Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ March launch was a huge success for Ubisoft, as it sold well and received mostly positive reviews for marrying the series’ old-school stealth focus with the RPG-ified systems of recent entries. There’s still plenty of room for improvement, though, and a new update brings some much-needed bug fixes, along with tweaks that should make Shadows a more satisfying experience.
Update 1.2.0 is the biggest patch since launch. Along with a host of bug fixes, its headline feature is multiple improvements to the player’s trusty steed. First, you’ll be able to ride your horse faster through towns and cities, instead of being forced to slow to a saunter. It’s a small change, but one that should make getting around the world a bit faster. In my experience with Shadows, the boundaries of towns and cities were a little iffy, and I’ve often found myself well outside of town centers wondering why my horse wouldn’t pick up speed.
Horses are also getting a bigger new feature in auto-follow. Now, once you set a waypoint on your map, you can press a button to make your horse follow the road until it reaches your destination, without you needing to control them every step of the way.
Shadows already has fast travel, but auto-follow offers a more scenic route to your destination. With it, you can spend some time panning the camera around your character, taking in the game’s lush world without worrying about accidentally riding into a tree. Letting your horse steer for a while also gives you the chance to hop off if you see anything worth investigating, or mark interesting sights on your map so you can visit them later. It reminds me of Dragon’s Dogma 2’s excellent ox carts, which will take you to your destination while letting you watch the world go by and stay alert to potential dangers.
The update is also full of less exciting, but still important, changes. You could always reset your skill trees, but the only option was to clear the board entirely and reallocate all your points. Update 1.2.0 lets you refund individual Mastery Nodes, so you can unlearn just one skill at a time. That should be handy if you find yourself not using one or two skills you’ve invested in, but don’t want to start your skill tree over from scratch.
Another small but impactful tweak involves selling and dismantling items. Previously, your only option was to sell or dismantle one item at a time. Your bags will likely be overflowing with outdated gear after just a few hours of play, which makes the process extremely tedious. Now, as in many RPGs, you can tag gear to be sold or dismantled and get rid of the whole lot in one go when you reach a shop.
The PlayStation 5 Pro version of Shadows is also getting a graphical upgrade, and a long list of balance adjustments and bug fixes are also on the docket. One that caught my eye is a fix for “inconsistencies” with an ability that lets Naoe follow up an assassination by throwing a kunai at the nearest enemy. I’ve had that ability fail to trigger multiple times, and it seems there were similar problems with double assassinations, which are also getting a fix.
While none of these changes make Shadows a whole new game, they should alleviate some of players' biggest frustrations. As a professed fast travel hater, I’m especially interested in the ability to grant free rein to my horse and get some good use out of photo mode while it handles navigation. Maybe next they can help out with an assassination or two.
Update 1.2.0 for Assassin’s Creed Shadows is available now on all platforms.
