Ubisoft details parkour changes coming to Assassin’s Creed Shadows
Ubisoft has detailed some of the changes to parkour in Assassin’s Creed Shadows, with videos showing changes in detail.
A detailed blog post on the subject was published, with Simon Lemay-Comtois, the Associate Game Director explaining things. Lemay-Comtois says; “In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, players can expect to reconnect with the staple experience of being an Assassin, leaping effortlessly across rooftops, surfing the high ground of the crowded streets of Kyoto, and scaling the towering Tenshu of Osaka Castle… In short, Naoe is a true parkour master, possessing unmatched speed and agility that adapts to the various landscapes of Feudal Japan.”
One change that people will notice quickly is the changes to input mapping: “The crouch and the dodge button have traded places. This simple-yet-crucial change marks an important iteration: the addition of the prone stance and the inclusion of dodge mechanics that lead directly into parkour.”
Parkour up and recovery roll can be seen below:
Holding the parkour up button while moving will make either Naoe or Yasuke reach for the highest / furthest point they can. This can mean running up a wall to grab a handhold, jumping across a large gap between two rooftops, or leaping as far as they can into the void, hoping for the best.
To compensate for any high-profile jumps that would put you in danger, you can trigger the Igan Recovery Roll by pressing the dodge / parkour down button when landing from great heights. This allows Naoe to execute a landing maneuver that softens impact and reduces noise from a harder landing – as seen in the clip above.
Next up, parkour down:
Now that dodge mechanics have been incorporated into the parkour flow, players are able to dodge near a ledge to smoothly transition into parkour down traversal, allowing for Naoe’s signature acrobatic descents or Yasuke’s heavier drops.
Holding the dodge / parkour down button while moving ensures that your character is dropping to the lowest, safest point below them, and avoids dangerous leaps into the void. Parkour down also allows for low-profile landings, generating minimal sound for a stealthy approach.
Sprint doge is also shown off:
Unique to Naoe is the ability to perform a sprint dodge (by pressing the dodge button while sprinting). This triggers an extended dive-roll that allows her to clear objects that are slightly smaller than her (agricultural fences, wooden crates, guardrails, windowsills, etc) while avoiding incoming damage. The sprint dodge is particularly useful when escaping ranged enemies’ projectiles, as well as executing replay-worthy escapes.
This move can also be performed to manually jump from a higher spot… with more risks of getting heavy damage when landing without a recovery roll.
The Grappling Hook Swing looks particular cool:
Numerous grapple points can be found across Shadows’ Japan. These points allow Naoe to hook-swing across large gaps and reach the other side. Some advanced setups even require that she string multiple hook-swings together without touching the ground.
Hook swing allows players to add or reduce momentum (like a playground swing) and adjust their swing direction according to their directional input. This, by extension, gives players control over the velocity of their jumps.
There’s plenty more videos and updates on the official blog, but one thing of note is that some surfaces are now unclimbable. Lemay-Comtois explains: “This is a pretty big deal for us. 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 playstyles even more contrasted.”
The blog does add, however: “Rest assured that most of what you’ll see in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is still very much climbable – especially with the grappling hook – but players will have to look for valid entry points from time to time.”
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S|X on February 14th.
