XCOM: CHIMERA SQUAD
Say hi to the hybrids
UNEXPECTED TURN-BASED tactics games are clearly the in thing right now, following last month’s out-of-nowhere Corruption2029 (and hopefully we’ll have the really unexpected and slightly mindblowing GearsTactics next issue too). ChimeraSquad isn’t XCOM3, it's a side story set after the events of the previous game that revolves around breach-andclear operations against those who would continue the alien war from both sides.
Following the withdrawal of the Elders and the Advent forces, plenty of aliens and alien/human hybrids have been left behind. The peace between them is fragile, and best defended by crashing through windows and doors before diving behind cover and opening fire. Chimera Squad is classic XCOM, but shaken up in the way only winning a war against an alien oppressor can.
Moves are now interleaved—you move one of your troops, the opposition moves one of theirs—instead of moving your entire squad at once. This has huge effects on the flow of play, as you’re never put in a situation where a misjudgment on your turn means you’re completely wiped out on the bad guys’ turn. There’s always a chance to rescue things, to reposition an overwatching gunner to catch a troublesome enemy out on its next move. Of course, 90-percent shots can still miss, grenade throws can go awry, and creative chaos still reigns, but the game feels faster. This, combined with the smaller maps, makes for a frantic scramble toward objectives. The action starts as soon as you hit the "Breach" button.
Tactical changes include the new breach phase, in which you’re encouraged to eliminate high-value enemies with little damage to your squad, but the strategic arc has had an overhaul too. Base building has been removed from the game, replaced with a new strategy layer in which you monitor the City 31 setting for "tension", never letting one district boil over into revolt. Missions are the usual spread between resource-grabs and those that actually advance the story, and time is also a factor. You never have quite enough to maintain the low-tension ideal, forcing your squad into action to calm things down.
The squad is different this time around too, with ready-made characters replacing the user-definable soldiers of old. Some fought for the aliens during the war, others on the human side. That goes down about as well as you’d expect. Soldiers can no longer die, with those left behind returned to you as "gravely wounded" and sporting scars, which equal a drop in stats. These can be removed by training, but this takes the character out of the game for a few turns and can cause a drop in your squad strength, which can lead to mission failures, the dominos falling from the butterfly’s wingbeats.
And as you watch it all go wrong, two thoughts occur. That by firing ready-made scenarios at you each mission, instead of letting you take things as they come and creating your own paths, this tactical game has taken some tactical capability away. But with the new turn system, and the knowledge that a run of 50-percent shots might just come off, it hands it back in spades.
VERDICT 8
XCOM: Chimera Squad
CHIMERIC Tightly focused tactics in a city that's primed
to explode.
GENERIC Can feel like you’re not really in charge, user-generated soldiers missing.
RECOMMENDED SPECS CPU, 3GHz Quad Core. RAM, 4GB. GPU, GTX 980 or equivalent.
$20, xcom.com, Rated T