After seemingly the longest four-month delay, Assassins Creed Shadows is finally launching on March 20th for Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and PC. Its the first title in the franchise to venture into Feudal Japan, specifically the late Sengoku era with Oda Nobunaga rising into power. It also offers two protagonists Naoe and Yasuke while introducing significant improvements to the Anvil engines lighting and environmental destruction.As enticing as it all is, previous showcases looked more than a bit rough, raising concern over whether it would actually meet the initial November launch. Thankfully, the delays have allowed for some significant polish, with the fidelity of the setting, combined with Shadows art direction, shining through. We compared the visual fidelity and performance of the PS5 and PC versions to highlight all the differences, especially between different modes. Without further ado, lets dive in.Whats New?Assassins Creed Shadows has a lot going on with its world design, especially with how intricately the development team has researched Japan, right down to the rooftops of various architecture. Such is the extensiveness that game director Charles Benoit told IGN it was probably the most complex thing that I ever worked with compared to Assassins Creed Odyssey and Syndicate, with specific code and animations required to ensure something superfluid.Environmental destruction is also something to behold. Initial showings highlighted the destruction of vendor stands with vegetables and fruit scattering naturally on the ground. However, even in the early going, watching Yasuke kick an enemy through wood containers, some shattering as the body careens through and others tipping over from the impact, is so satisfying. Objects are also sliced realistically depending on the orientation of the blade, and while thats cool, there are some weird interactions. Watching an ally slice the top of a wooden barrel and seeing the part fall to the ground is cool, but not so much when another part hops a little before landing on top.Of course, theres also ray-traced global illumination and ray tracing, an improvement over previous GI implementations. With the changing seasons, scenes significantly shift in lighting and shadow quality throughout. The use of Atmos is also notable for its procedural clouds and physics-based weather. It makes for more natural transitions between rainy and clear weather, and though the rain quality is just fine, watching the splashing of drops on the ground, the horse, various characters, etc., is pretty incredible on PC.Walking through the Iga Province and watching the nearby scenery gently swaying with the wind or hanging around in a foggy area as it slowly dissipates, lingering ever so slightly as the sun starts to shine, can be mesmerizing.Test Build Specs and SettingsOn PC, we tested Assassins Creed Shadows on an AMD Ryzen 9 5950X, Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti, 64 GB RAM DDR4 RAM, and an NVMe SSD PCI e 4.0. We set almost everything to Very High with Ultra High enabled for a few options like Light Source Quality at 4K resolution. The upscaler was set to Automatic and Quality with dynamic resolution enabled.Ray-traced global illumination on Diffuse + Specular Everywhere while ray-tracing quality and BVH quality (which adjusts the quantity of geometry) was set to Very High. You can change character and hair strand quality, with individual strands standing out, though even details like wrinkles and pores are distinguishable.PC PerformanceOf course, performance is the biggest question, especially on PC, and the answer is: Pretty good. There are a few noticeable frame drops when exiting the map screen occasionally. Fast travelling to Nanbansen, we noticed the frame rate hovered between 55 to 60 frames per second while looking around at various scenery and undiscovered PoIs. Though it dips to about 50 to 52 frames per second while underwater and swimming, it climbs back to 55 to 60 as soon as you get out and start running around or fighting enemies.Even if a day one patch further smooths things out, its pretty good considering the settings and ray tracing quality. The loading times while fast travelling are also pretty snug on PC journeying to Nanbansen took about nine seconds.PS5 ModesWith so much going on in terms of visuals, the PlayStation 5 holds up, though there are some caveats. It offers an upscaled 2160p resolution across all three of its modes. Performance runs at 60 FPS and features Selective Ray Tracing, which means only The Hideout benefits from global illumination for diffuse lighting. Quality Mode runs in 30 frames per second with Standard Ray Tracing, thus ensuring the same lighting for the whole world. Finally, Balanced Mode is similar to Quality Mode but runs at 40 FPS and requires a 120 or 240 Hz display with HDMI 2.1.Quality Mode is clearly the winner when it comes to details. Details like Naoes naturally bouncing hair as she walks to global illumination and shadows look sharp. The reflections in the water are also pretty decent (standing out the most in the duels, like the initial 1v1 fight against an Oda Brute), while the frame rate is relatively stable.Even if its a step down in fidelity, Performance Mode still looks solid enough while delivering what it promises a solid 60 frames per second. Theres occasionally some subtle pop-in, especially for foliage and its shadows, though the overall rendering distance is pretty impressive. While the lighting and shadows are noticeably lower quality, they still look pretty decent.Balanced Mode may seemingly offer the best of both worlds (even if the lighting feels over-exposed in some places), but it highlights one of the bigger issues with the PS5 version the image quality. Maybe its an issue with the upscaler or the resolution dynamically changing to ensure solid performance, especially in busier scenes. Again, things look significantly better in 1v1 duels, but two other baffling issues occur during gameplay.The first is some slight asset culling at the bottom right of the screen (usually for foliage), which looks odd once you notice it. The other is a weird smudging around specific regions of characters, most noticeable during the duels. Its especially egregious in Performance Mode and looks terrible. On the bright side, at least loading times in all modes are pretty solid, taking a little under 10 seconds in Performance Mode, about 11 seconds in Balanced and less than 14 seconds in Quality Mode when fast-travelling to Nanbansen.PC vs PS5 Quality ModeObviously, the PC version wins out. As decent as the PS5 version looks in Quality Mode with its GI, shadows and solid performance, it doesnt measure up to the PC version, which is superior in all three aspects and offers better image quality. You can see a clear distinction in graphical quality during cutscenes versus gameplay on consoles. Its all but negligible on PC, resulting in a gorgeous visual feast.ConclusionWhile the PS5 version is a viable way to play the game, even though it struggles through some unique issues, Assassins Creed Shadows is a tour de force on PC. Offering a wealth of options and making good on its promised new features, it also provided a visually rich experience backed by solid performance and incredible levels of polish. Whether experiencing the late Sengoku era in all its glory or embarking on a new stealth action experience, the graphics are some of the series best yet.