This was supposed to be a happy review but I think I finally found a Xcom game I just wanted to quit. I have played Xcom enemy unknown and Xcom 2 on xbox one. So as someone who has only played those two and not a long time fan maybe I am not the best for this opinion. But dang this game got hard. Don’t get it mixed up Xcom is always hard, but this one just got unreasonably hard to me.
Alright now, from the top, Xcom Chimera Squad is a spin off I guess. Released just this month and has mostly positive reviews on steam. It spices up the formula with being a Police drama and some changes to the gameplay. Some of the changes are actually quite good or at the very least interesting. On the other hand though some just up the difficulty to an insane degree.
The story
The story in my opinion was never a strong point of Xcom, like any RTS, it is secondary to the turn based strategy and management. But for this they tried to up the importance of the story by giving named squad-mates who are voiced and not disposable. The game picks up years after Xcom 2. Earth has now been liberated, and Xcom is now more of a peace keeping force. Aliens once under the control of Advent are now living among humans. This is a somewhat logical progression. But after decades of alien rule I doubt that Humanity would just have accepted the aliens. Like how there is a sectoid squad-mate who is just there, and it doesn't seem to bother his human squad-mates much. Frankly he has more of an issue with his past than his squad which strikes me as strange. The first mission begins with the squad assisting city 31PD with a hostage situation. Some human terrorist took the alien mayor captive. After rescuing her she ends up dying anyway by a bomb. This prompts Xcom to have your squad investigate 3 criminal organizations to find out who is trying to start a war. The story plays like a police drama and can sometimes be a bit campy. However I think it at least is trying something new with the story. Maybe in another world it would have been more interesting. But personally it just failed to make me care as much. Maybe it was the fact none of them could die. Maybe it was the aliens wearing human jackets and clothes looking weird(especially the snakes). Maybe it was a feeling that Xcom had kinda become like Advent in some ways by going from being a group of earth's defenders/freedom fighters to law enforcement. It even states how one of the groups in the city just wanted to go home and my unit was the one stopping them. They said something about how those starships would have been damaging to the city, but I would have just said let em. They did give some backstories at least to everyone that tells their stories from pre invasion, to post war. That was kinda cool. Still I would say though more effort was put in the games story only reaches C tier.
The gameplay
The game is not too different from Xcom 2, the basic idea is still the same. However some changes include mission structure, police themes, less base management, no more gathering personnel, just to name a few. On second thought there is a lot that has changed.
Mission structure has changed. Instead of dropping into an area and making your way through the map to the enemies and objective. Well now you roll up to a building and decide where to breach. The mission is divided into encounters, each beginning with a breach. Equipment can expand ways of breaching. Like wall charges, key cards, flash bangs and more. Normally your squad heals to half health at the beginning of each encounter. But this can be changed. Upon breach enemies can be surprised, stunned or aggressive. Most of the time unless you breach fire and kill most enemies your people will get shot upon breaching. This kinda negates the healing but is not the worst thing.
Another difference is in how squad death works. As in it doesn’t work. If a squadmate loses all health they will start bleeding out. If they die the mission is lost. Unlike the old Xcom this game pretty much wants you to save scum. It even allows you to restart the encounter. Also for those masochists who just thought the game was too easy you better be happy about the new turn system. The old turn based system was hard enough, but the new one makes it look like a cakewalk. Normally you move all your guys and they move all their guys. But now there's an order. One that means I get to move two people on a good day and the enemy gets to move nearly all of their guys, and then only then can I move my others. It very much makes it a game of kill the enemy that gets to move after my person. There are limited squad abilities to help move your units up in the order. However, most of the time it makes everything just ten times harder on an already difficult game. In fact during the last boss mission I was playing it just got to the point where I only got to move one squadmate and the enemies got to move like 6 times while more enemies were on their way. It was ridiculous, I was already outnumbered and in trouble. Even without the reinforcements it was a tough fight. But on top of that 4 more enemies!! Also that was only the second to last encounter they were doing. This turn order is what made me place it on easy mode and even then eventually give up on completing it before writing my review. Still will complete it. This game aint nothing compared to some other games I have beat( Halo 2 legendary). Just going to be writing this review before that .
The base management is also changed. You now no longer progress through the tech tree as usual. Now you can get weapons from sting operations, as well as only assign a squad-mate to research. They also added training and spec ops. Only four squad-mates can go on missions and so now you get to assign others to train or go on side missions to get certain rewards. Scavenger is also still a thing and you buy with Intel. Which is about all you do with Intel now. The city is divided into zones. Each zone has an anarchy level. Let too many zones go and it increases the city anarchy level. There are ways to decrease the anarchy levels. It works like the avatar project progress.
As said you have 3 groups to investigate that takes the form of a few purple missions that you complete after side missions. But be careful the other groups are not just waiting. The groups you don't investigate get stronger. So choose which one you want to deal with first. Personally I would take out the hybrid cult first. They are irritating. It was my mistake letting them get stronger.
Some of these changes like the breach encounters, and the investigation ideas are welcome changes.They are interesting changes. they do fit the scaled down environment. The breaches also make the player think outside a box to win. The investigation also goes well with the police themes and is something new at least. But the new turn system is sadistic. It turns the game into “kill the enemy who has the next turn”.
Conclusion
Xcom Chimera Squad is a nice spin off with a semi interesting story, and enough new ideas to make it feel like a new game. Many of these changes are good, but some can make you want to rage quit. If you don't mind spending 20 bucks on a new Xcom game. This spin off might be good. But if you want an intro to the series you would be better off picking up Enemy Unknown or Xcom 2.
Rooty
05/1/2020
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