Seasons change throughout the campaign, creating (and removing) opportunities to sneak around in late Sengoku era Japan.

If it’s not enough that Assassin’s Creed Shadows provides two playable characters, a fully dynamic lighting system and recruitable allies, there are seasons. Players will experience Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter as they progress through the campaign. However, they’re far from aesthetic and directly affect the gameplay.

As producer Karl Onnée tells IGN, “We’ve been pushing about ensuring that gameplay and art are not separate, but they’re intertwining. You create new, and you remove, at the same time, different ways and routes of infiltration.” For example, you can dive into a pond during the Summer and sneak below its surface, but it’s frozen during the Winter.

Tall grass and leafier bushes are common in Spring, which allow for more hiding opportunities, but they’re gone in Winter, and you must account for icicles that can fall and alert nearby enemies. On the bright side, since guards will stick to warmer areas, the colder ones provide new opportunities for sneaking.

Seasons only change during the campaign for it to be as “authentic as possible to match historical events,” says art director Thierry Dansereau. However, he added, “In an open world [side] quest, it might happen that you will play a quest in Autumn and I will play the same quest, and I’m going to be in Summer. So, that’s up to the system and the way you play your game.”

Game director Charles Benoit also briefly touched on the castles and how they’ll serve as dungeons in the campaign. “The way they were built…it’s a level designed by itself. It’s so big. It’s like an adventure each time you go in the castle.”

Assassins’ Creed Shadows will launch for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC on November 15th, so stay tuned for more details.