Assassin's Creed Shadows has sky-high expectations! 🌟 It's the first mainline installment since 2020's AC Valhalla, the first game in the series designed exclusively for next-gen consoles, and it also needs to be a huge commercial success for beleaguered publisher Ubisoft. We've seen how the game falls short of technical expectations on current consoles, but this title brings significant improvements, most notably the use of ray tracing. How does AC Shadows fare in the Pro version? Is it an evolutionary update or a revolution?

As the title suggests, Shadows features one of the biggest improvements we've seen in the PS5 Pro. The key difference is that the mode of PS5 Pro performance It includes ray-traced global illumination (RTGI), something that PS5's performance mode doesn't offer. 🔍

Having this luxurious per-pixel lighting in RTGI, which bounces light through each space for a realistic indirect diffuse lighting response, completely transforms the game experience. Shadow detail is noticeably improved, diffuse lighting restores colors to the sky and surfaces, and the entire world feels more authentic. 🌍✨

The PS5, on the other hand, looks somewhat flat and compressed in these scenes, showing a more uniform lighting response. Foliage is a weak point, as the global illumination solution baked into performance mode of the base PS5 fails to capture the subtle occlusion you get from bushes and trees, giving it an artificial and washed-out look. 🌲⚠️ When traveling through wooded areas, the difference is surprisingly wide, demonstrating a huge generational leap in lighting fidelity.

TO despite the performance mode on the base PS5 uses an evolution of the baked GI solution from previous Anvil engine titles, it largely fails to capture the kind of lighting detail we’ve seen in recent AC games, such as 2023’s Mirage. This is likely because Shadows is a much larger game, and achieving good lighting fidelity without RTGI is more difficult. Additionally, Shadows’ baked lighting doesn’t adapt to changes in the environment, such as open doors, unlike the Pro code. 🔒

The inclusion of RTGI represents a major visual advancement over the base console. In many lighting conditions, the PS5 Pro almost feels like a totally different game. 🎮

One consequence of the inclusion of RTGI is that image quality in the Pro's performance mode doesn't really improve compared to the base machine. Both suffer from considerable pixelation, even at idle, and a blocky pattern appears around moving edges. Transparencies scale poorly, with obvious signs of a low-resolution source. 🟡

Ubisoft had stated prior to launch that both the PS5 and PS5 Pro would upscale to 4K in their performance modes, and this is reflected in the final code. However, upsampling produces somewhat variable results in terms of achieving a crisp, 4K-like look. Internal resolutions in brightly lit scenes on both consoles hovered around 1080p in my testing, with RTGI apparently consuming most of the additional GPU time headroom in Pro.

However, some of Ubisoft's pre-release promises for Pro failed to materialize in the finished game. Press materials released last September mentioned PSSR upscaling in Pro, and this appears to have failed to happen: the game doesn't exhibit the characteristics of PSSR upscaling, as disoccluded detail appears noisy, not blurry, edge detail is very sharp, and the overall image has artifacts that more closely resemble analytical techniques than ML-based ones. 🎞️

The clearest evidence is that the base PS5 and the Pro look so similar in terms of image qualityIn my testing, the TAAU PC version of Anvil proves to be quite similar on both PS5 consoles, and is likely the solution of choice on both consoles. It's less stable at rest than FSR, but tends to have fewer issues with disocclusion, and is likely cheaper to run. Presumably, Ubisoft determined this was a better solution for this game than PSSR.

Aside from the increased RT on the Pro, the game has very similar visual settings on both machines. Draw distances, shadow resolution, and other common settings appear to be the same on both consoles.

FPS rates in PS5 Pro's performance mode also hit a consistent 60fps, similar to what we experienced on PS5. However, there are noticeable drops below that 60fps target, including some severe drops in the intro sequence and other minor dips during open-world traversal. Incredibly, cinematics still run at 30fps on PS5 Pro, as does the hideout area, perhaps to accommodate the increased complexity created by players. 📽️

Overall, I think AC Shadows is noticeably improved in Pro in terms of performance mode, even if the image quality and frame rates are still imperfect. The addition of RTGI is a game-changer here, and Shadows feels like a title built with RTGI technology as its visual foundation.

Despite the inclusion of RTGI, the PS5 Pro doesn't get RT reflections in its performance mode. This means that screen-space reflections (SSR) are used instead, for which cubemaps (low-resolution and poorly aligned) are employed as a workaround.

RT reflections are limited to Quality Mode on PS5 Pro, though their effectiveness is somewhat limited, with little noticeable detail, no foliage animations, and no distant geometry. Additionally, these RT reflections suffer from noticeable pop-in, which can be distracting. 🌪️ Shadows therefore takes a hybrid approach in its Quality Mode, keeping SSR enabled to complement specular detail; though having RT means it falls back to a correct perspective technique when screen-space information is unavailable.

Aside from this difference in RT reflections, other visual settings appear quite similar. RTGI is present on both machines and generally looks comparable. You can notice some improvements in specular detail on the Pro thanks to the additional RT. Other PC settings look quite similar on both consoles, with no obvious divergence in my testing.

Image quality is also generally comparable across both machines. Neither is perfect, though both offer a picture with fewer artifacts than their counterparts in performance mode. I expect TAAU to be used here again, due to the similar image quality quirks between the various mode and console settings. Resolution is similar between the two, though some screenshots showed a slightly higher resolution on PS5 Pro. 📸

Performance in quality mode is very good. Expect a locked 30fps for the vast majority of gameplay, including cutscenes, combat sequences, exploration, and hide-and-seek. The game can drop a frame in certain circumstances, but is generally very consistent. The base PS5 offers basically the same experience here, with solid performance as well.

If we go back to Performance Mode and directly compare these two PS5 Pro modes, there are some obvious differences in the settings. Shadow resolution is improved in Quality Mode, as is foliage density. Performance Mode also appears to remove strand-based hair during gameplay, though it's present in cinematics in both modes.

The RTGI is present at a similar quality level in both modes, but only the mode Quality mode features RT reflections as mentioned earlier. Image quality is another key area of divergence, as Quality mode is sharper in some scenes and less prone to pixelation, jagged edges, and other visual issues. 🔧

Of course, there's one final mode available on PS5 Pro: a 40fps balanced mode for users with 120Hz displays. In many games, this would function as a slightly degraded quality mode, but here it's more like an extended performance mode. RTGI is present, but RT reflections aren't. Interestingly, this also represents a change from some of the pre-release press materials, which indicated that the balanced mode on Pro would include both RT effects.

In other respects, the fidelity falls somewhere between the other two modes. Quality mode and Balanced mode use strand-based hair during gameplay, for example, but the shadowmap resolution in Balanced mode is similar to that of Performance mode.

Compared to Balanced mode on the base PS5, we're roughly on par here in terms of visual settings. Both have RTGI, without RT reflections, and fall on the same side of the hair and shadowmap rendering divide. I can't compare image quality directly, due to the capture limitations of my HDMI 2.0 system, but the pixel counts suggest a higher resolution on the Pro, which also appears to look cleaner.

Both are upscaling to 4K, so they produce a sharp final image. Both consoles also achieve their refresh rates at 40fps here, with a consistent 40fps during typical gameplay, with the usual 30fps limits for cutscenes and hide-and-seek.

I was impressed with the technical package Ubisoft put together in AC Shadows. There are a lot of interesting technical elements here, ranging from the dynamic wind and particle systems that make the world feel alive, to the Metal Gear Rising-style environmental slashing, and the virtualized geometry and RTGI effects. Shadows features a beautifully realized open-world environment that really draws you in, and is up there with the most compelling worlds in video games. It's also a lot of fun to play, with simple yet satisfying combat that's delightfully visceral. 🔥

The PS5 Pro's improvement is truly massive in its 60fps performance mode, which honestly feels like a generational leap compared to its base console counterpart. RTGI seems to have a considerable impact on performance here, but it's absolutely critical for the lighting in this specific title. It's hard to overestimate how much the game is diminished without this technique.

Quality Mode and Balanced Mode get more modest boosts. The main change here is the addition of RT Reflections, which makes reflections look more accurate when screen-space information isn't available, but this isn't enough to recommend these less responsive modes over the excellent 60fps option. It has a compelling combination of visual quality and good frame rates that's hard to beat, and I suspect it's what most gamers will prefer. In that context, this might be the most transformative improvement we've seen on PS5 Pro yet. 🎉