We have some interesting new information about Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
When Ubisoft first introduced the game, fans were simultaneously intrigued and concerned about the dual protagonist set up. Recent Assassin’s Creed games allowed players to choose the gender of the playable character, and sometimes that referred to the same character, and other times it allowed players to play different characters, like the siblings in Assassin’s Creed Syndicate.
But the notion that gamers could switch between Yasuke and Naoe freely, for the entirety of the game, wasn’t quite expected. This is absolutely not a new idea – it’s found in games as varied as Resident Evil Revelations 2 and Pikmin 3. The concern is applying this idea in an Assassin’s Creed game. Some gamers were even speculating that Ubisoft may have been planning a co-op mode but scrapped it to do it this way instead.
As reported by Insider Gaming, there is a co-op mode for the game, and they’re actually still working on it. The mode is called League, and it will allow you to choose to play either Yasuke and Naoe throughout a level.
That name suggests that this won’t be a story based mode. It’s possible that Ubisoft is working with the idea of making levels to speedrun or play in together. These levels may not mirror the story campaign’s levels, but they may be based on them. It also suggests that there could be leaderboards for players to compete in online.
We think Ubisoft may be designing these levels the same way Capcom designed Resident Evil Revelations 2. Players will remember that the game is designed in such a way that you can switch between characters at any time. This was necessary to solve some of the co-op puzzles, but those puzzles were also tweaked so that a single player can get through them.
Games that are designed for single player and multiplayer, as opposed to games that have different single player and multiplayer modes, are considerably harder to make. People who prefer to play solo have definitely chosen hard more, but such a game design can be incredibly satisfying, and also have broader appeal.
Insider Gaming also broke the story that Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been delayed. They clarify that co-op is not reason for the delay. Ubisoft has been working on this mode for a while and it does not have a set date. So, they may have been planning to release it after the game’s launch. Now, the window is open for this mode to be available upon the game’s launch.
With Ubisoft signaling they will bring Assassin’s Creed Shadows to Steam, and the rumor coming up that it could even be on the Switch 2, Ubisoft will definitely want to work on making this game cross-play. Gamers may not feel the need for it to be cross-progression, since it’s a full retail title. But getting those potential new Steam and Nintendo gamers playing alongside everyone on PlayStation, Xbox, and even the kings on Ubisoft Connect, will definitely be a winning strategy. Ubisoft definitely needs to ramp up more wins, and we think this would be worth the investment.
