3.5/5 ★ – ChucklesBiscotti's review of Assassin's Creed Shadows.

As a former #1 fan of Assassin's Creed, watching the series slowly devolve post-Black Flag (after recovering after a rocky AC3), it feels like the pendulum has swung once again back towards the shining of the light. I think a lot of people gave credit to AC's last revival starting with Origins, but I have never loved any of the "new-age" AC games. I never enjoyed how the leveling was stratified, there was so much bloat, and the character work in the games was still mostly uninteresting to me -- and I don't care about the Animus lore at all anymore. Here with Shadows, not only is this an extremely polished game, I enjoy both characters (and some of the side ones), and exploring the world has never felt like a major chore. Instead, it's been what I want to do the most. Hunting Viewpoints isn't really the goal as much in this game, which is an odd feeling on some level because it's part of the DNA of the series, but the exploration itself has taken over as the priority now. There's still some side activities I'd have left out and others I would have expanded, but in terms of Ubisoft games, the balance is closer to the feeling of Star Wars Outlaws and less towards Valhalla, which is what I was hoping for moving forward -- after playing Outlaws, that is. There's still tons of side activities and missions, but the way things become part of your story and world feels much more natural and rewarding. You come across new people/missions/collectibles and they get put onto your Objectives board in the menu -- almost looking like the Mind Place from Alan Wake 2 -- and seeking out the actual objectives in the world based on hints you get is a feeling I've mostly relished (and if you don't like it, just use "scouts" to nail down exact locations). In a sense, it's sort of this happy balance between playing with no HUD so you can just be fully "immersed" and find everything on your own, and still playing an actual video game with some amount of guidance. I still think the moment-to-moment combat isn't that great (or, I should say, a little boring), and there is a bit of loot problem where I still don't love leveling gear or swapping new gear all the time, but the skill tree itself does provide depth to the various weapons you can equip (and the loot problem isn't like Team Ninja levels of fucked or anything like that). It's also still as enjoyable as ever to stealth around as Naoe and pick off an entire camp of enemies. I've also barely talked about the dual-protagonists because I think they mostly just work. They feel different and have obvious strengths and weaknesses, and while I play with Naoe 75% of the time, Yasuke has a clear role when I just want to storm into a place and fuck some shit up. I still think Ghost of Tsushima is the superior game, and I would think there will be plenty of comparisons to that one for many obvious reasons, but Shadows does a good job reviving my love for AC. I've played 60+ hours and plan to continue playing for at least a bit longer, and the beauty of the world and flow of the moment-to-moment action shows Ubisoft is still capable of finding a way to create captivating worlds and characters in this universe even if I don't think this is the thing that "saves" Ubisoft or is the obvious way forward for the franchise. Instead, there probably is no "formula" that can save Ubisoft, all they can do is try to curate an open world that makes sense for the story they're telling. This was what helped Outlaws show out a bit even if it was a buggy mess at launch, and this is how Shadows has succeeded to some extent as well. Ubisoft is still only hitting singles and doubles since neither Outlaws or Shadows has been remotely GOTY worthy, and I assume the budgets on these games are still massive (and sometimes made by Massive) so that's probably not ideal, but it is definitive progress for their open-world design.