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I’ll admit it: for years I treated Nintendo consoles like the fun cousin at the family BBQ. Great for party games, perfect for colourful platformers, but not exactly the place you expected to experience full-blooded survival horror. If someone had told me a brand-new Resident Evil would land on a Nintendo machine and hold its own against the big beasts from Sony and Microsoft, I’d have laughed and gone back to my Xbox.
Then Resident Evil Requiem arrived on the Switch 2, and suddenly I’m the one eating my words.
From the opening minutes, the game drips with that signature Resident Evil dread. Flickering lights, claustrophobic corridors, and the constant feeling that something unpleasant is about to burst through a door you really wish would stay shut. Capcom clearly hasn’t treated this like a second-class port either. The environments are detailed, the lighting is moody and oppressive, and the monster designs are the kind that stick in your brain long after you’ve put the console down.
And the most surprising thing? The Switch 2 version actually stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the other consoles more often than you’d expect. Technically, the PlayStation 5 version is still the king of the hill. It runs with higher resolution visuals, ray tracing lighting effects, and smoother frame rates overall, giving it the most polished presentation. Character models and fine details like hair and reflections look noticeably sharper there.
The Xbox Series X/SÂ versions lean more toward performance. They tend to maintain smoother frame rates, often closer to 60fps during gameplay, which gives combat and exploration a slightly more fluid feel.
But here’s where things get interesting.
The Switch 2 version uses Nvidia’s DLSS upscaling tech, which helps it punch above its weight visually. Even though its internal resolution is lower, the upscaling produces an image that can look surprisingly close to the other versions in motion.
In other words, the comparison ends up feeling a bit like this:
- PS5 – Best graphics and lighting effects
- Xbox Series – Smoothest performance
- Switch 2 – Slightly softer visuals but the miracle of portability
And that last point matters more than I expected.
Playing a full modern Resident Evil game in handheld mode feels almost rebellious. Creeping through an abandoned facility while curled up on the sofa or sneaking in twenty minutes before bed somehow makes the horror feel more personal. It’s like the game has crawled off the TV and into your hands.
Sure, there are compromises. Frame rates can dip compared to Xbox, and the lighting isn’t quite as advanced as on PS5. But the fact that the Switch 2 version even enters the same conversation is impressive. A few years ago, the idea of a brand-new Resident Evil launching day-and-date with Sony and Microsoft systems on a Nintendo machine would have sounded like fantasy.
Even the price reflects that slightly different positioning. In the UK the Switch 2 version launched around £60, roughly £10 cheaper than the PS5 and Xbox versions.
Gameplay-wise, Requiem returns to survival horror fundamentals. Ammo is limited, exploration is tense, and every hallway feels like a gamble. It balances action and dread in a way that feels closer to Resident Evil 4 and Village than the slower classic entries, but it still keeps that nerve-jangling atmosphere intact.
And as someone who once rolled their eyes at Nintendo hardware? I genuinely didn’t expect the Switch 2 version to be this good I went into Resident Evil Requiem expecting a compromised version made for a Nintendo console. Instead I found one of the most impressive ports I’ve played in years.
The PS5 may deliver the prettiest nightmare and Xbox the smoothest one. But the Switch 2 delivers something neither of them can.
A portable nightmare.
And I never thought I’d say this, but survival horror on a Nintendo console feels completely at home.
