As a professional gamer, I've spent countless hours traversing virtual worlds, and my recent journey through the breathtaking yet sometimes frustrating landscapes of Assassin's Creed Shadows in 2026 left me with mixed feelings. I absolutely loved running around central Japan, soaking in the gorgeous feudal-era atmosphere—the sightseeing alone was worth the price of admission. But man, after a while, clambering up those brush-laden hillsides started to feel like a real chore. Exploration in this Ubisoft open world just doesn't hit that sweet spot like Breath of the Wild or Elden Ring does. It often fails to reward you for going off the beaten path, which is a shame because the setting is the number-one reason I play Assassin's Creed. There's a certain zen to patiently trotting a horse down a long riverside path, but those long, empty journeys started to feel a bit... mindless.
That's when I decided to pick up Death Stranding for a replay. Holy moly, what a stark contrast! Now, let's address the elephant in the room right off the bat: I don't expect Assassin's Creed to suddenly feature the robust, intricate traversal mechanics of Death Stranding. Running from point A to point B is the entire point of Kojima's masterpiece, while in Assassin's Creed, parkour is more of a side effect of the core gameplay loop. It makes sense that Shadows doesn't place the same emphasis on how you interact with every rock and river. The fact that Naoe can find natural footholds in rock formations is already more than what many other games offer. But playing them back-to-back? It was a real eye-opener.
What Death Stranding Gets So Right (And What Shadows Lacks):
Death Stranding turns every step into a calculated decision. Its challenges focus on the sheer difficulty of balancing heavy loads on uneven terrain. A simple river crossing or a steep incline becomes a major threat. You're constantly engaged because of your continually expanding toolkit:
| Simple Tools | Sci-Fi Gear | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| Climbing Pitons & Ladders | Exoskeletons | Stability & Strength |
| Ropes | Floating Cargo Platforms | Load Management |
| Boots (with different grades) | Traction & Endurance |
Even if you strip away Sam Porter Bridges's packages, you're left with this incredibly strong mechanical interaction with the world. This is where Assassin's Creed Shadows feels a bit lacking. Remember Assassin's Creed III, where Connor could parkour between rocks and trees in the wilderness? That kind of fluid interaction with natural terrain has largely fallen by the wayside. I get it—making parkour work perfectly on unpredictable slopes and forests is tough. But in 2026, I think we can ask for a little more.
The real struggle, the bane of my existence in Shadows, was the slopes. Open-world games almost always have trouble with them, and Shadows is no exception. Going off-road frequently meant hitting these steep angles that poor Naoe just couldn't handle. I'd end up zigzagging along mountain ridges like a confused goat, testing what the game would allow at any given moment rather than naturally searching for an efficient route. Climbing a mountain felt less like an achievement and more like a waste of time, despite the beautiful vistas at the top.
My Wishlist for Future Exploration (Hear Me Out, Ubisoft!):
Here's what I'd love to see, inspired by my Death Stranding replay:
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Uphill Solutions: We need to address that annoying no-go zone between a "walkable" slope and a "climbable" vertical wall. Naoe's grappling hook is the perfect opportunity! Even if it wasn't faster than finding a detour, imagine the fun of using it like a piton, hooking onto sturdy trees to pull yourself up tricky sections. It would add a much-needed layer of player agency.
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Downhill Dynamics: I do appreciate that Naoe and Yasuke can slide a bit down steep slopes. But it's not exactly Breath of the Wild's shield surfing, is it? I'd kill for a momentum system more like Death Stranding's. Running downhill as Sam, you can pick up too much speed and end up staggering or even faceplanting. It's a pain I know all too well from childhood wipeouts! 😅 While I can't see graceful Naoe falling victim to this, it would be perfect for Yasuke. It could make his exploration trade-offs more interesting—letting him charge down a slope for intense speed, but with the risk of a clumsy, environment-smashing tumble at the bottom. That would be hilarious and engaging!
Look, at the end of the day, my gripe isn't just with Assassin's Creed Shadows. It's with a whole litany of games where the environment sometimes feels like a lazy obstacle. There's a reason Todd Howard's famous line about walking to the top of any mountain in Skyrim became so iconic. Scaling a mountain is a fundamentally compelling prospect! But when it gets reduced to shuffling along until you hit that magic 5% decrease in slope that lets you move forward... well, that's a letdown.
Sometimes the best solution is to make everything easy to climb (Ghost of Tsushima style), and sometimes it's more interesting to dial up the challenge and turn a minor obstacle into a true puzzle. Death Stranding goes all-in on the latter, but its complex suite of features hasn't really influenced other AAA games much. The silly mountain shuffle in Shadows is a minor gripe in an otherwise fantastic game, and hey, it's not even that inaccurate to real-life hiking. But over 50-60 hours, I grew increasingly fatigued by how fundamentally unexciting that aspect of the traversal was.
Death Stranding might not offer a simple fix, but playing it right after Shadows provided a staggering, mind-blowing contrast. It reminded me that moving through a world can be a thrilling puzzle in itself. Here's hoping future open-world games, maybe even the next Assassin's Creed, take a page from that book. I'm ready to look at rough terrain with a sense of excitement again, not just as a pretty backdrop to a tedious climb.