How does The Sinking City run on Switch?

Driftwood
Thursday, September 12, 2019 | 7:25 PM
3 comments

GSY Tech PC PS4 Xbox One Switch

With its many technical shortcomings on PC, PS4 and Xbox One, we didn't expect the Switch version of The Sinking City to shine particularly but we still were curious to see how Frogwares had ported their game on Nintendo's console. It's nice to see so many non indie titles coming to Switch, even though it's not always the best way to experience them. Compared to the other versions of the game, you'll see a lot more aliasing and pop-in issues, fewer pedestrians on the street it seems and a choppy framerate that doesn't go too low according to our plugin, but that is nonetheless quite annoying. Details also seem to have gotten lost since last June, but handheld mode manages to hide the graphical shortcomings a little at least. What will remain an issue though are the awfully long loading times (loading the game from the title screen takes about 1 minute and a half), which makes dying all the more frustrating as you can imagine. The Sinking City is not a bad game by any means, it just lacks a good amount of polish and a bit of variety when it comes to its gameplay mechanics, but to play it on Switch you'll have to make even more compromises than on the other systems.

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Commented on 2019-09-12 19:45:49

Go to a dumpster, grab a half-decade old laptop, install the game and change the visual/performance toggles to almost the lower spectrum, so that it runs but barely. This is what most switch ports look like.

Don't forget the lowest resolution possible.

No damn standards in this console, but alas, this is what being the current hottest selling/shittiest performing hardware gets: everyone wants a piece of the pie. ironic when no one gave two shits about the Low-specs Nintendo platform markets in the recent past.

In reply to

Sdarts

Commented on 2019-09-12 22:24:22

Yes, unfortunately a lot of Switch ports - specially from AAA games - only amount to make the game run no matter what sacrifices must be made, even if the sacrifices are too much that they are detrimental to the developer's intended experience.

Off-topic, but as for awfully long loading times, Control pissed me off with them, where I have no problem with loading times in most games. Running off a SSD, sometimes the loading times were fast around 10 seconds and sometimes they took over 1 minute and a half, specially if I Alt-Tab'ed. The problem was that sometimes it took so long that I had to Alt-Tab to read something other than reading the same tips for the hundredth time.

I started playing Quantum Break again and the fact its loading times are way faster and far more consistent than a game that came out almost 3 years and half later using the same Remedy's Northlight engine is messed up. Control does far more than QB both graphically and specially physics wise, but the loading times can be downright slow sometimes.

However, it's the inconsistency that really bothers me, you can die on a boss and be back playing in 10 seconds or 1 minute. Same area, same everything, but it's like the game just rolls a RNG to decide if you should wait a little while or a lot. Still, the game is really great and these issues are far, far less bothersome than the low framerates on consoles. Saw the footage of the game runnin on a PS4 Pro in which the framerate bucked to unplayable levels during fights and there's a lot of combat, yikes. Control definitely needs a lot of patching.

Off-topic, but as for awfully long loading times, Control pissed me off with them, where I have no problem with loading times in most games. Running off a SSD, sometimes the loading times were fast around 10 seconds and sometimes they took over 1 minute and a half, specially if I Alt-Tab'ed. The problem was that sometimes it took so long that I had to Alt-Tab to read something other than reading the same tips for the hundredth time.

I started playing Quantum Break again and the fact its loading times are way faster and far more consistent than a game that came out almost 3 years and half later using the same Remedy's Northlight engine is messed up. Control does far more than QB both graphically and specially physics wise, but the loading times can be downright slow sometimes.

However, it's the inconsistency that really bothers me, you can die on a boss and be back playing in 10 seconds or 1 minute. Same area, same everything, but it's like the game just rolls a RNG to decide if you should wait a little while or a lot. Still, the game is really great and these issues are far, far less bothersome than the low framerates on consoles. Saw the footage of the game runnin on a PS4 Pro in which the framerate bucked to unplayable levels during fights and there's a lot of combat, yikes. Control definitely needs a lot of patching.