Shadows recently had another delay of a few weeks to refine and polish the game. The new release date is March 20th, 2025.
Now, there are nerves from every angle—from the setting, the characters, and even Ubisoft itself. It’s the latter that makes me nervous.
Ubisoft was a company I grew up with and had many special experiences, from Far Cry to Assassin’s Creed (earlier days) and even South Park. Ubisoft was once known as one of the better developers but recent years have changed that dramatically.
Odysessy, Valhalla, Mirage, and all of the latest entries into the AC franchise haven’t felt like an Assassin’s game. Far Cry 5 and 6 were pretty average and then there’s Outlaws on top of that. All of these games felt the same even despite cross franchised. The menus, the worlds, the crafting, almost everything felt similar across games.
We’ve heard that Shadows is likely to be a make-or-break game for the developer. I hope this is true. I’m 31 years old and have played hundreds of games but in the last few years, it’s felt like money first gamer last. There are outpours of cries for even basic things to be added to games and developers couldn’t care less. Ubisoft has felt like that.
What worries me above all else is the fact Ubisoft delayed Shadows due to the poor reception Star Wars Outlaws received. It tells me immediately that Shadows was going to be nowhere near people’s expectations and they knew that. Can they manage to overhaul and turn this game around in mere months from its original release date? I don’t know. It’s easy to believe they couldn’t but then again, I’m not a game developer.
The AC franchise seemingly peaked in the Ezio series only having the odd hit since then. Black Flag and Origins but these seem here and there when this is a franchise that should be smashing it out of the park with every iteration. It feels like the franchise died with Desmond and I’m not the first person to say that.
For me, I want to see the Creed, the Brotherhood, an actual assassin that follows the code the same way Ezio did. I understand not every game can do that otherwise it’ll rightfully get boring but besides Mirage which was poor anyway, when was the last time we had that? Perhaps I’m in the minority with this particular complaint but I play an Assassin’s Creed game so I can be an assassin, not as Odin in disguise.
Don’t get me wrong, the Apple of Eden has always been farfetched in a game that is over the top at times but when we have a game like Valhalla trying to be the next God of War, it falls hard because there’s no comparison. If I want to play a game set in Norse mythology, I’ll play God of War which had a Game of the Year entry in 2018.
This is it ultimately though, and even for me personally, this is Ubisoft’s last chance. I will be buying Shadows on day one. I want to see if Ubisoft has done enough to make a damn good game considering the budget they’ve pumped into it. I am nervous about it but at the same time, I am a little excited about it. If Ubisoft has listened to the backlash, listened to fan’s concerns, and seen what they did wrong with Outlaws then I don’t doubt we could have a solid game here. If Shadows flops, it’s unlikely I’ll ever buy another Ubisoft game again as I’m simply tired of being disappointed.
I wrote this article because I care, not just about the AC franchise but gaming in general as it’s my escape from reality.
