Assassin's Creed Shadows gets a lot right, especially when it comes to perfecting the Ubisoft formula. While it isn't a perfect game, and a lot of people seem to dislike it, its enormous commercial and critical success points to a more mature Ubisoft experience, not necessarily just in its narrative, but in the way the developer has gone about crafting its world and mechanics. It drops a lot of the bloat that made previous Ubisoft titles so frustrating to play and innovates where needed to create a pretty incredible open-world experience.

Regardless of whether you agree that AC Shadows could win GOTY, there is one aspect in which it truly excels. Shadows does something that I've not really seen any other game do, something that not only elevates the open-world experience, but brings us one step closer to a truly realistic and dynamic world. While its implementation of this feature isn't perfect, it is by far the closest we've gotten, and I can't wait to see it improved upon further in future Assassin's Creed entries and other open-world titles.

Assassin's Creed Shadow's Approach To Castles Is Great

They Feel Far More Alive

Assassin's Creed Shadows' approach to deg enemy bases - in this case, sprawling castles - is a little different from other titles within the series and even other open-world games. Rather than have exclusively bad guys roaming each castle, perfectly positioned for Naoe or Yasuke to assassinate them before sneaking back into the shadows, each castle is populated by largely peaceful NPC characters. These NPCs are one of the many reasons I think Shadows beats Ghost of Tsushima, as bizarre as that may sound.

They do serve a gameplay purpose, as if the player is caught by them, they'll run and inform nearby guards. They're just one of the many new additions that make the game's stealth sandbox more complex than previous entries, alongside Shadows' surprisingly incredible difficulty options. However, as interesting as their gameplay purpose is, it is their symbolic purpose that intrigues me more, as they fix a pet peeve I've had with enemy bases in video games for quite some time.

Whether it is the fantastical goblin camps of Hogwarts Legacy or the regal palaces of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, base after base is populated by little more than goons with a death wish.

In real life, one would assume that there aren't exclusively just soldiers roaming castles doing little more than standing around waiting to be attacked. However, the majority of Assassin's Creed games and, indeed, open-world games in general would have you believe that is true. Whether it is the fantastical goblin camps of Hogwarts Legacy or the regal palaces of Assassin's Creed Odyssey, base after base is populated by little more than goons with a death wish. It has always annoyed me to no end.

It is strange that in gaming's strive for realistic worlds, this aspect has always been left to feel as unrealistic as possible. I do understand it from a gameplay perspective, as it gives players something to attack, and adding harmless NPCs would get in the way of that. However, Shadows' realistic world found a way of accommodating more believable enemy camps, at least when castles are concerned, by introducing NPCs that both fit into the setting and serve a gameplay function. A true breath of fresh air.

Assassin's Creed Shadows' Needs More Dynamic Enemy Bases

They Shouldn't Feel As Video Gamey

Of course, nothing is ever perfect, and Assassin's Creed Shadows' castles are still largely made up of soldiers waiting to fight you. I would have loved to have seen people coming and going from the castle, such as wealthy targets for Naoe to hunt down, attendants of the daimyo, or builders heading to construct another part of the castle. These types of enemy bases should feel alive and bustling, much like the towns that surround them. It seems a shame that they are largely still and lifeless outside a handful of animations.

I would hope that AC Shadows' extensive roap would include an update to castles, but I'm extremely doubtful. Something tells me this is a facet of gaming that only really bothers me. Nevertheless, it's something I do hope future games address, if only to make exploration more dynamic and believable. This can apply to enemy bases beyond castles or places typically full of life and activity. It's always confused me why regular enemy compounds don't have goons talking to one another, playing cards, or even doing menial tasks like watching TV.

I think a lot of it comes down to the need to animate and script all of that, which would be immensely time-consuming and likely not all that worthwhile. One has to assume that the value realistic enemy behavior outside of combat adds to a game is minute, especially compared to what the time spent developing it could be focused on instead. However, I can't help but feel like Shadows' best features are underutilized, at the very least, in this regard.

The Next Assassin's Creed Should Prioritize Enemy Bases

It Is The Last Part To Fix In Assassin's Creed's World Design

I do believe that Assassin's Creed Shadows' world is largely flawless, at least when it comes to a Ubisoft game. There are, of course, cries for Ubisoft games to evolve even further, to change and be less map marker-focused, less driven by endless busywork, and even smaller. I do understand all of those concerns, especially as I have voiced them too, but at the end of the day, the type of content Ubisoft provides does fit into its own niche. While I'd love every game to be an A24-style work of art, sometimes we need a blockbuster release.

Ubisoft's world design caters to that, and Shadows does it better than any Ubisoft game before it - well aside from maybe one Ubisoft game we harshly critiqued at launch. For me, the only thing left to be polished and improved upon is enemy bases feeling more dynamic. They don't even have to be completely realistic with all the aforementioned animations and ideas added in. Even if they just feel more alive and believable, I'll be happy - not that I want Ubisoft to cater to my every whim and fancy, of course.

I think games like Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 have spoiled me when it comes to immersion in open-world titles. I've come to expect too much, but now that we've practically reached the pinnacle of visuals in video games, I believe the next step of innovation and evolution is in immersive mechanics, even if it is for something as minor as making the enemy bases we endlessly attack feel a tad more alive. Hopefully, the next AC game, or even the next open-world title, learns from Assassin's Creed Shadows and offers dynamic enemy bases like no other.