Assassin’s Creed games have famously been very long. From collecting all the goodies, doing all the quests, and getting 100%. While this has been the case in the past, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is looking to make some changes here, at least for those just looking to complete the story and move on.
In this guide, we’ll have a look at the early estimates from previews to get an idea of just how long it’s going to take to tackle Assassin’s Creed Shadows. Once the game is released, we’ll make sure to update this guide with more information.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows Main Story Completion
For many, completing games means getting to the end of the story. Even doing a few side bits here and there, once games start to push over the 80-hour mark, it can get a bit overwhelming.
Thankfully, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is looking to go slightly on the lower end of recent Assassin’s Creed games. For Shadows, we’ll be looking at around 40 hours to beat the main story. This came from information shared by Jonathan Dumont, an artist and director at Ubisoft.
It’s worth noting that this puts Shadows at around the average for an Assassin’s Creed title. Mirage is around 25, Valhalla is 45, and Odyssey is 35 or so. That said, we suspect it will end up being a little faster if you just rush it.
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Assassin’s Creed Shadows Main Story + Side Quests
For Assassin’s Creed Shadows, we are looking at between 60 and 70 hours for full story and side quests. This is a slightly weirder thing to track, as some side quests and collectables play hand-in-hand. However, for the most part, we are looking at about 15 to 20 hours on top of the main story when it comes to adding in the side quests and side content.
Assassin’s Creed Shadows 100% Completion time
Here is where it looks like we’ll see the largest dropoff compared to recent Assassin’s Creed games. In Valhalla, we had around 140 hours to complete fully, and for Odyssey was longer at 150 hours.
For AC Shadows, it looks like we’ll be looking at around 90 to 100 hours, or slightly lower. This came from Ubisoft's Charles Benoit, though he did say the main story would take closer to 50, which goes against what we heard from other Ubisoft sources.
FAQ
How Large is the map?
The map for Assassin’s Creed Shadows is roughly 80 kilometres squared. This places it lower than Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (94 kilometres squared) but around the same size as Origin, which featured a similar map size.
Technically, both Black Flag and Odyssey were much larger, though these titles featured well over 100 kilometres of sea.
Do you Need to do Side Quests?
No, while many side quests are worth doing, none of them are required. Side quests or side content should be done if you either want to enrich the story more or find out more about a specific character or area of the map.
Note that for titles like Shadows that feature two playable characters, some side quests require you to play as one of the two specific characters.
What is the Longest Assassin’s Creed Game?
It’s a bit of a tie for the longest game between Valhalla and Odyssey. Both titles feature massive worlds and were the peak of the Assassin’s Creed open-world period. While Unity and Syndicate were also open-world, they were much more restricted by being set mostly exclusively inside Paris and London, respectively. With Valhalla and Odyssey, they were set on much larger scales; for Valhalla, that meant most of England.
