Bad, dirty and bad
The amazement of the arrival announcement on the ID Designer’s First Person Shooter Switch came in twofold: not only was there curiosity to see how the
Nintendo console would get it with a graphically demanding title but He is also astonished at the arrival of such a violent and bloody product on a Kyoto home machine, whose consoles, over the last ten years, remember missing ripe titles, including Mad World, Zombi U and Project Zero Maiden of Black Water.
Porting was attended by Panic Button guys, a co-responsible team of titles like Recore and Hob, and also engaged in Rocket League Switches , among others: we can immediately anticipate that porting is of good quality without particular peaks of excellence even without any sort of rumbling, even though we will deepen the speech in the dedicated paragraph.
For the few who did not play it, Doom’s reboot was a breath of fresh air last year because it brought back the hands of the clock back several years when the first-person shooter was frenzied, scarcely scripted, discreetly difficult and, above all, without regenerating health.
The our review of the console version, about a year ago, awarded him the title with a 8,5: a vote that, after some time, it should be confirmed since the incessant action and the feeling of the weapons were cathartic, especially at the bottom of a day of hard work.
The biggest compliment you can do at Panic Button’s job is that, despite a number of compromises on the technical side, the essence that made this deserving reboot of attention remained basically unchanged in Switch’s move: action, although it does not have sixty frames per second, remains extremely adrenaline, with it the weight of the mouthpiece and the sadistic feeling of pleasure in snatching a demon after placing a shotgun in full throat.
The gaming experience, at mode, user interface and content, is identical to that offered by PS4 and Xbox One versions, with the exception of the lack of the level editor, and includes the online multiplayer which, however, we were unable to test the short time available for this review.
During our attempts to connect, we found the servers abnormally empty, as the game will only be released tomorrow: multiplayer, among other things, must be downloaded separately from those who are going to buy the physical edition with a download of about 9 GB in size; Who, instead, opting for the digital version is getting ready to make room on his SD card, as the title of the single player and multiplayer campaign is over 22 GB.
Bread for every type of teeth
Having completed Doom last year at the intermediate level of the three proposals initially, on this second run on Switch we opted for the highest difficulty … and we regretted it after a couple of hours.
As for versions released eighteen months ago, even on Switch, the heart of gameplay and level of difficulty remained constant, giving the player a little in terms of medical medikit and temporary protections for the torso.
Demons emerge from everywhere (“come out of the fotted walls”, cited above), they love to escape our fire and cooperate with each other, so while two cacodemons aim us unceasingly from another, enormous, try to relate to our teeth closely: the secret is never to be stuck for more than half a second, but even the most hyperkinetic ones will have to reload your rescue many times, we are sure.
Those beginners who have never played the title before (or are not familiar with the first person shooter), we first advise the softest difficulty, then take the hand and try the top ones and the Arcade mode.
Playing in portable mode also shows two minor drawbacks, which can be partially remedied from the options menu: By maintaining the default brightness, we had problems playing in portable mode in unclear environments, and, secondarily, we noticed that texts screen are of a slightly too small font, which forces you to try to read the documents found and the tips on upload screens.
If the first problem can be remedied from the options menu, increasing the brightness as desired, the second is no solution, although it should be noted that the plot and the lore of this reboot are good but not unforgettable.
Miracles and compromises
The technical aspect was the one most under the magnifying glass, and we have to say that, overall, did not disappoint: as mentioned earlier a few lines abov
e, the porting operation is mostly successful, also thanks to the scalability of the ‘ ID Tech, a powerful but streamlined which is also hope for the conversion Switch to Wolfenstein II.
We confidently played most of th
e time in portable mode because, as always with Switch, the biggest attraction is precisely by replicating in mobility the quality of a gaming experience from the living room.
In these moments, Doom runs at 720p and
thirty frames per second, or half as opposed to the PS4 and Xbox One versions : despite this halving, the action remains as fast and confusing as long as frame
rate is not “rock solid, to say to the American: at some point we witnessed repeated, though not too dramatic (in the order of 5-10 fps, at eye level), in conjunction with the most crowded scenes, with demons ranging from everywhere and bullets flying.
The overall effect is, however, more than positive, and goes over to simplified textures and to a non-exceptional polygonal size when you have the ab
ility to move away from the home wall one of the most fun and spectacular shootings of 2016: compared to Killzone Mercenary , which until now had the scepter of the best handheld fps, Doom is even more ambitious, with little regard for the limits of the guest console.
In handheld mode, despite the excellent response to commands, we found that the poor performance of the two analogs penalizes some gameplay passes (such as interaction with objects and finisher, which both use analogue pressure right), but this is due to the standard configuration of Switch and not the title itself.
In dock mode, however, the never-too-praised Pro Controller makes the layout of the controls virtually identical to that seen on the consoles Sony an
d Microsoft, with all that comes in terms of convenience and familiarity: when connected to TV, Doomshows the same uncertainties as the aforementioned framerates, although their frequency (which, we repeat, is not excessive even in handheld mode) decreases considerably.
When connected to the home television, however, we were unable to determine with the naked eye the resolution: for the most part it seemed to us that it remained unchanged at 720p, but at certain levels we would vow that it had been raised in a variable way .
In any case, these are subtleties for maniacs: what really matters is that cardiopalma action does not go down too much, and the compromises to accept are few in relation to the goodness of the work done and the porting tout court.
Note of merit for the uploads, slightly longer than home console counterparts but very fast when compared to the portable context and the fact that, apart from the initial one for the whole stage, there are not any others.
