System Shock Remake Nintendo Switch 2 Review

While many discovered Nightdive Studios because of its preservation efforts on PC, most of my time with the developer's output has been on Nintendo Switch through loads of boomer shooter ports and remasters. I adored how Nightdive used to resurrect and remaster games from franchises I hadn't heard of or forgot about. I also appreciated how I discovered so many great shooters from the 90s that I missed. This is also how I played System Shock and System Shock 2. The former wasn't available on Switch or Switch 2 though, and it felt like a hole in Nightdive's catalog. The developer agrees with that as they told me, and that brings us to last month's launches. 

System Shock remake released on both Switch 1 and Switch 2, but the ports were not good. Since a day one patch was in the works and delayed, I decided to hold off on doing my review until said patch releases. It has now been a month since launch and with the patch available, System Shock remake is a lot better than at launch, but it still needs work on Switch 2. I'm going to focus on the Switch 2 port in this review. You can read Junior's review of the PS5 version of System Shock remake here for more on the game itself.

Before getting into the technical aspects and issues with this port, System Shock remake on Switch and Switch 2 arrives with a plethora of community requested features and tweaks based on community feedback like gyro controls, rebalanced health, added sound effects, monitors reflecting the state of the world, and more. Barring that, System Shock remake also includes all prior updates and fixes from other versions and is generally in a much better place compared to how other versions launched, but there are issues. 

System Shock remake at launch on Switch 2 suffered from poor performance both docked and handheld with some mouse control issues. Despite the team promising up to 1080p 60fps handheld and 1440p 60fps docked, it didn't even get close to a smooth experience and had regular crashes. The day one patch finally went live nearing the end of last month and things improved considerably docked, but handheld feels worse in ways. 

Right now, System Shock remake on Switch 2 is decent to good docked with great visuals when I play it on my 1440p monitor, but the performance is basically uncapped with it never feeling stable. It isn't unplayable like it was at launch at least, but this is one where the docked experience is worth your time if you're ok with a variable frame rate. VRR would have helped here, but that is only available in handheld mode on Switch 2.

Speaking of handheld mode on Switch 2, System Shock remake is plain bad right now. Not only does it sometimes not load textures at the correct quality, but there are crashes and basically the frame rate feels poor. I don't recommend System Shock remake on Switch 2 in its current state if you want to play it in handheld mode. This is surprising since the game plays perfectly on Steam Deck at a much higher frame rate.

When System Shock remake was announced for Switch 2, I thought it could be the best console version since you have gyro and mouse control options in addition to the traditional controller input. While it does control the best on paper, the performance and stability right now leave a lot to be desired. 

System Shock remake on Switch 2 vs PS5 and PC

In the lead up to System Shock remake hitting Switch and Switch 2, I was replaying the game on my Steam Deck and PS5. The PS5 version looks crisp throughout and held its 60fps target almost perfectly when I played on my 1440p monitor with fast loading. On Steam Deck, I tweaked the controls a bit for precision aiming, but it had no issues hitting 60fps and even higher when I played this. It runs a lot better than it did at launch when I tested it on my old Steam Deck.

The Switch 2 version shines with its visuals. I think the team nailed the port when it comes to visuals and effects, but the performance is what holds it back. Handheld is nowhere near acceptable right now and docked is fine, but should have been better. I'd have preferred a 30fps cap option if this is the performance after two patches.

As for System Shock remake on Switch 1, it is a lot better than it was visually last month, but the game seems to have some sort of issue with loading a save file or sleep mode because I ran into many instances where the frame rate was abysmal after loading my save on Switch 1. If you play the Switch 1 version on Switch 2, it is better, but still not perfect with its 30fps target. I also want to note that there is no upgrade path or save transfer with the Switch 1 and Switch 2 versions and that the Switch 1 version still has a lot of bugs like textures incorrectly loading as a black rectangle or solid black in the distance. 

System Shock remake Switch 2 gameplay

System Shock remake load times compared across platforms

Before concluding, I wanted to cover the load times. For this, I tested System Shock remake installed to the internal storage on Switch 2, the Switch 1 version installed to the Switch 2 internal storage, the Switch 1 version installed to the SD card on my Switch OLED, the Steam version on my Steam Deck internal storage, the Steam version installed to the ROG Ally internal storage, and the PS5 version installed to the PS5 internal storage. As you can see below, the Switch 2 load times right now are a lot longer than the PS5 and PC versions, but considerably better than if you play the Switch 1 version on Switch 1 hardware. 

Note: All the load times above are in seconds.

Right now, I don't recommend System Shock remake on Switch 2 if you want to play handheld. If you want to play docked, it is better than last month, but not as stable as it should be. This is definitely one to play on PS5 or Steam Deck if you have access to those platforms. I hope the Switch 2 version improves before the physical cartridge release because I was excited to buy that for my collection. I don't think I will bother if it ships with this current build though.