PLATFORM: PC, PS5, XBOX SERIES (REVIEWED) | RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
Shadows‘ story begins in 1581, transporting us to feudal Japan in the grip of a civil war. During the course of a prolonged opening mission, we’re introduced to the first of the game’s two protagonists, a Portuguese slave named Diogo, who is taken under the wing of the powerful warlord, Oda Nobunaga. Following Nobunaga’s orders, the newly-rechristened Yasuke quickly becomes a fearless samurai, a one-man army capable of taking down groups of enemies with ease. We also meet Fujibayashi Naoe, an inhabitant of the village that Nobunaga and Yasuke are currently destroying. You’ll spend the first act of the game (15 hours on this review playthrough) with Naoe, until she comes face to face with Yasuke – after that, you’re given the option to swap between the two characters at will.
Each protagonist offers a distinct fighting style that are similar enough to each other to easily switch between but with enough differences to make them both feel unique. Yasuke is the tank-like brawler who deals heavy damage and is able to perform some eyewatering executions, but his heavier build makes him less preferable for those who prefer to take a sneaky approach. Meanwhile, Naoe is the more traditional assassin, with a smaller frame that gives her an advantage in terms of speed and stealth but makes her more susceptible to enemy damage. They both have dedicated story-related missions, all of which are engaging and interesting to play through, but there’s a fairly clear winner when it comes to which character is the most fun to control (it’s Naoe all the way).
Shadows‘ open world is split into nine areas, all filled with plenty of the usual synchronisation points and other distractions, but mission-based objective markers can sometimes be quite thin on the ground. To find your way around, you’ll need to explore the world and uncover information that gets added to the objective board in your menu. From here, you’ll deduce where you need to go next, and have the option of trying to find the location yourself or sending scouts to mark the exact position on your map. It’s not an entirely successful means of dishing out quests, sometimes being a bit fiddly and borderline confusing, but it gets a little easier when you familiarise yourself with how it works.
Outside of the main quests there’s much less general busywork than previous games. Of the various activities that are on offer, many of them are short quicktime event-style minigames and small collect-em-up areas that ask you to press buttons in time, hunt for scrolls or pray at shrines, which can become repetitive sooner rather than later but you don’t really have any option other than to complete them to unlock new parts of your skill trees. The cave-diving “kotun” activities are reminiscent of the puzzle/platforming dungeons found in early-era AC games, although are far shorter here and won’t take as much brainpower or platforming skills to master. You’ll also be looting enemy camps and castles for weapons and armour, and any resources that you collect along the way can be used on customise and upgrade your hideout. Here, you’re able to upgrade your weapons, add perks to your gear and train allies to fight alongside you, along with acquiring a range of useful gameplay buffs by building and upgrading your settlement.
Even if you’re of the opinion that another triple-A samurai game might be a bit unnecessary after the success of recent heavy hitters in the genre, there’s no denying that this period of Japanese history is fascinating, beautiful, gritty, mystical, and alluring. Despite some admittedly lacklustre side activities, Shadows has a very addictive gameplay loop that sees you exploring, fighting and gathering as many resources as possible before heading back to the hideout to upgrade your gear and abilities so that you can head out to do it all over again in higher-level areas. Some might find that the structure of the story leaves a bit to be desired – you’re pretty much left to do whatever you want, with story missions eventually becoming lost amongst the other activities and distractions – and a lack of variety in your objectives means that things can become very repetitive over a long period of time. One to be savoured rather than rushed through in as few sittings as possible, Shadows takes a few steps in the right direction as far as gameplay goes, but the lack of variety and narrative structure leaves room for improvement in future installments. A solid seven out of ten in the old days of review scoring!
