AC Shadows is a game that tells the story of Johnny Somali, who time travels to the feudal era of Japan.

The game is pretty enjoyable so far BUT: Dear Ubisoft, I will not buy 2500 HELIX shitcoin (20 eur) to purchase a costume in-game after I spend 70 eur on it. Also, I will also not buy 4200 HELIX shitcoin (35 eur) for an extra 5 skill points and a Katana "Starter Pack". How about you pack deez nuts into your mouth

Jin Sakai mastered the way of the ghost, but Naoe was born in the shadows. Hey Ubisoft! If you actually want people to buy your forgettable 7/10 games, then drop the Ubisoft Connect bullcrap and stop forcing us to install it. Nobody wants this garbage clogging up their PC. Do better. – From the entire community.

Microtransaction in single player game never cease to pisses me off.

runs pretty well without issues and i'm enjoying the gameplay and story so far. haven't enjoyed an ac game since Odyssey

I can't play this singleplayer game because of an issue with my Ubisoft Connect account. Support is taking their sweet time to respond, and according to some forum posts it might take up to a month until they get to my request, so until then, that's all I can say about this game. Seriously man, get this account-requirement, online-requirement bullshit out of singleplayer games already.

Micro transactions in a single-player game with 70 Dollar price tag, why?

C: Program Files (x86): Steam: steamapps: common: Assassins Creed Shadows: vidoes Here find your language and delete the videos in the folder. Then search the root folder of videos for logos and delete all of those. Then you won't see any splash screens when you start the game. Game runs really well on ROG Ally X as well. Can't wait to get into this more! Has a Sekrio like parry system where you have multi hit combos to deflect. I really didn't get very far into the game to see the open world stuff yet, but this game is great so far!

Enjoying it, but fair warning combat system is way different vs previous games. Takes a moment to get used to. Otherwise fun, beautiful graphics, no bugs encountered so far aside minor movement and terrain glitch or two (I’m looking at you Valhalla …). Edit*, after playing the game for 40+ hours I seriously do not understand what is with the hate towards it. It’s been entertaining, challenging and fun so far, while yeah overpriced for sure but … don’t like it then don’t get it.

Yasuke is such a great assassin(samurai), he single-handedly killed an entire franchise AND pushed an entire studio into bankruptcy... truly the GOAT🔥 Also "No matter what they tell you, japan is in Africa and diddy was the first black samurai"- Ubisoft

Dog Shit Forced Ubisoft Connect Launcher Dog Shit Customer Support Locked me out of my Ubi connect account and asked me to make a case for customer support Proceeds to ignore my case for the rest of the day thus preventing me from accessing the full priced game I own Oh and every second you spend trying to connect on Ubi Connect is counted as your in-game playtime for the video game you HAVEN'T EVEN LAUNCHED YET. I had 67 mins of playtime before I could even start the game. Good Game so far

13 hours into the game i deeply regret buying it. It's a pretty looking game with no substance inside of it. I will probably play some more of it just to kill some time whilst watching/listening to something in the background. The fact that i have relegated a "single player story driven game" to "guess i will listen to a podcast on the side" should speak volumes of my opinion of the game, how repetitive it is, and how boring the writing is. Also, why the f*ck are enemy levels a thing in this game? Why is a common soldier all of a sudden immortal just because he has a higher number? why do i go from tanking ~3/4 hits to dying in 1 shot, when all that happened was that the number next to the enemy went up by one? Why do i have to run around doing chores to make sure my steel blade actually hurts the enemy? Remember, this costs 70$ and some will have payed more: Why is there a battle pass in a single player game? Why is there a premium currency you need to buy with real money? Why is there a FOMO rotating shop of item's? Why do they sell an option to reveal the map for real money? Why can you buy in game currency with real money? Why are there 4 "Premium" armor sets you can only get by spending real money? 4 armor sets witch could have for example been given to the player for let's say completing some really challenging achievements. But no, they have to squeeze every penny out of us while they still can. By the way, they're not selling skins, they are selling items with their own stats. Literally selling you legendary items with unique passives that as far as i know you can't get otherwise. I repeat: 70$ "SINGLE PLAYER GAME" Why Ubisoft... Why...

Not as bad as everyone is saying it is. Not as great as everyone is saying it is. If you got the money to spare, buy it. If you don't got the money to spare, skip it.

It's a bit overwhelming with so much content at 15 hours of gameplay, but I'd say AC is back on the right pass with this one. But don't buy it full price, wait for sale and more importantly, DO NOT buy the deluxe edition, you can get those things in game for free if you play enough.

Paid $60 and cant play the single player game due to ubisoft connect, Classic.

EDIT/UPDATE (Playtime: 67.5 hours): Alright — I’ve officially spent over 60 hours in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and I think I’ve seen just about everything this game has to offer. I kept pushing through hoping it would grow on me — and while there are moments of greatness, the deeper I went, the more I realized those moments are just flashes in an otherwise flawed experience. Let’s start with the good, because yes — there is some good here. The world is gorgeous. Feudal Japan has never looked better. The seasonal transitions are stunning, the lighting and atmosphere are immersive, and some of the story missions are genuinely cinematic. Combat, when it’s working properly, has a nice flow to it and is probably the best the series has offered since the RPG transition. But everything surrounding that core is either inconsistent, shallow, or broken. Exploration? Mostly empty. You’ve got this huge, beautiful map… and not much worth doing in it. Side content is repetitive, collectibles are tedious, and a lot of it feels like filler to artificially pad the runtime. Naoe’s knowledge training minigame is a perfect example of something that starts off cool, then quickly becomes frustrating. You sit, you breathe, you channel your inner ninja... and then the difficulty spikes absurdly hard. The symbols start disappearing mid-pattern while you're finger-blasting your triggers trying to “calm your mind.” I felt like I was trying to pass the Hidden Leaf Genin exams just to get one skill point. It’s funny at first — until it isn’t. Loot and gear progression? A mess. You’re handed legendary gear super early on, and it trivializes every other piece of equipment in the game. There's no incentive to explore, experiment, or even care about what you're picking up. Most loot becomes vendor trash or cosmetic fluff. With two characters and a dozen equipment slots to manage, it’s just not fun — it’s a chore. The narrative absolutely collapses after the intro. Naoe’s opening story is solid — there’s emotional weight and purpose. But once Yasuke enters the picture, everything splinters. The “kill these 12 targets in any order” structure ruins pacing and character development. There’s no momentum, no depth — just a checklist. It’s a shame, because both characters had potential, but the story never commits to either of them in a meaningful way. And bugs? Still here. Still annoying. Assassinations that don’t register. Enemies that get back up after being clearly dead. Broken stealth prompts. The enemy tagging system works when it feels like it — and since that’s tied to both recon and ranged weapons like throwing knives, it messes with the core gameplay loop. I’ve failed missions simply because the UI decided to stop functioning mid-approach. The dual protagonist system is also more of a hassle than a feature. There are collectibles that can only be picked up by one character — which means if you’re exploring as the wrong one, you’ll have to leave, switch, and come back. I had a base fully cleared with Naoe, only to realize I needed Yasuke to grab something. Switched characters, the season changed, the base reset. Every enemy respawned. I had to go back in and redo the whole thing just to move a box. It’s not clever design — it’s just clunky. Even the seasonal system, which should’ve been a major gameplay innovation, is mostly cosmetic. Outside of a few minor traversal differences, it doesn’t impact your approach or strategy. It looks fantastic, but it doesn’t do much. At 67.5 hours, I can confidently say: there’s a good game buried under all this — but it’s constantly fighting against itself. Ubisoft wants it to be an immersive RPG and a stealth-action AC title. The result is something that doesn’t fully succeed at being either. Final Verdict: 5/10 — A visually stunning experience undermined by shallow systems, repetitive filler, and design choices that feel more like roadblocks than innovations. There’s potential here, but it’s buried under a whole lot of jank, grind, and missed opportunities.

not gonna lie the world in this game is really beautiful and the exploration is really fun i quite enjoy it. but i must admit the story is absolutly cringe asf.

So im gonna be honest, the game has a solid B rating from me, it does a lot of things good and also a lot of things are meh or just straight up bad. One good thing i love: the environment feels alive with its animations and the way you can interact with it. One thing i hate: the fighting music is straight up hip hop, its just like im listening to the playlist of an indie anime fan that plays basketball in its free time, but this in a feudal fucking japan.

So! This is my first game review. Let me be clear: I've only played for 3.4 hours, and... it's just not there. The story so far is bland—like asking for a Coke and getting one that, while it tastes like Coke, is completely flat. The characters are uninspiring in terms of their narratives—oh no, my father died; now I must kill 12 people to uncover some mystery. I can't even comment on the African samurai; you play him for 10 minutes, and then you're stuck with a stealth lady whose story is just "I need revenge; let me recruit people" for the rest of my time in the game. I feel like I could get a basic language model to write a better story in the time I've played this game. UBISOFT, I DID NOT ASK FOR 45 MINUTES OF CUTSCENES IN THE FIRST 3 HOURS OF A GAME. If I wanted to watch a historical drama based on Japan, I would. Not to mention, the English version—I can't blame the voice actors, who are probably Japanese speaking English, but it just doesn't work. Really, it doesn't. If you're going to play the game, folks, turn on subtitles, switch the audio to Japanese, and it'll be a better experience. Don't bother with the English. But back to the cutscenes. I don't even know if my graphical settings matter a stupendous amount with the cutscenes outside of the game engine, but the graphics of the people, the foliage, the detail—it's just not it. We're in 2025, and the people, the faces, the expressions look like they're a decade old. I don't know who's drinking the Kool-Aid that Ubisoft is chugging down people's throats, but it annoyed me so much hearing, "These are amazing graphics; it makes me feel so immersed." Holy hell, dude, have you played, I don't know, BG3? I joke, and I can't believe I'm saying this, but Dead by Daylight makes this game's characters look like someone smeared Da Vinci's paintings and said, "Oops, oh well." Combat is okay, although I feel like Valhalla was certainly more fun. Stealth is okay, even though half the time the assassination button doesn't show up. The mastery point system is fine if you want to Skyrim your way through the levels. I don't know; this thing still feels half-baked, but I don't know what more it needs to cook. Also, if you're going to let me grapple hook, at least let me see where the grapple point is because, hello, one should be able to look up, right? Wrong, apparently. The world map feels odd, like things are just far away. Yes, you have beautiful scenery all the time, especially in winter—it's just so nice to look at—but eventually, you get to a point where you just want a button for your horse that just gallops you to the location. At least that would let me enjoy the beauty without running into a bunch of bandits who knock me off the horse and just boink me in the head, insta-killing me. Oh, I haven't even mentioned the microtransactions. I know it's a Ubisoft game, and we can all grumble about microtransactions and stuff—hey, I've bought them too, as much as I hate to admit it. But man, in good old Kangaroo Dollars, you're gonna charge 55 bucks for a starter pack? That used to be a whole freaking game! Hell, that's half the cost of the game it's for! I can't imagine how annoyed a digital deluxe purchaser would feel. Oh look, I spent $120 on this version of the game; surely this gives me everything I could need at the start... EH! Wrong thinking, bucko! I get it, I get it, I can hear the echoes of y'all saying, "You can ignore the microtransactions, you know, they don't matter that much." First of all... it's a SINGLE. PLAYER. GAME. All you're doing is throwing your hard-earned moolah for some extra pretty pixels. Are you gonna use that armour and weapon the entire game? No? I'd love to see you try out of spite. But not to mention, there are 5 armour bundles to purchase on launch. 5. Are you kidding me? Do you want to leave a sour taste in people's mouths, Ubisoft? Because it feels like you're taking a piss and aiming directly for my tongue. Ahhh man... it just feels like time and energy that could have gone into the game itself rather than the additional extras. Ubi, you did one thing right: the follow button. Well done. We found a shiny nugget of gold in the turd! Huzzah... but... it's still a turd. And no matter how shiny you get that turd, it's still the same turd. 4/10. I do not care if you agree with me or not. If you enjoy the game, go have fun! I won't impede. But if you found this review funny, I'd appreciate it if you say so. UPDATE 22/03/24: Firstly thank you to steam for refunding the game. Much appreciated. I was not expecting this to pop off but i appreciate all the support gang. To those that disagree , thanks for making me laugh. How about you own the game first before you can try to disagree? Then i'll debate you.

For the love of all things holy, TURN ON INSTA KILL ASSASSINATIONS (in the settings). Makes it feel more like an AC stealth game with small bits of RPG like combat thrown in the mix

I was worried about this game, because people said that the narrative and voice acting was going to be bad. But I turned on 'immersive mode' which sets the speech to the respective characters native language, and I am satisfied with the voice acting and cut scènes so far! The beginning actually sets a good premise, at least for Naoe. I still need to delve deeper into Yasuke's past, since that will occur later on in the game. I wasn't worried about the gameplay, because it continues on the path from Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla. I would say the stealth gameplay from Naoe is at least on par with the heights AC has achieved across the years, and Yasuke feels more like how I played Eivor, full hack and slash mode. Graphics are gorgeous!! A huge upgrade since Valhalla. Steady FPS and short loading times, no bugs so far. I set everything on ultra-high and use Nvidia DLSS settings. Micro transactions are not in your face, so I just ignore their existence. My pc: AMD ryzen 7 9800x3d Nvidia RTX 4080 Super 32GB RAM WD Black SN770 2TB M.2 SSD

7900XTX with a Ryzen 9 9900X - Settings: 4K Ultra - The benchmark gave me an average FPS of 100 however the experience in game differs. The game forces 60 fps in cut scenes which is an odd choice, but general game-play it average between 140-160 FPS when actually playing. So far no stuttering issues, world looks incredible in 4K so far. Additional note: 2K Resolution on Ultra - The Benchmark averaged around 128 FPS. In game cutscenes still forced to 60fps, actual game-play averages around 150 - 180 fps Notice how none of the negative reviewers are refunding the game, and are continuing to play it. Its almost like the game is quite fun and enjoyable, but they cant tell ppl that after spouting all thier nonsense.

As a Japanese, I can confirm that Yasuke is not even mentioned in the Daimyoki(大名記) which record the names of all samurai and retainers under control, including those who made no notable contributions. Yet, they still declared him a samurai. Our culture is rich, with many stories and notable figures known only to the Japanese. This game could have been a bridge to share that richness, but instead, they chose to focus on a figure like Yasuke, who is barely known and not mentioned in our historical texts, seemingly to serve their own agendas. We are already aware that other cultures have started casting black individuals in roles that are traditionally preserved by other countries, seemingly just for propaganda purposes. Now, it seems our culture is not being spared; they are merely using Yasuke to push a specific narrative, which is simply common sense. Yasuke must be the best assasin ever, he manages to kill the whole company RIP Ubisoft.

The good : - nice environment - many cute kitties n dogs - nice fight animation The bad : - idk why they used hip hop music as bgm for a feudal era game - monetizing costume for singleplayer game is the worst - the voice acting is so bad, it reminds me of Gal gadot's acting. so make sure to use Japanese audio to save urself from cringing (new review) tbh, this game is an A- rate for me. If u're interested to play, better to wait for a discount

Ghost of Tsushima at home: now with more microtransactions