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With the release date for Assassin's Creed Shadows fast approaching, the developers have taken a moment to highlight the parkour system in the next entry of the popular franchise.
Ubisoft has shared new information about the fundamentals of Assassin's Creed Shadows' parkour system in a new blog post. Slated for a Feb. 14 release date, Assassin's Creed Shadows features two protagonists: the Shinobi, Naoe, and the Samurai, Yasuke. With Naoe proving to be the more nimble of the two leads, it only makes sense that the Shinobi is the highlight of the newly shared details about the changes to the series' much-loved parkour gameplay.
From the cathedrals of Italy to the pyramids of Egypt, Assassin's Creed has long served as a massive playground where gamers could experience historical districts via unconventional means. Parkour has cemented itself as an integral part of the Assassin's Creed series, and it should come as no surprise that it is also integral to Shadows' gameplay.
The latest update to the Ubisoft blog from the team behind AC Shadows sets the stage for the parkour gameplay that players can expect when the game launches next month. Set in the crowded streets and dangerous castles of Feudal Japan, Naoe will offer speed and masterful agility as she bounds across rooftops and scales towers to overlook the landscape. Naoe's way isn't the only path players can forge, however, and Yasuke will prove to have his own useful set of skills for traversing Japan. Though his methods may prove to be a little more brute force than skillful ninja.
Shadows offers new movement features like a physics-based grappling hook and prone movement that will help players scale the stone walls of Feudal Japan's domineering castles and locate new hidden pathways that may present unique parkour challenges. According to Simon Lemay-Comtois, the Associate Game Director for Assassin's Creed Shadows, players will want to be more mindful of how they approach parkour in the upcoming game because of these changes.
“In our game, holding down the parkour up button like it’s a gas pedal is not the optimal way to do parkour," says Lemay-Comtois. "Discerning which button does what is necessary to maximize a great parkour flow and keep your momentum."
Lemay-Comtois explained in the post that players will find dodge mechanics have been merged with the new parkour down mechanics. This creates a new mapping scheme that disconnects the playable character's stance from parkour in order to prevent players from executing parkour down when they do not mean to. This runs alongside the "parkour up" mechanics series fans will recognize as a long-running gameplay staple, including features like running up a wall to grab a ledge or leaping across a gap between two rooftops.
Of course, we've all made the jump from one rooftop to another, only to land with a hearty thud and lose a portion of our health bar. A new recovery roll mechanic can now be deployed when jumping from a distance so that Naoe can soften her impact (and the noise it may produce.) New dodge features also give players the opportunity to traverse downward with smoother transitions. When playing as Naoe, this results in acrobatic moves, while the clunkier Yasuke will have a weightier drop.
Sprinting has also seen some reworking in preparation for Shadows' two protagonists. Naoe will feature a sprint dodge mechanic that triggers a dive-roll, allowing her to cross agriculture fences, wooden crates, guardrails, and more while avoiding damage. This new mechanic can also be automated so that players can just bypass small objects without additional inputs, but without the benefit of damage protection. Sprinting isn't just for Shinobis, though. Yasuke can also sprint and shoulder bash his way through obstacles, with automated pass overs kicking in for low, non-destructible objects.
Both characters can also chance stances while sprinting. Pressing to crouch will result in a sliding animation that ends in a crouch, while switching to prone results in a diving animation. Sprinting from crouch or prone will force the characters back into the standing stance.
While those are all meaningful changes to Assassin's Creed's movement system, it's the grappling hook that may serve to have the biggest impact. "Any proper Shinobi game needs its grappling hook," said Lemay-Comtois. Naoe's grappling hook will offer players a new way to ascend, descend, and pivot or swing around Japan. Naoe can interact with numerous grapple points around the world, and will sometimes need to hook-swing between multiple points to cross dangerous areas that would otherwise be impossible to traverse.
Players can also master other impressive movement mechanics in Shadows, including a wall run eject, backward dodge, and various stance dodges. These mechanics can be strung together to create some impressive moves, like a backward roll paired with an assassination. Mastering the game's movement mechanics is also pivotal to making the most of your time in Feudal Japan, as there will be areas that you can only explore with one character or the other. "This is a pretty big deal for us," said Lemay-Comtois, "This means we had to be more thoughtful about creating interesting parkour highways and afforded us more control about where Naoe can go, and where Yasuke can’t, making our two play styles even more contrasted."
Assassin's Creed Shadows is developed by multiple regional Ubisoft studios and published by Ubisoft. The open-world action-adventure title will launch on February 14 on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC. You can check out our preview of Assassin's Creed Shadows, or read our in-depth FAQ for Shadows to learn more about the game ahead of its launch.
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