Assassin’s Creed Shadows Adds ‘Canonical’ Mode with Pre-Defined Story, No Player Choices
Assassin’s Creed Shadows has a “canonical” mode that removes the player’s choices and tells a pre-set story, which is considered the official “canon” of the game.
According to Ubisoft’s explanation to Kotaku, when starting a new game, players can choose whether to play in the standard mode, where they have the freedom to make decisions and choose how to act in different situations or respond during dialogues, or the canonical mode, which removes many choices and follows a story already created by Ubisoft.
In a recent interview, creative director Jonathan Dumont explained that this seemingly limiting mode was introduced to meet the desires of players, who were apparently confused by the lack of a “canonical” story in previous games.
A Choice to Meet Fans’ Desires
In games like Assassin’s Creed Odyssey and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, players can make various choices to shape the story. It seems that players had expressed to Ubisoft their desire for a “canonical” story in these games, which led to the creation of this new mode in Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
“When we introduced a choice of characters and dialogue choices in AC Odyssey, many of our fans loved the idea, but some expressed their disappointment in not having a definitive and canon narrative for the game that could be embedded in the AC lore meta story,” Dumont said.
“After speaking with our fans during development, we decided to add a mode that takes out all the choices for Shadows and that can serve as a reference story within the franchise. This way players can enjoy the more RPG style of narrative or a more linear one, if they prefer.”
Remember that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is just around the corner, with digital copies unlocking soon, along with preload details.
