With the release of Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ Claws of Awaji DLC being less than a week away, Ubisoft has expressed an understanding that it needs to do something special to bring back players that might have already spent more than 50 hours on the open-world title. Speaking to IGN, Assassin’s Creed Shadows content director Simon Arsenault addressed this fact, noting that “after 50, 70, 100 hours, you need something a bit unique.”
To achieve this, the company has taken cues from other popular and critically acclaimed stealth titles out there to shape some of the encounters that players will face in Claws of Awaji. One of these, as noted by IGN, was inspired by Metal Gear Solid. The fight revolves around the player tracking down Awaki, one of the four new antagonists, in a dense forest. The fight involves the player as Naoe or Yasuke trying to figure out where she might be hiding, since the latter is stated to be a “master of stealth and disguise”.
The description of the encounter invites comparisons with two of the more stealth-oriented boss fights from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater – The Fear and The End. Both of the bosses have expertise in stealth, with The Fear even being able to essentially go invisible at the cost of stamina. How to deal with their abilities is left to players in a free-form arena. Much like The End, Awaki in Claws of Awaji is also able to make use of a long-ranged weapon against you from a vantage point if you’re spotted. Tracking her voice and discerning the real one among the decoys is crucial to success.
The encounter with Awaki also further amplifies some of the themes presented by the Claws of Awaji DLC, with an emphasis on isolation presented by the expansion’s island setting.
“We really liked the idea of an island region, with natural boundaries all around, it’s compact, there’s a seclusion we like, something where you’re a bit isoloted,” Arsenault explained. “It brings increased tension to the experience, increased danger. As soon as we added a new faction in there, it’s their world. As players you’re coming into their land. You’re not in control anymore, not as much.”
Subverting player expectations has also been a major theme for Claws of Awaji, especially when it comes to the major boss fights available in the DLC – Kimura Yukari, Imagawa Tomeji, Yasuhira, and Awaki. Arsenault spoke about spinning player expectations rather than countering them. This can take the form of new gameplay mechanics, like sending scouts to find the location of a target and ending up alerting the locals instead.
“What should I do? Should I find a new strategy? Should I avoid sending scouts or should I send them somewhere else? That’s what’s interesting with it,” he said. “You take something that has been learned and has become kind of a routine and you just add a small twist. And we did that with a lot of systems. You’re used to civilians [needing help], or merchants, but now some can attack you — that didn’t happen.”
Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S on September 16. For more details, check out how the DLC will have enemies disguised as regular citizens.
