A very enigmatic message was tweeted out by Ubisoft: Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Awaji island together with the creepiest eyeball emoji one can imagine–really, it was the replies that seemed more compelling than the mystique they tried to put up. What, nobody is in the know of what you find down there? Technical hiccups galore with irritable players!
Let’s get right to the meat of the situation because it’s really messy. Unofficial-AC insta teases Awaji island in Shadows, something vague, possibly about an upcoming DLC, maybe a secret content. Instead of anticipation buildup, the comments pile up into a total customer support hell; some people start claiming that they literally cannot access content for which they have paid?? That’s harsh, man.
One RantingEyesOfKratosOG went full thorough, claiming that they bought the game in July 2024; Ubisoft delayed it twice (which did not matter to the user), they pre-ordered it for the second time when it actually finally came out; now they are demanding this person buy their DLC for the third time? They’ve called Ubisoft “a joke,” and honestly, I can’t blame them. That’s just on a new level of frustration.
But it’s not just that one dude! More than one player is reporting the same problems, with Greg even chiming in with a response and brightening our day by posting a screenshot of him being locked out from the DLC, and nullKae added their experience to the cacophony of discontent, stating they’re locked out even with a Ubisoft+ Premium subscription on Xbox. That might be huge – you’re spending your money on a premium service and still can’t get to play the content? There is definitely something broken in their system.
But hold up; it’s not all bad news! Some of the players are actually enjoying the Awaji island content. Brandon Brindle (AKA CAIN) said the Derelict House where their character Nowaki lives is “creepy AF, gloriously weird, and just so fitting for all the Claws of Awaji has for atmosphere,” so if you can get to the in-game content, it sounds like you can have a big time.
Àlàbá Ònájìn finished the storyteller sidescroller tale and fell in love with it; Daily Jackie tristain is 100% out of the content and pleased with it; goodfellas420 calls it a “good game” while sending a couple of cool screenshots of Awaji. So those able to play seem to enjoy the gameplay quite a bit.
Enter the bug reports… cayden 😉 spoke of “a ton of bugs” yet considered it a very cool game, and Dylannafca outright labeled one mission as “horrible.” So even for those dudes who can actually get into the content, there remain some issues with the quality control.
The notion that splits the community is the condemnation of David Kelsey calling it a “shit game” (yet nice looking) while other people are actually having fun with their experience when it actually works for them. Like the game is two very different games depending on whether or not the technical gods favor you on that day.
Interestingly enough, though, this is a microcosm of the modern release issues: day-one patches, DLC access problems, subscription-service mess-ups. It’s becoming normal, rather than performing as an exception. Players spend good money and then have to fight through technical barriers just to access what they’ve paid for. That’s… not really cool.
So Ubisoft really has to get those issues with access sorted ASAP because the actual content is now getting good reviews from whoever can play it. Awaji island seems to be nailing it on being a creepy setting while also nailing it as far as the story goes; so, then none of that matters if players can’t get in there to experience it on their own.
An’ also, can we appreciate how wild some of these reply comments are? RR asked if one would find “The Epstein Files” on the island- which is… certainly a take. The internet truly never disappoints with its wild speculations.
Ultimately, Assassin’s Creed Shadows seems to be blessed with some rather cool content on Awaji island, much of the player base enjoying it when they do have access. However, Ubisoft really needs to take a breather and hammer these technical issues and access problems because nothing is a hype-killer better than wondering if you should even bother playing the game you paid for. So, here’s hoping with all our might that the men and women at Ubisoft get their heads together and fix this mess so that everyone gets a shot at soaking up whatever frustrating mysteries Awaji island has to offer.
Maybe next time, they should make sure that the DLC works before teasing mysterious content? Just a thought.
