Assassin’s Creed Shadows has found its way to the Switch 2, bringing the series’ long-awaited Feudal Japan installment to Nintendo’s camp. This won’t be a review of the game itself; you can find our thoughts on the game from its original launch earlier this year here. Instead we’ll be talking about the state of the game’s performance on the Switch 2 hardware. While surprisingly solid overall given the system constraints, a smoother experience exists in handheld mode compared to docked.
Bringing a massive open-world game like Assassin’s Creed Shadows to a hybrid console is an ambitious technical feat, and the Nintendo Switch 2 port shows a distinct split in performance between its two aforementioned modes. Ubisoft have performed admirably in service of optimization, but the resulting experience is not uniform. The game targets 30 frames per second in both docked and handheld play, but the stability and image quality in each mode are where the lacking uniformity is most noticeable.
A Refreshing Portable Experience
The handheld experience is, surprisingly, the more polished of the two, representing a strong benchmark for demanding open-world titles. The frame rate, while capped at 30 FPS, is fairly consistent. Traversal through dense forest areas or swiftly scaling the geometry of a town as Naoe generally maintains this target, and this stability makes the core gameplay loop feel responsive and reliable.
This accomplishment is largely due to the incorporation of Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) on the Switch 2’s screen. While VRR is typically beneficial at 40 FPS and above, Ubisoft has implemented a custom algorithm that keeps it active even at 30 FPS, and this works to great effect. It smooths out the small, momentary performance dips that are inevitable in an open-world setting, meaning that when the frame rate does briefly drop a few frames, the action still reads as fluid, avoiding jarring stutter.
That said, the visual compromises are significant, and they are the trade-off for that smooth performance. To achieve this, the base resolution in portable mode can dip as low as 400p. The image is then upscaled courtesy of NVIDIA’s DLSS tech, which does a decent job of retaining an acceptable level of detail for a modern AAA game. The final image is often soft, and sometimes even blurry. Details like distant foliage and shadows are reduced, and reflections are less accurate. It gives the game a slightly washed-out or flat look compared to its current-gen console counterparts. However, when you’re focused on an enemy or climbing a building on the smaller screen, the consistent performance is a powerful asset that makes the experience consistently playable. These adjustments to image quality to favor frame rate are obvious, but that trade-off makes playing on the go a viable option. No one wants a pretty slideshow.
Not Acing the Pacing
Switching to the docked mode introduces a new set of dynamics, primarily in regard to frame rate pacing. Visually, this is where the Switch 2 version gets to flex its muscle a bit more, even if it still falls well behind its console counterparts. The base resolution is higher, often hovering around 648p before DLSS gets involved to boost to the target resolution. The resulting image is sharper than handheld, as you’d expect. Draw distances are increased, more foliage is rendered, and the overall fidelity is akin to a scaled back Xbox Series S version.
Here’s where the problem lies: the 30 FPS target, while the same as handheld, is marred by inconsistent frame pacing. In docked mode, the frame pace timing is highly erratic. This results in a noticeable stutter that breaks up the fluid motion of on-screen action. This is most pronounced when traversing busy Kyoto streets or during combat sequences where the camera is constantly on a swivel. When it does occur, it’s an immersion-breaking distraction, to say the least.
Despite the pitfalls of the docked me, performance in Assassin’s Creed Shadows on the Switch 2 is a commendable achievement for a current-generation open-world title. Even with pared down features like ray-traced global illumination, lowered NPC count, and reduced textures and shadows, the stability of the portable on-the-go experience delivers a surprisingly consistent, albeit somewhat blurry, 30 FPS thanks to the built-in screen’s VRR solution. And, that’s where the best version of this port is found.
