After years of Assassin's Creed games that show signs of classic stealthy goodness but aren't quite what I'm looking for, I've been trying really hard not to get excited about Assassin's Creed Shadows. Yes, the series is finally going to Japan and yes, Naoe's stealthy moves look fantastic, but my eyes roll into the back of my head when I see chunky health bars and "level 28" above guard heads. Shadows still has that loot-heavy RPG stink that put me off Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.
And yet, the way Ubi keeps talking about Shadows suggests it's not only moving in a stealthier direction than ever before, but doing so by evoking the best games the studio ever made: Splinter Cell. Not by name, though—in a new "Stealth Gameplay Overview" blog, Ubi talked about the core pillars of Shadows' stealth, which heavily involves a new light visibility meter that's ripped straight out of the Splinter Cell playbook. The blog also includes new gameplay snippets, like this one showing the visibility meter in action:
