Assassin's Creed Shadows: Is There Multiplayer?

Do you think there's multiplayer in Assassin's Creed Shadows? It's a valid question, no doubt. The answer, sadly, might not be what you're expecting.

With two distinct playable characters, the elusive shinobi Naoe and the samurai powerhouse Yasuke, the ability to have two people roaming around feudal Japan sounds too good to be true.

Assassin's Creed is no stranger to tackling multiplayer. One of the biggest selling points of the infamous AC Unity was the ability to tackle missions in co-op, with up to four players no less.

So does Assassin's Creed Shadows have co-op? Well, time to find out.

Is There Co-Op In Assassin's Creed Shadows?

The answer is no. There is no multiplayer component of any kind in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Ubisoft may be adding it in a future update, but the developers have not hinted at the possibility, so don't hold your breath.

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Credit: Ubisoft

Naoe and Yasuke complement each other as characters, but there could be a reason why Ubisoft opted out of co-op. For one, it doesn't seem that the characters were designed to interact with each other. A good example is the fact that there are exclusive missions that only Naoe or Yasuke can complete.

Secondly, the co-op component in AC Unity was riddled with bugs and other issues. Granted, that could be said about the entire game when it was originally released back in 2014. Despite Ubisoft fixing most of them, the damage was done, with Unity's reputation as a terrible buggy mess never fading in the eyes of the gaming community, even if it was (and still is) a solid entry once the developers fixed the majority of issues.

Co-op in Ubisoft games can be fun. The Far Cry franchise nails it perfectly, embracing the chaos of each sandbox in the franchise. Pulling it off in Assassin's Creed seems like a harder task, one that Ubisoft Québec didn't want to tackle.

For more on Shadows, check out our review of the game. It's a surprisingly incredible game, and an early GOTY contender.