Ugly as sin

Panic Button has quickly became the Switch port gurus. They did the first Doom, the Wolfenstein games, and even a Vita version of Injustice. They know what they’re doing when it comes to squeezing an entire game into the little handheld that could. This includes Doom Eternal.

While Doom Eternal isn’t the newest of games at this point (this review is also rather late) it is still one that many people adore. Taking place after the events of the first game, the Doomslayer now on Earth, is having to fight off the demonic armies after the planet has been taken over by the hellspawn. Along with that, there’s an evil corporation that has sided with the demons that Doomslayer will have to deal with as well.

Platforms: Switch
MSRP: $59.99
Price I’d pay: $30 or best offer on another platform

Anyone who has played the previous Doom game or even the old school Dooms will know what they are in for here. Fast paced, first person action with a big emphasis on continuous movement. The same goes for Eternal. There’s some new bells and whistles here and what was true in the 2016 game is double dipped in Eternal. Having to keep up with ammo with the chainsaw kills and having to use glory kills to refill health is pushed even harder here, and on higher difficulties is essential for survival.

Instead of me going on and on about the gameplay, which is superb, what everyone really wants to know is, how does this Switch port hold up to the other versions of the game? Well, as you could probably tell in my tagline for this review, good and bad. The good, and this is a great takeaway, is that the framerate, while not 60 FPS, is a solid locked 30 FPS that hardly ever dips below that. Almost never. I can’t stress how important this fact is. Playing a Doom game with the framerate dropping is not a good time for anyone considering this game is all about the fluidity of the combat. In this regard, the Switch port holds up extremely well.

Now, with that being said, what doesn’t hold up is the resolution, and by hold up, I mean, looks damn near like an N64 game at times. So, when the game is at full tilt combat fast, the textures and environments can get so blurry that I could sometimes not tell what exactly it was I was shooting at. I knew it was an enemy, but couldn’t recognize any determinable features. This occurs in both handheld mode as well as docked mode. Handheld mode is even worse. BUT the takeaway here is that it doesn’t actually affect that gameplay. It may look bad, but it still runs just fine with almost no hiccups, and after the dust clears on the combat, the resolution comes back and looks pretty decent.

Now, I’m not really dogging this game. It’s a fine game, and to be completely honest, this is a rather impressive port considering the amount of content that is in it along with the fast paced combat that is implemented. My only question is, who is this port for? I could only think of Switch-only owners. At the same time, I can’t imagine there’s that many Switch owners that, A) have only a Switch that can play Doom Eternal and B) Are really wanting to pick up Doom Eternal. Of course, I’m a moron and have been proven wrong on so many occasions I don’t know why I even throw my opinion out there anymore, but needless to say, I just don’t see this port, while decent, is needed on the Switch, especially when the resolution can get this dodgy. On top of that, players who have another system can easily pick this game up for less than 30 bucks, and if you are a Game Pass subscriber, it’s on there for free. Oh, and this Switch version will cost you a cool 60 bucks.

At the end of the day, I’m not here to judge the players or the market for this version of the game, I’m here to judge the actual game. From what I played, I can see a person picking this up and still having a fun time with it, but if I had the option to play it on another system or PC, I would choose to play it there. The resolution is an eyesore to say the least, but the gameplay is still smooth and works very well for the entire game. Take that as you will.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.