Thank you Nintendo for sending us a review code!

A word to get this review started: This review will strictly be looking at Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition from a performance standpoint as it runs on the Switch 2. For a look from a gameplay and moral perspective, as well as performance on other consoles, see our original review. 

Now I had not experienced Cyberpunk 2077 before. My gaming rig has a 10-year old GPU, and my next-newest console is the PS4. In other words, I'm not a frame junky (or at least, I'm not wealthy enough to be one). But I do appreciate higher frame rates. I'd much rather experience a video game in 1080p at 60fps than 4K at 30fps just because the former is a much smoother experience. To me, the graphics matter much less than the gameplay experience. And I think that's the mindset for most Switch 2 users. You're not buying a Nintendo console because it represents the pinnacle of graphical excellence; you buy it for the love of Nintendo's first-party franchises and the freedom that a sleek handheld/console hybrid provides.

With all my qualifiers out of the way, how does Cyberpunk 2077, a recent AAA title, perform? Good.

No, but really. In the hours that I've played, the experience has been smooth, unobtrusive, and well-rounded. Not a single moment of lag, jitter, or freezing to be found while docked, and similar performance in handheld mode. The settings offer just two graphics modes: Quality and Performance. In Quality, Cyberpunk plays in 4K at a fixed 30fps. In Performance, it instead turns on Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and drops the graphics quality. I was expecting it to average 60fps in Performance mode, but instead it seems to target somewhere in the 40fps–50fps range. This wouldn't be as annoying if A) The difference in smoothness between Quality and Performance were large enough to feel meaningful, and B) If the game doesn't suddenly run at 60fps when the menu is open.
It almost feels like a bait-and-switch: You launch the game, play those first 30 minutes crafting your character, experiencing it all its 60fps glory, only for the frame rate to throttle down once your feet hit the ground.

Handheld, HDR on

Ever since the release of the Wii, every time Nintendo launches a new console, they aim to have the launch day titles in some way emphasize the motion controls that the console features. Cyberpunk 2077 is no exception here; they've implemented multiple new means of control which take advantage of Nintendo's Joy-Cons. The game requires the player go through the motion control tutorial before giving them full access, however. These control methods include gestures, gyroscopic aiming, and the new Joy-Con 2 mouse control.

Gestures include things like flicking your right wrist inward to throw weak punches, twisting your left wrist inwards or outwards to dodge right or left, and tilting your left Joy-Con towards your face to inhale a healing item. My experience with gestures in Cyberpunk was about the same I've had with every Switch title that's had them: they're too finicky to rely on. In theory, the motion controls give the player an extra layer of immersion. But if your character doesn't swing as fast as you, or accidentally dodges right because you happened to drop your left hand down to your side, it breaks immersion more than anything. You spend more time trying to get your character to do the thing you asked when your time would be better spent just pressing the button you know will work correctly 100% of the time.

Gyroscope controls are the exact opposite. Gyroscopic aiming can be disabled, enabled all the time, enabled only while a ranged weapon is out, or enabled only when aiming with a ranged weapon. When enabled, Cyberpunk will begin turning the camera in response to movements from the right Joy-Con. Considering how often the game asks the player to look directly at a small object, this level of fine-tuned camera control is a significant improvement over relying solely on the right joystick. And because the Joy-Cons are split and only one Joy-Con's gyroscope affects the aim, it gives an even more immersive experience than with a typical console controller where you have to tilt the entire controller to aim. It truly feels like you're pointing a pistol and firing at enemies.

Finally, there's the new Joy-Con 2 feature where they can act like a PC mouse. Unlike the motion controls, which were a clear detriment, or the gyroscope controls, which are a clear improvement, this method of control is a mixed bag. For those who are unaware, the new Joy-Con 2's have a mouse sensor on their sides. Lying the controller flat on its side, shoulder buttons forward will allow the Joy-Con to act as a wireless mouse. Reality far exceeded my expectations; the Joy-Con works admirably in this mode. I didn't experience any input lag, and it tracked my movements well. The R and RZ buttons are perfectly placed to act like left- and right-clicks. On the other hand, Cyberpunk still expects you to use the controller's face buttons while in this mode. Maybe it's just my undersized hands that are the problem, but I found trying to press the face buttons while the entire controller was lying on its side quite difficult. Part of this is that you don't have the same level of pressure on the back of the Joy-Con, meaning you need to press the face buttons harder for them to depress. The other part is that your hand naturally rests further up on the Joy-Con when it's in mouse orientation than normal. While you don't need the right thumbstick for camera movement in mouse mode, you do need to press it in as R3 to crouch, and doing so feels considerably more wonky than it should. I wish you could crouch/stand with a flick of the right thumbstick instead; it'd go a long way towards making this my preferred way to play.

 

I mentioned 3 methods of motion control. What I failed to mention is that the Switch 2 supports mouse and keyboard control for certain games; Cyberpunk 2077 is one of them. If you have a mouse and keyboard connected to the Switch 2 dock via USB and press any keyboard key while in game, all of the on-screen button prompts change to keyboard keys. The control here was so smooth that it felt like gaming on my PC. There is just one hiccup here: there are absolutely no menu screens that show you what the keyboard mappings are, nor are there any that give you a way to change them. I would be fine with the default keyboard layout, but I couldn't figure out how to perform certain actions with the keyboard, like putting your gun away (double-tap the X button if you're using the Joy-Con), without consulting Cyberpunk 2077's Fextralife wiki. Oh, and some of the HUD reminders for the buttons are actually messed up in keyboard mode [screwycaps.jpeg]. Not only is the text messed up, but in some cases the key shown doesn't do the action listed. It's a nuisance, and something that really would have taken only a little extra polish to fix, but neither issue prevents you from actually getting to play on mouse and keyboard.

My biggest gripe with the controls in general is that there is no way to remap keys or, more critically, switch to a left-handed mode. For a game that has an entire menu dedicated to "Accessibility" features, it seems really odd to me that they didn't add any way to modify the control scheme for people who are left-handed. If you're not comfortable with gyroscopic aiming or mouse control with your right hand, none of the aforementioned control schemes are going to give you any advantage over the clunky dual-stick approach.

So far, I have only covered the game's performance while docked. Undocked is actually pretty similar. Besides just the "Performance" and "Quality" options, there is an option to enable or disable HDR. The graphics in all modes take a noticeable dip compared to when the Switch 2 is docked, but it's still graphically impressive. I wouldn't recommend turning off HDR, though; the colors get severely washed out for no obvious performance improvements. Also, I did have one instance where the game lagged a bit while in handheld mode, but it was specifically as I was driving around Night City about as fast as my car would let me. I presume that loading in everything around me as I zipped about dropped the framerate somewhat. This was the only time I've experienced any kind of real hitch during the hours I've spent playing.

Handheld mode also has gyroscopic control capabilities, though the default level of sensitivity was too subtle to be useful. Be sure to ramp up the gyroscopic sensitivity if you intend to play this game on the go.

Finally, in terms of stability, my time with Cyberpunk on the Switch 2 has been stable with some occasional graphical bugs. Basically, I had one instance when trying to flee the scene of a mugging on one of the gangster's motorcycles where I knocked over a telephone pole, rode several feet up a wall, and had the dislodged pole do a little dance in the air, all while a nearby corpse rubber-banded through the sidewalk like he was auditioning to be added to Garry's Mod. Nothing gamebreaking, but it did turn a serious moment hilarious instantly.

If you're wondering if Cyberpunk 2077 ported well to the Switch 2, and our original review on its moral aspects didn't scare you off, then I can confirm that the gameplay, graphics, and controls are all smooth and stable, especially when you're playing it docked. Whether you're just obsessed with Cyberpunk and need a way to play it on the go, or this is your first experience and you've been waiting to play it on Nintendo's newest console, you'll get your fix here.