Assassin’s Creed Shadows introduces an option that makes decisions unnecessary with Canon Mode – for good reason.
Since Assassin’s Creed with Origins has focused on RPG elements such as branching dialogues and alternative storylines, fans have repeatedly had to ask themselves: What do my decisions mean for the overarching story of the series?
Ubisoft wants to solve this dilemma in Assassin’s Creed Shadows with a new approach – and simply take away the really important decisions from you.
Decisions? Only if you want to
In AC Shadows, Ubisoft introduces the so-called Canon Mode: This game mode is for those who don’t want to maneuver through the consequences of dialogue options and plot decisions. Instead, the game makes those choices for you, providing a clear narrative throughout.
Creative Director Jonathon Dumont explained in a Reddit AMA that while choices are still part of the gameplay experience, their impact is less drastic than in previous titles:
Above all, decisions influence how you recruit allies or which romantic relationships you enter into. However, for players who prefer a coherent story with no branching, we have developed the canon mode.
Of course, how you play Shadows at the end is still up to you. Whether you want to make your own decisions or just experience a well-told story, Shadows offers both.
A Lesson From the Past
Ubisoft is well aware of the tensions between freedom of choice and story coherence: A particularly prominent example is the DLC for Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, which caused heated discussions in 2019.
While the main game allowed players to choose the sexual orientation of Alexios and Kassandra, the DLC forced the story into a traditional opposite-sex direction to secure a bloodline that was important to the series’ history. The criticism was correspondingly loud afterwards.
With the canon mode in Shadows, Ubisoft is now taking a new approach to uncompromisingly maintaining story fidelity for lore fans. But this approach could also alienate those players who, in the free mode, have opted for decisions that may not be considered the right ones in the larger context of the story later on.
But what do you think? Is the canon mode a great idea or does it make the series less appealing? Let us know in the comments!
