of the 4 now tho.
