Assassin’s Creed Shadows promises less ‘hand-holding’ exploration, but I’ll believe it when I see it

While revealing more about the exploration in the upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Ubisoft has promised less hand-holding with a renewed focus on player exploration. I don’t know about you, but I’ll believe it when I see it.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows exploration changes explained

Ubisoft’s takes a look at the exploration in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, where game director Charles Benoit explains some of the creative choices in the game. Benoit specifically states that the team “didn’t want to hold the player’s hand too much with icons and markers,” instead focusing on creating “an open world where information was key and would become a form of reward.”

Changes have also been made to Viewpoints. You can synchronize from the skies above like in previous entries, but this time, it won’t immediately detail vast swathes of the map. Instead, you have to actually look around and mark notable locations for exploration later. According to Ubisoft, this was to “give players a more intentional and active way to find their next adventure.”

The companion Eagle is gone, too. In the recent RPG Assassin’s Creed entries, this made it far too easy to meticulously plan out your approach. You could have an entire area of enemies tagged before approaching, removing any difficulty from 🍎the stealth mechanics.

On the surface, this all sounds fantastic, a throwback to games from eras gone by, where you had to sink or swim in the world around you. So what’s the catch? Because this seems like a massive improvement over previous iterations, but I’ve been burnt too many times by Ubisoft buzzwords to go all-in on my hype for this.

Perhaps my cynicism is led by the fact that this would be such a massive change for Assassin’s Creed. Hand-holding via icons and markers is this series’ bread and butter, so it’s hard to imagine it going too far in the other direction. Consider me down on record as being cautiously optimistic, and I’ll believe in Assassin’s Creed Shadows‘ improved exploration once I see it in action for myself. If Ubisoft can pull it off, it’ll be immense.