One “Hell” of a Good Time

I’ve never really been that big of a console gamer. Since childhood, i’ve only owned 3 video game consoles, and those are the 3 latest consoles from Nintendo. I’ve never owned an Xbox, or a Playstation, or anything else, for that matter. So, it’s probably no surprise that i’m not very good at console shooters; I find them clunky and inaccurate, and generally spend my time when playing Halo at a friend’s house, trying not to run into walls.

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I recently purchased a Nintendo Switch, and have been having an incredibly good time with it. It’s a great device; the power of a console with the mobility of an Ipad. I’ve seriously been having a good time with it, and felt that, if there were ever a time for me to try a console shooter, the Switch would make a great place to try. So, after a paycheck, I went out and bought Doom for the switch.

The first thing I discovered was that, after inserting the game card, you need to download an extra 10 gigs of data for Doom in order to make it fully playable. It makes sense, I suppose; the game itself is MASSIVE, with the graphics, soundtrack, and enormous, sprawling maps. After the download finished, though, I booted up the game and, finally, began playing DOOM.

I sucked.

Honestly, I don’t know what I was expecting… after a lifetime of almost exclusively PC gaming, playing a shooter on a console was almost impossible for me. I could barely hit anything, kept running into walls, and dying on the easiest difficulty. My learned proficiency, the skill i’d previously been able to use to sweep through games like Borderlands, Crysis, and more, was completely gone, and I felt like a complete and utter noob.

After some fiddling with sensitivity, control schemes, and more, I finally got it to a place I liked, and slowly started to polish my skill. After some hours of solid practice, I was able to get headshots, aim my grenades, and sweep through waves of demons in a glorious wave of gore.

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Needless to say, i’m in love.

While the game doesn’t have the sheer enjoyment factor of Super Mario Odyssey, or the beauty and perfection of Breath of the Wild, it’s still a masterpiece in its own right. I’m greatly enjoying DOOM as a game, and the Switch as a console doubly so, for enabling me to play games like i’ve never been able to before.

It’s gory, violent, and creepy beyond belief. It’s one of the most bloody, violent games i’ve ever played. But it’s a great shooter, buckets of fun, and absolutely worth every penny I spent.