Strike from the Shadows
Assassin’s Creed Shadows takes a bold step towards honoring the series’ stealth roots with a dynamic lighting system that rewards players who use the shadows to their advantage. Enemies can be knocked out, allowing for a more pacifist approach. The game also features a fully dynamic lighting system where the radiance from sunlight, torches, and lanterns can illuminate both the land and you. Escape into the shadows, and you’re invisible. If you can’t escape the light, you can snuff it out, with lamps (or their carriers) being eliminated to create pools of darkness.
To enhance the parkour experience, the game director Jonathan Dumont states “It’s all physics-based, so there’s a little bit of improbability sometimes when using it. There’s a danger to using it, but you could also perform assassinations from it.” This new feature provides a more dynamic and modern approach to parkour, offering a challenge and a thrill for players who want to take on the more dangerous challenges.
Seasonal Gameplay
Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ world progresses through four distinct seasons: spring, summer, autumn, and winter, each bringing its own weather conditions and terrain shifts. This adds a dynamic element to the gameplay, forcing players to adapt to the changing environment.
- Spring: Grass grows tall enough to hide in, bushes become leafy, perfect to crouch behind.
- Summer: Players can use the new prone stance to crawl into a pond and hide beneath the surface of the water.
- Autumn: Dynamic winds pull leaves from branches, and hanging icicles threaten to snap and fall, revealing your position.
- Winter: Howling winds obscure your footsteps. Guard patrols stick to areas of warmth, allowing you to take new, colder paths.
As the months go by, the approaching winter kills off these natural hiding spots, forcing players to adapt to the changing environment. Players will have to constantly adapt to what the environment is giving them.
The Hunt
Assassin’s Creed Shadows promises a more open, non-linear approach, focused on killing targets. The game’s design allows players to track their prey in any order, with quests providing hints rather than directly pointing out objectives.
“It’s less of ‘follow a quest up to a point’, but it’s much more, ‘I want to do this’ and then you’ll find the way how to do it,” says Dumont. This gives players more agency in how they approach the game.
The targets themselves are designed to provide a variety of ways to take them down, with options for both stealthy and direct approaches. The game will also feature “negatives and sometimes some surprises” for players, adding an element of unpredictability to the gameplay.
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