Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Players have rightfully thrown piles of metaphorical tomatoes at all the nickel-and-dime live service elements in recent Ubisoft games. Assassin’s Creed Shadows continues this irritating trend despite being strictly single player, earning it a bad rap among some players. There’s also the complaint that the formula is largely unchanged since the action-oriented direction started with AC Origins. But AC Shadows does improve at least one central aspect from its predecessor, Valhalla, and that’s the open world design. The dynamic seasons are a key aspect of the charm and beauty of the Japanese setting. There’s just a ton more variety here than the repetitive snowscapes of Valhalla’s setting or the Odyssey’s. Every new settlement and forest looks uniquely stunning, helping distinguish AC Shadows within the vast catalogue of open world games.