How Assassin’s Creed Shadows Still Trails Behind Ghost of Tsushima

Developer Sucker Punch Productions’ Ghost of Tsushima could not sneak by the Assassin’s Creed comparisons. Any open-world action game with stealth elements based in some famous historical period is unavoidably going to be likened to Ubisoft’s long-running stab-centric series. But Ghost of Tsushima didn’t just overcome those comparisons; it cut them off at the head and became the clear winner in that showdown.

But Assassin’s Creed did not come back with sharpened steel with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, its long-anticipated journey into Feudal Japan. Despite coming out almost five years later, Shadows still falls well short of what Ghost of Tsushima did, in addition to not absorbing where the genre at large has gone in that time. 

Intro

While many of Shadows’ disparate parts can be broken down separately and compared unfavorably to Ghost of Tsushima’s, many of them demonstrate their ineptitude together as a unit in the intro. Ghost of Tsushima kicks off beautifully with a strongly paced prologue that succinctly previews what the next few dozen hours will be like. The well-framed opening chapter not only shows Tsushima’s scenery under the beautiful moonlight, but does so while also establishing the values of the allied forces — “tradition, courage, honor” — and the overwhelming threat they face. 

The introduction of antagonist Khotun Khan and how he dishonorably incinerates his first foe also efficiently conveys multiple ideas, as it demonstrates what kind of danger the people of Tsushima are up against both physically and idealistically. He’s laying siege to their land and view on the world and those intertwined threads carry through the whole narrative. These scenes are also interspersed with tutorials that teach the mechanics in a setting that’s more exciting than a dry training match against wooden dummies.

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows is nowhere near as concise. After listening to a ghost-like virtual guide babble inside the Animus for a minute, players are dropped into a dense and dreadfully boring intro. Players automatically walk forward in the first “playable” section for less than a minute only to be railroaded in a 10-minute cutscene where the game completely misunderstands what “show, don’t tell” means. The Portuguese priests openly talk about how deadly Yasuke (who is named Diogo at this point) is with a blade, while Lord Oda Nobunaga is able to pick up on that ferocity simply by noticing how Yasuke’s eyes move to track every threat in the room. 

None of this is shown to the player and is all conveyed in the most flat and passive way possible. It takes around 13 minutes to do more than automatically walk forward and choose a few dialogue options. It’s clumsy by any standards, especially since it doesn’t showcase what players are in store for.

Narrative

The intro does, however, preview how lackluster the writing generally is in Shadows. Many of its cutscenes are far too long and almost always drown out the point in long soliloquies or flashbacks. These shortcomings tend to drag down the stories that accompany each of the main assassination targets. They’re all relatively self-contained and can’t make much of an imprint in the two or so hours it takes to complete each one. A few of them have decent plots — the Ox’s story about recruiting disaffected peasants had potential — but none of them reach greatness and end up making up an empty overall story that says very little.

Naoe and Yasuke don’t help by being mundane protagonists. While there are a handful of scattered moments of them showing any sort of emotion, their simple motives and personalities don’t grow or change much throughout the journey. Past Assassins like Bayek and Ezio succeeded because they matured and showcased a whole range of emotions. Bayek could be silly with his child, gentle with his wife, and threatening when facing down a member from the Order of the Ancients. Naoe and Yasuke aren’t as fleshed out and the narrative crumbles without a strong foundation, especially when most of the plot revolves around weak side stories and a forced MacGuffin. 

Ghost of Tsushima’s Jin Sakai is by no means one of the genre’s deepest protagonists, but he benefits from clear writing and conflict. Jin’s lean dialogue gets his points across quickly and the tension that brews between him and his uncle gives him a compelling arc with personal and grandiose stakes. These clashes enrich the narrative and ensure that it actually has something to say beyond “evil guys must die,” a low bar that Shadows can’t even clear. 

Gameplay

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an open-world action RPG with parkour and stealth elements and somehow all of those disparate parts are lacking. The open world is insultingly empty and hardly has anything for players to do outside of beeline from objective to objective. Incidental “open-world moments” never seem to occur and there’s next to no reason to actually explore since everything valuable is clearly labeled.

The combat is hampered by spongey enemies and lackluster sound effects that undersell every slash, bash, and parry, both of which make players feel weak. The RPG mechanics play a huge role in this inverse of a power fantasy since they only seem to inflate enemy health bars and add unnecessary grinding and level gating. Parkour is better than it’s ever been, but it’s still got more than enough residual jank and needs to be overhauled (again). Stealth fares the best of the bunch, yet it’s still limited by weak AI, a lack of tools, and its underbaked light and darkness system. 

Ghost of Tsushima is simpler by comparison, but that focus is a huge strength. Combat is the best part since its responsive controls and beefy sound effects make every parry and swipe feel incredible. Jin’s multiple stances also yield more depth and don’t lean on RPG elements in order to have a false pretense of depth. The skill tree and armor sets are the light RPG touches that let players grow without succumbing to the loot grind that has consumed most of the recent Assassin’s Creed games. 

And even though Ghost of Tsushima can still be considered a Map Game™, its approach makes it far more memorable than something like Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which adamantly follows the most boring version of the formula. Guiding players to the objective through the wind is brilliant, and stumbling across its side activities without intrusive markers makes getting around more immersive. Even though neither are Breath of the Wild-like titles where exploration reigns supreme, Ghost of Tsushima is clearly closer to that ideal than Shadows and is much more rewarding because of it.

Difficulty

Shadows’ highest difficulty option doesn’t change the game too much outside of removing glints on certain attacks, making enemy attacks more damaging, and allowing guards to see players on rooftops. Ghost of Tsushima, though, allows players to live more of the samurai fantasy through its Lethal difficulty mode.

This setting has a tighter parry window like the other settings before it, but also adds another interesting wrinkle by making both parties more deadly; only a slash or two can be fatal. Like its name implies, it sells the fantasy of being a lethal samurai without sacrificing tension. Its controls are more than up for the task, too, making those more challenging settings in Ghost of Tsushima worth pursuing.

Visuals

Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ current-gen exclusivity gives it a technical edge over Mirage and Valhalla, but that extra tech cannot compensate for weaker art design and less engaging camera work. Shadows’ bloated Japan is diluted by overly large and repetitive forests filled with too many trees, and the flat shot composition rarely frames the iconic Japanese architecture and natural beauty in a flattering way. 

Ghost of Tsushima is a much more striking game, despite being five years older. It’s more saturated than Shadows, yet Sucker Punch doesn’t just ratchet up that dial and leave it at that; the team uses those brighter colors to great effect. Tsushima’s sprawling fields of colored flowers are absolutely stunning to behold and elevate this world past almost all of its peers.

The sheer beauty of these fields makes it easy to get a great photo in photo mode. Sucker Punch also frames these landscapes well in its cutscenes, which not only calls back to its cinematic inspirations but also gives players yet another way to appreciate the visuals. A few of the more striking vistas are also the backdrop to climactic duels, making for another way Sucker Punch cleverly draws attention to how truly gorgeous this game is.