Wasteland 2: Director's Cut

While echoes of the original release pacing problems remain, the Director's Cut does much to add variety to the experience with new features such as perks, quirks, and precision aiming. It's likely not enough to warrant a replay if you've already finished it, but if this is your first foray into inXile's bleak vision of the future, this is the best place to start off.

Wasteland 2 gets the Switch port treatment, bringing a deep, involved RPG to Nintendo's hybrid console.

Wasteland 2 is a slight struggle on the Switch, but it's still worth your time

Proof that big thinking PC-based RPGs can totally work on pads, and how not to implement the weighty interfaces that come alongside them - but trudge through this and there's much to love.

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut on Switch is a missed opportunity. While the underlying systems and crunchy combat are enjoyable – and it just about works as a portable experience – a steady list of irritations make an unqualified recommendation impossible. There's a solid foundation of gritty turn-based combat with some great writing, but a stubborn camera, disappointing performance and a lack of quality-of-life enhancements means the PC ‘master race' take this round.

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut is a sprawling adventure, and it never fails to be engaging and the game world is an interesting place to be. The combat can get samey and the range of enemies is not massively varied but the required strategy and different approaches to fights kept us coming back for more. The sense of accomplishment when you take out a superior force by the clever use of cover is very gratifying, and helps to increase the game's longevity. We've put a good number of hours into this over the course of this review and can honestly say that we've barely scratched the surface. If you have even a slight interest in post-apocalyptic games, we don't think you'll be disappointed here.

Wasteland 2 Director's Cut is, at the minute, somewhat of a disappointment for consoles. The wonder and sense of exploration it was attempting is severely diminished because the controls, and the bugs make it hard to enjoy. Hopefully this can be fixed in future releases, but at the time of writing, Wasteland 2 is just shy of being really worth playing.

Wasteland 2: Director’s Cut is an extremely in-depth RPG. It has so much wonderful world building that you can’t help but be enticed despite some issues with the combat system, a general lack of direction, and some messy UI components. The many issues that the game had originally as well have been patched up. So, this port manages to be a worthwhile experience, despite some issues players may have with the game.

Despite some gameplay flaws, Wasteland 2 gets a lot of things right for the genre. Fans of isometric, hardcore RPGs will find a detailed world to explore in the title. inXile Entertainment provides deep attention to detail on an awe-inspiring level. Creation of independent currencies and social hierarchies in the game create a living environment. Fully fleshed-out NPCs with voice-overs add to the detail of the wastes and make characters more than just placeholders. Interacting with the environment may lead to new clues and options for gameplay. Wasteland 2 is full of player choice and replayability that will keep players busy for a while. With gameplay easily exceeding 80 hours of content, Wasteland 2 is not for the faint of heart. Those who appreciate challenging experiences and detailed world-building will find Wasteland 2: Director's Cut an important installment in their RPG library.

Wasteland 2: Director's Cut brings this well known name to a Nintendo system for the first time in an effort that features an interesting and varied plot, as well as a good combat system and a long lifespan. Despite its rather outdated visual environment, Wasteland 2 on the Nintendo Switch is more than certain to appeal to a great number of players, some of whom will be put in contact with the series for the very first time.