XCOM 2 has become a benchmark of turn-based strategy in its own right. With it, Firaxis surpassed itself once again to offer us an exciting, tense and very complete game in which each turn counts and with extremely high replayable values that make it practically infinite, since there are no two games that are the same, something that was intensified with the launch of its fantastic expansion, War of the Chosen. That is why we received with open arms the announcement that it would come to Nintendo Switch this year, a console that due to its portable properties fitted us like a glove with the proposal of this intense adventure. Unfortunately, and with the final product already in our hands, we have to admit that we have been very disappointed with what we have found.
XCOM 2 at its lowest settings
As you can suppose, this new version corresponds to the most complete one that exists to date, so it includes both its expansion, War of the Chosen, and its different packs of downloadable content, something that is always appreciated, especially when the asking price is $50.00 for a game that can be already played on other platforms for the last four years.
We will be able to enjoy the same content that has led XCOM 2 to be in the place it is today, forcing us to lead a bloody war against the aliens who control the world in secret while we manage our base and send different platoons to complete complicated combat missions that may not survive because here the death of our soldiers is permanent and losing any of them will be a severe setback.
It is a title that knows how to put the player to the test even at their normal level of difficulty, that makes us think like real strategists and that never allows us to relax, constantly putting ourselves against the ropes so that we do the impossible in order to turn the tricky situations that pose us, something that usually involves making multiple sacrifices. No one said winning a war was going to be easy, right? And less when the enemy ranks are full of powerful and fearsome creatures capable of tearing us apart in a matter of seconds at a time when we take a wrong step.
As you can see, we are still above all a great game that, with its pluses and minuses (those percentages of success when attacking have become our biggest nightmare and a complete meme among fans), gives us a very enriching and recommendable experience. The problem? Everything good that he does is clouded by a conversion that does not quite measure up.
To begin with, we find a very evident and notable downgrade compared to the other versions, something understandable since it is a machine with less power, but which greatly dazzles its artistic section with tremendously blurred textures, a resolution that rarely reaches high definition during the playable sequences, simplified modelling and lighting that has lost any trace of complexity that it may have and that is unable to create those special environments by which this adventure has been characterized.
If all this has not sounded bad enough to you, things only get worse when we see it in motion, with a frequent sudden appearance of elements on the screen as our characters advance through the stages and a rate of images per The second is completely inconsistent, becoming very annoying due to the gigantic “jerks” that it causes, with sequences that literally go by jumps.
These flaws apply both on laptop and desktop and while we could argue that in a genre like this the graphics and performance are the least, it is still somewhat annoying to see a game with an artistic section so good looking so bad. And beware of their loading times, since they usually last more than a minute and will test your patience, although nothing as desperate as suffering some of their annoying bugs, including skills that do not finish working as they should.
Where we do not have almost any type of complaint is with its sound section, since it maintains its outstanding soundtrack and its great sound effects, although these tend to lose synchronization with what we are seeing on screen, something that usually happens due to the performance problems which mentioned previously.
Final Thoughts
XCOM 2 Collection is still a great turn-based strategy game that will delight fans of the genre, but, unfortunately, its conversion to Switch has been very disappointing, with a technical section and performance that are not completely the height. In spite of everything, we have to remind you that this is the only version that we can play anywhere thanks to the portability of the console, a feature interesting and attractive enough to value and justify its purchase, as long as we think that it is going to compensate for the rest of the problems it carries. If this is not your case and you have the opportunity to get hold of it on another platform, the best thing we can recommend is that you let it pass on the Nintendo Switch and explore it on other platforms.
We prepared this review with a digital download code for the Switch version provided by 2K Games.
