Throughout its first hour, Assassin's Creed Shadows' Claws of Awaji expansion plays extremely safe. Other than one flashy setpiece, much of the first 60 minutes will be deeply familiar, especially with its narrative stitched almost directly onto the end of the base game. At first, it's an approach to DLC that feels dangerously close to being little more than a cynical add-on – making its dramatic swing away from that sensation feel all the more impressive.
At the end of Shadows, its dual protagonists' aims are clear: Naoe is hunting for information about her mother, Tsuyu, while Yasuke has declared war on the Templar order. So when Claws of Awaji opens with a lead on Tsuyu's potential whereabouts and a battle with a Templar general, it's hard to feel like this isn't just an extension of that story. Ubisoft Bordeaux tries extremely hard to disguise this obvious narrative continuation with a meticulously-crafted sequence introducing Awaji and its major players, but it's still hard to shake the feeling that this is the 'true' ending of the base game.
