Assassin's Creed Shadows: Launch trailer comes out of the shadows

It was a difficult birth after several postponements. But now, thankfully, Assassin's Creed Shadows is here - and better than some critics expected.

Ubisoft has brought Assassin's Creed Shadows into the world at a time when it is particularly difficult to please all gamers. Trivialities that bothered some were artificially emotionalised to the point of no return even before release. AC Shadows was not innovative enough, but too big, too small, too colourful, too white, too black, too late, not historically accurate enough, historically too accurate, too ‘woke’, too brutal, too different, too similar, too Ubisoft. It's a trend to throw games under the bus with riotous ragebait before they're even released, only to feign public dismay afterwards when yet another development studio has had to close. Before that, of course, people like to show their sensation-hungry community with almost thieving joy when share prices plummet - they're happy to take the clicks with them.

But now, after the release of Assassin's Creed Shadows, the apologists for doom have a hard time defending their point of view. The game has been well received. Rating aggregator Metacritic spits out different results for the platforms, but the bottom line is that everything turned out well: PC rating average of 78 points, 81 in the PS5 camp and currently the XBOX ratings stand at 85 out of 100 points. The scores on Opencritic are also between 80 and 90 per cent. Undoubtedly a good Assassin's Creed and one should hope that Ubisoft will continue the series at its old strength.

But for now, enjoy the launch trailer, which not only puts the game's characters in the spotlight, but also the visually extremely appealing, multi-faceted design of the game world. And then perhaps you'll be travelling to feudal Japan this weekend to live out your shinobi or samurai dreams!