The Switch 2 Is My Favorite Way to Play Cyberpunk 2077, and It’s Not Just Mouse Controls

You’ll be able to play CD Projekt Purple’s open-world cyber ninja simulator on both Xbox Sequence X or PlayStation 5 with strong visible constancy at 60 frames per second in “efficiency” mode, nevertheless it received’t ever be as fluid a playable expertise as it’s on Swap 2. Sure, it’s useful to take your console on the go with out having to finagle any streaming over Wi-Fi, however when docked, the expertise continues to be higher resulting from tighter controls. By default and with two Pleasure-Con 2 controllers, Cyberpunk 2077 affords joystick plus gyro controls for aiming. There’s a separate possibility you possibly can activate to allow Joy-Con 2 mouse mode. Both manner, you possibly can obtain higher pinpoint-accurate gunplay than you possibly can with thumbsticks. I may sit again on the sofa and benefit from the recreation with out hunching over a keyboard and mouse and nonetheless really feel like I wasn’t lacking out on its high-octane, spectacle-fueled fight techniques.

In about 15 hours of gameplay, I attempted each management units and performed in handheld mode as nicely. The mouse controls are very correct, however the situation is at all times discovering a cushty place to relaxation your palm. My hand began cramping fairly quick as I attempted it on the sofa cushion subsequent to me or a chair’s armrest. I used to be utilizing the Killswitch case grip made by Dbrand, which made it way more ergonomic for mouse controls. The difficulty is how typically that you must roll your hand to press face buttons for actions and menus. On the flip facet, I discovered that the upgraded gyros on the Swap 2 are so clear, I used to be capable of line up headshots with such ease I’d hardly ever swap to mouse.

The sport additionally helps hand-wavy controls for reloading weapons or swinging melee weapons. I discovered these may really feel far an excessive amount of like the unique Wii—the place I’d sweep my controller at open air and pray that my character carried out the motion I wished. I saved to buttons and located it to be a a lot tighter expertise. I additionally want CD Projekt Purple allowed me to maintain each gyro/thumbstick and mouse controls on on the similar time. In case you allow mouse controls, you disable thumbsticks and gyros. Metroid Prime 4: Past promises to allow players to swap from thumbsticks to mouse simply by plopping their controller on a floor. One thing like that for Cyberpunk 2077 would go a protracted strategy to serving to gamers keep away from wrist ache.

Cyberpunk 2077 performs at 1080p decision in each handheld mode and when docked. Both manner, you possibly can count on it to get between 30 and 40 fps below “high quality” graphics settings, even throughout an intense gunfight. That’s equal to what chances are you’ll get on a Steam Deck, although I discovered the efficiency to be extra constant on Swap 2. I skilled some body fee dips when driving in third particular person in dense environments (first-person mode aids body charges by taking over a portion of the display screen with the gamers’ gun or automotive fashions—a longtime efficiency trick utilized by most first-person shooters). Any occasional efficiency hitching wasn’t sufficient to distract from the sport’s visuals. In case you’re anyone who completely calls for 60 fps from each recreation they play, you’re not going to seek out that have with Cyberpunk 2077 on Swap 2.

There are occasional visible glitches. On difficult textures like rugs or cloth, the sport rendered odd kaleidoscope results that would turn into distracting in cutscenes. That is possible resulting from the usage of Nvidia’s DLSS. The Nintendo Swap 2 makes use of a custom Nvidia-made chip, and this implies it may possibly run AI upscaling to take a body rendered at 720p and therapeutic massage it to appear to be it’s 1080p. The latest model of Nvidia’s upscaler, DLSS 4, is generally devoid of those glitches. The Swap 2’s graphics processor is basically equal to Nvidia’s Ampere microarchitecture constructed shut to 5 years in the past, although Nvidia has clearly fine-tuned the system-on-chip (SoC) for Nintendo’s {hardware} specs. This enables for some ray tracing lighting results, although it may possibly’t ever be as punch-to-the-face spectacular as it may be on an ultra-expensive PC working with path tracing results.

The truth that we’re nonetheless speaking about Cyberpunk 2077 as a excessive bar for graphically demanding video games 5 years after launch is a testomony to only how lovely—and intensive—the sport could be. What will get misplaced within the obsession with efficiency is simply how wealthy of a world CD Projekt Purple established for the sport. It’s a recreation the place the atmosphere informs the story. Each bag of trash dumped on the facet of the highway speaks to a world that has turn into so corporatized there are not any social companies so simple as rubbish pickup accessible to all however the rich. The participant can climb to the highest of an overlooking skyscraper and watch the night haze choke Night time Metropolis and all its inhabitants in a thick gloom.

You want some quantity of visible constancy to symbolize that, and the Swap 2 model of Cyberpunk 2077 maintains that environment. The primary time I performed the sport shortly after launch, I ran by the complete 60 hours in a state that might higher be described as an interactive slideshow. The sport was so bugged I generally felt like my PC was contaminated with an in-game neurovirus. However I nonetheless beloved it for the fantastic, human-centric story it instructed—of characters who felt actual and personable and themes of company oppression that really feel extra pertinent at present than they did in 2020.