AC Shadows Endgame Review (Warning Spoilers)

[Cyber2B]

Open World Gameplay: 7/10 The world is undeniably beautiful, but it feels empty. The combat finishers become repetitive, castles simply repopulate after being cleared, and so-called random events barely occur, making the world feel static. Ubisoft missed an opportunity to add deeper meaning to side quests and make the world more vivid—something Ghost of Tsushima and Horizon Forbidden West did far better.

Stealth: 7/10 The stealth mechanics have some standout features: going prone, hiding in shadows, and visibility being dictated by ambient lighting rather than bushes automatically granting invisibility. However, the way the game handles enemy perception is immersion-breaking. Running along building walls while remaining undetected, despite being in clear sight, makes stealth feel forced and artificial.

Boss Fights: 6/10 Most boss fights lack uniqueness, feeling like regular enemies with more HP. Combat against them is predictable and, frankly, dull. The only memorable encounters were with Nobunaga, Duarte, and Caro, as they featured some unique clashes. In comparison, AC Odyssey's mercenaries were more fun and challenging than any of the bosses in Shadows.

Story: 6/10 The Assassin's Creed connection feels forced, similar to Valhalla and Odyssey, where the series' core elements are treated as an afterthought. The plot follows the generic "bad guy does bad things, good guy seeks revenge" formula, making it predictable and uninspired.

Main Characters: 7/10 Naoe's Vault mechanic is frustratingly inconsistent—it often fails if you move slightly, making it nearly useless in combat. However, her mobility is noticeably faster and more fluid, which suits her slim build. Yasuke, on the other hand, feels like an overpowered tank, effortlessly tearing through forts. While both characters have distinct strengths and weaknesses, Yasuke’s sheer power can make gameplay feel too easy.

Pacing: 4/10 The pacing is one of the game's biggest flaws. The main story is unnecessarily long, with excessive running around and syncing on buildings rather than progressing through quests. Dialogue can become so tedious that you may find yourself skipping through it just to move forward. The game drags more than it should.

PC Performance: 4/10 Optimization is a step back compared to Mirage and even Valhalla. Forced ray tracing improves some visuals, but even when turned off (except in the hideout), the performance-to-graphics ratio is still poor. Ubisoft should have focused on better PC optimization rather than making RT a requirement.

Final Thoughts As a long-time Assassin’s Creed fan since AC3, I had hoped Shadows would be a major breakthrough, much like Origins was for the series. Instead, it feels too similar to the last three games—just with less grind than Valhalla and Odyssey. Removing Odyssey’s soft Nemesis system was a huge step backward; a refined version of it could have made Ronin enemies more dynamic, varied in combat styles, and visually distinct.

Despite its flaws, Shadows is worth trying, but the entire experience felt like a massive chore to complete rather than an exciting journey.

[Kand]

How would you rate the English Voice Acting?

[Cyber2B]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kand:

How would you rate the English Voice Acting?

English is bad, Ubisoft was too cheap to hire English VAs, so they forced their Japanese VAs to also be the English VAs despite knowing they aren't good english speakers to begin with.

However, I hate that I cannot get to choose if Naoe or Yasuke should be strictly in English and world in Japanese.

[Raider Deci]

Would problaby rate it somewhere along those lines too. It's not masterpiece nor is it garbage, a 7/10 more close to 6 than 8. A good game overall which I do have fun in but im also not oblvious to its flaws

My own main criticism is the story. Once again the tired hero journey to kick it off which UBI have used so many times but now without any AC-elements to it.


Perfomance is the part I cant really judge. It havent had any trouble and it looks great, no weird issues, but im dragging out a pc-upgrade so my new 9070xt is getting bottlenecked in a bunch of ways

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kand:

How would you rate the English Voice Acting?

Bad. 4/ or 5/10 maybe. It's servicable at best, the japanese is superior, English sound incredible basic & wooden. The japanese sounds & flows superior to me and apparently a lot of other ears, dont speak the langauge so I actually dont know it supposed to or not.

[Kand]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Cyber2B:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kand:

How would you rate the English Voice Acting?

English is bad, Ubisoft was too cheap to hire English VAs, so they forced their Japanese VAs to also be the English VAs despite knowing they aren't good english speakers to begin with.

However, I hate that I cannot get to choose if Naoe or Yasuke should be strictly in English and world in Japanese.

The Japanese VAs did not voice English.

[Acpolax]

For me the game was fun but the more I think about it the more flaws I recognize. The most obvious flaw is Yasuke, he should have been a DLC like Adewale was in black Flag. Yasuke's appearence in most main quest cutscenes is highly unnecesssary, he has his own templar questline without Naoe so there is no reason for Yasuke to be MVP in what should be Naoe's questline.
Second flaw is the total absence of Isu artefacts. I didnt encounter a single of them in the entire game which makes me wonder what I was even doing there and this directly leads to the third flaw, what is outside of the animus? Who wants us to be in there for absolutely nothing?

[googleman81]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Cyber2B:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kand:

How would you rate the English Voice Acting?

English is bad, Ubisoft was too cheap to hire English VAs, so they forced their Japanese VAs to also be the English VAs despite knowing they aren't good english speakers to begin with.

However, I hate that I cannot get to choose if Naoe or Yasuke should be strictly in English and world in Japanese.

English Version: Naoe is voiced by Masumi Tsunoda, a singer-songwriter and actor known for her role in the 2021 film Yakuza Princess. ​
Polygon
+1
Game Rant
+1
Japanese Version (Immersive Mode): Naoe is voiced by Miyuri Shimabukuro, a prominent Japanese voice actress. ​

Copy pasted from ChatGPT, you're welcome. And yes, play in immersive mode and turn the music off, goes with the whole Shinto theme of experiencing nature and stuff...

[Raider Deci]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Acpolax:

Second flaw is the total absence of Isu artefacts. I didnt encounter a single of them in the entire game which makes me wonder what I was even doing there and this directly leads to the third flaw, what is outside of the animus? Who wants us to be in there for absolutely nothing?

Agree. I havent finished it yet but I have come so far into the game I can see that it's not a point at all. Which is a bit weird since the last games was kinda heavy in the ISU-department and now its nothing at all. Along with the complete absence of modern day.
Modern Day, ISU & their artifacts along with the brotherhood/templar conflict is at the core of AC, without them its just a regular run of the mill adventure game. Its been watered down so much so a cloak & hidden blade is now enough to pass it of as an AC-game.

Naoe does have a little bit, extreme little bit, it is changing her perspective a little bit but without an actual brotherhood to back her up she ends up doing surface-level guesswork. That is really the key difference between her and someone like Edward in BF where he wasnt a member but the brotherhood was key to his journey

Now UBI has been terrified of digging deep into the philosophy of the factions for a very long time, that includes most games in the franchise. They seem to avoid it at all costs and I dont understand why.

[AdahnGorion]

So you rank the game 5.8 overall.

[Shin Happens]

The one thing that stands out the most to me is that the gameworld is gorgeous, but as mentioned, can feel a bit empty. Also, there are various locations (temples, onsens, villages etc) that once discovered have literally nothing for you. Not even a single chest. Exploration should always be rewarded. It's not that the game does not have enough loot, but that makes it all the more curious as to why so many locations have "zero" content, to the point there is not even a single treasure chest to be found anywhere at some of them.

This game needs more meaningful side content and maybe somewhat less "kill 10 evil people" quest boards. Why are there no cool and hard legendary enemies you can find that reward you with unique gear?
Why is there so little story focused side content? Why are there no fun minigames at all, a board game, card game, anything really. Why is the hideout so useless other than for upgrading gear and providing buffs? There is almost zero actual content at the hideout, no real interactivity with the friends and allies, you build all these tea houses, shrines, dojos etc... and then they serve no real purpose (other than stats increase). Why can't we train at the dojo and test out gear? Why is there no arena in this game? You get one short tournament questline, that's it. Nothing where you can fight waves of enemy and test your gear and build really.

I do not lament the lack of an Isu storyline... which always felt very weak and contrived for me, but I am one of those that absolutely loathe the modern day storyline in the AC games, especially everything post Demond. Desmond was kind of alright but even back then I never really wanted to play as Desmond and couldn't wait to dive back in to play the real game I actually want to play.

In short. the more grounded AC is the better in my opinion, I was already a bit surprised we get to meet an actual "Yokai" in the game (or maybe some Isu artifact corrupted entity like in Odyssey? The game never says.)

[Acpolax]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Raider Deci:

Agree. I havent finished it yet but I have come so far into the game I can see that it's not a point at all. Which is a bit weird since the last games was kinda heavy in the ISU-department and now its nothing at all. Along with the complete absence of modern day.
Modern Day, ISU & their artifacts along with the brotherhood/templar conflict is at the core of AC, without them its just a regular run of the mill adventure game. Its been watered down so much so a cloak & hidden blade is now enough to pass it of as an AC-game.

Not only the last games, the ISU artefacts literally used to be the only reason to relive these ancient memmories just to find out where they could be today?

Ursprungligen skrivet av Raider Deci:

Naoe does have a little bit, extreme little bit, it is changing her perspective a little bit but without an actual brotherhood to back her up she ends up doing surface-level guesswork. That is really the key difference between her and someone like Edward in BF where he wasnt a member but the brotherhood was key to his journey

Well actually Naoe got enough assassin background in her family, it is guesswork from her indeed but actually every assassin in the series kinda stumbled in there by accident
however I have to say even Eivor in Valhalla despite not even being an actuall assassins but just using the hidden blade has more informations about the assassins available then there is in the entire game of Shadows.

Ursprungligen skrivet av Raider Deci:

Now UBI has been terrified of digging deep into the philosophy of the factions for a very long time, that includes most games in the franchise. They seem to avoid it at all costs and I dont understand why.

Dont know what you mean, its just templars bad, assassins good and this is the exact same in this game.

Honestly it kind of feels rushed, I cant believe they havnt had a outside of Animus story planed for this game, it just wouldnt make sense cause as you said then it would be just a regular run of the mill adventure game and that cant be it, so I really hope the DLC will change something about that but even if there is a entire region filled with only Isu stuff there is still the full main game for apparently no reason.

[JKDos]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kand:

How would you rate the English Voice Acting?

Like 2/10, it's that bad. At least for Naoe, who is the most important VA in the game. Yasuke's English voice acting is fine, if not perfect.

[Acpolax]

Ursprungligen skrivet av JKDos:

Ursprungligen skrivet av Kand:

How would you rate the English Voice Acting?

Like 2/10, it's that bad. At least for Naoe, who is the most important VA in the game. Yasuke's English voice acting is fine, if not perfect.

Actually Yasuke´s german voice acting is the worst I have ever heard, especially for a dude of his size.
He sounds a little bit like Mike Tyson but with a very warm under tone and everything he says is so diplomatic, intelectual and overly good from the bottom of his heart, its actually disgustingly nauseating.

[Acpolax]

Ursprungligen skrivet av Shin Happens:

This game needs more meaningful side content and maybe somewhat less "kill 10 evil people" quest boards. Why are there no cool and hard legendary enemies you can find that reward you with unique gear?
Why is there so little story focused side content? Why are there no fun minigames at all, a board game, card game, anything really. Why is the hideout so useless other than for upgrading gear and providing buffs? There is almost zero actual content at the hideout, no real interactivity with the friends and allies, you build all these tea houses, shrines, dojos etc... and then they serve no real purpose (other than stats increase). Why can't we train at the dojo and test out gear? Why is there no arena in this game? You get one short tournament questline, that's it. Nothing where you can fight waves of enemy and test your gear and build really.

I do not lament the lack of an Isu storyline... which always felt very weak and contrived for me, but I am one of those that absolutely loathe the modern day storyline in the AC games, especially everything post Demond. Desmond was kind of alright but even back then I never really wanted to play as Desmond and couldn't wait to dive back in to play the real game I actually want to play.

Time for a small history lession. In the very first Assassins Creed game we play Desmond Miles who is forced by Abstergo (aka the Templars) to relive the Memmories of Altair just to find evidence of the Apple of Eden(Isu artefact).
The reason why they forcecd Desmond to do that (and not just some random guy) was simply cause he was a descendant of Altair and therefor the only one who could do that cause these ancient memmories are somehow stored in the DNA.

I dont know how you dont feel that, but thats the story of Assassins Creed, the rest is literal side content.
...and yeah apparently you see that there is content missing but you dont actually miss what this game was initially all about???