Assassin’s Creed Shadows

Based on the 8,297 most recent Steam reviews · updated 2 Oct 2026

• English reviews: 5,000, 25 Sept 2025 – 2 Oct 2026
• Russian reviews: 3,297, 20 Mar 2025 – 30 Sept 2026

• ▼ Not recommended

  126 h at review126 h total

  9 Dec 2025

  Finished the game but I honestly can't give it a thumbs up, it's possibly the most frustrating AC game I've played and I've played them all. Your greatest enemy in this game is the camera and controls who constantly double-team you into submission.. and you cannot defeat them. The amount of times I got stuck on world geometry is also unacceptable. And the complete lack of the real world story.. ugh.. I know it's divisive but that was always one of my favourite things in these games; the mystery and intrigue of the ancient Isu and the Pieces of Eden seems to be completely forgotten and ignored. Felt like I was finishing it more from stubbornness than actual enjoyment. That and to this date it STILL suffers from random DirectX crashes. Unacceptable.

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  977 found helpful · 46 found funny

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  Reviews written: 26

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  93 h at review93 h total

  14 Feb 2026

  What an incredibly frustrating experience this is. I was actually a fan of the new open world rpg-ish direction Ubisoft took with Assassins's Creed, and remain a resolute fan of Odyssey and even Valhalla to a degree. But my god whatever the f*ck they did with Shadows, it does NOT work. 4/10 - The game world, while pretty, is as empty and boring as it gets. There is almost nothing to do aside from conquering enemy camps. Imagine Valhalla's map, but everything except for the enemy bases, the viewpoints and those stone stacking puzzles is removed. That's what Shadows' world feels like. - The characters are about as wooden and unlikable as can be, both in writing as well as in performance. Some truly horrible AI af facial animations and stilted performances are the norm here. And the protagonists are not exempt from this. Many criticized Eivor of being wooden compared to Alexios and especially Kassandra, but even Eivor is miles ahead in terms of personality and emotional range compared to either Naoe or Yasuke. - The story is confusing, disjointed and frankly exhausting. Ubisoft decided it was a good idea to ditch a coherent main plot in favor of little mini-stories in the style of Odyssey's cult of kosmos, or Valhalla's order of the ancients. This means the game has no leading narrative, events happen out of order and are each highly localized without tying into a wider story. It is dull, illogical and tedious. - The combat has evolved somewhat and is now less hack and slash and more tactical, yet I find myself more frustrated than engaged by it. Stronger enemies can take forever to fight as Naoe, and often kill you in seconds if you dare to lose concentration over the minute-long hacking sessions. So it seems like the combat was clearly designed to be tackled with Yasuke, that's his thing being a samurai after all. Stealth and exploration on the other hand practically mandate the use of Naoe, since Yasuke is hilariously inept at doing anything an Assassin's Creed protagonist would do on a regular basis, aside from fighting head-on. Okay, all well and good, so the idea is: you go in stealthily with Naoe and if discovered, you switch to Yasuke for the fight, right? WRONG. For some god forsaken reason Ubisoft decided that switching characters would entail a loadscreen and could only be done out of combat. So no matter what you're doing, you're never given the right tools for the job, and it makes the entire character switching thing look like some tacked-on gimmick that never works in your favor. What a mess. - The loot and equipment is just straight up worse now. They took the worst aspects from both Odyssey and Valhalla and combined them into whatever this system is supposed to be. Odyssey had an almost arpg-esque loot system, with multiple rarities, frequent upgrades and deep build crafting; but that lead to loot-spam and constant fiddling with items that barely changed anything. Valhalla then employed a morer souls-like approach with fixed unique weapons that can be upgraded and customized; but that also restricted variety and made exploring for loot less rewarding. Shadows now decided to combine the random loot spam of odyssey with even more restrictive build crafting than Valhalla, and reduced the amount of gear slots by 75% on top of that. It's the most unengaging loot system I have seen in a bit. - While the game certainly looks pretty, this comes at an unacceptable cost of performance. Shadows barely runs around 50 fps on my supercomputer, while often looking similiar to Valhalla or even worse thanks to aggressive upscaling. It's both hilarious and sad to me that this game can look exactly the same as Valhalla in parts, while literally running at a quarter of the fps. I can play Valhalla on 120 locked, NATIVE, and that game is humongous; yet I have to use framegen in Shadows to even approach 90 on a good day; what the f*ck happened? - Final thoughts: this game is a mess. It's dual protagonist approach backfired epically and works neither in gameplay nor in narrative. The open world, while smaller than Valhalla, feels somehow larger, and not in a good way. The combat and equipment systems are either worse than previous entries where they overlap, or just plain bad where they are new, and the story is by far the least interesting and least engaging one they have done for this franchise yet. Going back into the game now I can barely manage an hour before shutting it down again out of boredom or frustration. The initial bulk of playtime I was mostly wowed by the graphics and world design, but that wanderlust has since worn off, and what's left is a hollow shell of a game with no direction, no emotion and no story to tell.

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  908 found helpful · 22 found funny

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  Reviews written: 30

  On Steam
• ▲ Recommended

  17 h at review272 h total

  20 Mar 2025

  Вышла очередная часть конвейерной серии Assassin’s Creed, и как все последние игры Ubisoft была утоплена в негативе ещё до релиза. Лично я не понимаю большинство претензий и придирок и считаю их полным бредом и абсурдом. Как и у всех частей серии получился прекрасный и живописный открытый мир, с впечатляюще красивыми пейзажами, в этот раз времён феодальной Японии! (Вот фото-режим на старте подкачал, ибо он почему то в соотношении 16:9) В плане оптимизации вообще не подвели, играется отлично, без всяких масштабирований и генераций кадров. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3448164617 Геймплейно всё прекрасно. Играть за Ясукэ поначалу было немного непревычно, но к стилю быстро привыкаешь, и вообще плевать какой там у него цвет кожи. У Наоэ всё типично для серии, и всё же более увлекательно и интереснее, ну и она очень привлекательна внешне. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3449320586 По сюжету ничего сказать пока что не могу, но какие то там исторические неточности меня не волнуют, я наслаждаюсь историей какая она есть, это ведь в конце концов игра. Интересно устроено убежище, возможность строительства и персонализации, как минимум было необычным решением такое реализовать. Понравились некоторые музыкальные темы, и в целом звуковое сопровождение. В целом Shadows с лихвой оправдали мои ожидания. На данном этапе вижу одну из лучших игр серии, возвращающейся к истокам. Крепкие 9 баллов и однозначно к ознакомлению!

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  829 found helpful · 44 found funny

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  Reviews written: 154

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  0.2 h at review0.2 h total

  21 Mar 2025

  нету выбора персонажа в начале игры, по умолчанию начинаете за негра

  531 found helpful · 139 found funny

  Games owned: 306 · Reviews written: 18

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  0.4 h at review0.4 h total

  26 May 2026

  -Purchase and downloaded game -Need Ubisoft account -Tried creating a new account -Sorry cannot complete at this time. Try again later -Uninstall Game -Request Refund Classic Ubisoft

  515 found helpful · 99 found funny

  Value

  Reviews written: 2

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  10 h at review34 h total

  20 Mar 2025

  Наиграл пока всего 10 часов, но уже могу сказать, что это полный флоп. Кроме улучшенной графики, кое-где анимаций, нескольких новых фишек в стелсе и паркуре - больше ничего хорошего об игре сказать не могу. Это Одиссея из которой вырезали орла и карабканье по скалам, оставив при этом лвл дизайн аванпостов под орла и огромную кучу гор на карте. Пробежки от точки к точке выглядит иногда как беготня в бесконечных огромных кустах, из-за чего ничего не видно и не понятно. при этом персонаж все время падает и куда то скатывается, а все дороги в игре построены так, чтобы максимально отбирать у вас ваше время. Боевка все такая же ватная и без какого-либо внятного импакта. Активности в разы хуже той же Вальгаллы. Собери 3 свитка, помедитируй и посмотри унылый флешбек, пропаркурь по желтой краске и тд. отдельный кал что прокачку скиллов закрыли под выполнение этих сайдов, кошмар. Отдельный кошмар с желтой краской, она теперь везде. Вспомните хоть одну часть серии, чтобы геймдизайнер вас в лицо тыкал местами, где вам нужно паркурить. Не вспомните. потому что раньше это все вписывалось в общую стилистику регионов. Тут желтые доски прямо на деревьях, прости нас Ассассинс Крид 3, что ругались на тебя на релизе. Не советую к покупке.

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  506 found helpful · 22 found funny

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  Games owned: 296 · Reviews written: 35

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  14 h at review27 h total

  12 Oct 2025

  I was enjoying Assassin’s Creed Shadows at first, even though it has a lot of performance problems. I’m running an RTX 5090 and still struggle to reach 60 frames per second. It’s ridiculous — I can play Red Dead Redemption 2 at 4K with 120 FPS, but this game barely manages 30–50 FPS at the same resolution. Like most Ubisoft titles, it’s a massive map filled with repetitive tasks and endless collectibles that have little to no impact on the actual gameplay. For the first 10 hours, I was enjoying it, but after that, it feels like I’m doing exactly the same thing over and over again. I’m just pushing through to complete it, but without any real enjoyment. This has become a recurring pattern in Assassin’s Creed games — each entry gets bigger, but not better. For reference, I platinumed Assassin’s Creed Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla on my PlayStation account, so I’ve given this series plenty of time and patience. But I don’t see myself continuing to play Shadows, because it simply isn’t fun anymore. Then, after losing internet access for about 4-5 days, I discovered that I couldn’t even launch the game. The Ubisoft Connect launcher refuses to open it without connecting to Ubisoft’s servers — even for the single-player campaign. This means I cannot access a product I paid for, which from a consumer standpoint is ridiculous. It’s a shame that these companies bury the experience under DRM and force online checks for single-player content that should be playable offline and doesn’t affect anyone else. This will be the last Ubisoft game I will ever buy.

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  481 found helpful · 19 found funny

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  Reviews written: 1

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  100 h at review100 h total

  3 Mar 2026

  Ubisoft has truly mastered one thing: selling the same game over and over again, just with a different postcard in the background. This time, the postcard happens to be Japan. If you’ve played Origins, Odyssey, or Valhalla, you already know exactly what you’re getting. Climb towers. Reveal the map. Clear icons. Repeat. The progression system, quest structure, loot treadmill — it’s all comfort food at this point. Very familiar. Almost aggressively familiar. Somewhere around the halfway mark, I realized I no longer cared about the story. Not because it’s terrible, but because the gameplay loop slowly numbs you into autopilot mode. You spend most of your time commuting from point A to point B. If fast travel had a personality, it would be the real protagonist of this game. Strip away the padding and the experience would shrink dramatically. Yes, visually it’s an improvement over older entries. But “better than before” is not the same as “impressive.” Facial animations still feel oddly lifeless. For a series with this budget, that’s hard to ignore. And then there’s the timing. An Assassin’s Creed set in Japan sounded revolutionary years ago. But after Ghost of Tsushima delivered such a focused and polished experience, this feels less like a bold move and more like Ubisoft finally turning in homework that’s already late. Even The Witcher 3, a ten-year-old game, still offers a stronger sense of adventure and atmosphere. I’m not angry. I’m just exhausted. Exhausted by the formula, the predictability, the safe design. If this is your first Assassin’s Creed, you might genuinely enjoy it. But if you’ve been here before, this isn’t evolution — it’s muscle memory with better lighting.

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  402 found helpful · 22 found funny

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  Games owned: 357 · Reviews written: 8

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  218 h at review218 h total

  6 Jul 2026

  I’ve played every Assassin’s Creed game, often buying multiple copies, and I spent over 200 hours in Shadows, loving the atmosphere and the incredible open world (even if a bit empty). I definitely enjoyed it, even though it never reaches the narrative strength of Bayek in Origins. I uninstalled the game because DLC from Ubisoft Connect does not work with the Steam version. My accounts are linked, the DLC is activated, but the game refuses to load it. Ubisoft has silently disabled cross‑store compatibility. Support replied with a generic “incompatible with the launch platform” message and no solution, and this is something I cannot accept after years of constructive criticism and genuine appreciation for Ubisoft games. On the other side, the seller (Loaded) refunded only a small part as a courtesy, since the issue is entirely caused by Ubisoft’s policy and I couldn’t expect anything more from them. Thumbs up to the seller. Steam + Ubisoft Connect DLC does not work, and Ubisoft offers no help. After this, I lost interest in Shadows, and I will not be “resynced” in July. Desynchronized is my new way.

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  397 found helpful · 30 found funny

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  Games owned: 312 · Reviews written: 11

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  43 h at review43 h total

  25 Mar 2026

  Forty Hours of Nothing Oh god, what has Ubisoft become? It's so sad what once a leading exciting game studio become a liver service soulless game developer.I never want to see Ubisoft go bankrupt, because why would I want a major AAA game studio to go down? People would lose their jobs and we would get fewer games, it's not a win for anyone. But playing games like Shadows makes me question this thought. I had already played Assassin's Creed Shadows before I actually played it. If you have beaten tens of Ubisoft games before including All AC titles like I did, then so have you. Assassin's Creed Shadows is the second worst Assassin's Creed I have ever played, after Valhalla. If you want to do the literal same thing for at least 40+ hours, Shadows is for you. That was possibly the longest-feeling 40 hours ever. Narrative and Characters Terrible narrative, horrible dialogue, lifeless voice acting, generic characters and villain(!), combined with a boring, generic story. Assassin's Creed was so much better on this regard, even though they weren't flawless. It's just god awful here. World Design and Atmosphere Yes, visual fidelity has increased, but the world is one of the most boring ones, alongside Valhalla for me. It's slightly more interesting than Valhalla, which is sad because the best part of this series has always been the world design for me. It's full of forests and same-looking buildings. If that's because of the era's history, then maybe they shouldn't have gone for this setting. Look at Odyssey's spectacular Ancient Greece, Unity's France, Ezio's Italy, Altair and Basim's Middle Eastern settings, they were all way more interesting than Shadows. I enjoyed my time just looking around in those games. Infiltrating the same-looking castle for the 100th time is surely very fun… but seasons, everyone! Which is nothing more than a visual gimmick. Of course, this also has to do with how this is the fiftieth game in the last five years that takes place in a historical Japanese setting. I don't remember a single landmark in this game. I can't help but feel that it's a Ghost of Tsushima clone visually, making this world feel unoriginal for me, which is a first time in an Assassin's Creed game for me. It doesn't have an original art style, it leans heavily on Ghost of Tsushima's inspiration visually and its technical fidelity. The game not having any remarkable music, unlike many Assassin's Creed games, also hurts the atmosphere. Gameplay and Systems I am not going to praise this game just because it has "good" graphics and better animations than the last three games. It is extremely grindy. The level scaling and the Knowledge Point systems are all designed to artificially lengthen the game time, and it's at its worst here. Stealth is so bad. What good are the mechanics when the enemy AI is this stupid? Being forced to do the same boring game loop for 40 hours also doesn't help. Dear Ubisoft, keep doing single-player games with live-service game design, where quantity matters more than quality. Assassin's Creed Shadows is one of the most boring and generic open-world games I have ever played. BROKEN MEDAL Follow My Curator Page For More Reviews ⚜️

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  392 found helpful · 15 found funny

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  Games owned: 3,004 · Reviews written: 512

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  111 h at review111 h total

  2 Jan 2026

  Another disappointing entry in the franchise. I cannot say this is a bad game, the gameplay is fine, but the overall game is so shallow and boring that I cannot in good conscience recommend it. Just like Valhalla and Odyssey, this one is just too long. I can see every decision made to maximise playtime and expose you to the microtransaction store as much as possible. I see no other explanation. I just cannot look past the monotony and shallowness of Act 2 and 95% of the side content, all of which are just "kill lists" or collectables. If you must, buy it on a sale only. TLDR Likes: * Good graphics, beautiful environments for the most part. Climbing towers to see the vistas is reward enough. * Weather system and the seasons system, one of the best windy games. Leaves flying in the fall wind is just sublime. * Bigger focus on stealth compared to Valhalla and Odyssey. * Return to Odyssey's randomly dropped loot system * No otherworldly god realm parallel dimensions like in Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla * No quadcopter bird like all games since Origins have. * Ability to go prone is neat. * Decent weapon variety. * Auto follow feature, it only took 15 years TLDR Dislikes: * The "kill list" structure for 90% of the quest content is boring. None of these characters are memorable. * Side quests are almost all shallow "Kill X named characters" or "collect X items" type "quests". There are like 2 or 3 real side quests. * Parkour still works sub-par, gets you stuck on certain things (railings), refusing to jump down from a 20cm ledge, very annoying and these bugs will get you detected in stealth. * Hip hop type hollow sounding music that doesn't fit the time period (AFAIK) and is just not what I have come to expect from these games. Music in general is a disappointment. * Pretty much no modern day story, no Isu outside of 1 small easter egg. * Microtransactions and other Live Service crap * Weird Battle Pass system nobody asked for (granted its free and persistent, but still with timegated progression), serving only the conveniently placed store button. * Having to switch characters to do a world marker, quest, or to climb a wall/explore sucks. * Every enemy camp, castle, city and temple look the same. Game Structure This is in my opinion the worst part about this game, same as Mirage. This started in Odyssey, but was mostly a side thing there and in Valhalla. But in Mirage and here, the entire game is just circles of people to kill. Nineteen circles of named characters to be exact, and none of them are memorable. The thing is that narratively nothing can change in between the "kill them in any order" part of the game. And due to the amount of these kills you need to do between prologue and Act 3, you forget why you are even doing this, because it's been 40+ hours since last plot development. These kill lists also cause another problem - choice paralysis, due to the sheer amount of active "quests" at any one time. Gameplay, Progression, Leveling The gameplay is fine. Besides numerous parkour bugs, it works well. But by 4th RPG entry in the series, I do actively dislike the loot and leveling systems, as I have come to realise just how shallow and pointless grind it has become. The maximum level in the game is 100 (upped from 60 by some update). After 100 hours in the game, completing every single kill list, grinding out every base upgrade, I still have not even reached 80. Beating the story I was at around 50. This means, that my loot, throughout the entire game, was always becoming obsolete every 3 levels, and I am expected to either use trashy armor you randomly get without desirable perks for the entire playthrough, or grind infinitely respawning contracts for materials to keep my gear upgraded on 2 characters. All this just so the arbitrary level values do not fall behind too much, which artificially reduces your health and damage dealt. This is just busy work disguised as loot, as opposed to getting and stacking related perks to specialize and augment your character in proper games. Also finding pets, trees and buildings for your homebase in enemy camp chests is kinda silly. Basebuilding itself is also kinda meh. It's there just for you to grind the infinitely respawning contracts to raid small enemy camps to get perks. Seems to me like its actually there just to sell you building skins and ornaments in the MTX shop. And speaking of live service crap, there was a holiday event chest that gave me lots of resources daily, which really destroys integrity of early game. Not that there's any integrity to it to begin with, when the game is designed with MTX shop and grind in mind. I also started to dislike the "unguided mode" now, because it's adds nothing to the game in my opinion. Instead of a map marker, you are just given the name of the place you need to go. How much different is that really from a map marker? The only difference is that you have to place the map marker yourself. Yasuke & Naoe Unlike Valhalla and Odyssey, these 2 characters are not just reskins of each other. One is a fighter type, the other a stealth type. Sounds interesting on paper. In practice I'd say its a failure. The problem is that certain things can be done by only one of the characters. Naoe cannot pick up explosive jugs, or move sliding boxes. Yasuke can and is stronger in open combat, but he cannot climb pretty much at all. So this means that you are basically locked to Naoe for exploration (and for the assassin fantasy), but when you need Yasuke to complete a "puzzle" or moving a box or a jug, after clearing a camp as Naoe, and the entire camp respawns, the stupidity of this system comes into focus. Graphics Graphics are good, but there's some weird uncanny valley feeling to the environment, as if the lighting is kinda flat. I can't exactly say why I feel like this, maybe the shadows are not dark enough or something? There's also weird auto exposure issue where looking in certain directions sometimes significantly and noticeably reduces scene brightness, very annoying, especially in the photo mode. But I must say I did like the seasons system and the weather. This is one of the windiest games I have ever played, and this is, if not the best, at least one of the best wind implementations out there. Running around during fall, in windy weather with all the leaves floating about in the wind, it just looks really good. Nitpicks * Gone are navigational puzzles when climbing towers. It's just press Q simulator for the grappling hook. * Weird omission of "loot on assassinate" perk * Cannot assassinate unaware enemies while in combat for no reason * No weather/season setting in photo mode * An achievement that requires completion of the main story again in NG+ * The armor perk that throws kunai on assassination cannot be controlled, and will get you unwantedly get detected * Sometimes sprint button just stops working * Can't start rappelling down from on top of ledges using the grapple, its only a climbing tool. Conclusion This game is kinda the AC Syndicate of the RPG games. I just want an adventure game like in ye olden times, not a list of busy work to do. Doing dailies (battle pass, grinding base building mats and money) is the last thing I want in a supposedly story based game. This franchise in a desperate need of another major revamp, similar to the one from Syndicate to Origins, specifically in the story structure. It is my opinion that it is impossible to build a good story where after first few hours of story and character development/introductions, it all grinds to a massive halt and you are let loose to kill 50+ fking forgettable boss enemies that you honestly could not care less about.

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  371 found helpful · 10 found funny

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  Games owned: 813 · Reviews written: 483

  On Steam
• ▲ Recommended

  25 h at review30 h total

  12 Dec 2025

  ⭐️ Assassin’s Creed Shadows — A Fresh and Captivating Take on the Franchise Assassin’s Creed Shadows marks a standout entry in the long‑running series, bringing players into the rich and atmospheric world of feudal Japan with compelling dual protagonists, immersive gameplay, and stunning environments that honor the series’ legacy while offering new, satisfying challenges. The game received generally favorable reviews from critics and was praised for balancing stealth, combat, and exploration in a refreshing way. 🏯 1. A Stunning Feudal Japan to Explore One of Shadows’ greatest achievements is its beautifully realized open world set during the Sengoku period. The environments — from misty forests to snow‑covered villages and sprawling countryside — are rich in detail and atmosphere, making exploration rewarding and visually captivating. Critics have lauded its world design as one of the most immersive in the franchise. 🥷 2. Dual Protagonists With Distinct Playstyles Shadows introduces two unique playable characters — the agile shinobi Naoe and the powerful samurai Yasuke — offering varied ways to approach missions. Naoe’s stealth and speed encourage careful planning and silenced assassinations, while Yasuke’s brute strength and combat prowess provide satisfying, impactful clashes in open battle. This duality keeps gameplay exciting and versatile. 🗡️ 3. Refined Stealth and Combat Mechanics The game’s stealth systems and combat feel engaging and rewarding. Sneaking through shadows, using tools like kunai and grappling hooks, and executing precisely timed attacks create tense and thrilling scenarios. When open combat does break out, Yasuke’s heavy strikes and weapon variety feel powerful and impactful, making each encounter dynamic and satisfying. 🌍 4. Exploration That Rewards Curiosity Unlike earlier entries where fast travel often revealed large sections of the map instantly, Shadows encourages active exploration. Viewpoints and hidden secrets invite players to traverse the world thoughtfully, uncovering new discoveries organically as they move through Japan’s diverse landscapes. This approach enhances the sense of adventure and discovery. 🎶 5. Immersive Audio and Presentation The game’s audio design and soundtrack add depth to the experience, blending genre‑expanding musical themes with atmospheric environmental sounds. High‑quality voice acting — including options for full Japanese voiceover — enhances immersion, bringing the world and its characters to life in a meaningful way. 📈 6. Strong Critical Reception and Player Enthusiasm Critics have generally responded well: Assassin’s Creed Shadows holds a Metacritic score in the “generally favorable” range, and many outlets describe it as a strong evolution of the series that honors classic Assassin’s Creed elements while introducing fresh ideas and polished gameplay. 🏁 Final Thoughts Assassin’s Creed Shadows delivers a visually stunning, thoughtfully designed experience that blends stealth, action, and exploration in a way that both longtime fans and newcomers can appreciate. With its captivating setting, contrasting protagonists, and immersive world, Shadows stands out as one of the more memorable entries in the franchise. Overall: ⭐ 8.5 / 10 — A beautiful and rewarding adventure that reinvigorates the Assassin’s Creed formula with style and depth.

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  333 found helpful · 19 found funny

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  Games owned: 419 · Reviews written: 113

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  32 h at review32 h total

  14 Feb 2026

  Pretty, yet shallow and falls flat, wasting the massive potential it had. 80% done with the game: - Game is too big, as in the literal sense; a LOT of areas to explore, with nothing to do. Does make a good photo capture game though? - Combat is reduced to monotonous button smashing and parrying is VERY generous. - Stealth is without a doubt the best part of the game, but Yasuke has none. - Naoe starts of as an interesting character, but loses all credibility and integrity in act 2. - Yasuke is the power dream, and he maintains his integrity - but he feels VERY out of place in both setting and context. - Music ... sheeesh, oh boy. Ubisoft had the perfect setting with extremely well crafted sceneries, but they chose to inject a LOT of lofi mixes? Immature choice. - Story starts with a bang, I liked it. It was dumped after the first act, sad. A very MODEST and HUGE thanks to my dear friend who gifted it to me, unironically made me very happy and I've been anticipating this game since Unity. I had fun the first 25 hours :) Just a shame Ubisoft drops the ball enough to crack the floorboards.

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  320 found helpful · 7 found funny

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  Games owned: 184 · Reviews written: 12

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  89 h at review111 h total

  3 Jun 2026

  After almost 90 hours, I feel finally ready to articulate why I feel Assassins Creed Shadows is a fairly mediocre game. There are 3 primary criticisms I would level at Assassins Creed: Shadows. From least important to most important: 1. A fairly mediocre artistic direction. I think that engaging environmental and artistic design is very important to make a game enjoyable to play. In fact, the more video games I play, the more important I believe art direction to be (along with music direction). I would say that, in general, AC Shadows has great foliage, but fairly mediocre looking people. Additionally, the lack of a strong sense of visual identity compared to say, Ghost of Tsushima or AC Origins (for two games that are roughly comparable, the first from being similar in location and the second from being the same IP), is a real problem. 2. A storyline that is poorly paced, both in terms of length and tone. Honestly, I think this would've been a fairly good story if it was maybe half the length, with a lot of repetitive and poorly paced content cut so that the story highlights are close together. I honestly think that at this point, Ubisoft should focus on having much shorter campaigns with maybe a number of Elder Scrolls style "guild quests" to round everything out. A 15-20 hour campaign that is properly paced would be amazing - and having mediocre side content, if the core campaign is good and well paced, would be less of an issue. 3. A bland open world that provides 'content' to overcome that itself carries no sense of genuine progression. This is the biggest and most pressing issue. All this really is at its core is a checklist simulator. You go to a location, check the list, and then go to the next location. Additionally, there are too many locations that feel too similar. In some ways, this feels more like work than my actual job. Obviously, I do not recommend you play this game. It is not worth your time, and I've only put this many hours into it because I am an insane person. I am also very unhappy because a big part of why I bought this game was because it was originally supposed to get a multiplayer mode that I wanted to play with my friend, but that was cancelled.

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  302 found helpful · 18 found funny

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  Games owned: 4,816 · Reviews written: 453

  On Steam
• ▲ Recommended

  91 h at review110 h total

  6 Dec 2025

  If I'd have to describe the word "average" to someone I'd probably show them this game. If you are happy by just running from quest marker to quest marker for hours on end, then I highly recommend this game. Because that's pretty much all you do for the entire game. And I personally found it oddly satisfying to just turn off my brain and wander through the admittedly very beautiful open world - hence the positive review. But if you actually have some higher standards when it comes to video games, you'd probably be in for a disappointment. The story is the same as in the last 5 games of the franchise so you can basically foresee pretty much all events from a mile away anyway. The combat looks cool but is not challenging at all. The graphics are commendable; especially the facial expression of the main characters seem to have improved massively compared to older AC games. Its definitely better than the dumpster fire they released back in 2020 with Valhalla but its still far from an adequate product considering we're talking about a "AAA-Publisher" with an insane budget. TL;DR Gud game if you dont care about story or a lack of challenge and like running from quest marker to quest marker like I do :)

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  296 found helpful · 21 found funny

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  Reviews written: 5

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  109 h at review112 h total

  24 Apr 2026

  Bought a single-player game and got an always-online gatekeeper instead. Assassin’s Creed Shadows refuses to launch offline because Ubisoft Connect needs constant authentication. That means no internet = no access to a game I already paid for. This isn’t about multiplayer, this is basic single-player functionality. I travel and don’t always have a stable connection, so this design choice makes the game unreliable at best and unusable at worst. If you’re going to require online checks, be upfront about it and provide a real offline mode or a grace period. Right now it feels like I don’t own the game — I’m renting access depending on server mood. Would not recommend unless you’re permanently online.

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  260 found helpful · 10 found funny

  Reviews written: 1

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  13 h at review19 h total

  11 Dec 2025

  I really like the setting (Samurai Japan) and to be honest the story isn't half bad either. The visuals are gorgeous but unfortunately it is not optimised. I have a beefy PC (7900xtx) and I try to play most games without FSR, I don't mind reducing the graphical fidelity (medium/high settings) to avoid FSR, also don't care too much about raytracing, I play on HDR and this is enough for me. Other games managed to turn things around and optimise (Stalker 2) even when all hope was lost - if this happens with this game as well in future patches then I will change my review to positive.

  260 found helpful · 13 found funny

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  Games owned: 428 · Reviews written: 20

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  89 h at review124 h total

  16 Apr 2025

  Сюжет? Штамповка уровня “смешали всё подряд, но забыли зачем”. Персонажи, вроде бы с бэкграундом, но разговаривают как NPC в мобилках: скучно, топорно, ни капли живости. Особенно бесит, как они пытаются всучить тебе драму про “две стороны конфликта” — но ты не можешь сопереживать, когда всё выглядит, как школьный театр на уроке истории. Дальше — геймплей. Тут два “героя” — один скрытный нинзя, второй — мясной самурай. Звучит круто? Ну да, на бумаге. На деле: механики настолько кривые, что ты половину времени просто борешься с управлением. Нинзя почему-то не умеет нормально прыгать на врагов сверху — тупо мимо. Самурай всё время застревает в анимациях. Стелс — это вообще какая-то шутка. Ты сидишь в кустах, кидаешь петарду — враг поворачивается, врезается в стену и умирает от инфаркта. Я серьёзно, ИИ тут просто отбитый. Боевая система вроде есть, но скучнее и медленнее я ничего не видел. Три приёма на двоих, враги — клоны с одинаковыми криками боли. Я не знаю, может они специально делают хуже, чтобы мы потом вспоминали AC2 как гениальную игру? Окей, думаешь, хотя бы визуал вытащит? Ну, типа, Япония — храмы, поля, сакура, всё такое. Но даже здесь облом. Картинка красивая только на скринах. В движении — мыльцо, текстуры грузятся с запозданием, освещение как будто забыли включить. И да — баги. В каждой сессии обязательно что-то поломается: враг застрянет в стене, квест не активируется, кат-сцена не прогружается. Это уже традиция у Ubisoft, наверное. И вот ты сидишь, час игры позади, и ловишь себя на мысли — а где фан? Где хоть что-то, ради чего стоило ждать? Всё ощущается пустым, ленивым и вторичным. Ни атмосферы, ни смысла, ни удовольствия.

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  260 found helpful · 12 found funny

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  Reviews written: 64

  On Steam
• ▲ Recommended

  33 h at review39 h total

  27 Jun 2026

  I’ll never understand Ubisoft. Idk why they do this every single time. AC Shadows looks incredible in every way, the engine, gameplay, graphics, environment, atmosphere, world design, the whole vibe is just perfect. But why kill a game this beautiful with boring, repetitive bloat just to inflate the playtime? Like, do some gamers actually enjoy grinding the same loop for 40-50 hours? At first, you’re genuinely loving the world, but then you get sucked into this exhausting cycle of copy-pasted content. It completely kills your drive to even care about the story or exploration because after 20 hours, you’re just repeating the exact same stuff over and over. However it's still enjoyable, and they did a great job with the game itself. The only thing holding it back for me is the repetitive content. Without that, I'd easily rate it a 9/10, but because of the excessive grind and repetition, it drops to a 7/10.

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  257 found helpful · 9 found funny

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  Games owned: 810 · Reviews written: 28

  On Steam
• ▼ Not recommended

  7.8 h at review41 h total

  22 Mar 2025

  Чисто технически - это игровой продукт. Здесь нет интересных персонажей, нет новых или хотя бы хорошо работающих игровых механик. Гейплей максимально пресный и репетативный, все форты одинаковые, броня отличается только циферками (за несколько часов чистки локации и замков инвентарь будет переполнен бесполезным хламом). Интелект у врагов отсутствует, это просто болванчики. Окружающий мир очень красивый но мертвый и вызывает чувство декорации. Покупать игру точно не стоит, тем более через месяц игра будет продаваться по скидке. Надежды на игру были, правда не высокие.

  242 found helpful · 15 found funny

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  Reviews written: 15

  On Steam