Batman arkham knight batman beyond3/2/2024 None of those strengths are able to shine through on the Switch, however, because that’s just how disastrous of a port this is. Sure, it is probably the weakest entry in Rocksteady’s trilogy, but with its stellar combat, stealth, and traversal mechanics (among other things), it has more than enough going for it to overcome its weaknesses in areas like its narrative stumbles and its overreliance on the Batmobile. It’s particularly disappointing to see because, really, viewed on its own merits, Arkham Knight is a legitimately great game. "Given the obvious limitations of the Switch hardware, I absolutely wasn’t expecting Arkham Knight to look anywhere close to as good as it still does on last-gen consoles even now, but even with low expectations, the drastic drop off in quality is astounding, which is exacerbated by the fact that even with all of those many significant compromises, the game still barely manages to function the way it should." That WB Games looked at this port and thought it was in any fit state to be released, let alone be sold for money, is shocking, to say the very least. Given the obvious limitations of the Switch hardware, I absolutely wasn’t expecting the game to look anywhere close to as good as it still does on last-gen consoles even now, but even with low expectations, the drastic drop off in quality is astounding, which is exacerbated by the fact that even with all of those many significant compromises, the game still barely manages to function the way it should. Animations are often stiff and jerky, character faces frequently look horrifyingly bad, and all of it comes together to rob Arkham Knight of so much of its very distinct visual identity. Draw distances are laughably bad, and distant details of the city’s iconic skyline have been replaced by ugly looking generic blocks, while up close, details in the environments have been replaced by shockingly bland and muddy textures that would have looked out of place even on a PS3 or Xbox 360. At times, the game can even freeze entirely for several seconds, and though there are times where it does recover to finally start running again, sometimes it just crashes altogether.īeyond its performance foibles, Arkham Knight takes a massive visual hit on the Switch as well. Meanwhile, when you’re in the Batmobile, things are somehow even worse, to the point where the performance issues can be legitimately nauseating. During combat, the performance stutters frequently, which ruins the whole rhythm-esque flow of Arkham Knight’s action, while the frame rate drops are even more prevalent when you’re gliding around in Gotham City, which means two of the game’s best aspects have been heavily compromised. It’s plagued by constant frame rate drops, which range from being consistently annoying to rendering the game downright unplayable. "Of the three games included in the Switch collection, it’s no surprise that Arkham Knight fares the worst." Arkham Knight, however, is far less successful in its attempts to make that jump. We have, however, seen in the past how something like The Witcher 3 made the jump over to Nintendo’s platform, and even though it was very clearly a significant step back from a visuals and technical perspective, it was still a perfectly serviceable and surprisingly playable version of the game. When it first launched on 2015, it was already pushing the limits of the PS4 and Xbox One hardware, so significant compromises were bound to be made to get it running on the significantly weaker hardware of the Nintendo Switch. Of the three games included in the Switch collection (sadly, WB Games Montreal’s Arkham Origins is overlooked once again), it’s no surprise that Arkham Knight fares the worst. And even that might be a charitable description. Now, WB Games has teamed up with Turn Me Up to port Rocksteady’s trilogy to the Nintendo Switch, both offering returning fans the chance to play the games portably, and newcomers the chance to finally experience them on a new platform- and the results are… mixed. From their authentic portrayal of the Batman universe to their timeless nature as legitimately excellent experiences regardless of the license they carry, the Arkham games have lost very little of their luster in spite of the fact that they are, at this point, not exactly “recent”. It’s been close to a decade since Rocksteady Studios wrapped up its trilogy of Arkham games, but the beloved Batman titles still loom large in the hearts of many.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply.AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |