Nintendo Switch owners aren’t new to the realm of Hell. After all, we’ve explored the hot and heated landscape in Bethesda’s DOOM and even have to suffer through the Nintendo eShop’s hellish organization (or lack thereof!) on a daily basis. Regardless, Western third parties continue to support the Switch in ways a Nintendo console hasn’t seen in a long time. Now, it’s Blizzard Entertainment’s turn, bringing Diablo III: Eternal Collection to the Switch. Is gathering copious amounts of loot all the more rewarding when you can do it on-the-go?
First, though, the Nintendo Switch version of Diablo III: Eternal Collection comes with some exclusive features that other platforms don’t have. For one, your character can save up enough money to essentially cosplay as Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda series. That isn’t the only Zelda-related content to be found within the Eternal Collection either. You can also equip a Cucco to follow you around in the game, as well as have a Zelda-themed window displayed around your character.
In addition to The Legend of Zelda getting some representation, so does Nintendo’s amiibo line of toys-to-life figures. When you’re outside of towns, you can use the “amiibo Portal" to summon a host of monsters. Through defeating them, you get some powerful loot that you can opt to equip or sell.
More importantly than superfluous content, you’re probably interested in knowing how well Diablo III: Eternal Collection runs on the Switch. The answer I can satisfyingly say is that the game runs fantastically. For vets of Diablo III, you probably are aware that there are times in the game where the screen can become absolutely, positively infested with the hordes of Hell and enemies of all varieties, yearning to end your adventure prematurely. The Switch port of Eternal Collection handles these intense moments of immense amounts of enemies and special effects happening all at once on the screen without any issue. It’s smooth sailing… er… smooth slaying, I guess in this case!
Multiplayer, too, works well. It offers local multiplayer where players can share a screen and tackle Hell’s forces together on one Switch, or players can use multiple copies of Diablo III and play on their own Switches. For online, the only hiccups in the game didn’t come from lag, but from myself while playing. (I really need to not suck down so much air when I eat.) Seriously though, the online experience runs mighty well, and it’s a blast to go online and dig through dungeons with other players with minimal issues with lag or frame-rate problems.
The Switch version of Diablo III: Eternal Collection allows for multiple controller play styles, even offering support for just one Joy-Con per player. This isn’t what I’d call the optimal way of playing the game, as the lack of as many inputs means you have to shake the controller to evade attacks, as well as do a little “finger-fu" to equip and unequip items in the inventory menu. (Anything that requires you to press in an analog stick in any game is pure, concentrated evil.)
All that notwithstanding, Diablo III: Eternal Collection is basically the same collection as the other platforms. You get the two additional DLC packages included, and every other bit of content and updates you’d come to expect from a Diablo III collection. So, then, what makes the Switch port worth picking up if you’ve already played another version of the game? The main selling point that stands the Switch game out over other versions of Diablo III: Eternal Collection is portability. Well, that and unless you really, REALLY want to get your character to dress up as Ganondorf from The Legend of Zelda series as if it were Halloween–in which I would say, “Halloween was two days ago, so your character’s just a teeny bit late to the party."
With portability in mind, if the idea of playing a gigantically deep game like Diablo III where you can accumulate massive amounts of loot and dispatch enemies of all types anywhere and anytime you want sounds like a wondrous concept, then the Switch version of Diablo III: Eternal Collection is without question a game you should think about picking up.
If you’ve never played Diablo III before? Well, it depends. If the idea of continuously hitting different attack and skill buttons to slowly whittle away at enemies’ health bores you, then make no mistake–Diablo III can be quite repetitive and its gameplay might get grating rather quickly.
Otherwise, you’ll be like me as a newbie to the Diablo series. You’ll get blown away by all of the character customization, rummaging through enemy corpses and treasure chests for loot, journeying through procedurally generated dungeons, taking down Bounties for rewards, completing achievement-like challenges, participating in ongoing Seasons–*deep breath* You get what I mean here. There’s a lot of content waiting for players of Diablo III: Eternal Collection, and it’s very much worth investing time in on the Switch.
