Assassin's Creed Shadows on PS5 and Xbox: Stunning graphics and physics 🌿💥

Assassin's Creed Shadows is a milestone for the series, being the first entry developed with a total focus on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. This bold transition has a clear impact on its technology, with the next-gen PS4 and Xbox One consoles being left behind to ensure the core gameplay incorporates the latest features of Ubisoft's Anvil engine. This includes ray-traced global illumination, procedural weather simulation, and world destruction physics—all exciting additions that elevate its feudal Japan setting in ways that weren't possible in 2023's Assassin's Creed Mirage! 🌸

Not all of these new features are available on all systems, as developer Ubisoft Quebec has opted for several modes that balance fidelity and performance on each platform. In future articles, we'll explore the more advanced features on PS5 Pro and PC, with a focus on the next-gen console experience on PS5, Xbox Series X, and Series S. 🎮

The questions here are clear: how do each of these three platforms compare, especially the less powerful Series S with its sole 30fps mode? And of the multiple modes available on PS5 and Series X, which ones are worth considering? 🤔

The new Anvil engine technology deserves a moment of attention. After all, on console and PC, this is the first installment in the series to officially adopt ray tracing, and it has a huge impact on the presentation of the world. 📺

🎮 PS5 and Series X They use RT global illumination (RTGI) in its 30fps and 40fps modes around the world, providing much richer and more realistic ambient lighting. 🌍✨

In addition, they have RT reflexes in Shadows, although these are limited to the more powerful versions such as PS5 Pro and PC, meaning base consoles have to make do with screen-space mirroring (SSR). 💻🎮

On the other hand, the 60fps performance modes on PS5 and Series X sacrifice ray tracing for a less accurate pre-baked global illumination method, as we've seen in ACs Valhalla and Mirage. ⚡🕹️

However, the lair area always requires a 30fps display with RTGI enabled, regardless of which mode you choose. 🕵️‍♂️🔥

Finally, Series S It only receives RTGI in the lair, using pre-baked global illumination in the rest of the world. 🌐❄️

The advantage of RTGI is that its more accurate simulation is better suited to Shadows' dynamic landscapes, where the diverse weather, seasons, and destructible environments affect light and shadow. The improvement is evident in the rich, detailed shadow spots between objects, the shadows cast on characters' faces in daylight, and the interiors of buildings. The diffuse light bounce off nearby vegetation also helps to realistically illuminate shadow patches with an appropriate hue. 🌿

Ubisoft’s classic pre-baked global illumination method remains respectable, but it has clear limitations by comparison. It over-saturates certain world details (particularly vegetation) in an attempt to match RTGI’s lighting, while interiors and foreground character detail lack the same richness in shadow depth. Unsurprisingly, RTGI isn’t available across the entire core world on Series S, given it has a third of the computing power of Series X, but this gives it a clear advantage in fidelity over Series X and PS5. 💪

Another big improvement to the Anvil engine is its physics. This year, Ubisoft's efforts are extensive in this regard, with physics-based weather simulation injecting much-needed energy into the game's environments. As you hop into your next mission, you'll see a procedural system, called Atmos, dynamically generating clouds above you, while the developers' wind simulation uses fluid dynamics to create everything from gentle gusts to whirlwinds. The impact is most noticeable around forests: fallen leaves swirling through the air, trees swaying in the wind, and even the direction of rain is affected! ☔

Destruction physics is also applied much more extensively this time around. It's impressive that you can hack and slash your way through the contents of most items scattered around a market, or even slice through cloth with a rip line that adapts to the arc of your katana. If you prefer a more stealthy approach, you'll also notice how blades of grass squish in the direction of your movement, leaving a lingering trail as you drag yourself along the ground. This makes the world feel much more tangible, marking a stark change from previous cross-gen AC installments. 🌐

Since Shadows’ open world is full of complex hills, valleys, and large settlements, Ubisoft has gone to great lengths to optimize terrain streaming. To that end, a new virtualized geometry system was added to Anvil, similar in principle to Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite, allowing a scene’s geometry to gradually subdivide into smaller polygonal meshes as it recedes into the distance. This technology helps hide abrupt LOD jumps while ensuring the terrain is full of detail, though foliage creep is still noticeable on PS5 and Series X. 🏞️

All of these technologies are included on all consoles, though there's one omission on Series S: strand-based hair. 💇‍♂️✨

It's a stunning addition that enhances most of the main characters with hair. Individual strands of hair, like those of our shinobi heroine, Naoe, animate dynamically, interacting with each other as the character moves or when the wind blows. 🌪️💨

This is exclusive to the 30 and 40fps modes, as the 60fps mode reverts to a simpler card-based system outside of the hideout and in cutscenes. 🎮⚡

In fact, this is the same approach used in the Series S, which even completely eliminates strand-based hair in the den area. 🚫🌬️

In a comparison between the 60fps performance, 40fps balanced, and 30fps quality modes, it’s clear that RTGI and hair physics are the main factors to consider, but there are also differences in resolution (as shown in the table below). Each mode is upscaled to 4K output via TAAU on PS5 and Series X, while Series S upscales to 1620p. 📊

Beyond native resolutions, shadow quality is slightly degraded in performance mode on Series X and PS5 🎮, though texture quality, draw distance, and physics-based extras remain the same across all modes. Between the two premium consoles, the only noticeable difference is a higher grass draw distance setting 🌿 in Series X performance mode compared to the PS5 equivalent, though trees and geometry are drawn in the same range on both consoles.

However, Series S experiences more significant cutbacks ⚠️ – running with lower-quality texture assets and lower-quality shadows, though thankfully other areas like draw distances (again, with the exception of grass) match the higher-powered base consoles. 🌳

In terms of performance, the 30fps quality mode is well-optimized and mostly stays at its target framerate. As with other recent Assassin's Creed titles, however, occasional drops can occur where dynamic resolution scaling needs a moment to adjust if the rendering load changes rapidly. You can force this by looking straight up and then at some complex geometry, and back again, but in the most realistic gameplay, only a few combat situations cause drops on PS5 or Series X. ⚔️

Frame-rate stability is similar in the 40fps Balanced mode for 120Hz displays, with a good lock on the target frame rate. If you want to maintain the visuals but have a more responsive experience at the expense of a smoother image, this is a solid option. Interestingly, the lair area and cinematics still run at 30fps, with the frame rate changing abruptly once you pass the threshold in that region. 🎥

Finally, Performance Mode offers a much smoother experience 🎮 that improves combat, especially when timing counterattacks ⚔️, although visual degradations are a major point to consider 👀. Frame rates are less stable here, with semi-frequent drops to 50fps 📉, although this remains within the VRR range on both PS5 and Series X.

The cutscenes and lair area still transition at 30fps in this mode, which is a little disconcerting 🤔 coming from a base of 60fps. Oddly, the game has to fade to black during this transition in this mode, likely to enable RT and hair physics, which would otherwise be disabled 🕹️✨. In 40fps mode, however, the transition is much smoother and seamless.

The Series S version features the least stable 30fps mode. Despite its multiple cuts to RTGI, hair physics, and resolution, it’s not as airtight as you might hope. Frame-rate drops are noticeably more common than on Series X or PS5 at their equivalent 30fps options, with battles and cutscenes being the most frequent causes of disruption as the resolution drops to 720p. At least the lair area is locked at 30fps with RTGI enabled, but the overall experience is arguably visibly less fluid on the junior Xbox machine, and you don’t really get the generational leap that Shadows offers elsewhere. ⚠️

The overall picture is positive: Assassin's Creed Shadows is the most exciting new entry in the series in years, with PS5 and Series X finally showing its potential through the Anvil Engine's new features. Simply put, the physics-based, ray-traced nature of its feudal Japan setting is the real star of the show. The downside is that only the 40fps mode on PS5 and Series X really delivers a satisfying mix of fidelity and responsiveness, while the 60fps mode perhaps cuts a few too many of its new features, and Series S suffers from further cuts. 🎉

Still, Ubisoft deserves praise for releasing a game with clear technical ambition, coupled with an undeniably attractive setting. Having reviewed a large number of games from Assassin's Creed For Digital Foundry over the past 14 years, Shadows is a true standout, and above all, it shows the promising direction the series is taking. 🌟