Last month, Ubisoft delivered a major update for Assassin's Creed Unity — a PS4 title that's over a decade old — and it went down really, really well with fans.
The patch adjusted the game's technical performance when running on PS5 via backwards compatibility. It removed the frame rate cap and provided a noticeable boost to resolution, resulting in a massively improved experience.
Indeed, between significant frame rate drops and a slew of graphical issues, the original PS4 release was plagued by performance-related problems. It may have taken close to 12 years for Ubisoft to make things right, but it stuck the landing.
And our beloved eggheads over at Digital Foundry seem to agree, although their full-on technical test does throw up some pretty interesting points.
For starters, this so-called 4K, 60fps update isn't actually 4K.
On PS5, the resolution does see a massive jump from the messy 900p on PS4, but it's still quite a ways off native 4K, at around 2304x1296. Weird, but we assume this is just as far as the resolution could be pushed without impacting frame rates.
And it's the same story on PS5 Pro, although the upgraded system does apparently provide a more consistent presentation due to its beefier GPU.
The Pro also pushes the highest frame rate out of every console, but Digital Foundry goes on to recommend playing unity on Xbox Series X for the best overall performance.
That's because of the Xbox's built-in backwards compatibility functionality. Not only does the stealthy sandbox hit a higher resolution on Series X at 2880x1620, its system-level use of VRR means that the title feels smoother across the board.
Having said that, it's worth noting that frame rate fluctuations are apparent regardless of where you decide to play Unity.
Digital Foundry says that the "majority" of the game runs within a 50 to 60fps window, but noticeably bigger dips appear during cutscenes — which are drowning in aggressive depth of field — and when the screen is packed with NPCs.
Much of the overview correlates with what we wrote a few weeks back in our Assassin's Creed Unity PS5 Hands On.
Basically, we concluded that it's well worth revisiting Unity if you're itching for a more traditional, parkour-focused Assassin's Creed game. The update clearly isn't perfect, but it definitely breathes new life into what was an immensely disappointing release all those years ago.
Have you given Assassin's Creed Unity a shot with the 60fps patch? Give yourself a performance boost in the comments section below.