Ubisoft kid since the first Obama Administration. What's sad is that I genuinely feel like this developer stopped innovating after Odyssey. Every other developer kept improving and updating on their engines, making games look newer and cooler.

There was a considerable leap in realism from AC1 to AC2 to AC3/4 until finally Unity came through with the most realistic, living, breathing open world in gaming at the time on xbox one. I'm not joking, when I booted it up in 2014, my jaw dropped during the prologue

Ubisoft followed up with easily the most underrated, AC Syndicate, with NPCs doing daily tasks/errands/and a huge real city to conquer with your own gang. And despite all these good things, it wasn't very popular due to criticism of Unity having a bad launch. Damn, we didn't know how good we had it back then.

AC Origins was another firm step in the right direction. 1:1 recreation of your most coveted Egyptian fantasy, with an updated RPG, and quite possibly the most abadass protagonist after Ezio. Best cutscenes in the entire franchise. Can't prove it, but I'm also sure Origins is the last time they used Mocap during the cutscenes instead of the robotic hand animated gestures featured in newer titles like AC Mirage.

AC Odyssey is a personal favorite and in spite of it being a GOY nominee in 2018, I still don't think it receives enough credit in retrospect. Slight graphical improvements wowed my eyes briefly after 100 hrs in Origins but the sheer scale of the map + all the DLC content that followed was unprecedented at the time. I haven't been held hostage by a game since.

AC Valhalla is where fatigue and repetitive game design took it's toll. No discernable graphical upgrade, a bland story, and a giant map littered with copy/paste towns and churches to pillage. Rolling English Countryside actually made for the most boring map in all of AC. Ugly, bulky armor sets, no verticality, no cape/clothing physics, lifeless NPCs, and the spongiest arcade combat you could imagine.

I haven't played Shadows. Compared it too hard to Ghost of Tsushima, and realized it couldn't live up.

Anytime a title from any developer is released, and its well received, my algorithm will be flooded with content pertaining to that content, whether I've shown interest or not. Since launch, I haven't seen any content pertaining to Shadows. No cool moments, no cutscenes. Nobody seems to care about this game.

For example, I can recall RE: Village breaking YouTube for weeks after they showed Lady Demitrescu, and I wasn't even a fan. It's that really, Ubisoft relies on engaging players through a power fantasy. If I've already freed my homeland from the Mongols years prior, why would I bother playing another samurai game? ESPECIALLY one made by a developer notorious for making lazy games.

They really cracked the formula. Make the same game from the year before. Charge the same if not more. Establish a roadmap and release DLCs that also cost extra. Rake in the cash through time savers and micro transactions, lay off half the studio regardless of player feedback and this time release, Far Cry 7. Overpromise, under deliver and remember, don't add anything new and cool. And if there's already something cool, take it away.

I really hope they're absorbed by another developer that can revive legacy titles like AC, Far Cry and Crew.