Assassin's Creed Shadows is already super popular – although it has some major flaws.
Can Assassin's Creed Shadows improve Ubisoft's reputation again? It's already getting a lot of praise and huge player counts... but also plenty of criticism.
Assassin's Creed Shadows: A New Ubisoft Hit(?)
Assassin's Creed Shadows has just been released and in this short time span, it may become the franchise's most successful title – after all, Shadows already surpassed 1 million players in its first 24 hours after launch.
The franchise's official X account reported that Shadows has already surpassed AC Origins and Odyssey:
2 MILLION PLAYERS! We're thrilled to celebrate this incredible milestone! Assassin's Creed Shadows has now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey. Thank you for joining the journey in Feudal Japan! #AssassinsCreedShadows pic.twitter.com/a6YezXNtYI
— Assassin's Creed (@assassinscreed) March 22, 2025
In fact, with an all-time player peak of 64,825 (at the time of writing this article), Shadows has already broken Odyssey's player record of 62,069 from six years ago.
This is especially remarkable considering that the game already suffered from controversies before its release, for example through Japan's censoring of the game and the anti-woke bubble's outrage directed at the black main character.
On Steam, too, Shadows is quite successful: Currently, it has a "very positive" rating with 81% of reviewers recommending it. And yet, there are also some big downsides that should still be taken seriously.
The Shadowy Side of Shadows
While the majority of players do recommend the game, most of the top-rated reviews are negative and there are some major criticisms to be found in those. If Ubisoft wants to surpass 81% positive reviews again, it should desperately listen to them. Here's what critical customers have to say:
It's a pretty looking game with no substance inside of it. I will probably play some more of it just to kill some time whilst watching/listening to something in the background. The fact that i have relegated a "single player story driven game" to "guess i will listen to a podcast on the side" should speak volumes of my opinion of the game, how repetitive it is, and how boring the writing is. - mic13710 on Steam
Locked me out of my Ubi connect account and asked me to make a case for customer support. Proceeds to ignore my case for the rest of the day thus preventing me from accessing the full priced game I own. Oh and every second you spend trying to connect on Ubi Connect is counted as your in-game playtime for the video game you HAVEN'T EVEN LAUNCHED YET. I had 67 mins of playtime before I could even start the game. - The Big Moz on Steam
Micro transactions in a single-player game with 70 Dollar price tag, why? - return false; on Steam
To summarize, most of the criticism is directed at the bad story-writing and voice acting, connection issues because Ubisoft demands that you connect your gameplay to a Ubisoft account, and charging real money for items and services in a game that's already expensive by itself.
If Ubisoft doesn't want to repeat all of their flops from 2024, they should turn down the greed and turn up the effort that's put into their games instead.
Have you already tried Assassin's Creed Shadows? Were you satisfied with the game?