Assassin's Creed Shadows Strikes a Good Balance With Its…

The Assassin's Creed franchise has a few defining pieces of iconography. One of those is the classic Assassin robes, often appearing in a white color scheme and ending in a peaked hood. Another is the Hidden Blade. A focal point of the very first Assassin's Creed's cover art, the Hidden Blade has remained a staple of the franchise, appearing in almost every entry as the primary tool of its respective Assassin protagonist. Assassin's Creed Shadows is no different.

Unlike its RPG predecessors, Assassin's Creed Shadows gives players the Hidden Blade from the outset, with player-character Naoe receiving the weapon as a sort of gift from her father, Nagato. Players start stealthily eliminating targets with the Hidden Blade as soon as they get their hands on the sticks, and for the first time in a long time, the weapon feels like the ultimate Assassin tool.

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By Josh Cotts

How Assassin's Creed Shadows Strikes a Good Balance With Its Hidden Blade

Assassin's Creed's RPGs Have Struggled to Balance the Hidden Blade

2017's Assassin's Creed Origins made some big changes to the series' stealth action-adventure formula, the most notable of which was the introduction of RPG mechanics, including health bars and player and enemy levels. These new mechanics dramatically changed how the Hidden Blade worked in Assassin's Creed.

In every mainline entry prior to AC Origins, stealth assassinations with the Hidden Blade would always instantly kill an enemy regardless of the enemy's armor, health, or usual level of combat challenge, as long as the player remained undetected. AC Origins' Hidden Blade delivered a set amount of damage instead, meaning it had the potential to one-shot enemies, just as long as their level was significantly lower than the player's. This meant that instant kills with the Hidden Blade were quite rare in Assassin's Creed Origins, which in turn led to the iconic weapon feeling surprisingly weak.

Assassin's Creed Odyssey skipped the Hidden Blade altogether due to its placement in the franchise timeline (taking place around 400 years before the Hidden Blade became a common weapon of the Assassin Order), but it returned in Assassin's Creed Valhalla. Valhalla used the same general leveling and health system as Origins, meaning its Hidden Blade functioned similarly. However, AC Valhalla did include a 'Guaranteed Assassination' optional setting that allowed all assassinations with the Hidden Blade to be one-hit kills, though this isn't how the game was designed to be played.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Solves The Series' Recent Hidden Blade Issue

Assassin's Creed Shadows takes a different approach with its Hidden Blade, where its damage is based on a new health-block system. A stealth assassination with Naoe's Hidden Blade will always remove a set number of health blocks. If the enemy has fewer health blocks, then they're instantly killed by the Hidden Blade, and if they have more, they're severely wounded.

The Hidden Blade only works against enemies that are around or below Naoe's character level. Enemies with a much higher level will block the Hidden Blade completely.

An enemy's health bar is clearly visible above their head, and as players approach the target, the portion of health that will be removed with a Hidden Blade attack is clearly indicated. This means that the player is always aware of how much damage the Hidden Blade will do, which goes hand-in-hand with Assassin's Creed Shadows' improved stealth systems, as players are encouraged to choose their targets carefully.

This approach strikes a nice balance, allowing the Hidden Blade to instantly eliminate the vast majority of regular enemies, while ensuring it doesn't feel too overpowered against heavily armored enemies and bosses.

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