(Image credit: Ubisoft)
Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the newest installment in the iconic series, marks its debut exclusively on the PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. This leap forward skips past older generations entirely, and the meticulous detail invested in the game’s universe has not gone unnoticed. But what was the experience like for the developers?
“When you start with a new generation, you always feel like you’re unshackled, in a way,” shares Pierre Fortin, the brand and pipeline technology director. “But then you’re developing, and you introduce new systems, and you find new barriers at some point. But with Shadows, I think we’ve really tried to push the world dynamism to a new level.”
In Shadows, seasonal changes unfold as the narrative progresses, with weather effects adapting dynamically. As rain falls, beaches and paths transform, becoming waterlogged and muddy. However, Fortin expresses his greatest pride in the game’s trees.
“Now in AC Shadows, we leverage the power of these new consoles and hardware to implement physically-based animation for our trees, enabling them to react and sway with the wind through a sophisticated simulation. We pursued a vision of enhanced dynamism, befitting the new generation, by imbuing more movement on-screen.” Learn more about game development insights from the game developers community.
As someone who appreciates immersive game worlds, I find titles like Deus Ex and Red Dead Redemption 2 remarkable—and both achieved great things with previous generation hardware. We asked Fortin about the hurdles faced during Shadows‘ development.
“The complexity of the world was challenging,” Fortin recalls. “We have four seasons, two protagonists, and a massive world complemented by dynamic time-of-day and weather systems.”
Ensuring these elements operated fluidly presented a technical challenge, especially regarding performance consistency on current-gen consoles. The team aimed for a seamless, engaging experience without sacrificing performance. Discover further insights at Game Informer.
“I’m pretty happy with what we’ve achieved,” Fortin beams. “Regardless of conditions, we deliver an experience that aligns with our performance targets. Our main challenge was technically managing the data size. We didn’t want the game to demand excessive storage, so we implemented clever compression methods to stay within our SSD constraints. With new hardware, we excel at maximizing potential, surpassing limits through smart optimizations.” Find more about performance optimization at Digital Foundry.
While realistic tree animations and seasonal transitions may not be essential for most, they demonstrate how major studios push technological boundaries in gaming, much like PlayerUnknown Productions with their project, Prologue.
For now, reflect on the series’ evolution by checking out our ranking of the best Assassin’s Creed games. Curious how Shadows fares? Dive into our Assassin’s Creed Shadows review to see where it stands on our list.