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

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

“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.”

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.