Assassin’s Creed Shadows is vastly reducing franchise’s map size again

The hunt for the perfect-sized map continues.

Shinobi Assassin scans the castke in snow to find her next target in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Image via Ubisoft

Ubisoft’s upcoming Assassin’s Creed Shadows is returning to smaller map sizes instead of going down the enormous open-world route.

Recommended Videos

“It’s about roughly similar to [Assassin’s Creed] Origins, so it’s smaller than Valhalla in terms of territory,” Simon Lemay-Comtois, associate game director at Ubisoft Quebec, said in an interview with VGC on June 11. “There is some body of water around Japan, but it’s not like Greece was, [which was] half water. With Japan, that’s not the case. We have the coastlines, and Lake Biwa is a very big lake, but [the map’s] roughly the size of Origins.”

Yasuke hits hard with his lethal weapon in Assassin's Creed Shadows.
Yasuke is phenomenal at close-range combat. Image via Ubisoft

With the release of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, the developer returned to its roots with smaller maps and a focused stealth-based storyline. The game also saw one of the most linear stories in the franchise’s history.

Over the years, Ubisoft has been looking to strike a sweet balance between its vast, expansive maps and smaller worlds. Its biggest map came in Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, clocking in at around 130 km² and going up to 256 km² if you include the sea. It took gamers around 50 hours just to beat the game’s main storyline without full exploration.

But with back-to-back open-world games like Odyssey and Valhalla, the community got tired of the increasing map sizes. After addressing their concerns, the developers have already gotten a good response.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows is also following the footsteps of Origins, which has a medium-sized map of 80 km² that might become the sweet middle standard for the developers, with a good mixture of breathing room for players while never feeling too constraining at the same time.

The Japan-based Shadows also allows players to choose between Yasuke and Naoe, which brings an exciting dynamic to their upcoming game. Yasuke excels in heavy-hitting combat, while Naoe takes a stealth-based approach to provide plenty of options to the players.

Author
Image of Rijit Banerjee
Rijit Banerjee
Staff Writer at Dot Esports. You'll find him grinding platinum trophies and breaking the meta with his "fun" picks in the ranked queue when he's not reading his favourite Fantasy books. Previously wrote for GG Recon, ESTNN, and many more. Contact: rijit@dotesports.com