The stealth gameplay in Assassin's Creed: Shadow is a very important gameplay in the game. After all, it is not appropriate for assassin not to play assassin. First of all, it is a brand new stealth concept. "In Shadow, we have made many reforms in some key areas of stealth gameplay," Simon said. "First of all, the most obvious change for the Assassin's Creed players is the absence of the company of the Eagle.
How to sneak into Assassin's Creed Shadow
Brand new stealth concept
"In Shadow, we have made many reforms to some key areas of stealth gameplay," Simon said. "First of all, the most obvious change for the Assassin's Creed series players is the lack of the company of the eagle, which makes it impossible for you to reconnaise and draw a map of the entire location in advance. In Shadow, players must rely on the protagonist's own perception ability and always maintain tactical thinking to confront the enemy."
Observation
Both Naoe and Yasuke can use a completely new observation mechanism, which provides a quick and easy way to understand interlocking additional information on the screen. The Observation feature helps you identify targets, mark and monitor enemies, and highlights plundering hidden items, collectable props, and mission targets. At the sync point, it also allows you to carefully view nearby locations.
"The new observation mechanism is at the heart of the Assassin's Creed Shadow experience," Simon said. "When you are hesitating, you might as well stop and observe the world around you, and then decide on your next actions."
Hawkeye Vision
Naoe has the classic Assassin's Creed (ancestral) Hawkeye vision that highlights the positions of enemies hidden behind walls and other objects and separates any sound they make. Hawkeye Vision is a more focused mechanism that encourages Naoe to slow down and spend some time better visualizing her enemies and related game goals (including hiding places).
Both observation mechanisms and Hawkeye vision operate independently, and they display two different sets of information. But Naoe can combine both at the same time, observe, identify and mark enemies through the walls, which can be a very useful habit if you don't want to break into a samurai room waiting for you.
Ninja Action
Walking in the Shadow
For the first time in the Assassin's Creed series, hiding in the shadows will make you become a true "invisible" in front of your enemies. At night, any shadow becomes a dynamic hiding place where you can move forward without being discovered. This works both indoors and outdoors.
The ability to use shadows in this way will encourage you to study the environment carefully, find opportunities for hiding and routes... or to create opportunities with shuriken destroying lanterns.
"Naoe is also a fully capable ninja during the day," Simon said, "but the cover of darkness gives her a significant advantage in front of the enemy, especially on higher difficulties."
Stay low
Although Naoe is fast, it may not be wise to run while trying to move quietly in a densely packed environment. The sound of footsteps will alert the guards and they will find you almost immediately. Generally speaking, standing will increase your “visibility”, which is why squatting is important. Naoe can move slowly while squatting, and his footsteps will be significantly reduced.
Squatting indoors is also especially effective, minimizing the sound of walking around the nightingale floor. This specially designed floor creaks whenever someone steps on it and reduces the chance of making noise when hitting an item.
Crawling forward
Naoe and Yasuke are the first protagonists in the Assassin's Creed series to be able to crawl. Crawling forward will further reduce your "visibility", whether it's on the ground, on the roof or underwater.
For Naoe, the crawling action brought him a unique set of actions. When in the crawling state, press the dodge button and you can roll forward and backward or sideways; this is a practical trick that can be used quickly when the guard approaches. You also need to pay attention to the bottom of some buildings; maybe you can find a gap to climb in.
Ninja and Assassin's Arsenal
Naoe doesn't have to rely solely on her stealth movements. She has four main tools to choose from to ensure a quick kill or retreat:
· Smoke Bomb: A classic assassin tool that creates a cloud of smoke that allows you to escape or assassinate low-level enemies without being discovered.
· Ninja Bell: The perfect tool to distract enemies. By throwing the bell, you can attract guards to leave the post or create an opportunity to sneak past them.
· Kuwu: Kuwu is an extremely sharp throwing knife, causing a lot of damage, and can achieve one-hit kill when aiming accurately.
· Shuriken: Shuriken is a sharp star-shaped throwing hidden weapon that can briefly stun enemies when throwing into the environmentWhen it is even more useful, it can create interference.
Some enemies will not be easily deceived by your smoke bombs...more content is as follows.
New ways to hide and kill
"Naoe is by far the most sensitive assassin we have," Simon said. "She applied this to the extreme: she could pass through tiny cracks in the walls or hide in small storage spaces and boxes to launch unexpected attacks on the enemy."
Double Assassination
We know players are always pursuing the efficiency of action when stealth, which is why we reintroduced double assassination in Assassin’s Creed Shadow. By equiping a short sword as one of your main weapons and unlocking dedicated skills, you can use your sleeve sword to eliminate two enemies standing together at once—whether on the ground or from the air.
Catch the enemy
In the event that you are not discovered, you can briefly grab and drag the enemy to assassinate quietly or to subdue it in a non-lethal way. This crawling mechanism eliminates some of the over-automated behaviors we had in the series before. “In Shadow, if you want to assassinate someone from the sneaking bush, you have to grab them manually and pull them closer before you can get them out,” Simon said.
Of course this is not all! Although we can't cover everything in this post, once you play the game, you will discover more sneak opportunities! Including distracting the guards with falling ice cones in winter, or performing quick assassinations through the threspass gate.
Enemy's tactics
Although you have many ways to hide and eliminate targets, the enemy's reaction will make your situation even more difficult once you make a mistake. For example, the Servant is a new type of non-fatal enemy in the game, and you will warn the guards once you see it. Although they can't fight, they are able to call for reinforcements and sound alarms, which makes them as threatening as enemies they can fight. The servants have their own patrol routes, so it is important to keep an eye on them. When using Hawkeye Vision, they are highlighted in orange.
When you dive into places as tightly defended as castles and fortresses, different areas are independent battlefields. This means that if you are found in an area, you can still trim, re-enter the battle, and keep stealthing, instead of enemies from the entire location hitting you.
Suspicion and investigation
If you are discovered and then disappear successfully, the enemy will search for you in pairs (one observer and one searcher) and will be more suspicious afterwards. This means that tactics such as whistling to lure them over will only increase their suspicion and thus their ability to discover you.
This may affect your ability to perform assassination from your hiding place, as these suspicious guards are more likely to become hindered when you are not cautious enough.
Enemies of unique behavior: Attention to the Samurai
Some enemy types can present unique challenges to your weapon. For example, warriors cannot be assassinated when they are in the range of smoke bombs, as shown in our clip above; instead, they will quickly avoid the smoke area. This is in stark contrast to the foot-lit soldier or servant, who can be assassinated in the smoke. Warriors are also more likely to counter assassination, and may even cut down the bushes when searching for you, thus erasing an optional way of hiding the player.
"Samurai are terrible enemies and should not be underestimated," Simon said. "Once they get into alert, they're hard to fool or induce because they'll think any trick you use is just a trap. This will force you to adapt and think more about how you can be surprised."
But each challenge also brings new opportunities, and if you want to get out quickly, smoke bombs can become an effective tool to disperse warriors.
Refuse to be stabbed
In the character growth system of Shadow, the focus is on focusing on developing your stealth skills and abilities. Enemies will set levels according to their type and region, so if you ignore the upgrade of Assassin's Sword, you may find that stronger enemies can totally reject your assassination attempt.
When approaching the target, the white assassination prompt indicates a kill with one blow, the yellow means your assassination will cause some damage, and the red means the enemy will completely reject your attempt. "In terms of assassination itself, the growth progress and the role of the environment in which it is located complement each other," Simon said. "Put resources into increasing your assassination damage and test it: a powerful enemy may survive a frontal assassination, but may die in a quiet air assassination."
There are also options in the game menu that allow you to assassinate all enemies into one-hit kill.
Stealth and Misfortune
Although Yasuke is a character designed for close-range frontal combat, he can still remain stealthy when he equips the bow and arrow. With this ranged weapon, you can fight enemies from afar without having to show your samurai sword.
If the player is careful, Yasuke can also sneak behind the enemy and use his melee weapons to perform devastating assassination, integrating stealth with a more direct way of fighting.
