Bethesda’s biggest update yet for DOOM and DOOM II across all platforms – including the Nintendo Switch – has officially gone live. It features add-on support – including John Romero’s unofficial fifth episode SIGIL, 60fps support, added aspect ratio options, quick save and load, level select, “plus a ton” of quality of life features and performance optimizations.
Below are the full patch notes from the Bethesda.net forum:
Patch Highlights:
Add-on Support: Add-ons can now be downloaded and played from the main menu. We will continue to add content that is a mixture of official DOOM and DOOM 2 add-ons, as well as some of the best community episodes and megawads released for the original DOOM games. We’ve curated the initial list and will be asking you guys for your picks for best community made wads soon! Check out the FAQ below for more info!
60 FPS Support: For the first time, DOOM and DOOM II now run at 60 FPS on all platforms, instead of 35 FPS as in the original releases.
Added Aspect Ratio Option: Stretches the display vertically to match the original 4:3 aspect ratio that the game was intended to be played in.
Added Quick Save and Load: Pause the game, and press R/R1/RB to immediately save where you are, and unpause the game. Load your quick save by pausing the game and then pressing L/L1/LB.
Added Level Select: Pick an episode, map, and difficulty of your choosing, and immediately play on it without having to clear the previous levels first.
Added Weapon Carousel: You no longer need to cycle through every weapon to get to the one you want. Press Previous or Next Weapon to highlight the weapon you want, and it will swap immediately to the selected gun.
Added Quick Weapon Select: The Directional Pad can now be used to quickly swap between weapons.
- Up: Shotgun and Super Shotgun
- Right: Chaingun
- Down: Rocket Launcher
- Left: Plasma Gun
Added Overall Brightness and Level Brightness: Turn up Overall Brightness to make the colors brighter, but if that isn’t enough, you can also raise Level Brightness to change the brightness of the lights in the world.
Added Random SFX Pitch Toggle: Turn off randomized sound pitches during playback, which was a feature present in early versions of the original DOOM release.
New split screen HUD: A minimal HUD will be used when playing split screen multiplayer. The bottom status bar is removed, allowing more room for the game to be displayed in.
Changes:
Changed Health Graphics: The pill has been changed into a green plus, making the graphics closer to their original appearance.
Changed Wolfenstein Secret Level: Enemies in the Wolfenstein level have been restored to the original DOS release. The original textures and enemy audio have been re-added to the level, but with [censored] references removed.
Performance Optimization:
- Several optimizations to DOOM’s software renderer have been made in order to better support 60 FPS and increase battery life.
- Game rendering resolution on Nintendo Switch version now displays at 640×400 to support 60 FPS and improved battery life.
- Improved behavior when starting the game out of sleep mode. There still may be cases that cause the game to lock up after awakening.
- Sped up various UI animations to make navigating through menus quicker.
Fixes:
- Fixed an issue from the original DOS release where map objects would not correctly track the player after loading a saved game. This also fixes an occasional crash with loading a save game with an active BFG projectile.
- Fixed an issue where the game would skip ahead several tics after unpausing.
- Fixed an issue where attract mode demos would desync, causing demo playback to deviate from the original DOS release.
- The trophy for “When I’m With You” for beating every level on Nightmare in co-operative mode has been fixed and will now be awarded properly.
The size of the patch in the Switch version of the game is said to be 378 MB. There’s also apparently a known issue with a DOOM II achievement:
The DOOM II Achievement/Trophy “The City” (Beat all the city levels – MAPS 12-20) does not unlock when taking the Secret Exit in MAP15: The Industrial Zone in the Single Player Campaign. Workaround – If you’re gunning for that trophy, please elect to skip the secret exit in MAP15: The Industrial Zone and you should have no problem getting it after completing MAP20.
Apart from this, there’s a full FAQ on the forum about add-ons, and Bethesda says it will release more of them on a “regular basis” over the next few months, so keep an eye out for even more hellish content. To get the rundown about add-ons, check out our existing post.
Will you be returning to Hell to try out this new update? Leave a comment down below.