Assassin’s Creed Shadows is one of Assassin’s Creed’s strongest outings in years, and arrives as a big win for Ubisoft at a time that the company desperately needed one. There’s a lot to love about the action RPG, from its surprisingly excellent combat to the renewed emphasis it places on stealth, from how fun its parkour mechanics are to how much of a blast it is to play as both protagonists. On that list, though, something that ranks high and shines particularly bright is its open world design. Open worlds are, of course, what this series has always been known for, but with Shadows, it has outdone itself.
It’s only appropriate that this is the game where Assassin’s Creed decides to finally hit its stride again in the world design department after some frustrating issues with bloat and excess in recent years, because this is finally the Assassin’s Creed game in Japan we all waited for for so long. If, by sheer rotten luck, Ubisoft had somehow managed to waste a feudal Japan setting in a disappointing entry that didn’t utilize its setting to its fullest, the disappointment would have been as loud as it would have been widespread. Thankfully, that isn’t the case.
On the contrary, Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ open world Japan is one of the best, most immersive maps this series has ever delivered, and there are several major factors that contribute to its resounding success in that department. For starters, there’s the plain and simple fact that Shadows’ world is absolutely gorgeous, something that’s abundantly evident right from the game’s very first second. Every inch of the world is characterized by beautiful sights. Dense forests, bamboo thickets, rolling hills of tall grass swaying in the wind, fields of vibrant and colourful flowers, charming villages and towns with distinct Japanese architecture, a smattering of stunning vistas- around every corner in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, there’s something beautiful to see, something that’ll make you pause in your tracks so you can take in your surroundings.
The variety is particularly impressive, because of how much more intentional and deliberate the look and design of virtually every location in the game’s world feel. The bloated size of previous Assassin’s Creed action RPGs meant different parts of their world would often blend together, with little to distinguish between areas that should be quite different on paper. Shadows avoids that pitfall by ensuring that its map is littered with areas, settlements, and points of interest that feel unique and distinct, rather than looking like slightly different variants of copy-pasted locations scattered throughout the world ad nauseum.
And that’s not the only way the game injects variety into its world. Dynamically changing seasons are among Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ most significant and interesting new systems. Among the many ways changing seasons elevate the experience is how they keep changing the world in drastic ways so that monotony never sets in. Whether you’re looking at thick blankets of snow or vibrant fields of vegetation, at a completely frozen lake or a gushing waterfall, at icicles hanging off roofs or grasslands glistening in the raid, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is always gorgeous to look at- and it usually has something new and fresh to show.
But that’s not all, because the beauty of Shadows’ world isn’t skin deep- far from it. As soon as the game is done with its prologue and it lets you loose into its world, it becomes instantly evident that it’s one of the series’ better designed maps in years. Hugely responsible for that is the game’s relative restraint when compared to something like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla or Odyssey, not just in size, but also in how it doles out content throughout its open world. The size is, of course, a significant factor, because after a couple of notoriously bloated open world behemoths that clearly ended up sacrificing notably in the design department so they could tout gargantuan play spaces instead, Shadows’ map – which is obviously still huge, but not nearly as unreasonably scoped as Valhalla’s map was – feels like a refreshing change of pace.
How that space is used feels like an even bigger strength though, as I touched on. Very rarely has Assassin’s Creed as a franchise succeeded at getting players to explore organically and diegetically, but Shadows comes closer than most of its predecessors, getting you to explore simply because you spotted something intriguing in the distance, or by organically leading you to some point of interest, rather than relying on checklists or markers or what have you. Don’t get me wrong, this is no Elden Ring or Breath of the Wild in that sense- but Shadows does a better job of grounding you in its world than Assassin’s Creed has been able to in quite some time.
And it doesn’t just cram that all of that real estate full of side quests or optional activities. There obviously is an abundance of things to do throughout its map, but in simple terms, Shadows smartly spaces that content out, letting its world breathe. There are plenty of stretches where there are no question marks on the map, no forts to clear, no collectibles to hunt down- nothing to do except just look around and take in the scenery, which is usually breathtaking in some way or the other. Assassin’s Creed Shadows knows that it touts a good looking open world, and it insists on highlighting its beauty whenever possible. Meanwhile, when you are doing the side activities, there’s usually plenty of fun to be had. There’s a good variety to the activities available, from the mundane and predictable – strongholds, contracts, what have you – to the more unique, like kuji-kiri or kata spots for Naoe and Yasuke respectively, or spots where you can sneak up on wildlife to paint sketches of them. In more ways than one, Assassin’s Creed Shadows knows how to make exploration fun and rewarding.
Getting around its world is also consistently a joy, even from a moment to moment perspective. Strong traversal is something that Assassin’s Creed as a franchise has always prided itself on, but like in other ways, Shadows feels more restrained than the series’ other action RPG outings with how it lets you navigate the world- and it’s for the better. Not every surface is climbable, unlike Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla, which makes the parkour feel more deliberate and much more in line with classic Assassin’s Creed games. Meanwhile, playing as Naoe is particularly enjoyable, thanks not only to her nimble and agile movements, but also the fact that she has a grappling hook. A grappling hook in an Assassin’s Creed game is exactly as cool as you’d think it would be.
As a franchise, Assassin’s Creed has approached world design and exploration in different ways over the years, from single-city settings to giant open world maps, from classic parkour to “you can climb anything and the laws of physics don’t exist” traversal. Shadows feels like it takes the greatest strengths of all of the series’ past styles, mixes them with a sprinkling of fresh ideas of its own, and balls it all up together to deliver a shockingly well designed map that is as rewarding to explore as it is stunning to behold.
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