Assassin's Creed Shadows Bug Turns Into a Fan-Favorite Visual Feature
A quirky bug in Assassin's Creed Shadows has unexpectedly captured players’ imaginations—one that locks the game into its dramatic “Ink” mode after an assassination. Instead of fading away like it’s supposed to, the stylized filter stays on indefinitely. While technically a glitch, some fans are so impressed with the aesthetic that they're asking Ubisoft to keep it as an optional feature.
The glitch has become one of the more memorable bugs found in Assassin's Creed Shadows, which, for the most part, has been praised for its smooth launch and strong performance. Released on March 20 for PC and current-gen consoles, the game quickly drew in over a million players within hours—an early indicator that Ubisoft may have a major success on its hands.
While a few launch bugs have surfaced, most players have encountered relatively minor issues. In fact, the "Ink mode" glitch has been met with enthusiasm rather than frustration. First reported by Reddit user ManuDOMB, the bug causes the game to remain in the stylized post-assassination filter far longer than intended. Normally, this dramatic effect fades out within seconds after taking down a target.
Cool bug I found. Pls Ubi can we have it as a feature?
byu/ManuDOMB inAssassinsCreedShadows
It’s still unclear what exactly causes the game to get stuck in this mode, and so far, only a small number of players have reported experiencing it. But that hasn’t stopped fans from rallying behind the idea of making the bug a permanent visual option. ManuDOMB described the bug as “cool” and asked Ubisoft to officially include it as a feature—an idea others in the community have echoed.
The visual style in question is built around the Ink filter, one of the photo mode’s FX options. It bathes the world in sepia tones and shades characters in grayscale, creating a parchment-like effect reminiscent of traditional Japanese art. Blood, meanwhile, appears in vivid red, adding a striking contrast.
Since the Ink filter already exists as a real-time effect in the game’s photo mode, implementing it as a permanent toggle might not be too difficult from a development standpoint. Whether the game is fully playable in this mode, however, is another question.
That said, Assassin's Creed Shadows wouldn't be the first title to offer an artistic visual mode. Games like Ghost of Tsushima introduced Kurosawa Mode, while Cuphead and Uncharted 4 included black-and-white, ASCII, and other stylized filters. For fans of Shadows, the Ink mode bug might just be the happy accident that inspires something similar.
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