Assassin's Creed Shadows (2025)

Status May_Odaigahara Mar 22, 2025

so far this game is kind of like a more fun ghost of tsushima, we'll see if that holds up

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Status Hacksaw Mar 21, 2025

Let me tell you about how annoying ADHD can be when it comes to gaming.

I only take my medicine twice a week to get the most out of it and reduce the chance of building tolerance. So Tuesday and Wednesday (yesterday as of time of writing), I didn't take it. I played The Forest just about as much as …

Let me tell you about how annoying ADHD can be when it comes to gaming.

I only take my medicine twice a week to get the most out of it and reduce the chance of building tolerance. So Tuesday and Wednesday (yesterday as of time of writing), I didn't take it. I played The Forest just about as much as I could both of those days. I was loving it. Intense, adrenaline, constantly hitting that reptilian dopamine center of the brain by scavenging, exploring, sneaking, building, crafting, surviving. But last night, I started playing Assassin's Creed: Shadows after deciding to buy it following a podcast that reviewed it and made it sound appealing.

I could not handle it. I was skipping every bit of dialogue, smashing the button to try to get to the point where I could actually play. I put the controller down after a few hours in frustration at how suffocatingly bland it felt.

This is my fault. I see that now, medicated on this day. I was not in the right state of mind to play Shadows last night. I had just had a fucking overdose of dopamine from playing a survival horror game that has absolutely zero downtime or pacing issues since you set the pace based on how you want to play or what you want to do, and forcibly ripped myself away from that game to give Shadows a try, and what a surprise - that was a bad idea.

This morning, I popped an ADHD pill, got my chores and housework done, and stepped into 16th century Japan and man, I am fucking loving Shadows. I was afraid I'd have buyer's remorse, but nah, it turns out that when you engage with a game on its own terms, it's probably going to be a good experience. Who'da thunk?

So this is also my way of saying - if you like Assassin's Creed games and you like feudal Japan, Shadows is a great game. It's a very simple thing and the discourse around it, I feel, is needlessly loaded and over-complicated. It's a great game and that's just kinda it. I'm happy this one is landing for so many people and I'm happy I found the perspective through which to enjoy it.

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