Ubisoft’s new open-world RPG ain’t about skinning or killing critters

Assassin’s Creed Shadows, like most modern open-world video games, features a large map filled with various animals, including horses, birds, foxes, rabbits, dogs, and cats. But unlike most other open-world games, even others from Ubisoft itself, you can’t kill any of these animals. Instead, you can only pet and collect some.

Ubisoft’s next big open-world RPG, Assassin’s Creed Shadows, launches on March 20 for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. It’s a really good video game, featuring improved stealth, a large and very pretty digital recreation of Sengoku-era Japan, and some memorable main characters. It also includes a lot of side activities, such as archery and mediation. But one activity not available in Shadows is hunting. Despite Shadows being lousy with deer, cattle, and other critters, you can’t hunt and skin any of them. There’s nothing to craft using their parts. No way to turn ten rabbits into a pouch or a better helmet. It’s a big departure from so many other Ubisoft open-world games, and one that I think animal lovers will appreciate.

Believe me, I tried to kill the animals I found in Shadows. I did so for science, to see if it was possible. And it wasn’t. I shot arrows at deer and swung swords at dogs and none of them died. They would sometimes glow white when I made contact with them, but that was it. Petting some of these animals, including puppies and kittens, was the only way I was able to actually interact with them.

Screenshot: Ubisoft / Kotaku

I never even encountered a single hostile wolf or bear. I was never forced to lift a sword against a single animal in my 50 hours of playing Assassin’s Creed Shadows. That’s very different from all the hunting challenges and aggressive predators featured in 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

Not only are animals off-limits from all the stabbing in Shadows, but Ubisoft has made them a kind of collectible that you can bring back to your homebase. If you want, you can positively cover your HQ with critters. You can even put up fences and create a petting zoo filled with rabbits and pigs and other animals. Then just walk around your base petting them all and forget what your main mission even was.

So if you’re tired of having to kill 20 wolves to get a better sword or being attacked by animals while just trying to complete a quest in every other open-world game, you might want to check out Assassin’s Creed Shadows where the only animal you kill is the most dangerous kind: Man.