Assassin Creed Shadows’ latest patch brings fan-requested features and PS5 Pro improvements

Ubisoft has released another patch for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, and it’s the game’s most substantial update yet, introducing a range of fan-requested features alongside the likes of enhancements to improve visual fidelity on PS5 Pro.

Ever since Assassin’s Creed Shadows’ launch at the end of last month, fans have been sharing their wishlist of features, and Ubisoft has clearly been listening. As of today’s 1.0.2 update, for instance, the “follow path” option seen in previous Assassin’s Creed games has returned, and mounts can now Auto-Follow the road to a marked destination when the pathfinder is enabled. Additionally, horse speeds have now been increased in cities.

Elsewhere, players can now reset Mastery Nodes in Naoe and Yasuke’s skill trees if they fancy trying out different playstyles, and it’s also now possible to sell and dismantle multiple items to save time. That applies both when trading with merchants and when dismantling items at the Hideout’s Forge. And here’s another time-saving addition: update 1.0.2 now lets players quickly access the Investigation Board by holding down the Option button for a few seconds.

As for those aforementioned PlayStation 5 Pro enhancements, patch 1.0.2 introduces PSSR – which will need to be manually enabled if you’ve already been playing on the console – and adds Raytraced Specular support to Balanced mode. This, says Ubisoft, will bring visual fidelity closer to PS5 Pro’s Quality mode than Performance mode.

There’s actually quite a bit more going on in patch 1.0.2, too, including the removal of the 30fps frame rate cap while in the Hideout when using Performance mode on consoles. That’s in addition to boss fight balancing, improved Double Assassinations, and improvements to Naoe’s responsiveness “in some instances”. All the above arrives alongside a sizeable list of bug fixes, as detailed in Ubisoft’s patch notes.

Shadows creative director Jonathon Dumont previously discussed Ubisoft’s plans to address fan-requested features post-launch, noting the studio was “always listening and monitoring what players are doing” and considering “constructive feedback”. Dumont did, for instance, confirm Ubisoft is “actively looking at” introducing a tougher difficulty, although that particular addition sounds like it might be further down the line.

Assassin’s Creed Shadows has, of course, got off to a strong start, topping over 2m players in its first couple of days – a figure Ubisoft says means it’s “now surpassed the launches of AC Origins and Odyssey”. Its critical reception has been positive too, with Eurogamer’s Tom Phillips calling Shadows “majestic in scope” and “impressive in detail” in his four star review.