Harry Situation Reviews: XCOM: Chimera Squad

Diversis Viribus.

XCOM: Chimera Squad is a new spin-off title in the XCOM series, which many of you already know is one of my favorite video game franchises. Taking place five years after the events of XCOM 2, Earth has been liberated and now finds its population trying to live at peace with their new inhabitants, the aliens and the ADVENT human-alien hybrids. Set in City 31, you take command of Chimera Squad, an elite police task force consisting of humans, aliens, and hybrids, as you try to keep the peace while battling against different criminal factions and solve a murder investigation linking them together.

This game came as a suprise to me. I wasn’t expecting any new XCOM games any time soon, and as a huge fan of the franchise I’m not gonna complain. While this game has classic elements of XCOM it still feels very different. For starters one of the biggest changes is removing the recruiting and customization of your members of Chimera Squad. Instead your unit consists of established characters. That’s not so bad but part of the fun in the XCOM series was when you could customize your soldiers any way you wanted.

On the other hand, what the game does give you give you is a whole squad of unique soldiers—a mixture of humans, aliens, and hybrids—all complete with their own set of weapons and abilities to help you in battle. You have a medic who can use a drone to heal other squadmates; a hybrid agent who uses a shield to block enemy attacks; and a viper agent who can use her tongue to pull enemies toward her and constrict them. I actually like this part of the game because it gets me thinking about who do I want on my squad before I enter a mission. And like in previous XCOM games, as your agents level up you can unlock new abilities that can either aid your squad or do some serious damage to your enemy.

I also do like these characters too. Their backstories are pretty interesting, some relenting to stuff that happened in XCOM 2 and its expansion War of the Chosen. They're all very well voice acted too. If I had to pick my favorite squad member it would have to be the viper agent (which is probably every fans' favorite character) mainly because I like her voice, her design, her attitude, and she has the best abilities of all the other squadmates. I also like some of the dialogue exchanges they have in and out of story. Sure the dialogue comes off as cheesy but that's part of the entertainment. It reminds me of an old cheesy cop show or Police Academy.

This one is probably the best example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvhizD9ojrc&ab_channel=Javelin%27sStudio

Unlike previous XCOM games where your squad takes a turn in moving and firing, the game introduces a new mechanic where each individual unit on both sides take a individual turns. For example, you can take an action by moving one soldier to a different position and shoot at an enemy. After that the enemy then takes similar actions. Both sides will keep rotating different units until all units are eliminated. It’s definitely a new twist for the XCOM series and a welcome one. Although I still favor for having your whole squad move and make their actions and then the opposition makes their move. But it helps keep you on your toes and makes you plan everything out. I also like how the start of each mission there's a new game mechanic called 'Breach mode' where you can bust through a door or window, ultimately surprising enemy units and getting free shots off them. The more enemies successfully you kill it'll help your squad gain an advantage in the long run. I hope this is a mechanic that returns for XCOM 3, if that is something Firaxis is still making.

The story is a little interesting but it’s mainly helped with the world building this game has. As I previously mentioned this game takes place after humanity wins back planet Earth and how they must coexist with the stranded aliens that are on this planet. And it’s not even the aliens fault. We learn they too were under mind control from the alien masterminds, the Elders. So it’s interesting to see how they try to live in harmony and it’s neat exploring this new dynamic in the game. And the fact that we can play as alien units makes me hope when XCOM 3 comes out we’ll get the opportunity to do so again and even customize them.

One thing I don't like is how this game likes some sort of time cycle. In the previous entries you would normally have a world map where you can scan the planet and as you scan there would be a passage of time. In this game it doesn't have that, which kinda makes sense since you're located in a single city, but the passage of time feels very slow. In your base you can assign your agents to help craft upgradable items or train them to unlock extra abilities, but the time passage operates either once you've completed a mission or completed some activity and a day would pass. If feels like the projects take forever. I also miss the ability to build your base of operations ant farm style like in the previous games.

Also, it wouldn't be XCOM without some big time bugs/glitches and boy did I come across my share. A couple of them are hilarious like when I killed an enemy unit their body goes flying across the map. A couple others were confusing like some times when enemy units, or even your own squadmates, look like they are floating above the ground. And then there was the one game breaking glitch that annoyed me where all the gear for one of my agents completely disappeared.

While this game really doesn't hold a candle to its more successful predecessors this was still a pretty fun game to play. It's definitely no XCOM 3 and I don't think the developers were going for something like that. It's a fun spin-off title that any XCOM fans would enjoy. It's available on Steam right now for $20 and I can say it would be money well spent.

Positives:

-Story and world building

-Some of the new game mechanics

-Chimera Squad and their abilities

-Breach mode

-Plenty of fun

Negatives:

-Bugs and glitches

-Lack of a world map/time cycle/base building

-No customization for units

Final Grade: B-

I've been wanting to talk about this game for a while now and it took forever to put it to words. Now it's here, have you played this game? What were your thoughts? Played any of the other XCOM games? Please be kind, leave a like and comment, and check out my other reviews here on Prose!

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