Panic Button did the impossible last year and ported DOOM to the Switch.
One of the greatest shooters of all time and one that was built from the ground up for
PS4 and Xbox one.
Sure the frame rate and resolution were pretty much cut in half but to have a current gen
game running on a what’s essentially a handheld shows just how far we’ve come.
And they’ve done it again with Wolfenstein 2 the New Colossus.
Depsite adoring The New Order, I actually let the sequel get by during the initial release
so the Switch version was my first exposure to the nazi killing follow up and man am I
floored.
The New Colossus ramps up the tension, the stakes and creates a more personal journey
with one of the most hateful antagonists I’ve come across in a shooter.
While DOOM went for the shooter now, ask questions later approach, Wolfenstein is a far more
linear style of story telling and it’s surprisingly gripping, even if at times ridiculous.
There are so many effective moments though that draw direct parallels with racists and
Nazis.
See, Wolfenstein takes place in an alternate history where Nazis won World War 2 and while
some fight back, others embrace the dictatorship.
It creates some really uncomfortable scenarios, especially in scenes where all you can do
is sit back and watch.
The story really is a highlight of The New Colossus and it constantly throws all this
built up tension at you only to then let you storm out and just destroy everyone.
You can probably tell that I like the game which means the port must be good, right?
And yeah absolutely, Panic Button have managed to take a game visually more diverse than
DOOM and bring it over to Switch with seemingly better results.
During normal and intense fire fights I didn’t even notice frame rate drops, what I did notice
though is the image quality getting a tad blurry in scenarios with heavy fog and smoke
effects.
It feels like the prioritised frame rate and it really works out for the best.
I actually recommend playing this in handheld mode as the lower resolution actually looks
pretty good on the smaller screen though docked is nothing to be scoffed at.
This is one of the best looking games on Switch.
Moments like this with floorboards flying everywhere don’t even seem to make the Switch
sweat which is amazing.
But it’s not just all about visuals.
Those who stuck around with DOOM know that it was eventually patched with gyro controls
and man did that change things.
Now here’s one little issue popped up which could be a big issue if you aren’t aware.
When I first started playing Wolfenstein the menu was completely static, like I couldn’t
move up or down and the only inputs it was recongise were A and B. So I could start the
game but I couldn’t adjust anything.
It wasn’t until around 6 hours in that I found a work around.
For whatever reason I needed to reboot my Switch from scratch, for a fellow journalist
at Nintendo Life, they only had to do it once.
I had to do it four times though.
No idea why this is the case and hopefully it’s patched by the time you guys get your
hands on the game but now that it’s working, the issue has never popped up again.
While a weird glitch, it actually came with a perk.
I played half the game without gyro and the other half with gyro and boy do I appreciate
that second half even more.
Gyro controls let you make such small refinements to your aim and is honestly comparable to
a keyboard and mouse.
They’ve pretty much become a control standard for the Switch at this point and if playing
Wolfenstein on the go wasn’t a selling point for you?
Gyro should be, it’s a game changer.
All this makes Wolfenstein 2 not only a great Switch port but gives it perks over other
versions.
Sure if visuals are what you care about, go for last year’s originals but it’s insanely
impressive what they’ve pulled off on such small hardware.
Wolfenstein isn’t just your average world war 2 shooter.
Having lost the ability to walk, BJ Blatzkowitz relies on a special suit that makes him a
borderline super soldier, this lets him rampage around at high speeds and dual wield just
about any weapon regardless of how heavy it is.
The sheer amount of combat options is staggering, you can take it slow and deal with all the
Nazis with stealth, you can stay behind cover and lean out dealing with them one by one
or you can run and gun and use their own weapons against them.
The game even incentivises you to mix up playstyles with perks rewarded for performing different
actions with different setups.
Whether you’re sneaking around with a silenced pistol or painting the walls with dual shotguns,
every single blast feels good and the emotional story makes each character feel justified.
BJ isn’t an angry man, he’s a sad one who’s been put down by Nazi’s his entire
life, even by his American father.
Some levels are bombastic and huge and others are calm and small.
Wolfenstein is an emotional rollercoaster and the unpredictability always made me want
to see what was next.
There were so many moments where I thought “How the heck is he gonna get out of this
one” and the answer is rarely what you think it’ll be.
The Nazis are overwhelmingly powerful newly developed weaponry and cybersuits but perhaps
more powerful than that is simply looking at the environments and seeing remains of
a world on the edge of defeat.
There’s a ton of lore to uncover in The New Colossus that tell a much deeper story
than what’s on the surface.
Inbetween levels you’ll even return to what can be considered a HUB where every single
character changes and develops as the game goes on.
You can even go into their rooms and learn what they’re all about.
Wolfenstein The New Colossus nails its atmosphere, it nails the gunplay and always gives you
the motivation to push on.
This is a purely a single player shooter but I think it more than justifies it.
There are times where Wolfenstein would remind me of Half Life only with a less friendly
robot dogs and Nazis.
With the reboots of DOOM and Wolfenstein we’re in a new brilliant era of single player shooters
and it’s remarkable that both franchises are back on a Nintendo platform for the first
time in over a decade.
Wolfenstein’s definitely more sentimental than DOOM but it justifies all the story and
emotional depth with the payoff of bringing Nazis to their knees.
This is a powerful game and just about every element feels good.
Despite the issue with having to restart my Switch a few times to get the menu working,
the port feels brilliant, I did run into one glitch where I took the camera anywhere I
wanted and tried to find secrets and new discoveries in some of our favourite games, but that seemed
like a weird exception that probably exists in other versions too.
There just aren’t that many first person shooters on Switch and when we get some as
well made as this, it’s hard not to appreciate all the effort and polish squeezed into every
level.
The game lastest me around 8 hours but there’s still so many secrets to go back and find
to the point where I only cleared it with a 38% completion rate.
I loved Wolfenstein the New Colossus.
There may be some downgrades visually but purely in terms of how it plays, I had an
even better time with this than The New Order and was consistently floored that that Switch
could pull off such a feat.
What do you guys think of Wolfenstein?
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and other things gaming too.
Until next time, bye!