Assassin's Creed Shadows' yellow paint parkour challenges are a highlight for me after 11 hours jumping around the world

Yellow paint in modern games is a trend that's become noticeable to flag a path ahead for digital heroes, and even Assassin's Creed Shadows gets in on the action now and then. Yet, rather than getting stressed out about noticing the artificiality here it does the opposite. Because of the way it's used, when I see yellow markers playing as Naoe, I know I'm in for a good time.

That's because the game uses different levels of environmental marking for guidance. Most of the time it's subtle, becoming more obvious for trickier climbs. But the only time Assassin's Creed Shadows comes out using it in full force are for the yellow soaked Paths, parkour challenge activities that really get Naoe to use her full shinobi kit as she walks the path of the assassins that came before her. It's a great way to not just make use of the industry standard yellow paint, but to reframe it as something of a celebration.

All yellow

Love the use of yellow paint, or, indeed, loathe it, you can't deny it's all over games these days. In many cases, the need for very clear signposting is a result of an increase in graphical fidelity as games chase realism. What can look impressive as you stand back and look at it, can result in a massive amount of visual noise when actually playing, creating confusion as to what you can even interact with or climb. We've all looked at an environment at some point, unsure where the games want us to go or what we should even be looking for, be it a chest that blends in or a waist-high ledge you're meant to mantle that otherwise looks exactly the same as hundreds of invisible walls prior.

How you feel about yellow paint often comes down to how noticeable you find the (ideally subtle) hand of the developer guiding you forwards. After all, games are designed to prompt you to act in certain ways. Pac-Man moves constantly forward, gobbling up dots until you reach a wall, so you better guide him in a different direction. Mario runs ahead and the screen scrolls, but does not allow you to scroll backwards, so plow on. Mirror's Edge's stark white city is highlighted with different colors to signal various types of zones, with red highlights showing you where parkour runner Hope can jump next. I could go on. Out of respect for paragraph length, I wo–

Assassin's Creed as a series is no stranger to canny use of visual design to mark the path ahead. Pretty much any game where you clamber around 3D environments is going to need it, and if you think it's not important then I implore you to think back to that one specific tower in the first Assassin's Creed. Real ones know I need to say no more – but rest assured figuring out the single way it wanted you to ascend was infuriating. Later games became clearer with signposting wear and tear on climbable bricks and walls. And who can forget the iconic bird nesting on a rooftop edge that tells you a haystack you can leap of faith into lies below?

All of this returns in Assassin's Creed Shadows. Wear and tear makes it clear where Yasuke and Naoe can scramble onto terraced rooftops, the birds are back to mark safe leaping points, and yellow bits of wood make quick footholds on many, many thick trunks. Even though Naoe has a grapple hook to quickly ascend many structures, it's always clear where handholds can go otherwise. But it's subtle and sporadic. Except for one Activity in particular: challenge paths.

Designed for Naoe, these have been left behind by the remnants of the 'Kakushiba' from which her shinobi Igan heritage draws (a real thing in history too – look it up!). Nestled into bits of the environment, these otherwise innocuous paths through nature have been deliberately designed as secret routes for those with her training, yellow footholds joined by splashes of the stuff on the walls and little yellow flags. In-universe, markings to follow have been left behind.

Paths are reminiscent of Ghost of Tsushima's shrine challenges in some ways, where Jin Sakai would have to jump his way across to a shrine. But they also throwback to Assassin's Creed's long history of dedicated parkour challenges, stretching all the way back to the tombs Ezio would explore across his saga. Likewise, Naoe is retreading the footsteps of those who came before her, with these pathways one of the few things left behind by an order she never truly knew.

While Naoe's parkour is always varied, few require her to navigate from A to B, making traversal the challenge, quite like these Paths. Always slick enough where there's not too much difficulty, finding the way ahead and executing her moveset is nonetheless satisfying here. Each Path has its own theming and modes of parkour they champion. One has you leaping between rocky cliffs as waves smash down below, while another has you moving between pin-prick slabs of rock and weaving through treetrunks deep in a forest where the canopy makes it an eternal night. There's not too many of these in the game, so I won't spoil them, but they cleave through some serious distance on the maps, often leading to some great rewards from gear to new viewpoints – and, later, even some nuggets of lore, too.

For the most part, when you get used to each of the Activities on offer in Assassin's Creed Shadows they become a little rote, whether that's horseback archery, praying at a handful of shrines, doing a quick-time event to perform kata, or a QTE to perform meditation (okay, they're quite different QTEs, to be fair). Paths stand out as activities that always offer something new that's exciting to tackle, and crucially, build on the action you're already doing moment to moment throughout Assassin's Creed Shadows, merely shifting the context. The yellow paint means there's a path to follow, and I can't leave these roads untraveled.

Check out our Assassin's Creed Shadows review for more!