Assassin's Creed Shadows seems to be doing everything right, with its multiple delays leading to better polish - evidenced by the game's glowing previews - its bigger focus on parkour and stealth seeing it return to the series' strengths, and its more cinematic narrative fixing much of the listless storytelling in previous entries. Ubisoft may have a winner on its hands, which is great for fans and its bottom line, and could hopefully help inform its development process going forward, much like how the iterative changes to its design philosophy have made Shadows a better game overall.

However, perhaps its most important change is its length, which brings it more in line with the earlier and frankly the best Assassin's Creed games. While many may enjoy sinking 100s of hours into RPGs, including the likes of the impossibly long yet nevertheless incredible Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, for some it can be a draining experience. Shadows is thankfully a much shorter game, which is absolutely to the benefit of the series as a whole.

Assassin's Creed Games Are Getting Too Long

Valhalla Was A Bloated Experience

Assassin's Creed games have been getting increasingly longer with each entry, specifically the modern RPGs. Origins took just 30 hours to beat its main story; Odyssey took 45 - or 145 if you wanted to beat everything it had to offer. However, Valhalla is the longest Assassin's Creed game, doubling Origin's length, taking players 60 hours to clear just its main story, or 148 to complete absolutely everything. It was seemingly Ubisoft's philosophy to create the biggest worlds and longest games, all under the pretense of giving players more content.

However, these lengthier runtimes didn't result in a better experience, especially when it came to the middling Assassin's Creed Valhalla, a game that felt far too bloated, especially considering its structure. While the initial few sections were enjoyable, by the time you got to the final few areas, it became an exhausting slog. Odyssey just about managed to get away with its longer runtime, but those daring to attempt to complete everything likely hit a wall after a while, especially as a lot of its side content was repetitive.

Assassin's Creed Mirage rectified this by significantly shortening its runtime, but it almost went too far in the other direction in a desperate attempt to replicate the success of the earliest AC games. Mirage took players just 16 hours to beat and a measly 30 hours to complete everything it had to offer, which may not have appealed to fans of the more content-heavy Assassin's Creed RPGs. Fortunately, Assassin's Creed Shadows offers the best of both worlds, giving a meaty experience to those who want it, but not overstaying its welcome.

Assassin's Creed Shadows Is A Much Shorter Experience

About As Long As Origins

Assassin's Creed Shadows' developers have stated that its story takes just 30 hours to beat, which is good news as it'll allow it to have a more focused narrative, even with its dual protagonists. Early previews have made it clear that the narrative is a far more cinematic experience, with Ubisoft putting more effort into it, making it a much bigger focus, despite the fact that all the modern-day storylines happen outside the game. They will take place in the new Animus Hub, which is great news for those who feel they slow down the historical narrative.

However, those looking to complete all of its side content, which includes all of its open-world activities, side quests, collectibles, and more, will need roughly 80 hours to beat it all. This makes it comparable to Assassin's Creed Origins, but slightly longer than Syndicate, Unity, and the original trilogy, all of which took around 15 hours to complete. Importantly, Assassin's Creed Shadows is far shorter than both Odyssey and Valhalla. Frankly, 30 hours seems like the most suitable length for this style of Assassin's Creed game and puts it more in line with similar narrative-driven experiences like Ghost of Tsushima.

Shadows is, in many ways, a return to form for Ubisoft, and that is phenomenal. The developer has been floundering as of late, with even its above-average releases like Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Star Wars Outlaws failing to perform well commercially or critically. While its length isn't its only saving grace, it should make it a more palatable experience for players, catering to all kinds of people, including fans of the original games and the newer releases. It should also, in theory, save it from getting boring.

Shadows' Shorter Length Means It Won't Get Boring

It Won't Overstay Its Welcome

Long RPGs have a tendency to overstay their welcome, rarely delivering a narrative worth spending that much time, nor interesting enough activities to complete. This is certainly the case with past Assassin's Creed games, and Shadows should hopefully avoid that. 80 hours is plenty of time for those who want to invest a lot in Shadows, while 30 doesn't require too much investment for those who want to move on to the next best thing. After all, there are so many other great games in March that players will want to get around to after beating Shadows.

There's also the 10-hour AC Shadows DLC, which players get for free if they pre-order it, alongside additional future expansions for those who want to play more Shadows to enjoy. Simply put, there's plenty of content in Assassin's Creed Shadows for those who go looking for it, which means that the hefty $70 price tag is still justified. So long as all the content within those 80 hours is actually enjoyable, which, if Ubisoft's most recent games are anything to go by, including Star Wars Outlaws, is possible, then Shadows could be the best game in the series.

There's a lot it can get wrong, but at least Ubisoft has figured a good balance when it comes to the length of its games. The aforementioned Outlaws was also a significantly shorter experience at just 18 hours, so hopefully this is the direction Ubisoft is taking going forward. As much as 100+ hour games are great, that length only really works in specific genres, namely JRPGs, and less so with Assassin's Creed games specifically. One can dream that Assassin's Creed Shadows in many ways, but mostly with length, will serve as a blueprint for Ubisoft's future games.