Assassin’s Creed Shadows Will Use Ships To Travel But Don’t Expect Any Piracy

Highlights

Assassin’s Creed Shadows showcases diverse gameplay between samurai and ninja protagonists, each with unique combat styles and environments.
Dynamic weather system and historically accurate ships for travel, but no open-world seas in this land-centered Assassin’s Creed installment.
Protagonists in Shadows can share loot, meaning players can pick up gear for one character and use it for the other, offering new gameplay experiences.

For lovers of being a sneaky, and not so sneaky, assassin, Creed fans got their very first look at a deeper range of gameplay from Ubisoft Forward this week. Showcasing the difference between its two main characters, the samurai Yasuke and Naoe the shinobi, Assassin’s Creed Shadows finally unearthed how these two work together, yet separately in combat styles.

We also got a look at the environments in which they will both make their playgrounds, including the dynamic weather system which changes with the seasons. Although we haven’t seen much in the way of its travel system, ships will be used to traverse, but the ocean is no place for a cunning assassin, so don’t expect any sea shanties.

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Assassin’s Creed Shadows Won’t Have Open-World Seas

In an interview with Dexerto, Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ director Charles Benoit, who also worked on Odyssey and Syndicate, spoke about the game’s Jesuit missionaries and the Portuguese traders and how this was a greatly important time for transportation in the trades sector in this particular era. For players who loved Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag and being able to dip into the Golden Age of Piracy, Shadows is very much telling its story on the land, so you can ditch the wooden leg and eye patch (sadly).

Even though players can use historically accurate ships to travel on, although how far and where is still left a mystery, Benoit states that players won’t be able to set sail around the oceans in an open-world environment. “We have a ship you can see, you can go on the ship, we also have a ship that goes around in the country because a lot of trades were done. You can use this ship to travel. But the fact our map is really centered on land and mountains, it didn’t make sense to focus on this big, open sea area. We really focused on land.”

Benoit also shared a tasty tidbit that both protagonists will be able to share loot, so if you’re a greedy sort, you better get a bit more generous before Shadows releases. For instance, one character can pick up gear for the other and vice versa. “So if you play 10 hours with one, there’s a lot of new stuff to play around with when you swap to the other,” Benoit explained.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows will release in just five months on November 15, plenty of time to put your social life on hold to sink countless more hours into what looks to be one of Creed’s most immersive worlds yet.