‘Assassin's Creed’ comes back from the shadows

Ronnie Chiu-Lin / THE GATEPOST

By Izayah Morgan Editorial Staff Ubisoft, the director and publisher of “Assassin's Creed,” has had a rough patch for the past couple of years, to say the least. While some of their recent games have been standouts to me such as “Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown,” they have not been financially successful - with their stock falling from a 2021 high of $20 a share to as low as $2.23 a share. “Shadows” has had a couple of delays as well, going from a November release date to February to its release in March. This launch and success of this game would determine Ubisoft’s future, and I'm proud to say it delivered on my expectations. The opening sections introduce you to our two playable protagonists - Yasuke, a former African slave who becomes a samurai working under Oda Nobunaga, and Naoe, a shinobi who has ties to the assassins we know and love. After the opening sections, which had an interesting setup for Yasuke and a heartbreaking setup for Naoe, the game opens up. This allows you to explore with Naoe in the vast open worlds that Ubisoft has been known for in recent years. It takes five to 10 hours to unlock Yasuke, who plays more like Eivor from “Assassin's Creed: Valhalla” than Naoe, a shinobi who plays like the older assassins, such as Evie Frye from “Assassin's Creed: Syndicate.” The open world is beautiful and big, and it presents many points of discovery for you to explore at your own pace. The game's story, with both highs and lows, takes about 30 to 40 hours to complete if you skip all the open-world stuff. I quite enjoyed Yasuke’s story with satisfying voice acting from his voice actor. Naoe, on the contrary, had moments of poor voice acting, outright making me change the voice acting from English to Japanese. The main story starts off strong, especially in the introduction, and then has high moments throughout. Overall, the journey was long but that had more to do with my brain waiting to check off every box, which was satisfying. One part that makes it more enjoyable is the gear collection system which allows you to customize the individual pieces of your loadout less than previous titles in the series, but makes each piece more meaningful. The game allows you to raid grand castles, and if you kill all the daimyos in the area you’re rewarded with a legendary piece of armor which changes the way you play. Early in my journey, I found a legendary piece of armor for Yasuke that allowed me to block previously unblockable attacks, changing how I played completely, and made me play more aggressively than before. I played on PlayStation 5 and the game looks amazing. It's easily the best-looking “Assassin’s Creed” and one of the most beautiful games to release in this generation. The delays, while painful at the time, really were worth it. They gave Ubisoft the time to polish the game ensuring a smoother release and much more time to market. They also gave me a chance to save up for the game as well. “Shadows” is a worthy addition to the franchise in my eyes and arguably in my top five of all “Assassin's Creed” games. Rating: A- A great comeback