Like past Assassin’s Creed games, Shadows serves up a clear premise: saving Japan from malevolent actors, this time through two controllable characters, Yasuke and Naoe, an African-born samurai and a young shinobi, who are each on tours of vengeance. — Photos: Steam
Open-world games tend to structure themselves around a central, driving plot. You’ve got to save the planet from catastrophe in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth. In Avowed, you’re seeking the cure for a spreading contagion. The rest of the side-quests – their mini-games and their hidden zones – are mostly extraneous. They’re rest stops along the shoulder of the five-lane highway of plot.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows reverses this formula. Its story line feels diminished and sits in the background of a more vibrant world.
