The Switch has been well served with older Assassin's Creed games, getting a number of ports that give players a lot of adventures to work through. The most recent arrival was Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Collection, including three titles that are regarded by some as the original peak of the franchise.
We gave this collection a recommendation in our review, but with some caveats, and the Digital Foundry assessment (above) seems similar on the technical front. In terms of the visuals, there are some interesting points on the detail and general 'look' lost from the originals when these games were reworked on PS4 / Xbox One. The further transition to Switch seems to have taken away some atmospheric details, leading to a 'clinical' appearance at times.
Presentation is generally reasonable outside of these flaws, while performance seems reasonable in docked play, especially. There are dips below 30fps, and these seem to be worse in handheld mode. Sadly, it seems that issues with audio compression (seen in previous franchise releases on Switch too) has continued over in this release.
The summary from Digital Foundry is below:
The Switch port of the Ezio Collection isn't without its faults but it's worth taking a look at. On the minus side, there are a range of graphical changes and cutbacks - some part of the original Ezio Collection release, but most unique to the Switch versions. That said, performance and image quality are mostly good: outside of some occasional hiccups with dynamic resolution scaling, the Switch release maintains a consistent 30fps and mostly hits its resolution targets, though portable mode can be noticeably unstable at times. For those looking to enjoy Assassin's Creed on the go, this collection should do the trick - but ultimately, the Ezio Collection falls short of earlier Switch Assassin's Creed ports. These aren't bad versions by any means, but they could have been better.
Let us know your thoughts in the comments if you've picked up this collection already, or if it's still on your wishlist.
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 30
Hopefully Ubisoft will be able to bring us Syndicate and Unity as well. Assassin's Creed on the go is definitely fantastic.
Welp that will be a pass then. Although I pretty much had my fill of AC throughout the years anyway.
I've always found the AC games clinical and soulless anyway.
@BispoSnake they tried porting Unity to the Wii U, which is more powerful than Switch's handheld mode, and "failed". Unity and Syndicate are cpu hungry hippos that require many parallel processes that a tri core Switch will struggle to do.
TLDR: Aesthetics/DD/and sound for all three games as expected all took a hit compared to the last Gen Enzio collections
Performance is mostly stable 30 in most situations that isn’t certain cinematic cutscenes or very briefly in a crowd for one of the games. Handheld mode notable stutters more in comparison to high twenties in very busy combat moments
Basically: It’s better ports then the Launch GTA collection and is serviceable as portable Asscreed Enzio games as DF themselves says at the end, but could have definitely been better when you compare other Switch port jobs that isn’t ports like GTA collection at launch.
I'm just waiting on a sale. I love these games
It actually sounds like mostly good news to me. Sure, it could have been better in some places, but the changes are all things I can live with, and in some cases I'm not actually a fan of the old style. Resolution and performance are both good and that's a big plus.
@Savage_Joe
Switch handheld mode is more powerful than Wii U.
Unity and Syndicate were never attempted to be ported to Wii U.
@westman98 It takes literally 2 seconds to find out that yes, they attempted to port Unity to Wii U but it wasn’t powerful enough.
It bothers me when a port like this downgrades the audio as that seems to only be a matter of storage space. The most upsetting is the audio downgrade in dark souls, which is otherwise an excellent port. Why oh why downsample the audio? Atleast give players the option to download the full quality audio.
@westman98 that's the misconception many people have. Wii U has ~175gflops vs Sw Handheld mode with ~157gflops, with the cpu being a desktop class on Wii U and a mobile class on Switch. RAM size and speed are the only advantages handheld mode has over the Wii U. Also, the Switch’s api is obviously more modern and efficient making more games possible.
@Savage_Joe
Switch and Wii U have completely different GPU architectures, so simply comparing FLOP counts between the two platforms is disingenuous at best. The Switch also has multiple handheld mode clock speed configurations, which further complicates the FLOP comparisons.
And THIS is where the steamdeck will step up and hurt the switch. Why get the switch version, when you can get it on the steamdeck, especially if it runs better.
@westman98 The gpu on the switch is more modern, yet, some games kind of look worse on handheld mode than on the original Wii U, like in TW101. And, no matter how many configurations it has, the handeld mode is still too weak for cpu intensive games like AC, as the cpu is restricted to 1ghz in all modes.
As for your “ Unity and Syndicate were never attempted to be ported to Wii U.”, Ubisoft confirmed they did attempt to do it…
https://news.softpedia.com/news/Assassin-s-Creed-Unity-Isn-t-Possible-on-Wii-U-461435.shtml
Seems like if you want AC on the go, the Steam Deck is your best bet
@Savage_Joe
Examples of cheap ports possibly running worse on Switch handheld mode than on Wii U is hardly indicative if the overall horsepower of both platforms.
And nowhere does that article say that Ubisoft actually attempted a Wii U port - it just says that the lead designer believed the Wii U was too weak to run Unity, which is true.
(And to be clear, I'm not saying the Switch can run Unity either, because it probably can't.)
It’s more telling that they say it’s worse that other AC Switch ports. Makes me wonder if there was some rushing or if it is due to the collection (and it’s engine) itself. I’m still getting it once it is half off. Want brotherhood portable.
It seems the problem is reusing the code from the PS4 version rather than just porting the original Xbox 360 version which should run 1:1 on the Switch.
@Savage_Joe
Wii U CPU is basically a tri-core Gamecube CPU with some new instructions. Two cores available. Switch CPU performance available to developers is roughly 30% more powerful than the Wii U one.
@Lem1697
Not to sure about that.
Steam Deck seems to have so many compatibility errors as they do not try out the green lighted games proper. And if the Deck won't be sold to the general public in retails, I doubt Valve will ever take action to really ensure compatibility.
Digital foundry will find and critique a single stone out of place. Not that I'm defending this port, I just sit there wondering "Who actually cares about the details THIS in depth when it comes to what they're playing?" Like, should I bothered that the 3rd bush out of the 30 on screen is missing some shadows? You know what you're getting into when you buy a switch game.
Dang drops below 30 on handheld makes me not want to pick it up, the only reason to get it on switch rather than anywhere else for these old games which are routinely less than 5 on PC and stupid cheap on ps4..
@nessisonett Citation needed
@mikegamer
https://www.gamespot.com/amp-articles/ubisoft-explains-why-assassins-creed-unity-is-skip/1100-6422777/
https://www.mcvuk.com/business-news/wii-u-not-powerful-enough-for-assassins-creed-unity-port/
https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2014/10/wed_be_cheating_fans_by_bringing_assassins_creed_unity_to_wii_u_says_ubisoft
https://attackofthefanboy.com/news/assassins-creed-unity-wii-u/
https://gamerant.com/assassins-creed-unity-wii-u-release/amp/
https://news.softpedia.com/news/Assassin-s-Creed-Unity-Isn-t-Possible-on-Wii-U-461435.shtml
I sincerely don't know what people are talking about. I got The Ezio Collection on release and until now it's been a blast. Looks absolutely beautiful, runs smoothly and sound is great. Yes, it's old, but I think it's just as great as AC3 and ACBF on Switch which are also awesome.
@ParadoxFawkes Hm... much cheaper on Switch as I don't have to go out and buy a PS4 or PC + the game. 😀
I noticed a glitch where a guys legs on one of the roofs i was running across went right through to about his knees. I was being chased by the guards and he was just standing there like he was stuck. Never had that happen before on any version of the game.
This is why I don't like the side effects of Digital Foundry. While technical analysis is valuable, they can also nitpick any game and make it seem disappointing, when in reality it's a very high quality Switch release.
It looks nearly indistinguishable from the PS4/X1 release, is very sharp in both handheld and docked, and has a solid framerate. I'm very happy with this game.
@Park_Triolo haha true! But you wouldn't regret picking one up!
AC games are good. But Far Cry 3 & 4 on Switch would be awesome.
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