Control · Fall 2026Page 76 of 100.THE REVIEW

A dirt road runs through a tall bamboo grove into mist. Assassin’s Creed Shadows has some of the most careful weather and landscape in the series’ recent history.The photograph is by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.

Review

Handsome, patient and far too large.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft Quebec’s long-delayed trip to feudal Japan, has the most careful weather and stealth in the series’ recent history, and it buries them under a checklist.

Written by CONTROL

This article runs 416 words and takes about two minutes to read.

6out of 10

Game: Assassin’s Creed Shadows
By: Ubisoft Quebec
From: Ubisoft Quebec / Ubisoft, 2025

For years, fans of Assassin’s Creed asked for a game set in feudal Japan. Ubisoft finally delivered it on March 20, 2025, after two delays that pushed it back from November 2024. Assassin’s Creed Shadows is set in 1579, during the Azuchi-Momoyama period, when Oda Nobunaga was at the height of his power and was preparing to crush the ninja clans of Iga Province.

The game has two heroes, and their contrast is its best structural idea. Naoe is a shinobi from Iga who works in darkness, crawling under floorboards, snuffing lanterns and breathing through a bamboo reed underwater. Yasuke is a samurai drawn from the historical African man who served Nobunaga, and he breaks down doors. The online argument about his inclusion was louder than anything in the game itself, and it had little to do with the character, who is played with gravity and some humor.

Rows of low green shrubs roll across a hillside toward a misty line of trees. — Rows of low shrubs roll uphill toward a misty tree line. The patience the game rewards in its stealth is often lost among the tasks it assigns.The photograph is by Marek Piwnicki on Pexels.

Still water reflects trees and steep distant peaks beneath a cloudy sky. — Still water mirrors trees and distant peaks under a heavy sky. The game is handsome and unhurried, and far larger than its best ideas need.The photograph is by Quang Nguyen Vinh on Pexels.

The seasons do the work

The world is gorgeous, and it changes. Seasons turn as you play, and they are not decoration. In winter the ponds freeze and cannot hide you, and in summer the tall grass does. Light matters more than it ever has in the series, so a castle raid at dusk and the same raid at noon are two different problems. The game also retires the floating markers that told you where to go in earlier entries, and asks you to send scouts to find targets from clues. For a few hours, it feels like a stealth game with a real sense of place.

Then the map opens, and the old habits return. There are shrines to pray at, temples to climb, katas to learn, castles to clear and a hideout to furnish, and the icons spread across the Kansai region like a rash. The story, split between two protagonists, rarely gathers momentum, and its targets blur into one another. Combat is weighty but unbalanced between the two leads, and Naoe in open battle is a chore. Everything is competent, and too little of it is necessary.

The frustration is that a sharper, smaller game is visible inside this one, with a single province, a single season cycle and a single ninja in the dark. Ubisoft has built that game’s best pieces and then surrounded them with dozens of hours of chores.

The verdict: Shadows is a handsome Assassin’s Creed, and it is worth playing for its stealth and its seasons. Players short on time should expect to abandon it well before the end.