While the Nintendo Switch isn't as powerful as its contemporaries, the portability of the system and lower price point than most other consoles helps to keep it a viable option for playing third-party games. The Switch has had some seriously impressive ports over the years, with games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 and DOOM Eternal standing out as solid examples. However, one of the biggest surprises was The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which came to the hybrid console in October 2019.
While the idea of taking one of the best open-world fantasy RPGs on the go is tempting, considering The Witcher 3's size and how limited the Switch itself is left fans concerned regarding how the game would perform. Saber Interactive, the same studio behind the 4K ports of The Witcher 3, retooled the game to run properly on the Nintendo Switch, but how well does it run?
There certainly seemed to be some initial problems when it came to The Witcher 3's Switch port. In an interview, Saber Interactive CEO Matthew Karch stated that the initial port attempt only ran at 10 FPS and was way too massive to fit on a Switch cartridge. With that in mind, players shouldn't expect to get the same visual experience that they would from playing The Witcher 3 on PC or other consoles.
The most notable downgrades are with the game's textures, especially when it comes to the ground and plants, which have all had their resolutions noticeably reduced. Many fans find this most noticeable in cinematic cutscenes, with some texture pop-in making the lower resolutions much more obvious. In handheld mode, the game really loses a lot of the sheen that players generally expect from The Witcher 3 and contemporary games.
That being said, other areas of The Witcher 3 still look good even when the Switch isn't docked. Character models and facial textures are pretty impressive, especially when it comes to Geralt. While clothing and armor can be blurry at times, the Switch's lower resolution in handheld mode makes these harder to notice. The Witcher 3 also runs fairly consistently at 30 fps in handheld mode, providing a smooth experience.
Something worth noting is that, despite the rendering engine seeing a serious downgrade, there are still some elements of The Witcher 3 on Switch that are really impressive. Real-time shadows, screen-space reflections, dynamic foliage and even some lightning effects are all present and help to sell the world to the player, even with the less-than-stellar texture quality. A later patch to the port even helped make blurry textures less noticeable by utilizing some sharpening shaders.
Of course, the most important part of any port is how it plays, and this game is still The Witcher 3. Saber Interactive was able to maintain the solid feel and experience of Wild Hunt in a form that players can take with them. The Witcher 3's port still contains everything the game and its expansions have to offer and any other platform. Plus, those who also own the game on PC can utilize the game's cross-save feature to keep the same game going between both versions.
Considering the massive scale of the original game and the underpowered nature of the Nintendo Switch, The Witcher 3's port is fairly impressive. As expected, there are some hefty graphical downgrades, but those who can look past those will find that they don't get in the way of the core experience. While it doesn't look as good as the game does on other systems -- or likely will when it gets its next-gen upgrade -- The Witcher 3's Switch port is more than a reasonable way to experience one of the best open-world games out there, particularly for those with no other way to play Geralt's adventure.