If there’s one thing we can count on from Bethesda, aside from their legendary RPGs, it’s the seemingly endless cycle of re-releasing Skyrim. In a twist of fate, they’ve managed to bundle up both their notorious bugs with a fresh port of The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – Anniversary Edition for the Switch 2. This version hit the scene just yesterday, but social media is already buzzing with frustrations from fans who likely expected a little more polish.
Bethesda touted improvements in performance, quicker load times, and enhanced resolution with this new release. Sadly, players are reporting that these changes are barely noticeable, while larger issues come to light. One frustrated Redditor shared their thoughts: “Not only are the visuals only marginally better and the framerate still 30fps (what the actual fuck), but there’s nearly a full second of delay after each input. I knew Bethesda wasn’t exactly known for optimization, but this is just absurdly poor. I’d honestly prefer the Switch 1 version, at least that one didn’t feel so sluggish.”
Input lag has been a hot-button issue. Another player stated, “The input lag is horrendous. I genuinely can’t play the game in its current state—whether handheld or docked.” Oftentimes, complaints arose about the port itself: “Is this just a worse-performing version of Skyrim Switch 1? Is that the upgrade?” They hilariously noted, “I’m playing it right now, and wow, holy crap, this thing runs like wet ass—it’s actually kind of impressive.”
Frustrations don’t stop there—accessing the port seems to be a bit of a hassle if you already own the Switch 1 Anniversary Edition. One user explained, “First, if you have the physical game and AE DLC, you have to manually delete everything (and the game icon) then redownload the base game without the AE DLC to get the free upgrade from the main in-game menu.” They added with a smirk, “The best part is my game crashing after less than 10 minutes. Pure Bethesda experience.”
Overall, the feedback has been far from enthusiastic. Bethesda has yet to respond to any of these concerns, so we’ll have to wait and see if they can salvage the situation in a future update. As the art lead humorously noted, “It’s a bit of a joke how many times Bethesda has re-released the iconic RPG over the past 14 years: ‘It’s a great game. We want everyone to be able to play it.’”