Assassin’s Creed Shadows 17+

Poor Performance but Has Potential

The main issues after 5 hours of gameplay are poor performance and a bug to where my mouse just doesn’t work. Trackpad does and restarting the game multiple times sometimes fixes it. This is not a my mouse issue because it works on every other game. Im on an M3 Max and was struggling to get 30fps at default settings (mostly medium). It was also using roughly 28gb of my 36gbs ram at these default presets and still running poorly. Lots of stuttering and input lag. After turning down settings it made the game almost always get 30fps. You also can't disable ray tracing either you can only set it to low. This game has potential but just doesn't feel like they put the effort into this version. There needs to be much more optimization on all versions of this particular game but that’s Ubisoft in general.

Developer Response ,

Hey there zGhillie, we're terribly sorry to hear about these performance issues you've encountered when trying to play Assassin's Creed Shadows. M3 Max chip allows for 1440P at 30 FPS which is Low on the Standard Ray Tracing settings. You can see the full details on our system requirements (scroll to bottom). You can find the link in the Game Description after pressing "More". We understand that this may not be ideal for some players, and do appreciate your feedback on the matter. However, if you are getting less than 30 FPS, can you please try a few steps to remedy this? Force quit out of other background programs when trying to run the game (to test out resource usage). Ensure your OS and game are fully updated and all content has finished installing. As a last resort, try reinstalling the game to ensure there aren't any corrupted or missing files from the original install. If the issue is persisting, run Apple Diagnostics. The instructions can be found on Apple's Support page under "Use Apple Diagnostics to Test Your Mac." Once you've done this, contact Ubisoft Support on the official Ubisoft Support Discord server, mention your device specs, description of what's happening, the troubleshooting that you've completed, and submit your system files. Be prepared to submit your Diagnostics file once an agent helps you with your case (Web search: Discord Servers > Enter "Ubisoft" > Join first server on list) Thank you!

I’m having fun

So I’ve been playing Shadows on a M4 Pro Mac mini, and after sinking over 60 hours into the game I’m still not done. The world of Shadows is beautiful. And despite originally thinking I wouldn’t enjoy playing as Yasuke (because I was more interested in the stealth aspect) I’ve found myself playing both characters a good deal, just because of how different they are. While sneaking around as Naoe is the most fun I’ve had, ending pirates with Yasuke’s Teppo was quite enjoyable.

I know there has been a great deal said about the optimization, but I’ve never really had an issue with the frame rate. My only complaint is that every time I hop off my horse to fight a ronin it runs away from me! lol.

As someone who’s been lukewarm about the Assassin’s Creed franchise in the past, Shadows has given me reason to be excited to indulge in the franchise. I look forward to the expansion that’s supposed to come later this year, and hopefully even more fun things they haven’t even announced. Anything to stretch out my stay in Shadows’s version of feudal Japan.

Great game, not so great optimization

Specs:

MacBook Pro
M1 Max 10 Core CPU/32 Core GPU
64GB of Unified Memory
2TB SSD

I was delighted to contribute to the support of Mac gaming for a AAA day-one release (I extend my gratitude to Apple and Ubisoft for their efforts). However, while Ubisoft asserts that 720p at low settings should yield 30 frames per second, this is not consistent, and low settings at 720p do not provide an optimal experience for such a visually stunning game.

One would think that such a controlled system like Apple’s Macs would be similar to game consoles like Playstation and Xbox in that the developers aren’t building the game for as large a variety of CPU/GPU/RAM configurations like for Windows PCs, therefore it would be easier to optimize, but I guess not.

I have awarded the game three stars, acknowledging the complexity of development. Nevertheless, the price of $70 for a poorly optimized game on Mac is unacceptable when I can spend the same amount on PlayStation, Steam, Xbox, or other platforms and obtain a superior experience.

Regrettably, I have requested a refund, as I believe Ubisoft has failed to meet expectations despite the delay. It is evident that the additional time was not dedicated to system optimization for Mac.