Assassin's Creed Shadows didn't have yellow paint originally, but unfortunately players like me are stupid

(Image credit: Ubisoft)

Yellow paint: it's the scourge of our time. Or at least, that's what I've gathered from the approximately 4,000,000 online arguments that are happening about it at any given moment. People—some people—really don't love it when games splash helpful dashes of yellow on every surface you can climb on, calling it daft and immersion-breaking.

Which, hey, I kind of get, and I confess that the sheer volume of lemon daubed across the walls and trees of Assassin's Creed Shadows has stood out to me, a little. But in a chat with GamesRadar, the game's creative director Jonathan Dumont says there's a real good reason for it: we're idiots.

Well, OK, he puts it more delicately. Per Dumont, AC Shadows originally didn't have any yellow paint in it at all, but playtesters kept banging their heads against walls they couldn't climb, or failing to realise a given surface actually was climbable.

"We didn't have it until players were really struggling in playtests to find their path when engaging in [the] hidden trails activity," said Dumont. Problem was, the game's foliage was just too beautiful: "the environment is lush and full, and giving a bit of guidance is needed."

Which makes a degree of sense. The game's hidden trails are pretty much parkour exams that task you with climbing, jumping, and swinging through them to reach a treasure and knowledge point at the end.

They would be a fair bit harder if you couldn't see where you were meant to go, and you can even rationalise it as the shinobi who originally created the course daubing the intended path for participants.

So that's that explained. It doesn't quite explain who's been nailing planks to all the trees in Japan and painting those too, but hey, whatever. At the end of the day, I struggle to get too het up about these things, and if a splash of paint can help players have an easier time navigating the many freerunnable surfaces of Sengoku-era Japan, I guess that's all to the good.

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One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.