Firaxisīase-building is gone in Chimera Squad, and the strategic layer is much more stripped-back than in XCOM or XCOM 2. It’s you against anarchy with your cop buddies. The addition of fully fleshed-out characters imbues Chimera Squad with personality that XCOM traditionally lacks, and distinct squadmates help reinforce the tighter, closer feel that the game strives for. Sometimes, the home base banter hits with surprising poignancy. The voice acting isn’t spectacular, but the actual writing for each character doesn’t disappoint. The game leans into giving each member of the squad their own personality via animated comic book-style cutscenes, fleshed out further via inter-squad chatter throughout missions and while you’re studying the strategic map. And even though Chimera Squad might not feel like your squad, well, it still feels like your Chimera Squad. Terminal the human, Cherub the hybrid, and Verge the former Slim Man are all part of Chimera Squad.Įach operative also packs their own unique personality. Instead, you select from a roster of existing XCOM operatives with unique roles rather than the XCOM series’ usual Big Four classes. You can’t customize your soldiers, form battle-tested bonds with your squad via acts of against-all-odds heroism, or finely tune the capabilities of your warriors to create specialized, rotating squads equipped to handle different scenarios. That’s where the titular XCOM: Chimera Squad fits in.įreshly arrived in City 31, your Chimera Squad consists of several agents, alien and human alike-and in a stunning departure for the series, they aren’t randomly generated characters. You need to manage surging levels of unrest in each district to keep anarchy at bay (hello, reimagined Avatar Project!), and investigate resistance groups trying to overthrow the new world order. Not everyone is satisfied with the arrangement, to say the least. Set in the wake of the Advent War and the Elders’ departure, City 31 is a turbulent place where humans, aliens, and hybrids live side-by-side. Here, all the action takes place in City 31’s nine districts. The previous XCOM reboots took place on a global scale, complete with satellite deployments and managing international relations. The resistance factions that Chimera Squad investigates each want to sow chaos in City 31 for their own reasons. (And yes, you’ll still miss those shots with a 95-percent chance to hit when you really hope you won’t miss those shots with a 95-percent chance to hit.) That said, Chimera Squad takes much of what could be considered the building blocks of XCOM itself and chucks it out the window. At a core level, you’re still gathering resources via missions found on a strategic map, researching new technology, and dropping into turn-based tactical battles when it’s time to get your hands dirty. As a longtime series fan with hundreds of hours invested in various XCOM campaigns- the mod’s called Long War for a reason, friends-I’m really grooving on this remixed take.Ĭhimera Squad is still XCOM. But it also feels tremendously different at the same time, thanks to a much tighter focus and experimentation with some of the series’ fundamental design tenets. This refreshing spinoff looks like XCOM, sounds like XCOM, and even largely feels like XCOM. If XCOM and SWAT had a baby, XCOM: Chimera Squad would be it.
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