Assassin’s Creed: Shadows – A Missed Strike in the Dark
Assassin's Creed: Shadows—A Dive into Ubisoft's Latest Controversy Magnet
Ubisoft’s latest Assassin’s Creed entry, Shadows, has landed—and with it, a tidal wave of controversy.
From its historical liberties to marketing disasters, this game is making headlines for all the wrong reasons. But perhaps the biggest red flag is Ubisoft’s so-called “anti-harassment plan“—a move some see as preemptive damage control.
Let’s break it all down.
Was Yasuke an Actual Samurai?
Let’s kick things off with our protagonist, Yasuke.
Ubisoft proudly presents him as an African samurai, a bold move that screams diversity.
But hold your katanas—historical records about Yasuke are as scarce as a stealthy ninja in broad daylight. While it’s documented that Yasuke arrived in Japan and caught the eye of Oda Nobunaga, the leap to samurai status is more speculative than solid.
Some historians, like Yu Hirayama, argue that Yasuke was given a stipend, a house, and a sword, suggesting samurai status. However, the lack of a surname and any concrete evidence makes this claim as stable as a house of Hanafuda cards.
Image Credit: @HIRAYAMAYUUKAIN | X.com
Now, don’t get me wrong—creative liberties in gaming can lead to funderful experiences.
But when a game touts itself as “historically accurate” while leaning on interpretations like those of Thomas Lockley, whose book African Samurai is often criticized for its speculative claims, it feels like Ubisoft’s trying to stealth its way past scholarly scrutiny in order to make a round peg fit into a square hole.
Shrines, Sensitivities, and Swift Backpedaling
Another Shadows misstep came in the form of destructible Shinto shrines, a gameplay element that sparked backlash in Japan. Critics saw it as disrespectful to the country’s cultural and religious heritage.
Ubisoft quickly patched out the feature—but this only fueled more frustration.
Instead of standing by their design choices or doing the research to avoid the issue in the first place, they took the “fix it later” approach that’s become all too common in modern gaming.
AC Shadows: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly
The one positive thing that I will say is that the game is genuinely beautiful – which almost makes me sad.
Not because I want Ubisoft to fail, not because I want to have nothing but negative things to say – but because it makes me honestly upset that obviously Ubisoft has talented people working for them to make a game that has such an amazingly immersive and wonderfully aesthetic world and this game could have been so much better than what it ended up as.
Image Source: Assassin’s Creed Shadows | Ubisoft
How do you make such an aesthetically dazzling experience, yet ignore almost all aspects of the actual gameplay in the same vein?
If you read articles from the seals barking for fish at the mainstream gaming media, you’ll hear endlessly superficial positivity like “you can pet cats” or “I was absolutely flooded by the cosmetics“.
But the fact is that the negatives surrounding the core of the gameplay and laughable “historical accuracy” far outweigh the glossy veneer and packaging that Ubisoft and media want to emphasize:
- Microtransactions to speed up artificially bloated progression
- Stealth combat vs. enemies with the short-term memory of a goldfish
- Mind-numbingly similar quests that repeat endlessly throughout the game
- Exploring the open world primarily gives you useless base decorations
- Improving your base is basically soft-locked behind microtransactions or hours of painfully slow farming
Ubisoft’s Rough Track Record & The DEI Debate
Ubisoft isn’t new to controversy. Their recent releases have been plagued by accusations of prioritizing diversity initiatives over game quality. Many players feel Ubisoft’s execution for DEI initiatives often comes across as forced, resulting in lackluster storytelling and uninspired gameplay.
Some past examples include:
Star Wars Outlaws (2024) – Faced backlash for its subpar gameplay (criticizing combat, stealth mechanics, and speeder riding) while embodying the Southpark joke of “put a chick in it and make it lame and gay”.
Image Credit: Southpark
XDefiant (2024) – Touted as Ubisoft’s answer to Call of Duty, but suffered delays and community skepticism over its identity. If you were looking to play a straight, white, male operator – sorry, not allowed in this game!
Skull & Bones (2024) – An open-world pirate game focused on Admiral Rahma, a strong independent womxn that don’t need no man
. The game spent a decade in development hell and launched with extremely underwhelming content and player engagement.
Rather than course-correcting, Ubisoft appears to be doubling down, leading many to believe that Shadows is just the latest example of a company out of touch with its audience.
Gaming Media: The Ever-Faithful Cheerleaders
Predictably, gaming media outlets have rushed to Shadows’ defense. Early reviews from major sites like IGN and Eurogamer shower it with praise (how suprising), while player reviews on Metacritic tell a very different story.
This isn’t new—many of these outlets belong to the same media conglomerates and seem to push the same narrative. As I covered in my previous article on The Gamergate Media Echo Chamber, much of mainstream gaming journalism is controlled by Ziff Davis, the parent company of IGN, PCMag, and other major gaming news sites.
It’s no surprise, then, that these outlets often seem to be in lockstep. Just look at some other recent examples:
Dragon Age: The Veilguard (2024): IGN – 9/10, Metacritic User Score – 3.9/10
Forspoken (2023): IGN – 8/10, Metacritic User Score – 3.5/10
Velan Studios’ Knockout City (2023): Eurogamer – 4/5, Metacritic User Score – 5.1/10
Saints Row (2022): GameSpot – 7/10, Metacritic User Score – 3.6/10
The pattern is clear: glowing media reviews, followed by players overwhelmingly rejecting the game.
Shadows seems to be heading down the same road with gaming media hyping it up as usual, but it looks like we’re going to have to wait to get the user review score in.
Image Credit: Metacritic | Assassin’s Creed: Shadows
Gameplay Critique: Assassin’s Creed Trips and Falls
Setting aside the historical controversies, let’s talk about gameplay. Compared to Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla, Shadows makes some baffling design choices that hinder the open-world experience.
Environmental Obstacles: Navigating the world feels frustrating. Your mount constantly collides with minor obstacles like bushes and small trees, turning simple travel into a chore.
No Time-Skip Mechanic: Unlike previous entries, Shadows doesn’t let you fast-forward time to nightfall, making stealth play as Naoe needlessly tedious.
AI Issues: Enemy AI struggles with basic detection. If you scale a wall or use a grappling hook, guards lose interest faster than a speedrunner skipping cutscenes.
On top of that, Ubisoft’s claim that their AI is more dynamic and reactive falls flat.
Guards have an uncanny ability to lose sight of you the moment you’re out of their immediate line of sight—because apparently, historical Japanese warriors had the spatial awareness of Goombas.
But if you need a break from the game breaking enemy AI, don’t worry! Assassin’s Creed: Shadows leans more into the “historical accuracy” of Yasuke by allowing you to romance men too, in true Ubisoft fashion!
This is actually a scene from one of Yasuke's male romances in assassin’s creed shadows💀 pic.twitter.com/J8Ww0Xmw2l
— LearningTheLaw (@Mangalawyer) March 19, 2025
Stumbling in the Shadows
Ubisoft had an opportunity to craft something special with Assassin’s Creed: Shadows, but instead, they’ve delivered a game mired in controversy and questionable design choices.
Rather than letting the work speak for itself, they’ve walled themselves off from criticism with a PR spin and their “anti-harassment plan” that some critics question whether it’s about protecting developers or controlling the narrative.
Could Shadows have been great?
Maybe.
But in the end, it seems Ubisoft’s biggest stealth move was dodging accountability.
And that’s something no hidden blade can fix.
What are your thoughts on Ubisoft’s latest release?
Share your experiences and join the conversation below!
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Gents
March 21, 2025
They be pulling the same crap
Ayefkay
March 24, 2025
Ubisoft games are sadly predictable these days. It’s actually sad seeing all of the potential of these games squandered. Admittedly, the graphics look great but the stealth gameplay and absolutely unnecessary gay romances (or any romances for that matter!) in this is just virtue signaling. Anyways, sorry for the rant but thanks for stopping by Gents!
Killer B
March 22, 2025
The enemy AI in the new Assasin’s Creed is a joke
Ayefkay
March 24, 2025
Love the Naruto reference and thanks for stopping by! Imagine being some sort of criminal in modern society and evading the police by climbing a roof? Society would be in shambles my friend.
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March 28, 2025
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