Assassin's Creed Shadows Might Be Ubisoft's Return To Form, But Only If It Fixes This One Major Issue With The Series

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Ubisoft has been struggling with the cancelation of various projects, including its maligned live-service shooter,, as well as the multiple unfortunate yet necessary delays of its next big game, . As a result, fans have begun sounding the death knell for the publisher, a sentiment that has been fueled by Ubisoft actively working with Tencent to offload some of its assets. However,, perhaps in spite of the delays, has the potential to be Ubisoft's best game yet.

So far,previews have been painting a very positive picture, alluding to a fresh take on the classic Ubisoft open-world formula, as well as two distinct characters that are fun to play. That will all come as amazing news, especially to those who have pre-ordered the game already. However,one aspect the previews didn't get much opportunity to delve into was narrative. Ubisoft's track record with storytelling has been poor as of late, and if wants to truly succeed, this is where it needs to excel the most.

Ubisoft hasn't always been terrible at telling stories, but its recent offerings — at least those in the AAA space — have almost exclusively had bad narratives. From lackluster villain that appears only twice throughout the entire game to frustrating attempt at telling a cohesive story without a central protagonist, Ubisoft has proven time and time again that it still doesn't know how to write a compelling main quest for players to embark upon. Unfortunately, this stretches to all of Ubisoft's franchises, new and old.

, for example, squandered incredible performances in favor of a generic plotline that muddles its politics in favor of playing it safe — the same can be said of. As a result, it lacks any bite as well as interesting characters, and its main conniving villain does little to elevate the script. Even story struggles despite a somewhat compelling lead character and decades of lore to expand upon. It was saddled with a meandering plot that couldn't do anything interesting with the source material