Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition

Genre: Open World Action-RPG / First-Person Shooter

Players: 1

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Review:

When Cyberpunk 2077 first released in 2020 on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia, it was an absolute mess. The game was buggy and poorly-optimized in a way that forced Sony to remove the game from PlayStation storefronts, was missing promised content, and just overall didn’t live up to the hype that developer CD Projekt Red had built up around the game. The epic Open-World Action-RPG and First-Person Shooter was ambitious, but after launch I think you’d be hard-pressed to find many players who felt like the game lived up to that vision.

Now in 2025, the game has received numerous patches and updates, as well as the Phantom Liberty expansion, that have brought the game closer to what was originally intended. And despite that this game still struggles to run on even modern platforms, players were stunned to find that not only would this game release on the Nintendo Switch 2, but it would do so at launch, complete with all DLC content.

Before going on, a bit of a warning – this game contains plenty of violence and gore, swearing, sexual content, and full nudity, although the last of these can be disabled in menus if you prefer. I just want to make it clear to prospective players that this is about as far from “family-friendly” as you can get.

I’ll leave the tech analysis to more capable folks like Digital Foundry, but I’d be remiss not to touch on how well this game runs and how it looks on Nintendo Switch 2. And the truth is… this game seems to run pretty well. To be fair, this isn’t going to be the best-performing version of the game, but depending on your settings this game supposedly gets up to a fairly-stable 30-40FPS (depending on whether you’re in quality or performance mode), with 720p resolution in handheld mode and 1080p resolution in docked mode.

In practice, I found this game’s visuals largely seemed pretty sharp and the framerates fairly steady, though the blurring as you turn in the game takes getting used to. However, it’s still impressive – this game is an absolute visual spectacle, and one of the best-looking games ever made. That this game is running as well as it does on a handheld device is truly a marvel, when you’re talking about one of the best-looking videogames of all-time.

To be more specific, this game has some phenomenally-detailed character models, great-looking hair, wonderful textures, extremely complex environments, nice lighting, decent reflections. Even five years later, this game is absolutely a showpiece on the Nintendo Switch 2 that really shows the power the console is capable of.

Having said that, it’s not without its flaws – I noticed a fair amount of pop-in, less-detailed character models for less-important characters, re-used character models – at one point, I saw three identical children hanging out in an alley together, after having left another alley that had three more of this same kid with two or three duplicates of a friend of his. However, even with these flaws, this is still visually an incredibly impressive game.

The audio is excellent too. This game’s fully-voiced dialogue is impeccably well-acted, with some truly excellent performances by all involved, from the cast of character actors to highly-publicized celebrity voice actors Keanu Reeves and Idris Elba. This is joined by a rock/rap/punk/techno soundtrack befitting the game’s grungy setting.

When it comes to the gameplay, Cyberpunk’s world is massive and impressive, and there’s a fair amount to do in it, but as much as I love a good Open-World game, I found myself far more enticed by the game’s story, with an intriguing plot and characters, great setpiece moments, and some meaningful character choices. As much as I was curious to explore the game’s world of Night City and its outlying areas, I kept finding myself being pulled back to learn more of the story of player character V and the mess he or she has gotten themselves into by taking the wrong job that gets them in deeper than they bargained for.

This is joined by some excellent gameplay that gives players the freedom to choose whether to focus on run-n-gun gameplay, stealth, melee combat, hacking, or some combination of the above, with multiple RPG-style skill trees to upgrade numerous abilities that give players tons of choices. This makes for some deep and satisfying encounters that let the player approach them how they want.

As for that Open World… well, honestly, I was kinda’ hoping for more. I felt like there wasn’t nearly as much interactivity with the world around you as I would’ve liked, and I still much prefer other Open-World games that give players more freedom to make the world into a massive sandbox to do as they please. Having said that, these complaints really mean little when the world is still fun to explore, and the main campaign is so compelling and fun.

I should also take a moment to talk about some interesting features the Nintendo Switch 2 release of the game has. First, players who have already played around in Night City on another platform will be pleased to know that this game supports cross-progression, so if you want you can play on your PC then transfer your save to your Nintendo Switch 2 and take the game on the go.

This version also sports surprisingly good touchscreen integration – you will still need gamepad controls while playing in handheld mode, but now you can touch on-screen elements to instantly access those elements, such as touching the mini-map to access the full map. You can navigate menus this way too.

This version also supports gyroscopic motion control, which is quite good. There’s another sort of motion control here too, a gesture-based motion control. This, I found was far more trouble than it’s worth, and I don’t recommend it – it’s so much easier to press a button than to tilt a Joy-Con 2 controller just so.

Finally, there’s mouse mode. I can absolutely see some players using this as their primary means of aiming, but I was frustrated by the fact that enabling mouse mode disables both the right analog stick and gyroscopic controls. Unlike the upcoming Metroid Prime 4: Echoes, the game doesn’t seamlessly transition from one to the other when you place the Joy-Con 2 on a surface. In other words, you need to decide between either mouse mode, or standard analog controls with or without gyroscope controls, you can’t have both. For me personally, I had to pick the latter.

While I found myself frustrated that the game’s control options weren’t more flexible, and I wanted more out of Cyberpunk 2077’s Open World, it’s hard to complain too much about Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch 2. This game looks absolutely magnificent on Nintendo’s new handheld, has a gripping story with great characters, superb action with delightful RPG progression, and a fascinating world to explore. If you haven’t gotten your fill of this game on other platforms, or want to play it on the go, you should consider this an absolute must-buy.

tl;dr – Cyberpunk 2077 on Nintendo Switch 2 is a powerfully-impressive showpiece that looks absolutely amazing on the new handheld, and this Open-World Action-RPG and First-Person Shooter plays wonderfully, has an outstanding story with wonderful well-voiced and well-written characters, and a fascinating world to explore. This game isn’t without its flaws, but overall unless you’ve had your fill of Cyberpunk on other platforms, you should consider this an absolute must-have game on Nintendo Switch 2.

Grade: A+

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This game has been nominated for one or more of eShopperReviews 2025 Game Awards:

Runner-Up: Best Port / Remake, Best Graphics

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