Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Switch Review (In Progress)

With Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus releasing June 29th on Switch, I’ve only had a couple of days to really dive into MachineGames first-person shooter. Originally released back in 2017 and reviewed by our very own Jatobi, this Switch port was handled by Panic Button, the same studio that Handled Doom’s port to the platform (see our review here). As I’m still knee deep in death and working my way through the campaign, I wanted to take a few minutes and give my first impressions on Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus.

As the title as previously been reviewed my first impressions will be focused more on performance and feel on the Nintendo Switch. Our full review, which will be coming next week, will touch in more detail on story. So without further ado here is the Gamespace.com first impressions for Wolfenstein II: The new Colossus played on Nintendo Switch.

The game picks up shortly after the events of its predecessor with a series of flashbacks ranging from early childhood to actual events from the previous title. At one point you are forced to choose a timeline that you want the story to follow, this is in reference to choices made in the last title, and from there the game throws you into some serious gun-toting action.

Out of the game I was impressed with the quality of story-heavy cutscenes that flashed across my Switch. It looks like Panic Button has worked hard to bring over the look and feel of the title to this hardware and for the most part, it works. Most cut scenes I have experienced have been smooth and well presented. However, I have noted that when a scene includes more than a few people the hardware restrictions start to show threw with some visual stuttering. At no point has it crashed the game and my hope is that it’s something Panic Button can work out in a patch. However, it was definitely present during some of the cutscenes which took away from the otherwise immersive storytelling.

Gameplay, on the other hand, has been a smooth experience from the first moment I picked up a gun. It looks like Panic Button has learned from its experience with Doom, and has tried to find a balance of sacrificing visuals (specifically with distant objects and scenes) for the sake of framerates. In this case, it’s paid off, the shooter experience has been one of the smoothest I’ve experienced on the Switch. Is this title as pretty on the Nintendo Switch as it is on PS4, Xbox or PC? Absolutely not; but I can play it while traveling, laying in bed or while sitting outside watching my kids swim in the pool. That right there is worth a lot for someone on the go.

Load times for Wolfenstein II are actually quite quick, especially when compared to the Doom port. I’m Impressed at how well menu navigation, screen loading and combat all feel on the Switch. Even when there is a lot of action on screen I have yet to run into any frame rate issues at all. The only issue I’ve have really come up against has more to do with the limitations of the joycon analog sticks than on the port itself. As I also experienced with Doom, accuracy is not a strong point of the joycon sticks and I find that when compared to other consoles the controls can feel a little jumpy making precision aiming a bit more difficult to master. This is by no means a deal breaker and I am having loads of fun with the title.

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