Assassin’s Creed Shadows Players Slam Downgrade From Odyssey

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been out on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X for nearly two months, giving Assassin’s Creed fans plenty of time not just to play AC Shadows, but to ruminate on it. And now that the release hype has died down, there are many Assassin’s Creed fans noticing various shortcomings and downgrades compared to previous Assassin’s Creed games. For example, the side quests in AC Shadows are a major downgrade compared to what the series has offered at times in the past, and in particular with Assassin’s Creed Odyssey.

Since Assassin’s Creed became an open-world RPG series with Assassin’s Creed Origins, Assassin’s Creed Odyssey has probably been the high point when it comes to side quests. And that is because its side quests are less fetch and checklist quests and are more fleshed out. When you consider Ubisoft said The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt was an inspiration for the game this isn’t very surprising. Since then, the side quests have been lacking though, and they are especially lacking in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, according to some fans.

“The secondary quests in Shadows are a downgrade considering the ones in Odyssey,” reads one of the top posts on the Assassin’s Creed Reddit page this week. “The major part of the secondary missions in Assassin’s Creed Shadows are boring and repetitive. They are either kill 100 enemies of this type in this region or collect this items for this character or assassinate this group of generic targets.”

The post continues by noting there are a few exceptions to this rule, but they are the exceptions. It then concludes with a hopeful note that this won’t be the standard with future games. Of course, the popularity of the post echoes the sentiment, as do many of the comments on the post.

“The whole damn game is a downgrade compared to Odyssey,” reads one of these comments. “Origins and Odyssey are still the gold standard for side content in the series. I don’t mind Valhalla and Shadows’ approach, but man it’s a step down,” reads a second comment.

Of course, these opinions don’t represent the views of every single Assassin’s Creed Shadows player, but it is a sentiment that has been expressed quite a bit since the release of the game back in March. Assassin’s Creed Shadows often falls into the pitfalls of many open-world games, which is that it is expansive and varied, but often also surface level and formulaic.

All of that said, and as always, feel free to leave a comment letting us know what you think. Meanwhile, for more coverage on Assassin’s Creed Shadows — including all of the latest AC Shadows news, all of the latest AC Shadows rumors and leaks, and all of the latest AC Shadows speculation — click here.