Assassin’s Creed Shadows Switch 2 Performance and Visual Breakdown
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is a huge open-world game, and on Switch 2, there is a lot happening under the hood to make it all work. This video is a deep dive into how the game looks and performs on the new hardware. It is not a critical analysis of the engine or review of the game, although my full review will be released as soon as possible. The focus here is lite look at the technical side, how the world is rendered and how stable the experience feels in both docked and handheld play, and obviously, how good it looks.
Ubisoft has shared some useful details about how they adapted the game for the Switch 2 Hardware, and those insights help explain why certain choices were made. This breakdown brings those points together with my own testing to give you the clearest picture possible of how the game runs.
Graphics Fidelity
Assassin’s Creed Shadows is visually impressive on Switch 2 and sits comfortably alongside the presentation seen in Star Wars Outlaws. Ubisoft has once again created a world that feels alive, packed with detail and full of personality. Towns, forests and farmlands all feel lived in, and the season change system adds a lot of flavour. Returning to familiar locations during a different season makes the world feel fresh without losing the sense of familiarity. It helps the game feel grounded in realism, even when it takes creative liberties for entertainment’s sake.
There is a strong sense of style in every region. Walking through the countryside genuinely feels like exploring feudal Japan, and moments like reaching the bamboo forest of Arashiyama stand out as clear examples of how well this setting has been realised. The combination of colour, foliage density and environmental detail gives the impression of a much larger world than you might expect from a hybrid console.
Ubisoft recently explained that a lot of work was done at a code level to adapt the game for the Switch 2’s ARM-based processor. ARM is a type of CPU architecture designed for efficiency and low power consumption, which is why it is used in portable devices like the Switch. This means developers need to optimise both code and game assets to make sure the engine runs smoothly on this hardware. In Assassin’s Creed Shadows, that involved tweaking simulation systems and adjusting assets to reduce GPU load, while keeping the world’s richness intact.
Texture Quality and Cloth Physics
Assassin’s Creed Shadows maintains strong texture fidelity across characters, clothing, and the environment. Character models are detailed, from the folds in armour and clothing to facial features, while environments feature intricate textures on buildings, stone paths, and foliage. Some textures are simplified compared to home console versions to help performance on the Switch 2, but this does not detract from the overall visual experience.
Cloth and cloud simulations are another area where the developers have done impressive work. Ubisoft confirmed that the same systems used on home consoles are present here, but some simulation data has been downscaled to reduce GPU load. In practice, this means clothing, banners, and flags move realistically during traversal and combat, while maintaining smooth performance. Cloud effects and particle simulations also retain much of their original detail, helping the world feel alive without overloading the hardware.
One area where textures can feel less impactful is at night. Without strong lighting or shadows to accentuate details, some surfaces sometimes appear flatter. This naturally leads into the next critical element: the game’s lighting and shadow system, which plays a major role in bringing these textures and environments to life.
Lighting and Shadows
The lighting in Assassin’s Creed Shadows is one of the game’s standout features, creating moments of true beauty. Daytime scenes feel vibrant and full of depth, while nighttime sequences can be atmospheric and tense, but like I said, they can look flat in some areas. Sneaking through a castle under the cover of darkness, extinguishing torches and lanterns, adds a cinematic quality to the visuals and really shows how lighting shapes the experience.
Ubisoft explained that the Switch 2 version uses a baked global illumination system rather than ray-traced GI. This approach, also used on low-spec PC setups and consoles like the Xbox Series S, was chosen for memory reasons and helps maintain consistent performance. Even with baked lighting, shadows remain strong and stable, both indoors and outdoors. Shadow resolution is clear enough to define shapes and add depth to characters and environments, while subtle light bounce preserves the sense of space. These effects, combined with careful attention to shadow placement and intensity, elevate the overall visual experience on Switch 2.
Level of Detail and Open World Rendering
Assassin’s Creed Shadows does an impressive job of managing level of detail throughout its open world. While skulking through towns or moving stealthily around the environment, changes in texture LOD are subtle and rarely noticeable. Some LOD adjustments are visible during cutscenes, including minor changes in lighting, which sometimes feel like a dramatic shift when the shadows and details suddenly pop in, but it doesn’t take away from the experience.
When traversing the world on horseback or moving quickly through larger areas, LOD pop-in becomes more apparent. Distant trees, terrain, and some environmental objects may appear a little later than intended, but the system handles it smoothly. The world remains dense and immersive, with foliage, furnishings, and NPCs maintaining a consistent presence even in busier areas.
Ubisoft also tuned NPC counts in highly populated locations to ensure smooth performance. This means towns are slightly less populated than the other console counterparts, but still manages to make the open world feel alive and full without overwhelming the hardware.
Resolution, Anti-Aliasing, and DLSS
The exact internal resolution of Assassin’s Creed Shadows on Switch 2 isn’t confirmed, but it is clear the game does not run at native 4K when docked. Instead, it uses an upscaled resolution, combined with anti-aliasing techniques to smooth edges and reduce shimmering. The result is a clean and sharp image that holds up well even during fast movement or complex scenes.
DLSS, or Deep Learning Super Sampling, plays a key role in maintaining image quality. This technology uses artificial intelligence to generate a higher-resolution image from a lower-resolution base. The effect is noticeable, particularly in handheld mode, where DLSS helps produce sharper textures, more accurate colours, and a more detailed world without sacrificing performance.
Performance
Assassin’s Creed Shadows generally runs very smoothly on Switch 2, especially during open-world exploration. In our first clip, we traverse dense forested areas on horseback. The framerate holds steady between 30 and 32 frames per second, even with full lighting and shadows of the environment on display. The world looks great, and movement feels fluid. When confronting some bandits in combat, the fight moves between sunlit areas and shaded foliage. The framerate occasionally dips to 29 fps, but the experience remains smooth throughout, despite my early struggles with combat.
The second clip highlights the only area where we’ve seen noticeable slowdown so far. Around 20 hours into the game, exploration in the main town drops the framerate to around 23 fps, with some frame pacing variations. Combat on the streets sees the framerate fluctuate between 25 and 29 fps. Once again, please excuse my combat skills—turns out I’m not built for head-on fights with Naoe. Outside of this specific location, performance remains stable, and these dips are the exception rather than the rule.
Overall
Overall, Assassin’s Creed Shadows is an impressive technical package on Switch 2, and I would put it on par with Star Wars Outlaws. Ubisoft has a strong track record of post-launch support, having already committed six updates to Outlaws that improved both visual fidelity and performance.
As I mentioned earlier, this video isn’t meant to critique the game or its performance. The goal is simply to look under the hood and showcase how it runs and looks on Switch 2. My full review of the game will be coming soon.
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