Assassin’s Creed: Shadows out in November

Given how long Assassin’s Creed fans have been waiting for this heavily-rumored but never-confirmed adventure to take them back to feudal Japan – whispers of AC Red have been making the rounds since September 2022 – this has hardly been the ideal way to unveil it, yes. Ubisoft suffered a number of information leaks during the last few days which, sadly, spoiled the fun somewhat. Still, a new mainline AC game for all major formats is always welcome and this is what fans will be getting in November, as Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will be released on the 15th for the PS5/PS4, the Xbox Series X/S, the PC and the Mac.

Developed by Ubisoft Quebec, Shadows will take players to 16th-century Japan for the very first time. It’s an era when the country is – in theory – heading towards unification, but where brutality and unrest also grow as new coalitions and corruptive foreign influences try to further their agendas. The game is based on the intertwined stories of Naoe, a shinobi Assassin from the Iga province, and Yasuke, a samurai of historical legend. Players will get to discover their personal stories, meet historical figures and shape the two characters’ destiny as they help write a new chapter in Japan’s history.

As Naoe and Yasuke gamers will have to master two quite different play styles, with each character featuring his or her own progression paths, skills, weapon options and stats. Whether they embrace Naoe’s stealth skills or Yasuke’s combat prowess, they will have various options at their disposal when approaching objectives. With Naoe, it will mostly be about infiltration mechanics using light, noise, shadows and changing surroundings to avoid detection. With Yasuke it will be all about brutal combat and taking on larger groups of enemies.

Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will feature an open world with various landscapes evolving through weather and seasons. Players will travel to castle towns, bustling ports, pastoral areas and peaceful shrines. Ubisoft claims that in this particular AC title information is key and at the heart of exploration: players will have to gradually build a network of spies to unveil new areas to explore and hunt targets (allies with highly specialized skills and abilities can also be recruited for missions). Gamers will be able to create a customized hideout to enhance their network and train their crew: this includes base building and layouts to decorations or accessories.

As is practically a given these days, Assassin’s Creed: Shadows will be offered in a variety of different editions: Standard, Gold, Ultimate and Collector’s. The Gold Edition includes the base game, the Season Pass for additional unlockable content, two upcoming expansions and three days of early access to the game. The Ultimate Edition will include the base game, the Season Pass, the Ultimate Pack and three days of early access to the game. The Ultimate Pack contains the Sekiryu Character Pack featuring an outfit for Naoe and Yasuke, a trinket and a mount. It also includes the Sekiryu Hideout Pack, five Skill points as well as a red-and-black photo mode filter.

The Collector’s Edition will include the base game, the Season Pass, the Ultimate Pack, physical items and three days of early access to the game. The physical content will be a steel book, the world map, a Naoe and Yasuke figurine, a life-size Naoe’s katana tsuba, a wall creed scroll, an 84-page collector’s artbook and 2 sumi-e lithographs. Pre-ordering the game will grant consumers with an additional quest (for any of its four editions). Some notable facts: the title will also be available in streaming form for Amazon Luna, the Mac version will only run on Apple silicon-based machines and the PC version will be available at the Ubisoft Store and the Epic Games Store but not on Steam. Ubisoft promises to reveal the first gameplay trailer of Assassin’s Creed: Shadows sometime in June.