I'd just killed someone important in Assassin's Creed Shadows and had no idea who they were. Naoe, on the other hand, sounded like she had it all figured out. Upon checking my Objectives board, I was dumbfounded to discover that I'd just offed the first of many new assassination targets, an organization called The Twisted Tree – but I wouldn't encounter the official quest-giver until 50 hours later.
The novelty of stumbling upon accidental objectives is, in itself, a pretty cool idea. Shadows puts many a spin on the norm established in the best Assassin's Creed games that came before, but this case reminds me of assassinating random members of the League in Assassin's Creed Odyssey. Ticking surprising names off my hitlist as warrior Kassandra was one of the many joys of exploring Ancient Greece, but the structure differs in Shadows. Here, I'm not told the names of fringe criminal syndicates until they're happened upon naturally or handed out by NPCs, with the game encouraging a more explorative approach to its vast open world. But lacking any narrative context, I'm often left wondering what the heck just happened in Assassin's Creed Shadows – and that's a tricky place to be in a massive RPG.
