It's Time For Assassin's Creed To Finally Ditch Its Boring RPG Mechanics

Sneaking through the shadows, hopping from rooftop to rooftop, and taking out targets before they know you’re there are the joys of Assassin’s Creed. The last few games have added skill trees, experience points, and weapon upgrades to the list of hallmarks, but they’re far from a joy. The RPG transformation comes dangerously close to ruining Assassin’s Creed Shadows, which makes a strong case that a skill tree should never be part of a shinobi’s tools.

In Shadows, you’re free to switch between burly samurai Yasuke and sneaky assassin Naoe at any time, depending on whether you’re in the mood for stealth or simply decapitating your enemies in open combat. In theory, that means players can choose how they want to tackle any of the game’s challenges. In practice, the game’s RPG systems keep Naoe from reaching her potential for way too long.

Naoe is desperately underequipped for her opening mission. She has a handful of kunai to throw and a grappling hook that takes her ages to climb, leaving her hanging like a piñata. Starting with such a paltry toolkit doesn’t just leave Naoe underpowered; it made me dislike the game’s opening hours.

Things do get better. Early in one of Naoe’s multiple skill trees, she unlocks a smoke bomb that hides her from enemies and a bell that can distract entire groups. Another upgrade apparently gives her a massive increase in upper body strength, letting her zip up her grappling hook like Spider-Man. These make stealth far more fun and functional, turning Naoe from a bumbling thief to a fearsome assassin capable of taking out an entire castle without raising an alarm.

That progression isn’t necessarily a bad thing. If Assassin’s Creed Shadows tied acquiring new tools to the story, the slow gain of power could be thrilling, and missions could be designed specifically around your current skillset. Picking a new ability from a skill tree just doesn’t feel as good, and that’s not even the biggest issue with Shadows’ RPG systems.

Naoe is meant to be played by sneaking through strongholds and silently taking out enemies, but no matter how well you stick to the shadows and hide the bodies, you’re all but guaranteed to be forced into combat. Approaching an unaware enemy brings up a prompt to “assassinate” them, but the ability isn’t actually a guaranteed assassination; it just does a set amount of damage. That’s often not enough to immediately take out stronger targets, and assassinating a higher-level enemy almost never does the job in one hit. That means even perfect stealth play frequently leads to combat, which is far from Naoe’s strong suit.

The solution once again lies in the skill tree. Upgrade it far enough, and you can slowly increase the amount of damage assassination does, making it more likely — but still not guaranteed — that the ability actually assassinates someone. Thankfully, this particular issue does have another fix. An option in the settings menu enables one-hit assassinations, also known as “the way the game should be by default.”

Beyond the assassination problem, Shadows’ leveling system turns much of the adventure into a chore. Purchasing new abilities takes Mastery Points, which you gain by leveling up or completing activities, like assassinating important targets. But to unlock new skill tiers, you also need Knowledge Points, which are acquired through all kinds of nominally optional content like praying at shrines, completing parkour challenges, and entering archery competitions. On their own, these add life to the game’s world and offer a satisfying reprieve from all the stabbing, but making them necessary to level up just turns them into part of the grind.

I’m still having a great time with Assassin’s Creed Shadows, but that’s despite its RPG systems, not because of them. Even past the initial leveling speed bump, I’m unlocking abilities that have no business being gated behind experience points, and every time I’m asked to purchase a two percent increase to weapon damage, part of my soul dies. Assassin’s Creed has been all-in on its RPG side for nearly a decade now, but it’s time to put the skill trees and experience points to rest. Let’s hope they can be assassinated in a single hit.