Assassin's Creed Shadows update adds nightmare difficulty, and 'open-world alarm' system

Ubisoft has rolled out a new update for Assassin's Creed Shadows, which adds several new features such as a new crossover story quest, a new nightmare difficulty setting, and a new open-world alarm system.

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The new update is scheduled to be pushed on June 25 at 7am PT / 10am ET, and is relatively big depending on the platform it's being downloaded on. For example, the new update comes in at 6.27GB on the PS5, and much larger on PC and Xbox Series X|S consoles at 19GB.

One of the main aspects of the update is the new quest called A Critical Encounter, which features Robbie Daymond's character Rufino from Critical Role's Assassin's Creed Shadows one-shot. Daymond voices the character in the quest.

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Another aspect of the update is the inclusion of a nightmare difficulty setting, which bold players can select to engage with enemies that deal significantly more damage.

Additionally, nightmare difficulty reduces the parry windows, making parrying much more difficult compared to other difficulty settings. Furthermore, "enemy AI is smarter, faster, and more aggressive in a variety of circumstances."

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The update also includes other smaller changes, such as the option to display headgear during cutscenes and the ability to customize parry indicators and other in-game overlays.

What could be considered the biggest gameplay change is a new open-world alarm system, which, when triggered, causes a regional alert to be put out for Naoe. The alarm system can be triggered for "repetitively attacking Civilians or Military units outside of Castles."

Lastly, the update also includes help for players who are trying to enjoy Assassin's Creed: Shadows on a really slow PC, as it implements a new ultra-low spec mode.

"This will allow PC players with a limited GPU configuration to experience the game in better framerate conditions," writes Ubisoft