SiN Reloaded’s Switch 2 port bridges the gap between PC and consoles

I distinctly remember how exciting it was when a PC-accurate port of the original Doom hit the Xbox 360 in 2006. Releasing on Microsoft’s ill-fated Xbox Live Arcade, it maybe wasn’t the first time id Software’s landmark shooter would come to consoles in complete form (that honor goes to the oft-forgotten Xbox port included with Doom 3: Collector’s Edition), but it severely lessened the gap in quality between PCs and consoles. This was already mostly happening with the 360’s launch games, but with Doom finally on consoles in its original form, it was possible to retire your old PC completely if you wanted to thin the hordes of demons from hell.

At the time, I loved this development since I grew up with classics ’90s shooters. It was becoming increasingly difficult to find most of these games or get them running, but having them on my 360 with an easy download and full online support meant I could introduce those classics to friends who may have missed them the first time around. Doom was followed up by Duke Nukem 3D, Doom 2, Wolfenstein 3D, and even Marathon Durandal. It was a magical kind of feeling to have these games accessible at the touch of a few buttons. It also got me to shift away from PC gaming for a short bit, a thought that never crossed my mind beforehand.

Towards the end of that generation when the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 were being stressed beyond their limits, I wound up going back to PCs and remembered why I fell in love with the platform to begin with. Borderlands 2 is really the straw that broke the camel’s back. Its PS3 port is horrendous, but when I tried it on PC, I was completely blown away by how smoothly it ran. With the right hardware setup, you can run games at ridiculous frame rates with maxed out settings and customizable controls, something console ports simply could not accommodate. There was still a gap the size of a canyon that needed to be crossed before consoles could catch up, but the floodgates were opened by Doom.

 

 

What does this have to do with SiN Reloaded, Nightdive Studios’ latest remaster of a classic ’90s boomer shooter? It reminds me of how I felt when I played Doom on my Xbox 360 20 years ago. Despite having reviewed the PC version for my own YouTube channel, when I tried out the mouse controls on Switch 2 for SiN Reloaded, I realized Nintendo’s inclusion of such a feature has quietly bridged the gulf between PC and consoles. It’s been possible for years to use an external mouse and keyboard for some console games, but it’s not a widely supported feature. All of Nightdive’s ports have included that featured (SiN Reloaded included), but for out-of-the-box play, it’s not exactly conducive to have a mouse and keyboard laying around your console for the handful of games which utilize it. With the Joy-Con 2, however? You have full PC parity with no hassle.

As I’ve grown more attached to PC gaming over the last 15 or so years, playing shooters on a gamepad feels almost alien to me. Developers have done an admirable job introducing auto aim and aim assist to help players actually hit enemies, but it never feels as comfortable as taking a mouse and clicking directly on someone’s head. The newer Doom trilogy, for instance, is an absolute nightmare on a gamepad, requiring a metric ton of inputs and precision I simply cannot comprehend with joysticks. Give me a mouse and keyboard, though, and I can play those games at their highest difficulty settings… well, not Ultra-Nightmare, but you get the idea. SiN Reloaded on Nintendo Switch 2 allows me to do the same, though I don’t need to worry about having any extra peripherals handy.

 

 

I won’t ignore the size of the Joy-Con 2 here, as that can be a problem for bigger hands. When playing SiN on Nintendo’s platform, I would sometimes get hand cramps because of the small footprint Nintendo’s controllers have. The default control scheme for SiN Reloaded is also a bit odd, mapping reload to the ZL and leaving jump on the face buttons of the right Joy-Con 2. You can adapt to this, but some simple tweaking in the menu gets you up and running. Like most Switch 2 ports, you can even tilt the controller back and forth between mouse mode, seamlessly swapping between modes when the need arises.

More than mouse controls, however, is the performance of this port. I know Nintendo boasted about the Switch 2 supporting 120 Hz, but I’ve yet to see many games use this. Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is actually one great example, but SiN Reloaded runs at 1440p 120 fps on Switch 2. There are some hiccups with the frame rate (a downside that can be solved with VRR support), but it’s really stunning to see a console as small as the Switch 2 running classic games this well. I wasn’t quite sure what to expect here as I figured Nightdive would have played it safe and locked the game to 60 fps, but no. It looks so much cleaner than the original Switch version, which is capped to 1080p 60 fps. Obviously, my PC can output the game at true 4K and even higher frame rates, but if this was a similar period to when I was a lapsed PC gamer some 20 years ago, I could see giving up the platform for the simplicity the Switch 2 brings.

 

 

I think that’s the key takeaway here. It’s a thought that occurred to me during the review process for The Adventures of Elliot: The Millennium Tales: Nintendo’s latest console may not be cutting edge tech, but it comes so close to delivering the same quality as its next-generation brethren that I’m struggling to come up with reasons for sticking with other platforms. PC will always be more open than a console, but if I didn’t have the money for that – and who does anymore? – I would be completely satisfied with the Switch 2. It took me playing SiN Reloaded to really solidify that.

We’ve yet to see many online games for Switch 2 feature crossplay with PC, but as far as I’m concerned, Nintendo solved the issues players have with gamepad vs mouse and keyboard. If you were to force me to play Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 on a console, I’d pick the Switch 2 port simply because there would be no disadvantage online … you know, putting aside how that port is reportedly not great. I could see myself doing the same with other shooters, which is fantastic news as far as competition goes.

I can only hope that as more games come to Switch 2, developers remember to incorporate mouse mode as a control option. Nintendo’s inclusion of the feature has expanded the possibilities for console gaming in ways that seem subtle at first, but will have a truly massive impact in the long run. Long gone are the days where experiences will be completely different between PC and consoles, and it took a trip down memory lane with SiN Reloaded for me to see it. Fancy that.

 

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