The year is 2010, and you're playing Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood. After running from an overwhelming horde of guards, you decide—as the singular, if legendary assassin Ezio Auditore—to turn and face the enemies. Utilizing its chain assassination feature, you quickly flick through enemies as they stand helplessly around you until there's nothing but piles of dead bodies left. That's stealth, or at least some version of it. Stealth perhaps best described as "it's stealth if no one's left alive to talk about it." But that's not the stealth the franchise developed over the years, and it's not the stealth seen in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Indeed, Assassin's Creed Shadows' stealth system is more about observing the situation, calculating moves, taking advantage of the environment, and being a blade in the dark (especially when playing as Naoe). Even Yasuke, despite his stature and honor code forcing him to yell at enemies and face them before brutal assassinations, is capable of some degree of stealth. Assassin's Creed Shadows players are encouraged to utilize the Observe mechanic, slow down, and pick their targets, as an assassin would. Perhaps a point of contention for some fans is how Assassin's Creed Shadows incorporates assassination damage, with associate game director Simon Lemay-Comtois telling us the team urges players to try it before toggling it off for The Best War Games Advance.
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In Assassin's Creed Shadows, some enemies can survive an assassination attempt and only take so much damage instead. Others can outright deny an assassination. For players who do not want this feature, there is a "guaranteed assassination" toggle in the game. However, as Lemay-Comtois said, the "dev team URGES players to try the game as intended before toggling the option." He and the dev team hope that, instead, players will condition themselves to think things through before diving into a kill. Assassinating everyone, for example, may not be a viable method, but as players learn the game and who can/cannot be assassinated, they can pick off the weaker targets before engaging stronger ones. They can also acquire new skills and gear perks to help with assassination.
Assassination Damage Improves AC Shadows' Stealth Gameplay
This feels more in line with Assassin's Creed Shadows' approach to stealth. As Lemay-Comtois also added,
"Condition yourselves to think things through before diving into a kill – who are you going to take down first? What is the best angle of attack? How can you get a target to expose themselves for that optimal angle of attack? All these things matter in Shadow’s stealth experience, and we promise that engaging with the game on its own terms will be worth your while…There’s always a way to overcome the challenge!"
Challenge is the keyword there, and Assassin's Creed Shadows must embody that challenge in gameplay. Players, as a ragtag network of spies, are at a disadvantage; if players could simply chain assassinate everyone, it undermines that important gameplay property. Instead, being smart and choosing targets feels more in line with what the Assassins of the franchise have always been. Of course, for those who want and/or need this important feature, it can be toggled so players can assassinate anyone and everyone. But, as Lemay-Comtois encourages players to do, engaging with the game on its own terms can go a long way too.
Assassin's Creed Shadows
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 81 /100 Critics Rec: 82%
- Released
- March 20, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ // Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Language
- Developer(s)
- Ubisoft Quebec
- Publisher(s)
- Ubisoft
