Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition is a handheld marvel on Nintendo Switch 2

The launch of the Switch 2 has introduced a smattering of latest exclusives, but it surely’s additionally relied on a raft of ported hits to fill out its roster. Chief amongst them, and sitting simply behind Mario Kart World as the sport of selection for brand spanking new Swap 2 house owners, is Cyberpunk 2077 Final Version. This launch brings the immense futuristic open-world, and its stark hyper-violence and decidedly grownup content material to Nintendo’s model new handheld, and in a variety of methods, that is the technical showcase for the console and its spectacular skills.

Cyberpunk 2077 is an attention-grabbing title to point out off your new console, not least due to the way in which the unique recreation launched again in 2020. The unique console variations of the sport, notably the PlayStation 4 version, carried out so poorly that Sony pulled the game from the PlayStation Store, and CD Projekt Red spent the next two years rebuilding their brand, whereas having to work to regain players’ belief.

That belief appeared to be wholly gained again by the point the upgraded PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S version arrived, in addition to the Phantom Liberty expansion, which solely launched for the extra highly effective {hardware}. The truth that the Nintendo Swap model is launching with your complete base recreation and its DLC is a press release of intent, for each Nintendo and CDPR. The brand new handheld might be thought of a real present gen console, and that is the sport to show it.

We’ve spent the previous week revisiting Evening Metropolis, and exploring simply how spectacular this port is. The place the unique Swap managed quite a lot of ‘not possible’ ports, together with CDPR’s personal The Witcher 3, these have been closely compromised visually to be able to run on the {hardware}. Right away, the Swap 2 model of Cyberpunk 2077 impresses with simply how good it appears to be like and performs on the console, each in docked and handheld mode.

Cyberpunk 2077 Final Version boasts a selection of graphical modes, with High quality focusing on 1080p and 30fps, whereas Efficiency mode will increase the body price goal to 40fps at the price of graphics constancy and determination – this works natively on the Swap 2’s display screen, however requires a 120Hz show when docked. You’ll be able to set your decisions individually for handheld and docked mode, which is a pleasant contact, in addition to alter the graphical results like Movie Grain and Chromatic Aberration.

We’re sticking to the High quality mode for our comparability and capturing the sport docked, placing the Swap 2 up in opposition to the newest model on PS4 – which is lacking quite a few gameplay overhauls at this level – and the Xbox Sequence S (word: we appear to have captured XSS with HDR turned on, tonemapped by way of to elgato with some uncommon colors from this).

Going again to PS4 and… nicely, there’s a motive that the sport was so maligned at launch in 2020, and whereas CDPR did enhance issues, it’s nonetheless fairly unhealthy with efficiency that may’t ever actually dangle on to 30fps and appears fairly shonky within the course of. The Nintendo Swap 2 simply outstrips the bottom PS4 in each means, there’s simply no two methods about it.

Xbox Sequence S, in the meantime, offers a way more intriguing level of comparability. Microsoft’s price range console is ready to prime out at 1440p30 with its dynamic decision, and even affords a 60fps mode, albeit at a 1080p goal and with a big variety of graphical compromises to get there.

Nintendo Swap 2 strikes a great center floor when docked with its 1080p30 goal. This recreation appears to be like genuinely good on the brand new technology hybrid and performs very, very nicely in holding to that 30fps goal.

The key sauce, although, is DLSS. The Swap 2 model of Cyberpunk 2077 is ready to use Nvidia’s machine studying mannequin to supply temporal anti-aliasing, as an alternative of the model that CDPR shipped for PS4 and Xbox Sequence S. This isn’t Nvidia’s newest DLSS mannequin, and it’s coping with low inner resolutions, however the outcomes are nonetheless spectacular. There may be some minor shimmer to background particulars, however DLSS utterly stamps out the ugly ghosting that might path behind movement within the recreation on PS4 and Sequence S, the latter of which at the moment makes use of FSR 2.1 on consoles.

Handheld mode is equally glorious – it’s genuinely outstanding to have this recreation in your fingers like this. I assumed High quality Mode was a good way to play, providing a near-seamless expertise in each docked and handheld modes, with only a few noticeable dips in efficiency under 30fps.

Handheld Efficiency Mode is the one place the place you actually begin to really feel the restrictions of the Swap 2, because the chipset steps right down to a decrease energy mode. This will solely goal 720p whereas the 40fps comes with the assistance of VRR, and thru this it feels rather more like a traditional Swap port, the place the compromises are very clear to see. The world and its visible design remains to be deeply spectacular,

Sure, you’ve been in a position to play this title on Steam Deck and different PC handhelds, however this can be a model that simply works out of the field. Select your graphical setting and off you go. With the ability to dip into the story, full a number of missions, and even simply work your means via among the completely different dialogue and interactions, is good, and there’s zero sense that you just’re getting a cut-rate expertise while you’re taking part in handheld.

Whereas Cyberpunk appears to be like implausible right here, the Nintendo Swap 2’s different options have additionally been used, most significantly the all-new mouse mode, which brings the expertise nearer to PC than any console has earlier than. Apart from that, there’s a Pleasure-Con aiming choice, reminding me of the unimaginable Resident Evil 4 port on the Wii, and you may as well use the gyro movement controls to high-quality tune your aiming. That is actually useful, as a result of I genuinely suck at taking pictures in Cyberpunk 2077.

All of this mixed makes Cyberpunk 2077 Final Version an unimaginable bundle for Nintendo Swap 2, letting console gamers expertise the sport in a means they by no means have earlier than, and highlighting simply how particular Nintendo’s new platform is.