Earlier this week, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown was officially released on the Nintendo Switch by Bandai Namco. The game originally released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC more than 5 years ago, in early 2019. That said, you may be wondering how well the game is running on Nintendo’s hybrid console. That’s where Digital Foundry comes in. They released a tech review for the Switch version of Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, comparing the Switch port to the Xbox One version. Digital Foundry says that “if you go a little deeper, there are some key differences that separate the two releases – even if in typical gameplay some of those changes aren’t terribly evident”.
For example, “the draw distance for foliage elements is pulled in dramatically on Switch, producing much more obvious pop-in than we see on Xbox One. Plus, density takes a hit as well, even at close range. Trees are less numerous on Switch, and the grass is patchier”. They do note that this issue doesn’t entirely apply to buildings because “structures pop in at around the same distance across both machines, and generally the density and draw distance is similar. In more dense city areas though, the draw distances were pulled in considerably on Switch for most building models, suggesting this may be tweaked on an object-by-object basis to reduce load”. They also say that lighting also saw some small tweaks on the Switch, and post-processing has been downgraded.
However, Digital Foundry’s experience with the game doesn’t seem to be ruined from these problems. In fact, they say that “Ace Combat 7, in my mind, is up there with the cream of the crop of Nintendo Switch ports. The core visual experience has been capably translated to run on Switch at a stable performance level, with various nips and tucks but nothing that fundamentally compromises the experience. Put head to head with much more powerful Xbox One hardware, it manages to hold its own in a variety of gameplay scenarios. Plus, the pre-rendered videos aren’t overly compressed and the game even manages to throw in a clean 1080p UI for good measure – a feature absent on the Xbox”.
So how is the Switch port of the game overall? Digital Foundry was very positive about it, saying that the game “comes highly recommended on Switch. It’s one of the very best ports we’ve ever tested on the soon-to-be-replaced hybrid system”. You can see the video of Digital Foundry’s tech review down below.
