“After 50, 70, 100 hours, you want one thing a bit distinctive,” says Simon Arsenault, content material director for Assassin’s Creed Shadows enlargement Claws of Awaji at Ubisoft Bordeaux. And it is true to say that — regardless of a lot of the upcoming add-on feeling acquainted — Awaji nonetheless accommodates simply sufficient distinct moments that the portion of its further 10 hours we have now performed felt contemporary sufficient, somewhat than solely providing extra of the similar.
Ubisoft is eager to showcase extra of these distinct moments individually, and in addition maintain some surprises again for gamers at launch, when the enlargement arrives subsequent week on September 16. But for now, IGN is in a position to spotlight a cool Metal Gear Stable-inspired boss battle that doubles down on the collection’ give attention to stealth, and is a spotlight of the enlargement’s first half.
Set in an atmospheric enviornment deep inside Awaji’s dense forest, gamers are tasked with repeatedly monitoring down Awaki, one of the enlargement’s 4 important villains. Awaki is a grasp of stealth and disguise, and near-indistinguishable from a set of straw decoys additionally unfold round the space. To counter her, you may have to scuttle, sneak and crawl whereas staying out of sight, or threat getting sniped from lengthy vary by Awaki, who’s outfitted with a teppo rifle.
Each time you are found, or mistakenly assault a decoy, Awaki modifications her place — forcing you to begin your hunt afresh. The one clues you are given are a capability to focus in on her voice every time she taunts you, affording you a way of route, and the skill to use Naoe’s Eagle Imaginative and prescient when in very shut vary, so as to affirm your suspicions.
It is a comparatively elaborate set-piece and one thing fairly not like the rest in Assassin’s Creed — although stealth style followers will discover it considerably comparable to showdowns seen elsewhere. Certainly, whereas on a tour of Bordeaux’s studio, builders acknowledged to IGN that the mission was impressed by Metal Gear Stable 3’s The Worry battle, as properly Dishonored, and Snake’s MGS5 showdown with Quiet.
The battle additionally performs into Awaji’s extra remoted island setting , and the darker, creepier ambiance the enlargement hopes to differentiate itself with. “We actually appreciated the concept of an island area, with pure boundaries throughout, it is compact, there is a seclusion we like, one thing the place you are a bit isoloted,” Arsenault notes. “It brings elevated pressure to the expertise, elevated hazard. As quickly as we added a brand new faction in there, it is their world. As gamers you are coming into their land. You’re not in management anymore, not as a lot.”
Awaji’s quartet of antagonists embody a lot of that pressure, and all the time appear one step forward of Naoe and Yasuke as they search for solutions relating to the former’s mom, and hunt for Shadows’ remaining thriller field macguffin. Standing of their manner are Kimura Yukari, the daughter of a Templar Yasuke beforehand killed, her bodyguard Imagawa Tomeji, their spymaster Yasuhira, and lastly Nowaki — she’s the cloaked character in a horned masks, above.
Most of these characters look set to have their very own distinctive boss encounter, and it is these — alongside smaller tweaks to Shadows’ important gameplay, the enlargement’s new weapon (the Bo workers), and a smattering of further abilities and skills for present play kinds that Arsenault is hoping will maintain gamers additional entertained.
“It is not as a lot countering it, it is extra form of spinning it,” he tells me, once I ask about disrupting participant expectations. “So that you’re anticipating one thing and it does not behave the similar manner.” I point out to him how, when going hands-on with the enlargement, I despatched out scouts to decide a mission’s location as common — solely to uncover a brand new gameplay system in Awaji the place doing so alerts the native populace, making them antagonistic once you arrive. It is a new trade-off to utilizing an present system, and one thing Arsenault hopes will give veteran gamers one thing else to take into account.
“What ought to I do? Ought to I discover a new technique? Ought to I keep away from sending scouts or ought to I ship them some other place? That is what’s attention-grabbing with it,” he continued. “You take one thing that has been discovered and has turn out to be form of a routine and also you simply add a small twist. And we did that with so much of methods. You’re used to civilians [needing help], or retailers, but now some can assault you — that did not occur.”
For far more on the enlargement’s story, IGN sat down with Arsenault for an in-depth dialogue detailing how Claws of Awaji picks up from Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ finale and, lastly, solutions the sport’s two main narrative threads — at the same time as varied story parts shifted throughout improvement.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s Information Editor. You can attain Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or discover him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social