Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Ubisoft
A few days before the launch of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Thursday, March 20, the review embargo has now lifted and reviews are flooding in across the gaming landscape.
As for scored offerings, with a few dozen reviews in and more to follow, at the time of this writing, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has an 82 metascore on PS5 (84 on Xbox, 77 on PC).
This is fine? Pretty good? Mainly it’s more or less exactly what you’d expect from a big Ubisoft game, no matter how high profile it may be. Not usually disasters, not usually absolutely flooring anyone and racing toward GOTY contention. For context, here’s how the other mainline Assassin’s Creed games have scored (most reviewed platform chosen):
Shadows
Metacritic
- Assassin’s Creed Shadows – 82
- Assassin’s Creed Mirage – 76
- Assassin’s Creed Valhalla – 80
- Assassin’s Creed Odyssey – 83
- Assassin’s Creed Origins – 81
- Assassin’s Creed Syndicate – 76
- Assassin’s Creed Unity – 72
- Assassin’s Creed IV Black Flag – 88
- Assassin’s Creed 3 – 84
- Assassin’s Creed Revelations – 89
- Assassin’s Creed Brotherhood – 89
- Assassin’s Creed II – 90
- Assassin’s Creed – 81
I mean, the trendline is clear. The highest scored ones are a decade or more ago, then somewhat of a quality dip, then things mostly start looking up a bit when Origins comes around. But almost everything is between a 75 and an 89, so an 82 is no great shock. And big scores do not necessarily mean the biggest sales. Assassin’s Creed Valhalla with its 80 score there was the most successful release of the franchise.
Ubisoft has lost 77% of its value in the five years since Valhalla, so obviously Shadows here needs to be a top performer. Fans have in fact been dying for a samurai/ninja era AC game for pretty much its entire lifespan, and now it’s finally here. Albeit while everyone was waiting, Sucker Punch released Ghost of Tsushima, a stellar, samurai/ninja game in its own right (and one that deserves higher than its own 83 metascore).
Shadows is supposed to be less sprawling than Valhalla, at least, and the option of two protagonists with wildly different playstyles offers a different dynamic. But if players were hoping for some pinnacle of AC perfection and a surprise mass critical hit, this more or less seems like just another Assassin’s Creed game, desired setting or not. For Ubisoft, all that really matters in the end is sales, and we’ll find out how things pan out on that front from here.
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