There are two different ways to look at the Switch port of Saints Row: The Third’. From a glass half full perspective, what you’re getting an exceptionally close conversion of the PS3 original, closer still if you play in handheld mode. But viewed in a glass half empty way, all of the failings of the last-gen console versions remain in full effect on this new release: let’s make no bones about it, performance is poor and the controls have severe input lag issues.
Let’s focus initially on the positives. Playing Saints Row: The Third in Switch’s handheld mode is definitely the best way to experience the game. It renders at a full 720p – making it a pin-sharp native experience on Switch’s six-inch screen, while performance seems to be more consistent than the docked mode. As usual, the smaller screen does a good job of hiding some of the cut-backs and compromises and to all intents and purposes, it is indeed the PS3 version in the palm of your hand. And to be clear, this game has always been hilarious fun – and this was the main reason why we were so looking forward to the Switch port, and most likely why we’ve had so many requests to look at it.
Much of the charm wears off when playing docked, as despite migrating Saints Row: The Third to full 1080p resolution, it feels like a step too far for the Switch’s mobile hardware. Blown up on a big living room display, the extra resolution is welcome, but just about any major use of alpha transparency effects clearly reveals ugly sawtooth edges – a sign of lower resolution buffers in play. These were already cut back on the last-gen consoles versions, but the compromise is even more pronounced on Switch with even lower resolution artefacts. There’s also an impact to performance: the frame-rate lows feel worse than they do in handheld mode – making the experience feel even more uneven.
And this leads us on to what is undoubtedly the biggest disappointment with this conversion – it doesn’t address what is by far the most unsatisfactory aspect of the original release: the frame-rate. Saints Row: The Third’s history here is a real issue. The Xbox 360 version played relatively consistently, but did so accompanied by some hideous screen-tearing. Curiously, v-sync could be forced on within the options, but performance could plummet as a consequence. Its PlayStation 3 counterpart used a triple-buffer v-sync to remove the tearing, but swapped in wobbly frame-times as a consequence. Back in the day, there was no satisfactory way to play this game on consoles – only the PC version was capable of delivering smooth gameplay.
There are further options in the here and now, though. Saints Row: The Third always ran on consoles with an unlocked frame-rate, meaning that running the original game on Xbox One back-compat sees a welcome lift to performance, with all of the tearing banished. Indeed, run the game on Xbox One X and the frame-rate usually settles between 50 to 60 frames per second, with the odd deviation into the 40s. It’s not ideal, but it’s still a night and day improvement over every other console rendition (though given the choice, PC is still the preferred option for revisiting the game).