For me, a substantial DLC is often a perfect opportunity to revisit an experience. I did feel quite sated with Naoe and Yasuke's adventures after spending nearly 80 hours with them - a few days before the expansion was released, I took a three-hour session to 'clean up' some side missions and explore a few places I hadn't visited yet. But despite this, I was still very excited about the sequel. The day before the release, I took a break before jumping straight into an experience that can ultimately be described as more of the same.
For those who haven't completed the adventure and seen the credits roll, I want to warn you about some minor spoilers. So if you're planning to experience the end of Assassin's Creed Shadow, be aware that this is covered below.
It's still an absolutely stunning looking game and the new environments are incredibly beautiful.
As Claws of Awaji begins, our ninja has a promising lead on her missing mother. Her journey takes her to Awaji - an island just southwest of the main map. Before arriving there, however, Ubisoft spices up the experience with a backstory that plays like a side-scrolling action game. It's a lovely, if very short, touch that I wish the expansion could have had more of. Because once our heroes arrive in Awaji, there aren't many surprises. Sure, it's spiced up with a few quirky things, like a different boss fight and some other elements. But there is nothing that shocks directly or makes the expansion something that is significantly different from what has gone before.
In many ways, the big news is Awaji. It's not a huge area in terms of surface area, but it's a very beautiful and entertaining place to explore. If exploring these open worlds is your greatest pleasure, you're in for over ten hours of content and a well-designed environment to enjoy. Awaji offers much the same environments as the larger mainland. But because it's in such a concentrated area, the variety is much more noticeable. It's a bit like all the environments that were spread out over a larger area have been placed in a smaller one - which works very well.
Another novelty is the weapon that Naoe gets his hands on. The staff allows for a different type of combat and is a bit complex with different types of attacks. Although the battles themselves are not radically different, the addition of a new element to the combat system creates another welcome variation.
Sticking to the roads means more attacks than ever before.
So, what do I think in terms of entertainment about this continuing experience? Since it's more of the same, it's not that it gets worse, or better. I like that the story takes a natural continuation. I love the new environment. Most of all, though, I like that the game is still so visually inviting that the experience becomes immersive largely because I can't get over how gorgeous this is graphically. Seasons change, just like in the main game, and the environments invite lots of amazing views and exploration that never gets boring just based on the fact that it's so pretty.
There is one noticeable thing in particular in this expansion though that I don't really think works. If anyone found the main game to be a little empty of action before the expansion, this time around there are a lot more increased encounters with enemies. Our heroes are simply constantly being chased and a seemingly innocent character by the side of the road may want to kill you. There are raids all over the place and when you use your scouts to locate the next mission, there is a risk of increased fighting in that area. It simply becomes a big contrast to the peaceful exploration that existed before. Now you can barely run a hundred metres before someone spots you and wants to fight.
In the rain and sleet, our ninja must make his way to the next mission.
I absolutely understand the concept of filling the game with more action. But it doesn't work for a couple of reasons. Firstly, a battle usually results in several guards appearing and secondly, the combat takes place in places that don't feel quite right. In the middle of a seemingly peaceful village, on my way to the small house I have as a base, someone saw me and wanted to fight. This ended with me having to take on a dozen enemies inside the safe-house where I always found peace in the main game. It's also a bit funny that the computer-controlled characters who are on my side often just stand still when there is pure chaos around them.
The frequency of these random meetings is far too high. It gets a bit tiring to have to run away again and again if you can't fight. Since the attacks are also meant to surprise you, you don't know if an ordinary townsman or merchant by the side of the road is what it first appears to be. This could of course have created some exciting and surprising encounters, but they happen to such an enormous extent that it just becomes annoying in the end.
To earn Mastery points, as before, you visit shrines and pray and look for documents.
In the end, I would also have liked a much more concentrated continuation of the story. Because after the promising beginning, it ends up in exactly the same template as the main game did when it opened up completely. However, there was far more to it than that. When there is a promising foundation for a continued exciting story, it could have been tightened up properly. Now it only takes a few hours before the design of the missions are exactly the same as they were before leaving for the island.
So, this mainly results in new targets that need to be killed, creating exactly the same mission design as before. Although the story, like the setting, moves forward in a more concentrated way, it is still a repetition of the whole concept. It's mostly then what drags my rating down a notch. It would simply have been more fun if the story had been much more compact, dared to take a few turns and offered a few more surprises. Instead of, as now, just being something that really could, and maybe should, have been the conclusion of the adventure I had already completed.