Oceanhorn 2 - Apple Arcade Performance Review

- Oceanhorn 2 is one of the most high-end games, a part of Apple Arcade right now, in terms of graphical fidelity. So today, I present an in-depth review of how the game plays across multiple Apple devices; iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV. Obviously, not Mac because it's not out yet on that platform.

I plan on doing more gaming reviews, just like this one, for Apple Arcade, so if this video does somewhat well and you find it useful, I might continue. First of all, let's have a look at how it plays on my iPhone XR. Sure, his might not be the new iPhone 11 or iPhone 11 Pro, but the iPhone XR is still rocking a pretty decent graphics chip, the A12 Bionic, and a nice Liquid Retina HD display.

This graphics chip allows the game's visual detail to shine here, however, because of the high-end visuals, Cornfox & Bros have had to limit the frame rate. I contacted the developer and they told me that the game is targeting 30-frames per second across all devices.

This is probably to also save battery life and to avoid your device overheating. Speaking of battery life, I first played the game when my iPhone had only 11% battery and I noticed some very bug lag spikes, as you can see for yourself. So I stopped playing, allowed the phone to get to 100% battery life, and from there the performance was absolutely fine.

I didn't notice any frame rate drops. I'd say if you're gaming on an iPhone, have at least 40% battery life or play with your charger connected. That's what I do. All righty, next up, we have my favorite device to play this game, a 2018 11-inch iPad Pro, and you should expect the same, and maybe better results, from a 12.9-inch iPad Pro.

So with its larger 11-inch Liquid Retina display, faster CPU, and an A12X Bionic Chip, this device presents the best overall experience for Oceanhorn 2. The performance was fine, exceptional, as you'd expect. Still, frame rate is at 30 frames throughout my playtime.

It doesn't dip, it doesn't go above it. It's just always at 30 frames, but it looks great, it plays great, mwah. All right, up next, we have an older device, an iPad Air 2. Surprisingly, the game runs okay here, There were some frame rate drops here and there, but it wasn't game-breaking.

In fact, I didn't even notice them when playing, only after when looking at the gameplay footage from my Elgato Game Capture HD60. Cornfox & Bros have had to reduce the render quality, but we must remember that this device has an A8 graphics chip, so it's very impressive how well it plays here despite it's visual fidelity.

All right, up next, we have the Apple TV 4K, which is in a very weird position right now. Apple really, really need to update the Apple TV. It's been, I think, two years now? This means that this model has an A10X chip, which is okay for gaming, it's all right, but the performance for Oceanhorn 2 is somewhat mixed here.

Visually, it looks fantastic running at, I believe, 1080p resolution in a 16 by nine aspect ratio. However, the frame rate can dip down randomly at times, not dramatically, albeit, but it's not always targeting 30 frames. That's for sure. It's a shame because the Apple TV 4K is really the best place to play Oceanhorn 2, especially with a PS4 controller.

It's like playing on console. Let's hope Apple bring out a new model very, very soon, please. And then, last, we have the Apple TV HD. It goes without saying, don't play Oceanhorn 2 on this device. The performance is quite bad due to the A8 chip and poor CPU.

You can play it and you can probably deal with it, but it's just not that enjoyable. Not much else needs to be said. Okay, so here are two suggestions that I would like to see be implemented into the game. What would be great across all devices is, yes, a custom graphics option.

There is the battery life save mode on the system tab. This will slightly reduce graphic fidelity, but this is mainly to save battery life. But allowing you to tone down some individual graphic options would be a great idea, Cornfox & Bros, in order to receive a more solid fps if you have an older device.

Hopefully, they implementation this also in macOS And the next, I would like to see a separate button to sprint, whether that be onscreen or using a controller. It took me a while to work out that, to run, you first have to dodge, and then, holding, you then start to run.

Perhaps pressing down on the L3 stick on a PS4 controller is a good example of what you can do to sprint, just for instance. Same thing can be said for the Xbox controller. I don't know the layout of that controller, though. It's not really a massive issue at all, but I think it will make the combat and movement more fluid.

And that's it. That's the only two suggestions I have right as of now. I've played the game for probably, I don't know, 2 1/2 hours, three hours, and I absolutely love it. It looks good, it play pretty damn nice, and it's got a nice story. The voice acting is okay.

It's not the exceptional, but it's fine. And all the environments are really nice. They're all quite different to each other, offering different environments and different puzzles. It's one of the most high-end games across all the Apple devices right now and I'd like to see more games similar to Oceanhorn 2, in terms of the high-end technology, come to Apple Arcade in the future.

I know we have The Bradwell Conspiracy, Enter the Construct, Beyond a Steel Sky, et cetera. Those games coming, but I'd like to see some more maybe. I don't know, that's just me. Anyways, let me know in the comments, what device are you playing Oceanhorn 2 on? What do you think of it overall? Are you enjoying it? What would you like to see improved? Yada ya.