Ever since the Assassin’s Creed franchise launched in 2007, players have been hoping that Ubisoft would some day explore the ancient culture of Japanese samurais. However, aside from Assassin’s Creed Chronicles, the series has shied away from Asian history altogether. Although 2020’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla looks like a promising exploration of viking history, we’re still left without any sort of mainline Asia game in sight.
Assassin’s Creed 2.0
While Ubisoft has failed to capitalize on the fan base’s hope for an Asian Assassin’s Creed title, Sucker Punch looks to be sweeping the rug out from underneath the company with Ghost of Tsushima. The sprawling open world game set in Japan looks like the Assassin’s Creed samurai game we’ve always hoped for, and based on what we’ve seen so far, the game could be much better than what might have come from Ubisoft.
It’s worth noting that Ghost of Tsushima lacks the historical representation that can be found in Assassin’s Creed games. Although Tsushima is a real world Japanese island, many of the map’s locations are fictional. Still, the game captures the culture, aesthetic, and combat that we’ve always hope to see in a Japanese Assassin’s Creed.
The Samurai And The Ghost
Similar to the Assassin’s Creed series, Ghost of Tsushima offers two methods of tackling combat: stealth and straight up force. This is represented by the samurai class and the ghost class, two forms of combat that can be leveled up individually depending on your preferred style of gameplay. Although it may seem familiar, the combat system looks to be far more polished and technical than anything we’ve seen from Ubisoft before.
The samurai class takes direct inspiration from ancient samurai combat, in which the warrior preserves their energy, saving it for the perfect moment to strike. Players who master this form of combat will be able to execute surgical attacks on their enemies, and it’s guaranteed to give players an endless amount of satisfaction.
If you prefer to slowly take out enemies while remaining hidden, the ghost class is going to be your best option. With the use of firecrackers, smoke, throwing knives, and much more, players will be able to slowly and accurately decimate an entire regime before any of them become aware of what has happened.
Even the enemy awareness indicators look to take inspiration from Assassin’s Creed, but the combat options seem much more diverse and visually enthralling than what we’ve gotten used to. Ghost of Tsushima may look familiar to many, but it will likely bring that familiar experience to an entirely new level.
Open World Exploration
Ghost of Tsushima offers an incredibly immersive open world map that looks to capture exactly how someone might imagine Ancient Japan. It’s hard to grasp just how much there will be to do from the limited gameplay that has been shown, but the game looks like it’s going to present far more open world activities than the likes of recent games of the same nature.
What we do know for sure though, is that the island of Tsushima looks absolutely breathtaking. With flowers and grass constantly drifting in the wind and an environment that realistically reacts to your every movement, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is going to have a difficult time topping this visual masterpiece.
Samurai Smooth
Overall, Ghost of Tsushima looks like a more polished Assassin’s Creed game. Assassin’s Creed Odyssey was an impressive open world experience that was certainly enjoyable, but anyone who has played the game knows that it was littered with plenty of bugs, especially at launch. Jumping into Odyssey after playing a game like Red Dead Redemption 2 exposes the game’s slower frame rate and visual issues, and Ubisoft’s popular franchise has always been known for coming with quite a few bugs.
To be fair, we’ve only seen a gameplay demonstration of Ghost of Tsushima, and when the game is launched in July, it may come with far more bugs than what we’re anticipating. Still, the game looks incredible smooth and polished, and does not look like it will have a single problem processing its awe-inspiring visuals. Even then, you’re probably going to have a better experience on a PS4 Pro vs the standard console.
At the end of the day, anyone who enjoys Assassin’s Creed games has every reason to be extremely excited about Ghost of Tsushima. Obviously, the final verdict is out until the game finally hits shelves on July 17, but from what we’ve seen so far, Ghost of Tsushima is finally bringing us the Japanese Assassin’s Creed game we’ve been waiting for, and development looks to be in much better hands at Sucker Punch.
NEXT: Ghost Of Tsushima’s First Proper Gameplay Trailer Shows Off Its Open-World And Combat
