Despite the shit show the political, tech related and financial discourse has been around the title, I am surprised at how normal the review of the actual game is. Are you buying the game at launch?
News Assassin’s Creed Shadows reviews are dropping in...
- Thread starter TheNawab
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I'd rather wait for MrMattyPlays or SkillUp to drop their reviews. These two have been the most consistent when it comes to judging current video game standards.
Trusting Open Critic these days is nothing sort of a disappointment/sham, as we all saw what happened recently with Dragon Age Veilguard, Avowed, and Star Wars Outlaws. The ratings are really hard to trust upon when most of the reviewers are giving out 9s and 10s, just so that they can get the next Ubisoft game copy before release.
Trusting Open Critic these days is nothing sort of a disappointment/sham, as we all saw what happened recently with Dragon Age Veilguard, Avowed, and Star Wars Outlaws. The ratings are really hard to trust upon when most of the reviewers are giving out 9s and 10s, just so that they can get the next Ubisoft game copy before release.
I have only dabbled in the first two of the AC games, but I have been following the discussions about this one, considering they are finally doing a Feudal Japan story which goes extremely well with the Assassins story. Didn't expect Gman and Luke to be this much neutral on it tbh, makes you think how negative the entire culture is around upcoming gaming titles in general on Twitter and Reddit.It's actually better than I expected it to be. I am an OG AC fan up until Origins. Never bothered with Odyssey and Valhalla. Mirage was good. Will wait for this to be on sale.
Also, my man Gman gave it a cautious approval. That's a plus, in my book
Makes sense. I only follow a few select reviewers, as well, that align with how I feel about games in general. I usually avoid the ones which give out numerical ratings like it is a checklist of sorts they are comparing it against. I prefer reviewers that are adept at capturing the feel and artistic perspective of them while also providing level-headed critiques that encompass the title specifically, rather than the current gaming landscape. Gman, Luke and Ranton/Rantwo/Rantoni (super funny but really in depth critiques) are some of my top ones I follow.
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Some of the negativity is warranted, some of it is just a bunch of children who bash because it's the cooler thing to do, without even actually ever playing the game.
For example, Veilguard rightfully deserved most of the negativity. Aside from forced acceptance of themes, it was just a shit Dragon Age game
Shadows' negativity mostly stemmed from Yasuke, and his "historical accuracy" as a Samurai. Most of it was just racism, nothing more. The actual game seems to be pretty okay, so far.
Also, I personally don't play games based on public negativity. I see a few trusted reviews, and then give it a shot. Games are meant to be a medium of art and enjoyment. Why complicate it?
True man. I have a similar mindset. I enjoy the reviews as a different medium of art (like video essays) and I will most probably go try a game if I want to despite it having shit ratings or even negativity around it.
bssunilreddy
Luminary
Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Gamer review
Excellent stealth and combat prevail against Shadows' dull story and forgettable cast.
Assassin's Creed Shadows seems to have done it this time of going back to its roots by a bit not so much. But it's not all neck stabs and decapitation by katana. Shadows is massive—I'm knocking at the door of 50 hours having completed the main story and a chunk of side stuff—but its bloated map of breathtaking castles, unending temples, quaint villages, and gorgeous countryside is much wider than it is deep. In terms of stealth and action, Shadows is a successful return to what made early Assassin's Creed great, but it also drags along baggage from Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla. It's got quests, companions, and dialogue options clearly designed to resemble a BioWare or Bethesda classic, but the resemblance is only superficial, and I didn't find the characters or stories memorable.
A disjointed main story, bland cast, and barrage of quests that all end the same way has me missing the days when Assassin's Creed was solely focused on the two things it still excels at: infiltrating a place and killing the right guy inside.
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I played 6 hours of Assassin's Creed Shadows, and folks, I think this one was worth the wait
Assassin's Creed: Shadows PC performance analysis: Ray tracing, upscaling, and frame generation are all optional, but only two of them are worth using, though not the ones you might think
Source: Assassin's Creed Shadows PC Gamer review
Kaching999
Herald
I have looked at a lot of gameplay footage and reviews and I am a bit skeptical about the game just being another Valhalla, all reviewers have said that there is still the similar rinse and repeat mechanic to the game which makes it feel boring after a while and mostly you are just playing to level up in a monotonous way which just feels wasteful.
From what I have seen the stealth is better than earlier games but it's still Assassin's Creed stealth, so not anything to write home about but I guess the lighting and sound mechanic is good. What is not so good though is that you don't actually have to do much in the game yourself you can heavily rely on your scouts and allies to seach the area and beat up the targets while you just basically sit there, loot and stab the target once they are down.
Also the combat is not great either, while playing as Naoe you basically shouldn't engage in any combat and while playing as Yasuke it doesn't even matter what you are up against as you will mostly steamroll through them. Also while the animations in the combat system and actually throughout the game are good but they look kind of jittery and not so polished, when you start a animation it's not very fluid and looks forced in a lot of cases.
The VA is actually trash, other than in a few scenes, VA in most of the clips and cut scenes that I have seen is pretty bad it feels like less and the actual dialogue is very cheesy and not in a humorous way just a cringe way. Also your choice in the games don't really matter and the game follows it's own linear path.
The story line isn't anything new either it's pretty much the same old revenge story with nothing particularly new or exciting. So basically,
The GOOD:
• The game looks really good, it's a graphical showpiece and has some really good eyecandy.
• The game runs decently even on lower end hardware.
• The hair and cloth physics is really good but there is also some clipping in the clothes and the weapons.
• The gore and the decapitations are pretty wild and look awesome.
• The seasons are really cool and have their own characteristics which you have to adapt to.
• The added prone mechanic is also cool.
• The customization of your base and cosmetic items is extensive.
• The weapon selection is nice.
The BAD:
• The combat system and the ease with which it can be taken advantage of.
• The parkour like the combat also looks jittery.
• There is no option to change the time of the day which is bad because assassinations in the night feel much better.
• The stealth is not as bad as before but isn't as good as something like splinter cell either.
• The rinse and repeat levelling up mechanics which make playing feel like a chore.
• The voice acting, facial expressions and dialogue choice.
• Your choices having little to no effect on the storyline.
• Either the unused potential of unnecessary addition of dual characters as Yasuke is not really useful in 90% of the game and doesn't add much to the story.
Bottom line is that Assassin's Creed Shadows is a 5/10 game which isn't something I will be lining up to play. It is a game which you can try out later when you have the time and the game is on a 70% or 90% sale.
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wont be buying it anytime soon, maybe when its at a deep discount a couple years down the line? Denuvo is what's holding me back, I'm an Anno-holic and I have lost count of the number of times when I didnt have internet connectivity and that ****ing launcher not letting me play the game because it couldnt connect to the internet despite me playing it just fine just a few hours ago. Either they tone down denuvo aggressiveness or just outright remove it, I'm not paying full price or even a significant amount for any game infested with denuvo.
The sanest possible decision right now for anyone owning a PS5 would be to save up and invest in Ghost of Yotei, which is slated to release in just a few months.
And if you are on PC, just buy Ghost of Tsushima, which is currently going at a record low on Steam.
With either of these two games, you will not only invest in an experience that will stay with you for the rest of your lifetime, but also support the developers that actually deserve it.
www.videogameschronicle.com
And if you are on PC, just buy Ghost of Tsushima, which is currently going at a record low on Steam.
With either of these two games, you will not only invest in an experience that will stay with you for the rest of your lifetime, but also support the developers that actually deserve it.
‘Japan should have made Ghost of Tsushima’, says Yakuza creator | VGC
Toshihiro Nagoshi praises Sucker Punch’s Kurosawa homage…
www.videogameschronicle.com
GoT is overrated imo, make no mistake, its a really good game and I enjoyed playing it, but it does not live up to the hype thats been created around it. it also suffers a lot of the issues that ASC does, but that's largely ignored because of the setting and the fact its the first game, hopefully they solve some of these in YoteiThe sanest possible decision right now for anyone owning a PS5 would be to save up and invest in Ghost of Yotei, which is slated to release in just a few months.
And if you are on PC, just buy Ghost of Tsushima, which is currently going at a record low on Steam.
With either of these two games, you will not only invest in an experience that will stay with you for the rest of your lifetime, but also support the developers that actually deserve it.
‘Japan should have made Ghost of Tsushima’, says Yakuza creator | VGC
Toshihiro Nagoshi praises Sucker Punch’s Kurosawa homage…
It's easy to say its overrated in 2025, when we had multiple games trying to copy the formula and failing. But, in 2020, it had no competititor barring Sekiro.
The level of direction, detail, and nuance that has been put into the game is unmatched and unheard of 5 years back. When games like AC Shadows is still relying on heavy UI and map markers, Tsushima solved that way back by using the wind to guide you throughout the map with almost non-existent UI.
And even after half a decade, AC Shadows couldn't match the combat refinement of Tsushima. It's was evident that the game was a love letter to Japan, that even Fromsoft failed to do with Sekiro.
psyph3r
Juggernaut
The main story and quest lines of the side characters were pretty mid tbh, the game also became repetitive towards the end since it felt padded out, I probably wouldn't have finished it if the visuals weren't so good.
Kaching999
Herald