XCOM 2 Collection - Review

When Ubisoft created Mario+Rabbids Kingdom Battle for Switch, the almost universal thought was, this is XCOM on the go and many new fans of the tactical genre were born, now some years later the series that was so often emphasized as something people should play has come to Switch. The question remains, is this a port worthy of its high expectation, or should it have been left to myth?

For those who have never played the first game, which if you are a Nintendo only gamer, is a likely scenario, the basic gist of that game is aliens came to earth and kicked the collective butts of the planet. Those who gave up, have spent years now living under an alien/earth alliance, but those who know better, have been spending all that time fighting back, guerrilla style, recruiting members to complete missions in order to bring down the Advent, the corrupt and deceitful government. As you complete more story missions, things start making more sense and the game starts to open up more, but as the story is something to be discovered by you as you play, I won’t spoil it for you.

The biggest thing for the game is it splits itself between missions and base management and each is crucial to pushing forward, if you focus on one to much, the rest falls apart and you suffer. The missions are undertaken by a four-person squad and to begin with your squad will be made up of random people, but as they complete missions, they will level up, which lets them unlock new skills and eventually upgrade their class. The catch is, when they die in battle, they are gone for good, which is not a pain in the early missions, but once you have spent time with them, levelled them up and grown fond of them, seeing them replaced by a green soldier is hurtful.

The missions are great, as you can understand rescue missions, escort missions (for those that like additional pain) and of course, ones where you can just take down all the enemies in an area. The mission variety is solid, plus when you pair it with the fact that all the stages are procedurally generated, means that you should always find a mission to be a good challenge. The only point of note here, is as this version of the game, does come with all the previously DLC, some missions will appear in your list, long before you should attempt them and while you will work out quickly they are beyond your current level, it is weird.

All that comes together though, with the tactical gameplay, which is pretty solid, though it did annoy me at times when it would pre-select a character and I got stuck trying to remember the controls. The upside though, was that until my moves were made, I could take my time, which was helpful when attempting to set up ambushes and such, the only catch though, is that the game is challenging on normal and damn near impossible on the higher difficulty levels. All that is of course the game, when you are in the field, giving your soldiers a chance to take the fight to the Advent, the rest of the game takes place when you are in the base and you have to upgrade things.

Base expansion is critical, perhaps a little more so than the missions, because if you upgrade correctly, for your playstyle, some missions will be easier than they might have otherwise been. The only catch is you can’t spend forever in the base, as if you don’t get out and fight the alien threat, they can gain ground in the battle, so there is always a sense of dread behind the time you spend making a decision. That is not to say you can just rush through them, as just picking at random will not help you fight the good fight. With that all covered, the question remains, does this older game work as well on Switch and the other 2K titles and the answer is, mostly.

The game lags and lags often and when it does, you will notice, characters tend to be a little slower when they get close to other folks on the screen, or even when moving in general. There are also some moments of delay when it swaps from the enemy turn to your own, which again is something you will notice. Thankfully, as a game that is turn based, you are not required to have twitch responses, so you can take a bit of lag and it won’t actually impact your game, but the fact that it is there and is so very noticeable, is exasperating.

The other issue with the game is in the performance, if you see the game on the other consoles or on PC, you will notice just how nice everything looks, thankfully the games great art style has been retained and works just as well here. The caveat is that everything has a new dullness to it, effects have been toned down a lot, or removed, the detail in the environments is much less than what you can see on PC as well. The game doesn’t look bad, it just doesn’t look as good as the other version but given you can take the Switch with you anywhere, it means the onus is on your choice of portability or attractiveness. The sounds are wonderful, the voice work has made the conversion across without issue and while there is not a lot until you commit to moves, when you hear it, it sounds great. The music is nice and clear and the balance between score and sound effects never pushes to one side over the other, keeping a happy balance.

XCOM 2 Collection on Switch is a good version of an already exemplary game, but the distracting parts will stall any existing fan from jumping in right away. The same core gameplay has been preserved and is still as excellent here as it is elsewhere, but the longer than normal load times, the lag on almost every action and the duller visuals, make it a harder sell. If you are new to the series, this is a good starting point, but if you have invested on other platforms, the only real upsell here is that you can go portable.

The Score

7.5

Review code provided by 2K

The Pros

+Able to protect the planet, anywhere on the planet

+The mission variety and map generation keeps things fresh each time you play

The Cons

+The game has lag that stands out a mile, each time you see it and that is often

+Game is not the most friendly to newcomers, and the difficulty can be brutal, even on easy