Stealth Could Shine Again In Assassin’s Creed Shadows Thanks To Its Dual Protagonists
Assassin’s Creed Shadows won’t tell you how you need to play.
Assassin’s Creed has always split players’ time between stealth and combat, but Assassin’s Creed Shadows makes that duality clearer, dividing the action between two different characters. Recently, developer Ubisoft offered an important clarification about how much freedom players will have to choose one character over the other at any given time, and it sounds like the balance will please fans of stealth and combat alike.
Creative director Jonathan Dumont says that players can switch between Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ dual protagonists almost any time they like, giving them the option to prioritize either one they prefer.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows will let you choose which character you prefer to tackle most situations.
“We're not imposing players try to split the time,” Dumont told ScreenRant. “So if you prefer one character for any reason, you can play maybe — I don't know, I'm not going to put a percentage — quite a bit of the game using one of them.”
According to Dumont, both characters will have personal quest lines that they need to complete on their own, but otherwise, the game usually won’t force players to use a specific character.
“The core of the game can be pick your character and the game adapts,” he said.
It remains to be seen exactly what that adaptation looks like and whether both characters will be equally viable for the entire game, but the concept is intriguing. Traditionally, Assassin’s Creed games are largely stealth-centric, but with an increased focus on combat in recent entries like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Odyssey. While that mix of styles gives the series its identity, the need for one character to excel at both means that stealth loses a lot of its edge, since getting spotted just means shifting into combat mode.
Stealth and combat could both shine brighter thanks to Shadows’ dual protagonists.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has the chance to make stealth really matter. The shinobi Naoe is a stealth expert without much combat prowess, so playing as her means you need to focus on remaining unseen to survive. At the same time, combat could feel more impactful, since samurai Yasuke is equipped for battle alone and lacks the ability to cut and run to the shadows if a fight goes wrong.
The Assassin's Creed games can also be frustrating for dictating when players use stealth or combat, rather than leaving it up to them to decide what sounds the most fun. I’ve never been particularly impressed by combat in an Assassin's Creed game, while its stealth is much more interesting. Ubisoft also intends to revamp stealth to some extent in Shadows, adding new options like the ability to extinguish light sources to create new hiding places. If a player like me can choose to go through the majority of the game relying on stealth alone, especially with the new stealth tactics to take advantage of, that could open Shadows up to an audience that has abandoned the series for its recent entries or never been interested in the first place.
Both characters have personal quest lines that only they can complete.
Shadows’ new direction for Assassin’s Creed hasn’t been without complications. Initially slated to release in November 2024, the game was pushed back to February 2025 for polishing, then again postponed to March 20.
“Building a game that moves, has seasons, and two protagonists is already pretty challenging,” Dumont says. In addition to its dual protagonists, Shadows has a world that changes with the seasons, which seems to be one of the hardest aspects to get right, along with the balance between its two characters.
If Shadows is able to pull off its protagonist-swapping premise to the extent that Dumont says, it may well be worth the wait. Both the more stealth-oriented original games and the recent combat-heavy RPGs have their own fans, and Shadows has a chance to give both camps what they want from an Assassin’s Creed game.
