Whether it’s watching little red dots on a minimap milling about before you find the perfect moment to run in and shank enemies without them seeing you, or having an airborne eagle mark foes through walls before jumping in for a hidden blade sesh, sneakily clearing out large groups of enemies in Assassin’s Creed is the series’ bloody bread and butter. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is no different, but in refocusing how it approaches that core loop and inventively kicking it into high gear, the series’ fast-paced stealth action has never been better.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows isn’t only about new features, though. Mechanics have also been stripped back. That aforementioned drone-like eagle? Gone. Naoe and Yasuke can now only observe and tag enemies themselves, but are therefore encouraged to seek out vantage points while remaining unseen to do so, keeping you immersed in the action of infiltration rather than ripping your perspective miles into the air. Likewise, the mini-map has been absent in the modern era of Assassin’s Creed in general, though here its absence shines as you actually utilize darkness to remain unseen and have to check the weather to see if your footsteps will go unnoticed – paying attention to what’s actually in front of you is vital.
Castle crashers
Review-escat in pace
It all adds up to make for a game we really love, as we said it has “more confidence, texture, and purpose than we’ve seen since Assassin’s Creed pivoted into RPG territory” in our Assassin’s Creed Shadows review.
Light and sound aren’t the only new aspects that greatly affect how you consider Assassin’s Creed Shadow’s stealth loop, mostly revolving around Naoe (Yasuke is the combat pro). Going prone is a game changer, not only allowing you to wiggle underneath buildings and crumbly holes in walls, but to lie down in long grass or even ponds to avoid detection – and yes, Naoe can breathe through a bit of bamboo while doing so. A physics-based grapple hook also allows Naoe to pick and choose her own path to cleave through the air at times.
Silently dispatching guards is more creative than ever too. You can stab enemies through paper doors. Grab and then move them before you choose to assassinate or knock out. Re-collect kunai from their stabbed skulls. Bamboozle them with a litany of ninja tools from your utility belt. Being a menace has never felt so gleeful.
Okay, great tools for a stealth kit, but how does it all fit together? Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ castles are the beautiful answer that pieces it all together. It doesn’t just feel like they weave all of this entry’s stealth elements together, but like they’re a culmination of all the lessons learned from every Assassin’s Creed ever. Just as you can draw a throughline from the disparate camps of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla to these more complete and densely designed bases, you can do the same with the much smaller scale restricted zones in Assassin’s Creed 2.
Strewn across Japan, each one is a uniquely designed space combining exteriors ranging from beautiful gardens to training grounds for garrisons, and interiors from barracks to huge maze-like tenshu towers with many floors, sliding doors, and even nightingale traps that’ll jingle if you walk on them too fast. I’m told there’s over 30 of them in the game, and so far they’ve really impressed me with how varied they truly are. Some are massive compounds guarded by a moat (or even, many moats with one on the coast), some lean more into being fortresses with layers of hastily raised wooden fences and muddy ground, while others have gorgeously designed gardens for strolls.
Naoe’s stealth isn’t slow by any means. While she can pause on a perch, scanning with eagle vision to pick out guards’ routes, where treasure is hidden, and potential hiding spots, when she moves she moves. Flipping off ledges, diving into cover, pressing up against corners, she’s able to dominate a space, threading through sight lines, picking off enemies when their backs are turned or using tools or whistles to separate them from the crowd. From open windows to hidey holes and crumbled, exposed brick – not to mention Naoe’s ability to grapple to any roof – potential pathways to take advantage of a situation are near limitless.
You can even get quite aggressive with stealth, throwing down a smoke bomb to move in on your startled prey or running down lower-leveled servants before they can raise alarms. And who can resist bringing back the classic double assassination with the tanto blade equipped? (One animation for doing so feels almost exactly like Edward Kenway’s – he’d be proud.)
Quickly throwing kunai at bell towers can stop them from being rung, and enemies who lose line of sight can quickly become vulnerable to an assassination attack from another direction. A curious guard may rush to get to you as you duck around a corner… only for you to scramble up to the roof and jump down on them from above. How’s that for rising to a challenge?
Hoovering up shinies
Goals from the micro to the macro draw you in to tackle castles in this way, challenging you to find your own way through the unique layouts and sometimes truly massive amount of guards to reach the little glowing gold markers that mean treasure, and, of course, the ultimate special gear reward that’s in every single one of them. This special chest requires you to kill all of the samurai daisho assigned to the location to open it, meaning tracking down and getting the jump on particularly beefy enemies. Not that I care too much about the loot inside, I’m just happy to have mastered yet another stealth challenge.
Sure, you could send Yasuke in to take them all down, but Naoe is just as capable. Caught unawares, she can do serious damage to these samurai, and even if she can’t one-hit the victim in your sights she can lose them again to come back around for another assassination strike as they poke and prod at the bushes. You can also turn guaranteed one-hit kills on in the menu if you want it to feel like the classic era. Clearing out these castles is always a joy, and I know it’s always going to feel fresh. While I do love Naoe’s Path platforming challenges, it’s tackling the castles through stealth that’s the easy highlight of Assassin’s Creed Shadows for me, and the best and most complete stealth has ever felt in the series.
It’s not to say that the older titles didn’t have fun areas to sneak through. They definitely did. Love or hate the Castel Sant’Angelo, I guarantee you at least remember it from Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood. But no game in the series prior to Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been able to offer a consistent stealth loop that always hits.
Especially in the modern era, the stealth kit has always felt a bit under-served, the abilities present but never really called for or particularly exciting to carry out in the moment. By not only keeping you present and fixed in the moment, but rewarding you for doing so by being able to use what’s in front of you, Assassin’s Creed Shadows feels like it’s perfected a stealth loop long in the making. Forget grandiose new narrative DLC, I just want more castles to get stuck into.
Where does it stand among the rest of the series? Check out our best Assassin’s Creed games!
