Assassin's Creed Shadows has sim-like base building where you manually place houses
Path to success.
There's more to Assassin's Creed Shadows than simply stabbing people through paper doors or charging like a samurai into battle.
Ubisoft's historical adventure series has traditionally given players a home base, and Shadows is no different. Except it is different - in that you can now build said base yourself.
A developer diary video posted by IGN China (now removed, but re-uploaded elsewhere) has revealed that players will be given an acre of land that serves as a blank canvas on which to build. On it, you can drop down buildings and customise their looks, plus lay down paths and other smaller objects such as water wells.
This option looks like a sim game, and feels like an evolution of the Viking village you could grow and upgrade over time in Assassin's Creed Valhalla - though it remains to be seen how much time you'll spend here.
Valhalla saw players regularly return home between separate story arcs, while Assassin's Creed Odyssey - the last game built by Shadows developer Ubisoft Quebec - eschewed having a base as Kassandra stomped all over Ancient Greece. (Quebec's effort before that, the Victorian Assassin's Creed Syndicate, memorably gave players a moving base on a train.)
Assassin's Creed Shadows is set to arrive on 15th November - now just seven weeks away. Last month, I sat down with Assassin's Creed Shadows' art director to discuss Quebec's adaptation of Japanese culture, social media pressures and more.