The Switch has been a surprisingly capable platform for playing games a bit outside of what you’d expect would be its weight-class, demonstrated by the likes of DOOM Eternal, Monster Hunter Rise, and others. Granted, pulling that off was no simple feat, and is a testament to the skills and determination of the development teams that made those games work despite the hardware’s limitations. We’ve also obviously seen ports that have turned out less spectacularly, whether being visually compromised or simply performing poorly. Grime, unfortunately, feels like it has been hit a bit from all sides, both in terms of appearance and performance, and thus struggles mightily overall.

The shame here is that the concepts at play have some appeal. You play as a literally faceless being, capable of destroying or absorbing enemies, and able to then use some of their attributes, weapons, and skills to your advantage. This allows for quite a bit of variety and versatility, helping you to cater to your play style, or at least help compensate for your weaknesses.

Unfortunately, signs of issues crept in on me pretty quickly, starting with the timing for absorbing enemies when they try to attack you. It just feels off. I got to the point where I was kind of dialed in to when to trigger it through trial and error, but visually it doesn’t line up well. The same could be said of parrying attacks as your skills continue to grow, and even just in simple combat as you try to attack, dodge, and counter. Everything just feels a bit delayed and sluggish, and as you try to take on more formidable enemies that turns to frustration. While I would doubt that the in-game map is flawed as a function of performance I’d also point out that it is hardly ideal for clarity as well.

Putting it all together, this feels like a game that may well be solid on a more capable platform. But whether because of the hardware limitations, the quality of the port, or some combination of the two it simply does not perform ideally on the Switch. I would imagine if you don’t have other platforms as options, and are determined, you could absolutely work your way through the game, but that would be far from the ideal way to enjoy it. I appreciate what Grime is trying to do, but without substantial patching I’m not seeing how it is viable for enjoyable play on the system.