Batman Arkham Knight Switch Patch Review: What Changed on Switch 2

The new patch for Batman: Arkham Knight on Nintendo's platforms came as a surprise, especially because many people thought the game had been abandoned for a long time.

Update brought back interest in a port that has been having trouble since day one. It makes certain things better, mostly for playing on Switch 2, but it doesn't fix any of the big problems, which makes the entire experience worse.

Update focuses on three primary areas: making Switch more stable, making Switch 2 more stable through backward compatibility, and improving Switch 2's performance and graphics when it's not docked. The stability remarks are probably about how the game crashed before, notably on the original Switch, where crashes were noted during early testing.

The most interesting thing is that Switch 2 will get a visual and performance boost in portable mode.

In docked mode, meanwhile, there isn't much of a change from what was already there earlier this year.

The game's visual profile stays virtually the same when docked on Switch 2. The same lighting downgrades, fewer assets, and effects removals are still there. Even the destruction effects work the same way, and none of the better visual options from the original PS4 version are included.

This is backed up by comparisons of resolution. The aliasing patterns in scenes, like the lighting in the diner, reveal that both versions are about 810p. There is no jump in resolution, no more clarity, and no real change in how things look. In short, docked mode is largely the same, except that Switch 2 runs better than before.

We can observe one real improvement in handheld mode from this update. The original Switch could only play games at 540p in handheld mode, but the new Switch 2 can play games at up to 720p. We could see a better, sharper image with more distinct details right away. It is still softer and a little chunkier than the docked view, but it is getting closer to that level than it was before.

Still, it's strange that the handheld mode doesn't just mirror the docked settings. Even though a unified profile would have made more sense from a design perspective, there is still a small gap in the visual profile.

During our tests, we saw animation stuttering in sequences when vehicles moved around the city. The original Switch didn't have these problems, which means the new hardware's higher speed is revealing timing bugs or hidden logic tied to old frame pacing. We don't know whether these behaviors were present previously and hidden by slower performance, or if they're new side effects of playing the game on better hardware.

In addition to changes to graphics and performance, there seem to be fixes for flaws that stop players from progressing. It looks like the game-breaking soft lock that was in earlier versions has been fixed, so players can finish the story without any problems. This update was very important because some people couldn't finish the game before.

We often picture Switch 2 running PS4-quality games, especially since features like DLSS have worked really well in other games that didn't support them at first. But it doesn't seem like any of that potential has been used here. The textures are still low-quality, the aliasing artifacts are still bad, and the overall level of detail is far below what Switch 2 could manage.

A well-known GeForce Now leak provided solid evidence that Batman: Arkham Knight RTX, or similar games, were in development.

That led people to think a new version with ray tracing, better lighting, and high-end rendering features might be on the way. But from what we can see in this patch, none of that development seems to have had any effect on the present Switch versions.

On the other hand, Switch 2 has proven it can handle high-visual-demand games very effectively. Games made for PS4 with powerful engines, like Final Fantasy VII, look and play great on Switch 2, with excellent clarity and stability. Arkham Knight, on the other hand, is still having problems even though it was made with Unreal Engine 3 and pushed to its limits. This suggests that the porting process itself is profoundly defective, not just the technology.

We think Batman: Arkham Knight is a great game that should be rereleased in a modern way. When it first came out, it had a mixed reputation. Still, over time, many people have come to see it as an overlooked masterpiece with a lot of atmosphere, great design, and notably smart Batmobile integration.

A new version with improved TAA, DLSS, and completely ray-traced reflections would be amazing. Modern lighting techniques would work well with the game's persistent nightly rain and reflective surfaces. For now, though, the PC version is still the best way to play the game, since the last-gen console versions are still stuck at 1080p30 or 900p30.

The new patch makes one important change: it improves the handheld resolution on Switch 2. However, it doesn't fix most of the other problems. Even with modern technology, the port still has major visual problems, performance issues, and missing features that keep it from being as good as it may be.

We still hope for a real modern remake by a skilled team that delivers the game to modern systems as it should be. The Switch versions are still broken until that day, and the best way to play is still on PC or through older console versions that work with the new ones.