Review: Doom Eternal (Switch) – An Ode To ‘Impossible’ Ports

When the release of Panic Button’s port of Doom (2016) drew closer, I have to admit I was growing very skeptical. Of course, when the port was initially announced at the September 2017 direct I was totally stoked. The idea of playing my favorite game of the previous year on Nintendo’s new console/handheld hybrid seemed like a dream come true. But at the time, not many really knew the true power of the Switch itself with most quickly assuming it was closer in power to the last-generation Xbox 360 rather than the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One consoles. It gave me vibes of the original Doom-on-Nintendo experience, Ocean Software’s Super Nintendo port of Doom (1993). Technically impressive, but with a nearly-unplayable performance that essentially resulted in the port being nothing more than a novelty.

Of course, once the port actually released all previous skepticism was basically shattered, despite performance not being as stable as some would hope although later updates would fix that. That being said, Doom ’16 essentially became the litmus test for how perceptive a player would be to a Nintendo Switch version of any modern release. On paper, the Switch isn’t nearly as under-powered as most would assume but it’s still definitely far behind it’s current generation brethren. Which of course makes sense given the Switch’s form-factor and SOC. In the case of most ports, including Doom, this means usually lowering the resolution to a sub-native 720p (and lower in handheld mode) and halving the framerate target from 60fps to 30fps. To many, this leaves the Switch version of a game to be the ‘lesser’ or ‘worst’ version of a game, while others accept the ‘downgrades’ in favor of the system’s hybrid nature and being able to play the game portably.

Panic Button would go on to port three more shooters from the Bethesda/id Software lineage with (IMO terrible) Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus and (IMO underrated) Wolfenstein: Youngblood as well as porting the black sheep of the Doom franchise with Doom 3. Doom Eternal was announced in mid-2018 and it was revealed a Switch port would accompany the other versions of the game on the day of release. Unfortunately, the developers would announce that the game would not make its original November 2019 release and would be pushed back to March 2020 with the exception of the Nintendo Switch port which would be pushed back indefinitely to a later date. Months with absolutely zero news about the Switch port would follow after Eternal‘s release on other platforms until Bethesda finally announced in late November that the game would receive a digital-only release on the Nintendo eShop on December 8^th, 2020.

A pretty lengthy introduction, I know. But I do believe all this context is necessary to this review.

The main bulk of you clicking on this review are pretty obviously going to click on this review to know if whether or not Doom Eternal for Switch is a good port or not. So here’s the TL;DR short version: it good.

Here’s the long version: This is Panic Button’s best port yet. Easily besting not only their two previous Wolfenstein ports but also their Doom ’16 port. I kind of saw this coming as Eternal runs on the latest iteration of the id Tech engine, id Tech 7. id Software’s games are usually heralded as technical marvels and at the backbone of those games is an engine that is surprisingly more optimized than basically any other engine in use in the industry. And each iteration of id’s tech has both advanced the engine with more features but also cleans up and further polishes the internal workings. So Doom Eternal manages to both look and run better than the previous id Tech 6 games on all platforms, including Switch. All the while taking up less install space than those games, too.

That being said, Eternal on Switch still shares a lot of attributes of these previous id Tech Switch ports. Doom Eternal for Switch targets 720p in both docked and handheld mode while targeting a framerate of 30fps. That being said, there are certainly some major differences. Despite sharing the same dynamic 720p as the earlier Doom and Wolfenstein ports, the overall image quality is a lot sharper than those releases. It seems Panic Button has utilized a new image renderer that attempted to clean up and upscale the on-screen picture so even when the resolution drops in heavy areas, the picture still remains fairly clear and descript. This paired with Eternal‘s use of bright colors in its environments and the demons you fight being designed in a very specific and distinctive way results in a picture that never really falters to being either too blurry or ugly. Although the technique being used does result in some artifacting that can most often be seen if you look closely at the edges of your gun on the screen when moving around quickly.

As for framerate, yes, it’s another 30fps capped game. But this time around, Panic Button has managed to keep Eternal on target with only very, very, very rare drops. And even when a framerate drop occurs, it’s always extremely brief and not imperative to gameplay at all. Framerate seems to be the real big source of contention to players when it comes to these Switch ports and, I mean, I get it. When not playing games on my Switch, I’m playing games on my PC. Which is really where I spend the majority of my gaming time. It’s how I initially played Doom Eternal back at the game’s release. So for me, the change in performance should be massive considering I’m going from playing the game at 240hz to 30fps. But just how I enjoyed playing all these other id Tech shooters on Switch, Eternal was no exception. Both my initial PC playthrough and my playthrough on Switch were on the “Ultra Violence” difficulty. And amazingly, segments that took me 5 or more tries on PC during my first playthrough, I basically breezed through on the Switch version. Of course, that could be attributed to my muscle memory from having finished the game one time over kicking in, but the point still stands that the change in performance is not nearly as bad as some will think it is.

Content-wise, the port is very nearly identical to the other versions. The one major notable exception is the DLC The Ancient Gods, Part One which is not included or available but coming at a later date. The only other bit I noticed was missing was the video filter options although some of them are included (albeit basically non-functioning) in the game’s photo mode. Not the worst exclusion though as I can imagine the feature was omitted since the filters probably didn’t play well with whatever dynamic rendering technique the game uses.

The game’s multiplayer component “Battlemode” is also included and it’s just as okay as it is on other platforms. I do enjoy how all my skins and icons and banners that I had unlocked on the PC version did carry over to this Switch version so that’s pretty neato.

Last but certainly not least, let’s talk about Doom Eternal itself! I’ll try to keep this section short since I imagine everyone reading this already knows about the game and what it is. But if you somehow didn’t already know, Doom Eternal is the 5^th mainline game in the Doom franchise. (Or it’s the 6^th. This game basically hard confirms that the previously non-canon spin-off Doom 64 is now definitely canon. That and there are some arguments among fans if whether or not Doom 3 has been decanonized or not but whatever let’s move on). It’s a fast-paced first-person shooter reminiscent of the 1990s era of shooter the original Doom games revolutionized while also building on top of the mechanics to make the gameplay faster and crazier than ever or even really any other shooter on the market. It shares a lot mechanically with its predecessor Doom ’16 but I personally feel like the developers have done an amazing job re-tooling and re-balancing every aspect of the gameplay from the movement to the monsters to the weapons and gadgets that Eternal just feels like one massive step up from its previous installment.

Eternal has been sitting near the top of my list of favorite games of the year and this second playthrough on the Switch hasn’t really changed my mind too much. It’s still a fantastic entry in my favorite franchise of all time and quite possibly the best shooter of this generation. If I had to say ANYTHING negative about it, it would probably have to be that the default controller bindings are a little bit weird to get used to at first (not a big fan of mapping grab ledges to clicking the right stick, especially when dashing is mapped to A). Of course, the big complaint many have is with a few of the demons you fight, although my opinion is probably a bit different than others in this regard. Enemies like the Prowler and Dread Knight are basically tankier versions of the Imp and Hell Knight (respectively) and they just seem like pointless editions. They aren’t really any more of a challenge to take on as their lesser iterations outside of having more health. And their inclusion seems even odder when you have even stronger and more challenging enemies like the Tyrant and Archvile which I love but their appearance in the game is so late that by the time you reach them, Doomguy is essentially fully powered-up and you can basically just wipe the floor with them immediately. I would’ve rather them omit the Prowler and Dread Knight and instead introduce these more unique enemies earlier on. The same could be said about the infamous Marauder. An enemy that basically goes against everything you’ve sort of learned about Eternal‘s combat up to that point. And I don’t think it’s a bad thing, either! Especially now having played once before, the Marauder is now really easy to deal with. But I feel like most people wouldn’t be so upset by the Marauder’s presence if it was in the game more than the 3 or 4 times it actually shows up (not including slayer gates or challenge gore nests). But do not take these complaints as me stating these as major problems. These are basically just super-duper minor nitpicks in a game that I find to be perfect in nearly every single regard. Outside of Battlemode. Battlemode is kinda whatever.

Doom Eternal on Switch is not the prettiest, nor is it the definitive version of the game but it is definitely a fantastic conversion of a fantastic game that I would absolutely recommend to any Switch owner who’s even marginally interested in the title. Rip and tear until it is done!

9/10

Thank you to Bethesda for sending us a code for review!