(Reuters) -The newest instalment in Ubisoft's blockbuster "Assassin's Creed" franchise received a "very positive" rating on Steam based on 751 user reviews, with 80% of them being positive, around four hours after its launch on the game distribution platform.

The twice delayed release of "Assassin's Creed Shadows", based in rural Japan, is Ubisoft's first major game premiere since the muted reception of "Star Wars Outlaws" in August last year.

Its launch may be considered a "make-or-break moment" for the French videogame maker grappling with falling revenue, a sinking stock price and takeover speculation. Ubisoft's shares were up 3.4% at 0829 GMT.

The game was ranked first on Steam's top currently selling games globally on Thursday, with concurrent players on the platform peaking at 25,863 in the first hours of play.

On Sony's PlayStation Store, where the action-adventure game launched at midnight, the newest "Assassin's Creed" received a user rating of 4.79 stars out of five based on 1,834 ratings.

The PC version scored 78 points on the Metacritic 100-point scale after 45 critic reviews, with PlayStation 5 version scoring 81 points based on 78 reviews and Xbox Series X version hitting 85 points based on 20 reviews.

In the positive user reviews on Steam, players praised the game's "beautiful graphics", detailed environment and gameplay. Some of them described the game as "better than expected" and said they were enjoying the story.

Negative reviews mentioned some errors and crashes at launch, and some said the story did not have "a good foundation". Some players also said the game was left in the shadow of Sucker Punch Productions' critically acclaimed "Ghost of Tsushima" which takes place in a similar setting.

"Ghost of Tsushima", an open-world action adventure which debuted in 2020, has a critics' score of 83 points on Metacritic, with a user score of 9.2 out of 10.

Later this year, "Assassin's Creed Shadows" will face competition from yet another game set in feudal Japan, as Sucker Punch Productions plans to release "Ghost of Yotei", a follow-up to "Ghost of Tsushima".