Little Billy Blazkoswitch.

It seems Bethesda loves the Switch. Not only did they bring Skyrim to Nintendo’s handheld hybrid, but also a very competent port of Doom. And it is Panic Button, the developers behind the Doom port, that are on shift for BJ Blazkowicz’s second outing.

You wouldn’t necessarily think that Bethesda games and the Switch would go hand-in-hand with each other, given Bethesda’s fondness for action heavy splatterfests, but it does seem that they care quite a bit and their last two games were incredibly well made, considering the limitations of the console. And it is the love of this game and the console that is apparent in this port, because without it, I seriously doubt this game would have been possible.

Platform: Switch
Price: $59.99
Multiplayer: No
Price I’d pay: $19.99

What you have here is a fully featured rendition of the game that came out on PC and the other consoles last year. Nothing added, but more importantly nothing taken away. Every story beat, every bullet, every boss battle and every drop of blood is included for the player’s pleasure. Panic Button once again proving that they know how to push the Switch to the limit.

This of course all comes at a price. In order to keep the game running at a steady pace, the game operates a dynamic resolution system that lowers the resolution when things get busy. Although this isn’t very noticeable when playing in portable mode, players can certainly tell when docked to a Large TV. But this method works as the frame rate rarely drops a beat, even in intense battles and for a game like this frame rate is way more important than visuals. The image has also been softened to help performance, which leaves the image feeling a little washed out and blurry; nothing that stands out too much but enough to notice, especially during cut scenes.

The developer has also employed some clever tricks to save on power; little tricks that reduce the draw distance or scenery. Players won’t notice it much, which is the whole point, and it certainly doesn’t lessen the experience. It is also worth pointing out that as you can imagine using this in portable mode drains the battery quickly, with me getting a little over 2 hours out of it.

Overall, Panic Button has done another stand up job of taking a game that has no right being on the Switch and getting it to run like a dream, cutting corners where needed but never taking away from the game. But where I have my only issue with Wolfenstein 2 on the Switch is in the price. Regardless of the fact that this is an amazing port, Wolfenstein 2 has been available on the PC, Xbox One and PS4 for almost a year now, and at this point you can pick it up on one of those other platforms for less than $20.

On the Switch it is a staggering $60. And I cannot imagine there are many Switch owners interested in this game that don’t have another platform to play it on. So, although this game is worthy of a good score, I cannot recommend this version to anyone who owns a PC or other console, as having it playable on the go is not worth the premium it costs to do so. However, if the Switch is the only console you own and you have been waiting for the port to arrive, then go ahead and grab it. It’s one helluva great game and, quite honestly, a miracle of coding.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.