Ubisoft needs Assassin’s Creed Shadows to be a hit, but it hasn’t chased that goal by changing how the series looks or plays. By and large, this new entry is similar to Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla in how it sets you free in a sprawling open world where you can go and do anything. But it does, however, feel more restrained, ambitious, and unpredictable in its execution. As a lapsed player of the series, that’s pretty exciting.

After spending almost ten hours with the new entry, I find myself exploring its depiction of Feudal Japan at a surprisingly gradual pace, and it seems to accommodate that approach. After an opening that has you briefly playing as both Naoe and Yasuke to gain an idea of how the dual protagonists work, you are taken into the care of a local woman while playing as Naoe to treat your wounds before stepping into the world as the vengeful shinobi. The next dozen or so hours will be spent in a couple of regions before the training wheels come off, and you’re free to travel wherever you like.

Things Start Off Way Slower Than I Expected Them To

I didn’t want to venture to unfamiliar pastures where my only greeting would be a swift death, so I took my time to learn about the region of Settsu and the fishing village of Sakai that sat in its centre. I decided to climb all the synchronisation points in the region to find random activities that gradually increased my experience and added to a huge bag of loot. These rewards were more multifaceted than I expected an Assassin’s Creed game to be.

Admittedly, you can go anywhere from the off, but higher-level enemies will eat you for lunch if you aren’t careful.

There are still a bunch of cookie-cutter distractions, like finding lost pages around shrines or defeating units of samurai guarding castles to unlock rare treasure chests, but more often than not it felt as if I was discovering this world of my own accord. A press of the shoulder button reveals a bunch of coloured dots indicating treasure and objectives, and instead of following generic map markers, you can seek these out on your own terms while following loose hints to progress quests.

For several hours, I didn’t even look at the world map icons, depending on my own intuition and curiosity to see what this game had to offer. It’s unique yet familiar, which might be the balance Shadows needed to strike in order to succeed.

I think people – both excited fans and hardened critics – are expecting Shadows to be an ignorantly generic action adventure that holds your hand at every turn, but unlike the very underwhelming Mirage, it doesn’t do that. In fact, the opening hours are ruthless as Naoe can only take a handful of hits before collapsing in a heap. You need to be stealthy as you consistently make use of dodging and parrying to battle only a few enemies at a time.

Get caught in a crowd, and you’re doomed because, sooner or later you’ll run out of rations or struggle to manage the onslaught of ronin that surrounds you. But this makes the gradual gathering of power and experience across the first act feel so satisfying as you learn how this new stealth system works and what situations Naoe most excels in. Then, when you least expect it, that sense of power is taken away and reset in the best way possible.

And This Restraint Might Be Shadows’ Greatest Strength

You’ve probably noticed that I haven’t mentioned Yasuke yet, the retainer who makes up the second half of Shadows’ dual protagonists. That’s because the game makes a huge point of holding him back from the player until the time is right. While you play as him quickly during the opening battle, he is otherwise kept from the player until Naoe’s initial character arc has reached its end.

By the time you confront Oda Nobunaga and meet Yasuke for the first time, you have already spent a significant amount of time with Naoe, understanding what she is fighting for and what role a new ally could play in that fight.

Following the fall of Nobunaga, Yasuke is left without a master or a purpose, leaving him with no choice but to join forces with Naoe and fight for the same noble cause.

Even moving away from the narrative implications, waiting this long to introduce a second playable character with a drastically different arsenal and moveset turns what is often this repetitive open world adventure into one with far more possibility. There is still so much of the game world I haven’t discovered yet, but now I want to revisit familiar grounds playing as Yasuke to see what has changed, how he’s treated, and whether familiar quests or castles can be tackled in different ways. Probably not, but Assassin’s Creed has never made me think that way before.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows Might Be The First One I Finish In Years

Naoe and Yasuke are designed as both ideological and mechanical opposites, splitting the two gameplay styles that have defined Assassin’s Creed since its inception into two people you are encouraged to play as an equal amount. They can both hold their own in a fight or attack from the shadows, but their strengths and weaknesses are highlighted well enough that you will inevitably consider who is best for certain missions, or what playstyle you like the most when exploring the open world.

This was previously locked into a single character and thus fatigue set in long before the story reached its end, causing me to walk away from Odyssey and Valhalla for the same reason. This time, I might just stick around.

I went into Assassin’s Creed Shadows expecting it to play in a very specific way, and while it certainly falls into that ballpark, it is surprising enough to keep me invested. Naoe and Yasuke aren’t reinventing the formula by any means, but changing how it is delivered to us means that, at times, the entire experience feels fresh. The jury is still out whether it’ll keep this up until the credits roll, but right now, I’m hooked.