Ubisoft recently shared proper information on its Japan-set Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Aside from two trailers, which confirmed two playable protagonists, developer Ubisoft Québec has given some further insight about the game’s new mechanics, but the one that most intrigues me is its new dynamic weather system.
I’ve always been a fan of dynamic weather systems in games, mostly for how they make a world feel more alive and can radically alter the mood of a scenario. Sometimes, though, they can offer more than just an aesthetic difference and can alter gameplay, like how rain makes it more difficult to climb up walls in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. In an IGN interview, the staff at Ubisoft Québec explained how the changing seasons in Assassin’s Creed Shadows have a direct influence on gameplay, drastically affecting how you approach completing objectives.
One example producer Karl Onnée provides is how, in summer time, you can go underwater in ponds to hide from enemies. Come winter time and those ponds will have frozen over. You may need to ditch your favoured hiding spots as the seasons progress, but this in turn opens up new opportunities. The stronger winds, for instance, will help obscure the sound of your footsteps, making it easier to sneak up on enemies. As creative director Jonathan Dumont succinctly puts it, “Players will have to adapt constantly to what the environment is giving them.”
Assassin’s Creed Shadows certainly isn’t the first Assassin’s Creed game to have a weather system, but I don’t think it’s ever had one as advanced as what Ubisoft is promising for Shadows. What’s especially unique is that the seasons don’t just rotate after enough time has passed. Instead, the seasons change when you hit certain points in the story, which allows for an added sense of realism and suggests the events of Shadows will take place over the course of a whole year.
According to art director Thierry Dansereau, some side quests can be attempted during different seasons: “When in an open world [side] quest, it might happen that you will play a quest in autumn and I will play the same quest and I’m going to be in summer.” This should mean how you approach completing side quests will depend on the current season, allowing for players to come up with different methods. It may even make some quests more challenging or easier to complete.
It’s obviously still too early to tell how this game will turn out, but so far Shadows is shaping up to be the most interesting Assassin’s Creed game in a long time. Elsewhere in the interview, Ubisoft is also promising a stronger emphasis on stealth and parkour, which combined with a revised combat system is making Shadows sound like an ideal hybrid between the modern action-RPG Assassin’s Creed games and the original stealth-based entries.
