"This is unplayable": Batman Arkham Knight's performance on Nintendo Switch sees mixed reception from fans

Batman Arkham Knight is finally on Nintendo Switch, thanks to the Batman Arkham Trilogy port. This brings the iconic trilogy of open-world superhero action games created by Rocksteady to Nintendo's shores. Fans have especially been looking forward to Arkham Knight as it is the latest and greatest, but the results have left a lot to be desired.

The game suffers from poor visuals and performance on the hybrid console, making it an unpleasant experience.

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Fans highlight Batman Arkham Knight and its technical issues

Batman Arkham Knight suffers from a myriad of issues. From poor visuals that compromise its artistic vision to disappointing performance, it has garnered intense scrutiny. The biggest issue is the Batmobile driving sequences, which were also notoriously taxing on last-gen consoles due to the game streaming complex assets quickly around the map.

From constant stuttering thanks to poor frame pacing to outright two to three-second freezes as the renderer fails to keep up, many Switch users have deemed it unplayable. There are visual downgrades as well, with toned-down graphics textures, environment detail, and further compromises, which have been pointed out.

On the flip side, it is not a cloud version. It is still impressive that this is the full-fat Arkham Knight experience on the go as well. Some players reminisce about the PC launch back in 2015, which was equally poor across the board. So, what exactly went wrong here?

Batman Arkham Knight is an open-world game that pushes Unreal Engine 3 technology. This, coupled with the game engine not being officially supported by developer Epic Games on the platform, could explain the disastrous performance and poor visuals. However, the other two titles are subpar as well.

Batman Arkham Asylum and Batman Arkham City are also available as part of the package. While visuals are mostly comparable to PC's High settings, with 900-1080p resolutions in docked mode, the performance often drops below the target 30 FPS. Being old games, they should pose no issues, as the Nintendo Switch tech is more than enough to handle them.

Since developer Turn Me Up Studios has other successful ports to the Nintendo Switch, like Borderlands Legendary Collection, the current set of issues could've arisen due to developmental hiccups. Conversely, Unreal Engine 4 games fare much better as it has native support for the platform — games like Vampyr, The Outer Worlds, and even Hogwarts Legacy perform better.

As it stands, Batman Arkham Knight's port has received massive scrutiny on the handheld system. All that players can do is wait for performance patches from the developer.