

It’s not just playing the game in a different location that makes handheld feel so refreshing, though. However, the frame rate is admirably consistent and when you’re playing in handheld mode these visual compromises aren't overly noticable. And the lack of brightness adjustment is a pain in the retinas when you’re in a dungeon. You won’t get HDR, incredibly high resolution textures or fantastic draw distance here. To make it possible to take an entire Tamriel region on the go, some compromises have had to be made. But seeing that expansive world in the palm of your hand is a new kind of a thrill in itself. This is a classic that has found a second, or maybe third, life on the Switch, and it’s well worth your $60.Given that it’s very much a six year old game, Skyrim isn’t really going to blow your mind to the same degree anymore in terms of what gameplay it can offer you. They’re completely taken by the size of the game and the sense of adventure that Skyrim delivers, and the ability to put the system to sleep instantly only to pick up where you left off an hour later makes the experience even more welcoming than it was at launch.īethesda was right to place such a big bet on the Switch for the holiday season, and Skyrim should be held up as an example for what the system can do for your back catalog.
#SKYRIM SWITCH PORTABLE#
While many seasoned players have fought their way through Skyrim more than once in their gaming careers, watching my children play Skyrim for the first time on a portable system has been a revelation. It’s not perfect - no waggle control ever is - but it’s enjoyable enough to at least be worth a try.Īnd of course you can always tap a few amiibo on the your Switch to unlock items and try to get those sweet, sweet Zelda-flavored items if you don’t mind paying for a bit of an advantage. Bringing your hand above your waist will either put you into a defensive position with a sword or bring your shield up. You swing your hand to swing your sword, and can even use the Joy-Con like a pointing device to enjoy some precision when aiming arrows. You can even split the Joy-Cons off from the Switch when docked and play around with the included motion controls, which are completely optional but also goofy fun.
:no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/9693521/Switch_TheElderScrollsVSkyrim_screen_01.jpg)
The game never seems completely stable at 30 fps, but it hits the target more often than not, which keeps everything feeling smooth and responsive. The game still delivers what seems to be the full-scale world of the original, and that epic scope comes through brilliantly when playing on portable mode. I found the darkness levels more annoying than enjoyable, but who cares? You can now play Skyrim wherever you’d like! The system’s relatively small screen hides a lot of the game’s graphical sins, and it’s always easy to tell what’s going on, outside of the brightness issue. A gamma slider would have gone a long way, although purists may argue that learning to actually fear the dark may just add another layer of immersion. Companies that are bringing ports to the Switch need to put a bit more care into making the text legible or at least offer options for increasing the size of the in-game fonts, and the complete lack of in-game brightness settings make some of the darker areas of the game nearly impossible to see. There are a few annoyances here, however.
#SKYRIM SWITCH PC#
While the text can be a bit small and the loading times stretch on long enough to be a drag from time to time, playing the game away from your television or PC is enough of a feature that you’ll be able to overlook the compromises.


While the game’s visuals had to be hacked down a bit from the newer versions to fit on Nintendo’s somewhat underpowered console, the tradeoff is that you can play Skyrim in your bed, on the subway, in the bathroom or everything in between. So how does the Nintendo Switch port stack up to the long, varied history of Skyrim? Very well, it turns out. Skyrim has been released a fair number of times, and there’s even a VR version of the title for those of you who wanted to get literally lost inside the game. You might have played the original console release, or the more recent remastered version of the game on PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. You might have played the PC version, with or without mods. We all have a different mental idea of how The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim should look.
