When I think back onAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, the memories that stand out are decidedlyunstealthy. And it seems odd that would be the case for the most successful game in a long-running stealth series.
In the 2020 Viking simulator, youcouldsneak around, and there were still cities inviting you to skulk along their rooftops. But those moments were few and far between, each separated from the other by an ocean of pillaging and plundering. Stealth isn’t the first word that comes to mind when anyone thinks of Vikings, and Valhalla played into the expected power fantasy, asking you to raid monasteries and engage in pitched battles — in this world and in the titular afterlife.
Last year’sAssassin’s Creed Miragewas a return to the older style of gameplay, tasking Basim with making stealthy kills. I loved Valhalla, but sorely missed the opportunity to painstakingly plot out a stealthy assassination. Mirage, meanwhile, was a return to the series’ roots, but didn’t connect with fansfor other reasons.
Bridging The Gap In The Assassin’s Creed Fanbase
One of the biggest reasons I’m anticipating this fall’sAssassin’s Creed Shadows, then, is because it seems like it could bridge the gap between these two styles. From the presentation provided at this week’sUbisoft Forward, it seems like it’s aiming to marry the bloody battles of newer entries with the silent stealth the series was originally known for.
Like Syndicate before it, Shadows has two protagonists: Yasuke and Naoe. Yasuke is a samurai while Naoe is a shinobi, and Ubisoft is using their different backgrounds and skill sets to offer two very different ways to approach missions.
A portion of the gameplay presentation showed Yasuke fighting a group of enemies using his kanabo — a large, spiked, club-like weapon. Yasuke brutally slammed his two-handed bat into opponents, blood spurting out of them after particularly hard hits. It looks like an evolution of Valhalla’s Souls-inspired combat, while also seeming to incorporate varied stances à laGhost of Tsushima.
Silence And Violence Living In Harmony
Once the fight was finished, the player had the option to keep playing as Yasuke for the second leg of the mission, or swap to Naoe. The demo-er opted to switch characters, and the second half played out much differently than the first. Night fell, and Naoe began infiltrating a castle in pursuit of a target. Where Yasuke’s approach had been obvious and confrontational, Naoe snuck along rooftops and swam through ponds. Where Yasuke faced his opponents head on and bashed those heads in with his kanabo, Naoe stabbed her enemies through doors and pulled herself to distant foes with her grappling hook. She swung from the rafters, used her ranged weapon to capture an innocent woman from a distance and pull her out of sight, then extinguished lights to hide the evidence. Naoe seems to have a lot of tools at her disposal.
As much as the Yasuke portion of the demo reminded me of Valhalla, Naoe’s section took me back to Assassin’s Creed 2 — this time with a more robust set of weapons and hiding places at the assassin’s disposal. As years pass and I play more and more open-world games, this is the kind of game I’m increasingly looking for. After a few dozen hours, games often begin to feel same-y so built in variety is just what I need. It also might be just what the two halves of the Assassin’s Creed fanbase need to feel like they’re both being served.
