XCOM 2 lands on the Nintendo Switch in a collection form that includes all of the downloadable content it received, plus War of the Chosen.
The wave of titles under the seal of 2k Games that have landed on Nintendo Switch have Virtuos Games as a common denominator. After having done a terrific job of moving Borderlands: Legendary Collection and the Bioshock trilogy, they are once again responsible for bringing one of the Firaxis symbols for the first time on the console.
XCOM 2 disembarks on the last traditional platform that was missing. It does so in the form of a collection, which includes all the content it received in its commercial stage. How would you have felt the change to the formats that Nintendo Switch allows? So is the result.
Welcome back Commander
When we try XCOM 2 we don’t do it with any title. The second installment since the restart of the brand has become over the years the exponent of tactics. If it is already a sub-niche in terms of the number of projects, this year publishers like Microsoft have opted to bring a flagship IP to this field. Gears Tactics is the recent example that when things go well, Firaxis can find a worthy rival.
In any case, and especially for those who do not know what it is about, we are dealing with a turn-based strategy based on cells. The battlefield is an expanded quadrilateral in which we can advance our squad through action points. Shoot, move… each one has a limited capacity per turn, which leads to the final confrontation against the alien troops.
XCOM 2 is a direct sequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknow. Twenty years have passed since the fight against the unknown. Two decades later, humans reach out to aliens, whose treaty relegates our civilization to little more than slaves to invaders. For this reason, the resistance cell reconnects once again with the Commander, the only one capable of turning the tables. You have the control.
The strategy of the levels is fused with a deep management of the Avenger, the ship that houses the entire command of operations. Each day spent is one more mark on the calendar; Even if we have a time limit in terms of progress, the game allows some flexibility, especially in lower difficulties. Choose what research to develop, what space of the ship to clear to install a room that reports benefits… You must be aware that each step you take has its consequences.
In our Reviews back in 2016, we said that it would be a title “that will once again be one of the benchmarks of this year’s strategy and that bets on a unique playable formula, with a level of personalization that overwhelms and, in turn, It is exquisite for all kinds of players. ” We were not mistaken, and it is that in these four years no one could unseat him from the throne.
Downloadable content: more than an XCOM 2.5
The Nintendo Switch edition includes all the downloadable content it received after its launch. The four minor DLCs include a mix of cosmetic elements and side quests that bring certain nuances to the game, although they are not particularly noteworthy. The Resistance Warrior Bundle offers an assortment of unique outfits, paints, and armor to customize our soldiers; the same makes children of anarchy, which provides more than 100 aesthetic elements.
The new adventures begin to get interesting with alien hunters, which goes a little further. It will start a chain of missions in which we will face three special bosses, whose reward will bring us a thematic armor with special improvements. The difficulty of this piece is quite high, especially in the first half of the game. Therefore, you should skip its start until you have a squad of soldiers trained with weapons beyond the basic ones (it also increases the available models).
Last but not least, there is Shen’s latest gift, in which one of the Avenger’s main faces, Lily Shen, melts into her combat outfit to perform a storyline mission. The search for his father’s latest project will be a claim for those veterans who lived in the previous game. Upon completion, you will receive a new soldier class and extended customization options.
The jewel in the crown of the collection is found in War of the Chosen, its great expansion. Not only does it include tons of upgrades, levels, and other content for Soldiers, it alters the main XCOM 2 campaign with a parallel storyline. The appearance of The Chosen, a kind of nemesis with unique traits, completely changes the way we progress through the levels. It is more than an XCOM 2.5, as we said in the original review. “It feels like an unprecedented adventure to a greater extent. This content does not come to replace, but to offer a more complete and challenging point of view of a game that already put us on the ropes by itself ”, we concluded.
XCOM 2 on Nintendo Switch
If you are going to take the step, you should know that XCOM 2 occupies 24.3GB, so an SD card is essential. From then on you will have two options: play the original version or jump directly to the campaign modified by War of the Chosen. As a starting point we advise you to choose the first one; if you are already tanned in the genre, you can play with the expansion activated. In any case, you decide.
The possibilities extend when it comes to starting the campaign. You can select which downloadable content that affects the content you want to incorporate into the game. Alien hunters, as we said, it is advisable to remove it on a first visit. The same goes for the tutorial, whose controls are extracted from ports prior to PS4 and Xbox One: comfortable and accurate.
Graphic effort is a price that weighs on the port, especially in dock mode. The framerate is unstable; it is usual to feel it below 30fps during levels. However, when you are inside the Avenger, the animations of the characters run at a significantly lower frame rate per second than usual. It does not affect much of the menu tour, but it does tarnish the overall assessment.
The loss of shadows you cast on stage adds to the reduction of visual effects. When you break a wall with an explosive, in the other versions it leaves a trail of rubble; not here. In human structures in the city, it maintains the type correctly at the level of texturing, although it depends on the level. The cut that jumps out the most is when the camera is close to the characters, quite poor in detail. When the Los Perdidos faction appears, its modeling is truly worth seeing.
On a laptop, things change. Although the loss of resolution is a factor to consider on the TV, playing on the tablet is acceptable. The experience throughout the hours is not uncomfortable by the visual itself. There are also not that many accused of framerate versus the other main mode. If you have to choose a mode, having the console in your hands is the ideal situation to play it. It is a pity that you have missed the opportunity to take advantage of the touch screen. As for the size of the interface, it doesn’t fit as well as it should to the inches of the tablet. It shows small, requires some adaptation to get used to the texts.
The big problems of the port come from loading times and bugs. Recharging a save point on mission can take us over a minute to wait. As for the bugs, there are some that are not found in the original version, while others are still present in the rest of the console versions. In fact, it happened in the tutorial that sometimes the energy beacons we needed to destroy disappeared to increase the available turns before the critical failure. This forced us to start a new game, this time skipping the guided missions in the first steps. It depends how lucky you are.
We have made this Reviews through a code supplied by 2K Games on an original model of the Nintendo Switch.
CONCLUSION
XCOM 2 Collection on Nintendo Switch is a correct port that works better on a laptop than on a dock, although we would have liked to find fewer stability problems (especially when we play it on TV). Bugs and load times weigh you down. While the graphic clipping is noticeable, especially if you have already seen the other versions, when you have the tablet in your hands it is not uncomfortable as the hours go by. If you want to have the exponent of tactics to play it anywhere and you do not mind the visual downturn, this is your edition.
THE BEST
- The best tactics on the market during the last five years.
- Portable mode performs better than dock.
- All downloadable content, including War of the Chosen.
- Controls perfectly tailored.
WORST
- Unstable framerate and visual problems in dock.
- Some bugs remain; others are new.
- It does not take advantage of the touch screen.
- Charging times that can exceed one minute.
Good
It meets the expectations of what is a good game, it has quality and does not have serious flaws, although it lacks elements that could have taken it to higher levels.
