The weeks pass and look a bit the same. Indeed, Ubisoft is constantly communicating about its next title. Enough to give impatient players a bone to chew since the announcement of the new postponement of the title. And what a bone! Many things can be criticized for Ubisoftbut it must be admitted that the communication aroundAssassin’s Creed Shadows is brilliantly successful. Each new part revealed is enough to make your mouth water. It must be said that on paper, the work carried out seems to have been substantial to modernize and breathe real new life into the license. This is particularly the case for combat and infiltration, but also for the exploration which is revealed today.
As an open world game, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is supposed to make exploration one of its pillars. But some of you are certainly already skeptical, knowing the style of open worlds well.Ubi. If this is your case, know that it has been several years now sinceUbisoft seeks to offer alternatives to its much-maligned open world system. An Avatar Frontiers of Pandora, for example, moves away from this, while an Assassin's Creed Valhalla offered various levels of indication depending on desires or needs, a compromise between accessibility and immersion in short. But with Assassin's Creed Shadows, Ubisoft wants to raise the bar even higher:
We didn't want to hand-hold the player too much with icons and markers. We wanted to create an open world where information was essential and would become a form of reward. This made sense in the context of the game where you play a shinobi and fight for information. In Shadows, information is something one must seek out and gain, whether through one's spies, encounters with NPCs, or through one's own eyes. In short, we want players to discover all our secrets in their own way, through investigation, their spy network, or by observing the world.
One of the big changes compared to the last opuses is the absence of the eagle. It will now be up to you to find a good point of view from which to observe and develop your strategy to tackle this or that quest. And speaking of strategy, know that a certain number of refuges will allow you to place your pawns as you wish. Within these kakuregait will be possible to restock your ammunition, adapt your equipment, but also manage your contracts, your allies and your scouts. These kakurega will also serve as fast travel points.
To guide you, you can also count on your quest table. If you have played the latest Assassin’s Creedthis one will undoubtedly remind you of the interface for tracking Members of the Order from Odyssey or the investigation table from Mirage. The goal will in fact be to gather as many clues as possible, to deduce several ramifications and to trigger new opportunities with certain characters in order to achieve, in finethe target of your quest. To fill this quest table, you can count on the information sought by your scouts if you deploy them in a given area. The more scouts you send out at a time, the greater the exploration radius and the greater the chances of gleaning information. Note that these expeditions will last for one season unless you spend a few coins. These will also allow you to get your hands on resources by smuggling or clear alerts given about you.
-As for the map, however, no big changes on the horizon. Blank at first, it will fill in with more detail as you explore the world, passing a point of interest or syncing information about a region from a vantage point . However, these will work a little differently in Shadows. As explained to us Ubisoft, “rather than revealing large sections of the world map with all its opportunity icons, climbing viewpoints now reveal nearby points of interest when you view your surroundings from the top of the high point: neighborhoods city, temples, shrines, castles – most of which are linked to quests or activities you will want to participate in.” From these points, you can also turn the camera to scan and pinpoint certain places that seem interesting to you. Note that to access some of them, Yasuke will have to take the stairs. This will not be the only point of difference. As you know, Naoe and Yasuke are two very different protagonists. Certain activities offered on the map will therefore be quite naturally exclusive to a character – Kuji-kiri meditation for Naoe and learning new Kata for Yasuke for example. But both can be tempted by a completely new activity: painting wild animals from Japan.
Of course, you won't be thrown into the wilds of feudal Japan without help. If you wish, certain tools will be made available to you to help you find the right path. This is particularly the case of Pathfindera mechanic already present in the latest opus, which will literally be there to find the best path to lead you to your destination. For those who wish, it will also be possible to use options to more easily reveal your objectives and track them automatically. If the exploration therefore promises to be a little less guided in this Assassin’s Creed Shadowsthere will still be something for everyone. It will therefore be up to you to choose your own credo from March 20.
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