author: Zuzanna Domeradzka
Batman: Arkham Knight on Switch Brings Back Flashbacks From Disastrous 2015 PC Launch
A test by Digital Foundry shows that the recently released Batman: Arkham Trilogy collection on Nintendo Switch is a terrible port. Despite the delay, the poor condition of the set is reminiscent of the abysmal 2015 release of Arkham Knight on PC.
On Friday, the Nintendo Switch console saw the release of Batman: Arkham Trilogy. The bundle includes three very good games from Rocksteady: Arkham Asylum, Arkham City and Arkham Knight, as well as all the DLCs that has been released for these games. Unfortunately these are not the ports that fans of Bruce Wayne's adventures might have expected, as they were very badly optimized.
The Dark Knight returns in bad shape
Batman: Arkham Trilogy on Nintendo Switch was supposed to be released in mid-October, but the release has been delayed by more than a month. The developers explained this by the need to fine-tune the collection so that it "provides players with the best possible experience" on the portable console, but despite the delay, the ports do not seem to have been (or seem barely) improved.
According to Digital Foundry, which conducted an in-depth analysis of the collection, the third installment of the series, 2015's Arkham Knight, has the most problems. The frame rate when exploring Gotham City on foot or fighting varies between 20 and 30, with frequent crunching. It is much worse when driving the Batmobile - when by sudden drops in fps and stuttering the game becomes practically unplayable..
In closed locations Arkham Knight works quite decently. The only things that may hurt are some bugs and - let's not kid ourselves - the terrible visuals (although this inevitably had to be changed due to the power of the portable Switch).
Again in 2015
Technical condition of Arkham Asylum and Arkham City is also poor. Both titles face noticeable frame drops and visual glitches. Nevertheless, the first two games in the series perform slightly better than the third, which is due to the fact that Arkham Knight was developed with eighth-generation consoles in mind, while Arkham Asylum and City were still coming out for the PS3 and Xbox 360.
The above material published by Digital Foundry features visual comparisons of the collection on Switch with the Batman: Arkham series on the Xbox One S console. Below, on the other hand, you can see a comparison with the PlayStation 5 edition. Thanks to these types of videos, you can see how poorly detailed Gotham City looks on the Nintendo Switch.
The situation is very similar to the release of Arkham Knight on PC in 2015. At the time of that game's debut, the gamers complained about the abysmal optimization, which prevented many from playing. It is possible that the developers will soon improve the technical condition of Nintendo Switch ports, as it was done at one time with the PC version of Arkham Knight.
Let's hope for better times for games set in the DC universe soon. In addition to the discussed ports of Batman: Arkham also Gotham Knights has disappointed fans recently, but on the horizon are Suicide Squad: Kill The Justice League (although footage from that title also fails to excite gamers) and a potential remaster of "The Dark Knight.".
