Assassin’s Creed Shadows is just around the corner, releasing on March 20, and reviews are already in.
There was a lot of speculation leading up to Assassin’s Creed Shadows release, especially regarding Ubisoft’s depiction of Japanese culture in early trailers. But the same way this controversy didn’t have much impact on the AC Shadows sales, it didn’t affect its reviews.
Critics who had early access have focused more on how the gameplay develops and how the story—fictional or not—fits into the game world and adds to the overall experience. Here’s what reviews are saying and how fans had already predicted the outcome.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an 8 out of 10, on average
As of March 18, Assassin’s Creed Shadows has review scores in the low 80s on Metacritic, with the PC version scoring the lowest at 79 and the Xbox version the highest at 86. The pattern is similar on OpenCritic, where the game has an 81 average score and an 84-percent critic recommendation.
Most reviews focus on the same key points. They highlight how Assassin’s Creed Shadows improves gameplay, especially stealth mechanics, compared to previous titles, but also criticize the weak story and uninteresting narrative choices.
So, while an average score around 80 means the game is good, it’s not considered a masterpiece or one of the best in the series. Assassin’s Creed 2 continues being the highest-rated game in the series on Metacritic with a score of 90.
Assassin’s Creed fans expected this review score
Interestingly, days before reviews came out, fans had already predicted the game’s scores.
In Reddit threads leading up to launch, players speculated that the game would land in the 7/10 to 8/10 range, with some outlets occasionally giving it a 9/10. Some predictions were extremely accurate, with players guessing the score would land between 80 and 85, which turned out to be close to the final result.
So, what can we take away from all this? Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a good Assassin’s Creed game—nothing more, nothing less. It delivers exactly what you’d expect from an Assassin’s Creed title, without doing much to push the series to the next level.
Destructoid’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows review will be ready in the coming days.
Published: Mar 18, 2025 6:10 PM UTC