My PC died recently and I've been struggling to fill the DOOM void in my life ever since. I have a Chromebook now, which can run DOSbox and therefore DOOM, but it's far from an ideal way to play. The Chromebook version of DOSbox doesn't seem to support mouse input, and the machine is so underpowered that I get pretty awful performance. In desperation, I bought the Switch versions of DOOM and DOOM II, for a total of 3 dollars.
DOOM on a gamepad is not an ideal experience.
The Switch port at least runs better than the DOS version on my Chromebook, but aiming with an analog stick doesn't feel great when you can't aim up or down, and more importantly, the speed of this game's movement is just way too fast for an analog stick to keep up with. It's one thing when you have a mouse that you can use to turn as fast as you want, but when there's a specific speed at which you turn, it's impossible to find one that's fast enough to keep up with the movement, but slow enough to be accurate with.
The Switch port is weird in a few other ways which aren't unique to it. The medpacks have a green cross instead of a red one, a concession apparently made in a previous port to appease copyright laws, as well as the usual censorship of nazi imagery in the secret Wolfenstein levels, which has persisted through several versions of DOOM II.
Of course, DOOM is still DOOM, and even when played with a substandard input method I'd rather play DOOM than not. I certainly feel that I've gotten my 3 dollars worth, but I just wish I could play it properly, with a mouse and keyboard. I'd only recommend this version of DOOM if you're really desperate and have no better options.
DOOM on a gamepad is not an ideal experience.
The Switch port at least runs better than the DOS version on my Chromebook, but aiming with an analog stick doesn't feel great when you can't aim up or down, and more importantly, the speed of this game's movement is just way too fast for an analog stick to keep up with. It's one thing when you have a mouse that you can use to turn as fast as you want, but when there's a specific speed at which you turn, it's impossible to find one that's fast enough to keep up with the movement, but slow enough to be accurate with.
The Switch port is weird in a few other ways which aren't unique to it. The medpacks have a green cross instead of a red one, a concession apparently made in a previous port to appease copyright laws, as well as the usual censorship of nazi imagery in the secret Wolfenstein levels, which has persisted through several versions of DOOM II.
Of course, DOOM is still DOOM, and even when played with a substandard input method I'd rather play DOOM than not. I certainly feel that I've gotten my 3 dollars worth, but I just wish I could play it properly, with a mouse and keyboard. I'd only recommend this version of DOOM if you're really desperate and have no better options.
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