Oh Skyrim, we meet again. First it was PC, then the PS3. Somehow you managed to get into my PS4, and now you’ll be converting me to a Nintendo Switch.
I was able to play Skyrim for about 20 minutes at Nintendo’s booth in the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina for Comic Con 2017. You would think investing hundreds of hours into the world of Skyrim would leave me jaded and unwilling to try it on yet another platform. Nope, not the case at all.
First, the controls. Doesn’t matter if you’ve played Skyrim before or not, playing with the Joy Cons is intuitive. It’s really cool that you can draw your bow and arrow with them.
A nice little change of pace for those of you who love thieving in the game is the lockpick mechanic. You’ll need to also disconnect your Joy Cons to get the best lockpicking experience. The controllers are responsive, meaning you have to maneuvering them slightly to feel the tension in the lock. As you turn the pick, you’ll feel the point where it slides through. Once you’re at that point, you can turn the opposite hand to try to open the lock.
It reminds of the game in 1-2 Switch where you place the Joy Con flat in your hand and try to guess how many balls are in the box. The controls for lockpicking in the game are that sensitive. I broke several lockpicks when I wasn’t patient with the controls.
Looks wise, the graphics for Skyrim on the Nintendo Switch are a downgrade. It looks a bit fuzzy on the tablet screen, but that’s to be excepted. It’s nothing jarring or distracting; the game looks a lot better than I’d anticipated. I didn’t encounter any bugs or issues with controls.
Overall, it’s Skyrim . If you’ve played it, you’ll love it. If you haven’t, get on it when it comes out for the Switch. You can easily get lost in the world for hours on your travels with the portable console. It definitely pushed me to want to purchase a Switch later this year.
Skyrim will release with all three DLCs on the Nintendo Switch some time during holiday 2017.
