Poll: What Review Score Would You Give Assassin's Creed Shadows?

It ain't perfect but it's a solid 9/10 from me, will be hard for Ubisoft to trump this going forward, as I think it's biggest selling point is it's world setting and time period. Much more interesting to explore than Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla was.

So far I’d say a solid 8.

The story is lacking but almost every other aspect of the game has been pretty damn great, it’s by far the most fun I’ve had with an AC game since Black Flag. I will say if you don’t like Ubisoft’s open world design you’ll still want to wait for a sale as the formula isn’t TOO different, it’s got some nice polish and touch ups, but side quests are still hit and miss.

Also lmao at the usual suspects giving it a 1/10 when they haven’t played nor will they ever play the game, sad sad people.

Haven't finished it yet but based on the 30ish hours i've played i'm saying 9/10. Easily one of the better AC games with jaw dropping visuals, great open world, incredible soundtrack and the best stealth system in the entire series. My only issues are a so so story and Yasuke being so limited outside of combat.

I’ll just say it - ranking it below an “8” means you’re…

1) not a fan of the RPG AC formula (which is completely fair!)
Or
2) you’re faaaar too invested into the culture wars / faux outrage “woke” and all that static

7 for me.

The world, environments, weather systems, graphics etc (barring some bad animations) are amazing. Everything else is quite similar to previous Ubisoft open word games. Combat is a bit basic.

Gotta say I’m a little underwhelmed outside of the graphics. But it’s still a fairly solid game.

Maybe other people’s definition of the word “abysmal” differs from mine, but…come on, folks…this game is not appallingly/offensively bad. That King Kong, and Gollum game were abysmal, to the point the option to vote on them were not even put up by this website.
P.S. it’s an 8 for me.

I look forward to people accusing those of giving scores lower than 9/10 being grifters/outrage brokers/Ubisoft haters.

Edit: Hah, I was too late, already happened. For the record, I did not enter any poll results, as I’ll wait till this game hits the usual Ubi bargain bin level pricing.

Most obvious 5 or 6 out of 10 I've played in a while.
It's just as far removed from "the worst game ever made" , as some people want to make you believe, as it is from an excellent game. It's woefully average in almost everything it does.

Doesn't make sense to give a game like AC Shadows a 9 or 10/10. That should only be reserved for some of the best games ever made.

I can see the score being higher if you're evaluating the game only in the context of other AC games though.

As with the last game, its a 9/10 and then begins to lose a point every 10 hours at around the half way mark.

Settles at a 7 or 6/10

Easy 8 from me

9 from me (43 hours and still in Act 2!)

Only put about 15 hours in so far on Pro.
Will be honest it is a bit AC repeat if you get me.
I wanted to explore Avowed’s world more even though it is four smaller areas and not real open world. It sort of drew me in more.

I had put in about 150 hours to AC vanhalla, but Shadows not drawing me in exploration and discovery wise.

If I could get a refund, went digital, I would be considering a refund.

@dskatter Lol, you're spot on. Just take this comment as an example:

"I’ll just say it - ranking it below an “8” means you’re…

1) not a fan of the RPG AC formula (which is completely fair!)
Or
2) you’re faaaar too invested into the culture wars / faux outrage “woke” and all that static"

Sad and predictable. I'm not a fan of culture war nonsense on both sides of the political spectrum. Since I gave it a 5/10 I just have to be an anti-woke grifter or I was never invested in the AC formula. Apparently, there's no other way to evaluate a game.
This comments section is weird sometimes.

IMO it’s the best assassins creed game to date. 10 from me

@UltimateOtaku91 Is there a lot of exploration? Neat loot?

@dskatter @Paleblood
exactly. It sounds like it's actually a 'like or it's mid' situation setting the culture war far right ideology nonsense aside.

It pretty much seems to be a consensus that it looks gorgeous but if you're not a fan of the tired modern AC formula then it's just more the same of that alongside a really bad story and one character that genuinely doesn't fit into what an assassin skill set has been throughout the entirety of the series.

So basically if you are a fan of that formula still largely unchanged and arguably simplified over the years this is likely an 8/9 for you. However for those that take more issue with it's repetitiveness and bloat alongside other issues mentioned, don't come at them for giving valid scores between a 5-7 because of that. No one is knocking how pretty the world is, so there's that. It's clear anyone giving this anywhere near a 1 is full of *****.

For me personally it sounds like a wait for the ubi heavy discount strategy, 6-7 game lauded by the games media as an 8-9,as always, but less so by reviewers in the content creator space (those not brainwashed into the culture war stuff mind you) . For half price that's good enough.

@Rambo-kind There's a decent sized map to explore (not as big as Valhallas though) with hundreds of chests to find, I find the loot interesting as I like Japanese style armor and weapons so maybe that's a preference choice for each player. What I like about exploring this games map is the changing of the seasons and with each season it effects how you play, like guards sleep more in the summer and are indoors more in the winter, also snow muffle your movements in winter etc.

Easy 9/10 so far. Could be 10 if the story keeps being good.

There's always the trolls voting 1. 🤣

@Anke I. May have to revisit syndicate. Never finished it. It's the only one I never completed. Have you played it since it got the 60 fps patch for ps5?

Culture war has sent people to polar opposite conclusions about this one, and I think they're rating with a favorite team in mind.

IMO it's not a 10 and it's not a 1, it's roughly a 6 or 7 depending on how tired you've become of the Ubi formula. Graphics are great, but gameplay too often feels repetitive or like busy work. Again, the Ubi formula. Side quests are improved from previous AC but still well short of industry leaders (or even exceptional last-gen titles like Witcher 3).

The 8s and 9s feel high to me personally. Do you all really not consider many games to be superior to Shadows? I sure do. It's not bad but also not terribly exceptional.

Super game,great combat,great use of both characters keeps it fresh , amazing graphics

8.4, closer to an 8 than a 9.

A couple of basic functions are missing which were present in previous games

• Meditate for day/night
• Auto follow for the horse
• Mark and sell all for gear, now you have to sell each item individually. It takes a lot of time
• No blood drops on the floor when sheating weapon
• There is 1 sensitivity instead of 2.
  I want 1 for looking,1 for aiming.
• And last there are a couple of bugs, 2 examples: The low res chests and the coming alive of assasinated enemies (it's a miracle!)

The first few hours I found a little boring, then it started to grow on me, then it just “clicked”, and now I love it 😂 easy 9/10 from me. It looks gorgeous (playing on base PS5), great combat, love the seasons, and plenty of great skills to unlock. It’s not perfect though - I personally think that it can be a little too dark at night, particularly when in a building. Sometimes the camera can be annoying, especially when fighting multiple enemies in an enclosed space, like indoors. Also, an option to fast forward time - day to night and vice versa - would have been nice. Otherwise, I’m having a great time.

@Barry_vV yeah definitely agree it's odd though because all the last 3 entries had those quality of life, not sure about auto mount follow though,
Absolutely need to time advancement, confuses me considering there is alot of quests "return at night",
Vendor thing is annoying, bags full crap cause i don't have patience to stand there and sell 1 by 1.
Love the auto resurrection enemies 🤣

@UltimateOtaku91 Very cool, thx!

@Anke It got a 60fps patch in November "24

@KundaliniRising333 Syndicate got a 60fps patch and resolution bump on PS5 - it plays and looks great! Victorian London never looked better. Hope they do the same for Unity.

6 percent of tossers so i see 😀 definitely 6 degrees of seperation from their craniums.

9/10 from me 😀

@thechetearly people’s scores can be whatever they want based on how much they liked it. That’s what this poll is all about, you have your opinion and they have theirs. Simple.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time with the game. But I still exchanged it for psn cards to buy first berserker, given physical copies are currently phantoms in Canada. It’s a great game and worth a buy!

@thechetearly One could throw your statement back at you and say if anyone scored the game 8 or higher is

1) Are ok with Ubisoft releasing yet another colour by numbers title and took zero risks

2) want to dunk on the "chuds" to prove the game is amazing

please note I haven't voted, so don't say i'm one of the people who gave the game a 1.

9 from me and I’m not a big fan of the RPG AC games.

I’m addicted to the open world stuff in this game. 42 hours in and I haven’t even finished act 1 of the story. Capturing forts in stealth and doing the side stories is too much fun.

I know Ubisoft get a lot of hate (some of it justified) but this is the most polished AC game to date. So they have listened in that regard at least.

Plus, there’s no dlc roadmap yet either. But this is one AC game I’m actually looking forward to getting dlc for.

9 out of 10. Enough said. Word up son

Huh so the chuds in the comment sections really are just a tiny vocal minority.

Not played the game though, I’ll guess it’s a good old Ubi 7.5-8

7, because it feels too similar to Origins, Odyssey, Valhalla. Looks gorgeous, just doesn't do much new (even with the two playstyles).

Conflict of Interest, I think Syndicate is massively underrated and up there with the Ezio trilogy and Black Flag. Enjoyed Mirage's return to smaller spaces, but would love to have less grind and more bases that require a bit of lateral thinking

I'll wait to score it when it comes to PS Plus in what will probably be a month or two. Meanwhile I can't believe so many people are giving Ubisoft a free pass over the extremely predatory microtransaction structure built in to a full-price game.

@Jrs1 Just 5/10 for your spelling I'm afraid.

It's a solid 8 for me. Good enough to have some fun exploring the world & story. Certainly a case of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

I am not going to comment on how others vote that is their choice to make for whatever reason. The world would be utterly boring if we all liked the same things or agreed on everything.

It’s a shame they haven’t strayed too far from the usual Ubisoft open world formula.

The reason I like outlaws so much is partly because they mixed it up and added the reputation system.

I'm thoroughly enjoying it in almost every way so I'm sitting at a 9. My only real criticisms are I do wish there was at least some social stealth available and some of the side content is hit or miss.

I'm really enjoying the story, exploration, and moment to moment gameplay though. The weather system in particular is pretty incredible as it does make you need to consider your approach more since some routes will be less safe than others depending on the season and even can change up guard positions/routes. I've never really seen that sort of behavior from AI before. It really keeps me on my toes especially with the expert difficulty.

I really hope other games take some notes on this system. Pretty damn impressive.

@thechetearly or..

3. You aren’t interested in Japan or its history and were expecting epic boss battles with Japanese gods or SOMETHING entertaining/funny

This game is only AC by name.. Ubi sold out this time.. hopefully it pays off for the future and I’m glad it’s going well.. just isn’t for me this time around

@Oram77 yeah one of the few things I actually like about it is Yasuke.. I just think the game is booooooring after 20 hours.. compared to the last 3, Shadows is dull af.. can’t give me all this amazing Modern Day stuff with Basim and then completely leave Modern Day out.. no gods, no humor, no epic boss battles, and no fantasy period

I almost dozed out several times playing some mission about how to properly drink tea, what to wear for a tea party, and then proper ‘tea etiquette’.. first AC game I’ve ever put down.. AC is one of my fave franchises too.. I LOVE their open world loot n shoot gameplay btw

Solid 9 right now. Kass has real competition with Naoe.

The world is stunning. The digital artists at Ubi went to another level on this one. Exploring every inch of it.

@Dodoo I thought the reputation system was a brilliant idea, but the implementation was really poor. If you are on the outs with a syndicate, you can easily fix it in a mission or 2. No real stakes there.

@KundaliniRising333 I’m playing Syndicate right now with the 60FPS patch and it’s great! Not perfect, but a very solid game that still has the odd graphical glitch. Highly recommend.

@WolfyTn that’s a really good point about the humor. There were more than a few moments in “odyssey” that cracked me up. Some of the characters were outrageous (in the best way) but I think the tone of “shadows” is just more serious so humor might be tougher to do? Idk I’m no writer haha

What’s quite revealing about all this is that a pretty huge 6% have decided to give it a 1/10 and yet I haven’t seen a single one of them join the comments thread

@thechetearly God, Odyssey was hilarious, especially that one mission where "You killed my mather and F'ed my pather?" I had to pause and hit the floor in a laughing attack at that one!

Abysmal. 1/10. Don't care about your opinion either. Accept it.

Great game. 52 hrs in and only just to Act 2. A solid 9. I haven't really experienced any bugs yet which is nice, apart from. Getting caught between foliage and trees a couple of times but that's my fault for trying to traverse places you're not meant to 😆

Anyone giving this anything higher than a 6 either never liked proper AC games or have never played them.

Good lord this thing is dull.

Historically inauthentic, janky garbage with bad animation and writing.

The final nail in the coffin for Ubislop.

8 for me.

Excellent game but a couple of issues.

Some poor checkpoints particularly in flash backs, where there is a lot of talking, walking, running or stealth then finally after a cutscene it puts you in combat and if you die it doesn't put you back at the start of the combat, but miles back through all that stuff you did.

Also there is an annoying issue with pathing on abilities. For example your first ability will be that tidal wave (?) thing? You can use it towards a guy a few feet in front of you, but Naoe will stop short and miss due to a 3cm high step!!!! That feels like garbage!

32 hours in so far and I'd give it a 7/10.

I actually like the RPG games and Odyssey is my 2nd favourite AC game, but I'm just not really feeling Shadows so far. Game is solid but if it keeps up the way it's been so far, it'll end up easily within my bottom 5 AC games.

The story sucks so far but I really like Yasuke and his flashbacks, so it's a shame that playing as him is objectively inferior than playing as Naoe - who may be my least favourite AC protagonist to date besides Connor.

I still haven't got the game, I still need to finish Valhalla, but in my opinion 9 should be reserved for truly monumental games and 10 doesn't exist. Still people give those scores around like candy.

30hrs in and I'd give it a 7.5; it's one of those games where the graphics are so good that it actually elevates the game quite a bit, like I just boot it up to please my eyeballs.

The combat is far too simplistic however, and doesn't hold a candle to the depth of something like Rise of Ronin.... wish that game had these graphics instead.

@James_42 Odyssey must have been the best setting. Greek Mythology fo Christ sake and part of me I wishes it was the one to get the this gen treatment but the acting was a bit carry on

The thing with this series is it’s effectively the same tried and trusted formula most every yr for like two decades now so I must be same kind of score. And that score is likely an 8 either upwards or down so my score is a safe and respectable 8. The kind of 8 you bring home to your mother, approved

7/10 overall. A good game with beautiful environments that captures the beauty of Japan. But the quest design and combat gameplay lack any depth. Ghost of Tsushima is the far better game overall.

@Totheteeth To be honest I'm equally puzzled by the 10s. On what basis is that justified? Is this game better than Elden Ring (I'd say no)? Is it a GOTY contender (also, I'd say no)? 10 is sheer fangirling, just like the 1s are pure haters.

@glennthefrog I have no idea - I haven’t played it. I would imagine it’s clearly not a 10 but I would also imagine it’s considerably closer to a 10 than a 1.

I wouldn’t give Elden Ring a 10 but then I’m not part of this Dark Souls love-in either.

I do know that it’s both brainless and obnoxious to be giving a game like this 1/10

My two favourite AC games are AC1 and AC Origins, but if I could play AC Shadows entirely as Naoe it would be up there with them. If I wanted to play For Honor I would, but apparently I have to get through those parts to get to Assassin's Creed. I can live with it but it's annoying. 8/10.

@Paleblood If you wouldn't give AC Shadows an 8/10, what WOULD you give an 8/10? For me it's one of the most 8/10 games I've ever played- not a masterpiece, but great, a beautiful world to explore with fun gameplay- but falls short of a 9 or 10 for story and lots of side content that simply isn't fun

@Totheteeth Never mind. You haven't even played it and just seem here for the drama.

I absolutely love this game. Gameplay loop is so good, the addition to shadow, sounds (greater focus on sounds)and seasons makes assassinations fun to plan (and improv if it goes off the rails) again. So many places to hide, methods to distract, ways to scale. Also the guards can be tough when they gang up on you along with the NPC alarms so it keeps a fun element of tension. I love the seasons, Japan is beautiful and most buildings can be entered (again to facilitate hiding) and sometimes I get distracted by the weather. The map is huge but doesn’t feel empty (despite being a non overly congested part of Japanese infrastructure history) and I am having fun sliding down half the mountains to take shortcuts. I love the side objectives like painting wildlife as it helps me dial in on my sneak habits and since i like to explore first it gives me plenty to do as I uncover the map. The game feels like it pulls in what made you feel powerful in the previous games while sill being willing to punish you if you go in swinging.

I love build up the hideout and learning more about the allies, the story feels like it strikes a nice balance between focusing on decisions and less on character lines (the older RPG ones, considering that AC games are ultimately linear, made you decide every little response in a way that could feel tedious.) the story is quite fun and interesting but still sits in a way that i can happily trek across Japan helping randoms. The amount of targets is hilariously large and in the best way. I keep stumbling into some conspiracy or problem which keeps me invested even though I haven’t progressed the story as much. As I love robbing the enemy camps blind the contracts keep me wealthy and my hideout well stocked. I haven’t even gotten to the story/characters which are both engrossing and well meaning but flawed characters. Also as usual the brotherhood looks more grey and makes me wonder if I am playing the “good guys”. Playing has me even more hyped for the expansion. And I simply can’t get enough of this game. 9/10 for me.

Nearly 60 hours in and loving it, the world is a joy to explore, naoe and yasuke are both likeable characters, the story is good, the side quests are alright, there seems to be a lot of them so far, but definitely a solid 9/10 for me.

AC shadows is really disappointing. Each character is half of a character. You used to be able to sneak and if you get caught you can fight your way out. Naoe can not fight well. Yasuke can fight really well but he can't stealth or climb things. It is so frustrating. I give it a 6.

loving it only beef is in these open world games they need to make it so you don't have to ride so far to each quest spot like damn 200 m max would be nice

Who is giving it a 1 lol

@KundaliniRising333 For the sake of clarity and in the interest of fairness, Steam user reviews currently have the game at an 81% (8.1/10). So the 8/10 ratings were almost dead on. In fact, understating the quality of the game.

Of course, pending opinions and personal taste, which will always differ.

@Ryu_Niiyama Hey well said amigo, I found it a tad slow to start but it's growing on me. It's definitely an 8 it's great lots to do it's the tried and tested formula, not every gamers brew but I'll keep sipping it.

@torquex hope you continue to enjoy!