Finally, Motion Aiming in DOOM is Here!
When people learned that 2016 DOOM was destined for the Nintendo Switch, many users who had become accustomed to the fantastic use of gyro aiming in Splatoon 2, Breath of the Wild and (eventually) Skyrim were disappointed to learn that the feature was not to be supported in DOOM on the Switch.
Version 1.1.1, just released today, has finally implemented the much requested feature to great effect. I have been testing it for about 20 minutes, and it works splendidly. The aiming is smooth and fluid, and it feels just right. I quickly found myself to be able to dispatch demons with far greater ease than I could before. The caveat is that if you want to use motion aiming, then you have to sacrifice motion controlled melee attacks, so which you will use depends on your preference assuming that you used motion controls at all.
How to Set the Motion Controls to Feel Like Splatoon
If you are coming over from Splatoon, you will notice a key difference between how the gyro controls work in that game as opposed to DOOM. In Splatoon, the analog stick handles your left-right camera motion while all of of your precision aiming is handled via gyro. In fact, your analog stick in Splatoon doesn’t allow you to look up or down at all. It is really well done in the context of the game and makes the motion controlled aiming work intuitively for anyone. In DOOM, the default controls have it so your analog stick will give you full-ranged camera motion, and this can sometimes feel like it is at odds with the new gyro aiming mechanic. It is fairly simple to get around though if you want to make the game control more like it does in Splatoon. All you have to do is go into your controller setting and turn the vertical aiming way down! Very simple!
Unlike Splatoon which has a dedicated button to recalibrate the gyro when it goes off, Doom has no such button. As a result, I found it was best to set the vertical aiming to 5-10%. This allowed me to use the analog stick to recenter the camera when necessary. Above, I have included a picture with my “Splatoon control setting”. Just be aware that I have been playing Splatoon with the aiming speed set very high, so this setting may be a little faster than what you are used to. Adjust it as needed and have fun!
*Update – I was wrong. There is a way to correct the camera when the gyro desyncs. By simply clicking the left thumbstick, the camera will recenter for you.
The Audio Bug and the Menu Bug Appear to Have Been Fixed
A patch note hasn’t been released yet, but after testing the game, it would seem that the audio bug has been fixed. I didn’t notice anything of the sort whereas before I was experiencing it quite frequently. Considering that it was hinted that both the audio and menu bugs would be fixed in this path, I think it might be fair to assume that the menu bug is fixed as well. I can’t test this one as I did not experience it myself. If anyone who has experienced it could test it and let me know in advance of the patch notes being released, I would appreciate it and will update this post to reflect it.
For those who weren’t aware, the menu bug prevented players from maneuvering the courser around on the menu and thus basically broke the game since you couldn’t even access your save file if it wasn’t in the first slot, and the audio bug periodically made all the music and sound effects suddenly cut out until you exited the stage or died. Both were debilitating bugs, so it is great to see them potentially fixed here.
Other Changes
There appear to be some other additions to the game including a new DOOM icon for the Switch home menu which better reflects the box art for the Switch version of the game and a new party system for online play streamlining matchmaking with your friends. I am not sensitive enough to frame rates or resolution to be able to say definitively if they have been improved from this update, but I will let you all know once the patch notes have come out.
*Update #2: Bethesda has released the patch notes which you can check out here. It does indeed improve the resolution and fix the above mentioned bugs.
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