Digital Foundry presented a technical analysis of Layers of Fear: The Final Masterpiece Edition for Nintendo Switch 2, examining the game's performance on the new platform. They touched upon resolution, target frame rates, and the scaling of engine capabilities to meet the console's limitations.
The team noted that the Switch 2 version is not an ideal port, but an example of Unreal Engine 5's capabilities on the platform. Despite the game's relatively compact scale, the use of Lumen global illumination makes it one of the most technically ambitious on the platform.
In docked mode, the game targets a resolution of 1080p, but in practice, it runs at a significantly lower internal resolution with dynamic scaling. In some cases, the resolution can drop to 540p, increasing to 648p depending on the complexity of the scene. Image reconstruction, similar to Temporal Super Resolution or simplified upscaling from NVIDIA, is used for compensation.
In docked mode, Layers of Fear consistently maintains 60 FPS — a rare achievement for games on Unreal Engine 5 on Switch 2, especially with Lumen. However, there are occasional brief drops to 20 FPS. In handheld mode, the game runs in the 40–50 FPS range with frequent stutters.
To achieve these results, Unreal Engine 5 features have been cut: there are no reflections in Lumen, and shadows and other elements have been simplified. Layers of Fear on Switch 2 is more of a proof of concept than a final sample.
