The Switch 2’s popularity has already seen it become the fastest-selling console of all time. Why shouldn’t you be able to play all of your favourite games there? It seems as though publishers have heard that call, or at least something that sounds like the an old cash register, so we’re seeing a host of ports of older titles finally making their way to Nintendo’s hardware. This time out, it’s Fallout 4, and while other modern platforms might offer better-looking visuals, this is the full Fallout 4 experience, on the go, and at home.
We don’t have to argue too hard about whether Fallout 4 itself is a good game. While Fallout 3 and Fallout New Vegas are often considered to be the true high points for the series, Fallout 4 offers a massive open world, excellent world-building and, in the Anniversary Edition, you’re also getting every single one of the DLC expansion packs, including the incredible time sink that is the Workshop packs. It’s a game that I’ve returned to time and time again, and now in 2026, it’s proved just as compelling as it is elsewhere.
This isn’t Bethesda’s first Switch 2 port, and they’ve thankfully learned from their earlier missteps. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim Anniversary Edition suffered from some pretty shonky optimisation at launch, but many of those issues have now been dealt with by patches. The team on the Switch 2 version of Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition have definitely been paying attention, and this release is in a much better state than its stablemate, albeit with the odd spot of classic Bethesda weirdness.
Fallout 4 Anniversary Edition gives you choices, and we all love choices don’t we? These choices revolve around frame rate, and it’s a slightly unclear way to give players three different graphical settings options. The Target Frame Rate option is squirrelled away down the list of Graphics options, and is only accessible in the front-end menu, not when you’re loaded into the game. Here you can choose from 30, 40 or 60fps, with each making significant changes to the way the game feels, but also how it looks.
Really, it’s best to think of these as being Graphics, Balanced and Performance tags, because functionally that’s what they are. Down at 30fps, Fallout 4 looks excellent, with some nice lighting and shadow effects, crisp textures and longer draw distances. However, the 30fps refresh rate, while very solid, feels noticeably slower after experiencing the other two, and I soon found myself hankering for the increased responsiveness.
Meanwhile, 60 fps mostly feels excellent, but comes at a cost to the game’s resolution. You’re stuck with an exceedingly soft image thanks to TAA on top of this – let’s just call it blurry – and it’s particularly noticeable in other characters, and in the shimmering of distant details. The payoff is that gunplay and exploration can feel great, and depending on what you’re doing in that moment, you might well decide that this is the best option for playing the game throughout. It doesn’t stick to a locked 60fps, and the same troublesome areas that affect other consoles affect the Switch 2 as well, as you’d expect. Without VRR when docked, there’s no way around this.
The blurriness of the visuals becomes less obvious when you’re playing handheld, and VRR on the built-in screen masks some of the wobbles, so this could easily become your favourite target mode if playing predominantly handheld.
40fps is, however, the current sweet spot, balancing visuals, the responsiveness of the controls, and not really having noticeable frame rate dips. You do need a 120Hz capable display to make use of this mode (because 40 goes into 120, but it doesn’t into 60), so bear that in mind for docked play, but the Switch 2 screen does have a 120Hz mode, and the balance between smoother gameplay and sharper visuals is exactly what I think most players will be looking for.
There are still what can only describe as the expected Bethesda jank. A box that whirled off, spinning around the room while I was trying to grab the item that’s in it was kind of funny, while the lighting failing to kick in for a good 20 seconds after loading a save was more annoying. I’ve not experienced anything game-breaking as yet, and it does generally feel very solid, including during a chunk of time building my settlement in the workshop. If you’ve played Fallout 4 before, or any Bethesda game, you probably know what you’re getting.
The only mild question mark I’d have is over the price, which does feel steep for a game that’s ten years old at £52.99. Admittedly, there’s enough game here to lose yourself for hundreds of hours, so there’s still the value there, and with Amazon’s Fallout show bringing the world to life in such a vibrant way, there will be people out there clamouring for their first Fallout experience. Switch 2 owners can be happy that this is a great way to experience that.
