REVIEW : XCOM : Chimera Squad (PC)
Beginning where most disaster movies end – with cities destroyed and city in utter chaos – XCOM: Chimera Squad is about the terrifying consequence of an alien attack. Our brave troop of scientists and warriors may have conquered the alien, at the edge of acclaimed strategy sequence XCOM 2, but the universe they acquired back is hardly functioning. One crew member suggests that he is from Canada ere knowing that this was when such a thing survived. A mission instruction notes that hard cash is the single currency after the collapse of the global financial system.
XCOM: Chimera Squad is still traditional XCOM. You collect supplies and unlock tech on the imperative map, and later dive into strategical tactical fights to defend goals and beat down the immunity menace. The world has evolved, though. Humans, aliens, and mutant have struck an awkward peace. In City 31 they exist side by side, but there are however excited organisations who require to keep the hatreds of the Coming war. Chimaera Squad is a unique teams crew intended to paralyse those resistance operations and maintain harmony.
This game has the power to deliver a more special tale, and it frequently succeeds. The actual audio quality appears mixed-up at points and some of the roles don’t fit the personas. Chimaera Squad also conflicts with itself tonally, highlighting fairly fierce action sequences with viscera floating after shotgun bursts before driving into a cute “oh you!” communication among its squad.
The basis is that you require to corral 3 central vigilante units one by one while keeping order in the town, allows you to choose. A complete run within all 3 plots and the end will take about 22 hours.
Chimaera Squad also offers an attempt to distinguish itself mechanically. The “breach” phase is a unique imperative zone of the battle that enables players to prepare a mission incident by locking up their segments where they see fit. For example, you can transfer some units through a secured door that polishes enemy destruction while the breach or safely cast light recon company crew to another side door.
It’s not the first tactics game to believe of this core concept but it cleverly adapts the lower-key “squad” theme and appends some depth to how you address various stages, even if it’s simple to optimize your preferences. Plus, it introduces the concept of cleaning individual and more intimate rooms instead of continually struggling in enormous sprawling towns or repositories like the past XCOM games. The act of breaching further triggers slow-mo views not unlike Call of Duty, enabling players to pick who to execute in the time of the breach before passing on to the precise plan action with the choice to buy things or skills to improve the act’s ability or indeed generate distinct entry points. Some hardcore strategy buffs may sway their finger at it.
You get action points to run, fire or trigger expertise. You can dash to take up your entire turn if you require to proceed further. Or, units can practice the classic “overwatch” skill that brightens up removing enemies in the following turn if you can’t get a good shot. It all still works, even if Chimera Squad can waltz into the realm of tedium with excessive reinforcements from time to time.
Yep, Chimera Squad has an enhanced focus on adding more aliens into the mix, and the result is more wacky antics. Some members can emotionally manipulate enemies to force them to attack their allies or mentally incapacitate them, which also has the added benefit of adding them to the neural network. Others are actual snakes that can slither around and constrict enemies to prevent them from acting. It’s very fluffy and fun to play, and as a bonus, every new squad member feels impactful.
You’ll recruit anything from humans to humanoid aliens, to snake-people for your squad, all with pre-built names, roles, stats and abilities. there are cases you will never look at numbers, and click “yes” to having a snake person join my team. It’s a finite crew pool, but big enough to warrant variation especially within the same playthrough.
Things can get intense, too, even without all of the aforementioned hardcore toggles on. An “anarchy system” forces you to pick and choose what districts get out of control, which influences mission difficulty in specific areas. Of course, it can be gamed later on as your squad rises in power, but the illusion of it creates some tension.
there are some minor other flaws as well like some hard crashes when playing the game on PC, which wasn’t the end of the world as Chimera Squad allows you to instantly revert to the last round of combat. There’s also some light UI typos littered about and funky bugs like out of control camera angles. The UI is also very often unclear as to what you’re selecting, especially when using a controller. It’s nothing critically game-breaking (even the crashes to a degree), just annoying.
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