Assassin’s Creed Shadows - Limited Edition (Amazon Exclusive), PlayStation 5

Gamers tend to pile-on certain developers, and it’s well documented that Ubisoft is one of their favorite targets. It’s not completely without warrant - the studio has had its share of controversy over the years, and has had some rough patches - but it’s important to give them credit when it’s due. One shining light in Ubisoft’s portfolio has persisted (mostly), and that’s the Assassin’s Creed brand. This is no exception. In fact, it is their best work in a while!OPEN WORLD:I was a huge fan of Sucker Punch’s game Ghost of Tsushima, and was curious how I’d feel about this game given the natural comparison. Both have similar settings (a large area of feudal Japan), but take place centuries apart. Architecture has evolved, and the world feels more populated in AC Shadows. There are points of interest and activities just about anywhere you go, and plenty of quests to keep you busy- or should I say distracted? I regularly would go off my intended route to take on a castle and lose track of time. The game does not do a great job of differentiating between main story quests and side quests, so expect to take your time getting through the story if you don’t have a guide. I this world, that’s not the worst thing. One negative thing I have noticed is that the foliage can sometimes be so thick in forests that I can’t even see my own character. This is a small gripe though.COMBAT:There are many ways to customize your fighting style between two major characters (who you can usually switch between at will), with very different styles. They each have a nice assortment of weapons as well.Naoe is stealthy, light, fast, and can use grappling hooks she also has Eagle Vision to easily spot enemies and plan attacks accordingly.Yasuke is like a truck, and about as graceful as one. He uses brute strength to smash through barriers and whoever is unfortunate enough to challenge him.These two have their own moments to shine and be of preference, but when presented with the choice of who to play as, I found myself going back to Naoe 9 times out of 10. She’s just much more fun to play as, in my opinion.PS5 PRO:The open world is vast, rich, and beautiful. I’ve attached some screenshots captured via the Quality mode on the PlayStation 5 Pro. While Quality mode currently supports 30fps, it’s a very smooth framerate. It’s the first time I’ve willingly played a game at 30fps in a long time, but the expanded ray tracing elements were too beautiful to pass up. Developers have reported that PSSR upscaling will be added soon as well.I recommend checking this game out and having some fun. It’s an incredible setting depicted beautifully, with many hours of blissful samurai-ing.

I was pleasantly surprised by how engaging this assassins’s creed game is. Every location provides a brief history of its origins and current status in game. This creates a unique game experience that keeps wanting me to explore more and as a Japanophile is greatly appreciated. The combat takes some getting used to especially in early game but really opens up later on with useful skills and upgrades. The Amazon limited edition is great because you get the skin for Naoe plus the mount and for the exact same price as the base edition.

My favorite Assassin's Creed has been Odyssey. Didn't care for Valhalla or Mirage much. After those left a bad taste in my mouth I was hesitant to pick Shadow's up. Only reason I made the jump was because of all the controversy regarding a Blk Samurai, a female protagonist, and something about Yasuke liking men and it being forced upon the player (which I confirmed is a choice you make in the game, it isn't forced at all). Besides all that, the game is great. I find it better than Odyssey. All the other complaints I've seen are illogical reasons that make no sense really. If you dislike this game it's probably because you don't want to play as a Blk Samurai, Female protagonist, or don't like the fact they give you the option to have a relationship with the same sex in the game. Other than that, everything else has been great. Don't let the haters deter you from buying it and miss out on this one. I learned my lesson listening to some of these people only to find out later something was actually good. Be your own judge.

Great, fun and long game

Got it launch day currently About 20 hours in so far and haven’t even havent even reached the point to access to Yasuke yet. I’ve just been exploring infiltrating castles all good fun with Naoe being sneaky, coming from someone who grew up on AC as a kid AC2 was my first game, and I platinum the rpg games Origins, Odyssey, Mirage and almost done with Valhalla (such a long game), I’m enjoying my time more with shadows than previous recent rpg entries maybe besides origins (Bayek is my GOAT) and looking to platinum it right away game looks stunning on PS5 Pro with an LG OLED, tips for a first run: 1. play on Canon mode 2. Play on immersive mode 3. Play on the easiest difficulty, these rpg games enemies are way to tanky/ spongy for normal gameplay ( especially odyssey) much more fun and realistic in a way on story mode don’t take a bajliion slashes of a katana to die but some beefier enemies with armor even on easy mode will be a sponge regardless and multiple enemies can still overwhelm you and die quickly if they get the chance to, enable immersive mode cause the English voice actors aren’t it for me, the Japanese cast vastly improves characters imo and got me invested more just turn on subtitles to read, canon mode cause like origins it’s best with no dialogue options but come NG+ whenever it drops canon mode will be turned off for me to spice up that run and will be playing on the hardest difficulty for that. As a long time AC fan who even played even the psp game, shadows impressed me for what it is especially compared to the previous rpg games. Yes it’s Ubisoft no rockstar games RDR2 level of quality here but content enough to be happy with it overall there’s still that classic Ubisoft jank that’s been going on since AC1 ifykyk and so far enjoying my first run. Also this game definitely makes me want to reply Ghost of Tsushima will do another run on that after.

This by far the best and most intriguing Assassins Creed Game I have played and I hope they keep coming and getting better

I'm a big fan of the Assassin's Creed franchise and Shadows was awesome. I spent 140 hours roaming around exploring, and the graphics are amazing. I love Naoe and Yasuke and their contrasting styles, equipment, and weapons. The AI is trash though.

Great game. You won't go wrong