XCOM®: Chimera Squad

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Yet another game that has fallen victim to the never ending trend of quipy Marvel humor "millennial writing." Every other line is a super lame joke. Nobody takes anything seriously. Characters will stop and have a full conversation with the lamest, most corny attempt at humor every single sentence in the middle of a firefight. They're being shot at and they're like, "Errrrm, holy Reddit, is THAT a golden narwhal?" One of my characters was shot, and the medic character said, "Erm, yeah, THAT'S gonna need stitches." YOUR FRIEND WAS JUST SHOT IN FRONT OF YOU! WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO BE LE QUIRKY REDDIT TIME? YOU'RE BEING SHOT AT! THAT WASN'T EVEN A JOKE, THAT WAS JUST A BASE LEVEL OBSERVATION DELIEVERED WITH EPIC SNARKY REDDIT TIME! STOP WRITING DIALOGUE LIKE THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'M TIRED OF EVERY NEW GAME I BUY BEING FILLED WITH THESE CORNY HALF-JOKE LINES EVERY SENTENCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! STOP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Do you like XCOM? Do yourself a favor and put this game on Ignore and forget you ever saw it. Do you like an interesting story with important mechanical choices to make that determine your success? Sucks to suck, here's a linear story with the worst dialogue put in a video game before Dragon Age Veilguard. Are you a fan of fully customizable custom characters? Too bad, here's unlikable, ugly, millennial quip machines that can't die or it's an instant game over. Do you like interesting turn based combat where every encounter is a puzzle that you have to solve? Darn, hope you like initiative based turns that rob the carefully constructed combat of any flexibility or strategy. Even the few cool ideas it has like alien squad members is completely botched because of the absolute incompetence and cheapness this whole product was made with; voice actors for aliens weren't told they were voicing aliens and there's not even voice filters applied to any of the aliens; they just sound and talk like normal people. A cool idea fumbled in the most embarrassing way possible, this game isn't worth your time even if it was free.

This game is an insult to the XCOM franchise. While I did find some the aspects of the game cute such as the breaching system, there were far too many glitches for this game. I feel i got cheated out the purchase amount.

For years, I was a fan of the X-COM franchise. I love me some tactical turn-based combat and I played the ♥♥♥♥ out of Enemy Unknown, Enemy Within, XCOM 2 and War of the Chosen. I couldn't get enough. Until Chimaera Sqad came out. In theory, it's a game I should've loved. You get to play with character belonging to the different alien races that invade Earth in previous games, you get a million new options in matters of abilities, gear, missions. But the characters are so ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ obnoxious and intolerable. Every agent, alien and politician speaks like millennials, with the worst possible examples of quirkiness, sass and ironic snark. The game systems are as good as they've ever been (which is a pretty high bar, actually!) but the characters are so unbearable I couldn't even finish campaign. I wonder if I can refund this piece of ♥♥♥♥.

I received this game as a gift from somebody who knows I love the XCOM-Franchise; however this will not have an impact on my review. In short: I recommend this game if you enjoy turn-based combat and/or (especially) if you like the XCOM-games. The longer-version: Since I always read negative reviews first I was sceptical whether I would actually enjoy "Chimera Squad"; the common tone in these usually is "It is bad, the characters are shallow/annoying, there is no base-building, you are not the commander, skip it an play XCOM and XCOM2 (including their addons) instead. The new mechanics are dumb and because there are rather "comic-graphics" than animated faces/video-sequences that is outdated and ugly." Meanwhile, after testing that game, most of these lines mentioned above rather read like: "I want XCOM3!!!!!!!! I do not like Chimera Squad because it is not XCOM3!!!!!!!!! I want to fight lobstermen! I want to unearth the real secret whether the Elders are haunted by something that poses an even bigger threat! I want to hang around with Central and Shen and Tygan and maybe see Dr. Vahlen again!" Would I have loved to get all that as well? Sure thing. However: even while playing XCOM2 (let alone War of the Chosen) my very active story-telling mind wondered about how Earth (and its society) will look like once the Elders are gone (for now? For ever?) with all the hybrids and telepaths and aliens around. I found it highly unrealistic that mankind will eradicate any of those from Earth (just as much as I found it unrealistic that the Elders' control is SO total that there are no "insurgents" among the Aliens; especially those Vipers in Dr. Vahlen's cave seem to be "untampered", and the Skirmishers in "War of the Chosen" confirmed my assumption). "Chimera Squad" takes place in a world where those issues are tackled. It is less a "traditional XCOM-"game, it feels more like a game made by fans who focused more on the "World-building" or "Role-playing"-aspect of XCOM. Don't get me wrong: I like XCOM and XCOM2 because I feel there WAS a lot of world-building already but only a fracture made it into the actual game (which is a common thing among good stories and great storytellers). Of course the story is not on a "Planescape:Torment"-level". Also what your group is doing might have only an effect on this very specific town, so you are not "saving Earth". You definitely should take the time for reading the "excerpts" during loading screens and listen to the anchorman to feel a bit more immersed. The "NotDog"-commercial stands "cheek by jowl" with the reports about PSI-receptive-people protesting about being forced to use dampeners, Also - yes, I have seen (and I have written) better character-concepts... but for what this game is I expected actual worse, given the reviews. I can see why people might find the banter between the characters annoying or unfitting but "gallows humor" IS a coping mechanism, and in my life I have actually witnessed a lot worse. To me the character-backgrounds provide an enjoying read. Unfortunately you cannot really customize your characters, not even on the basic "XCOM"-level. I cannot say, though, that this made it "harder" for me to grow attached to them (how can you not grow bound to Torque.. or BY Torque :P ) - but I can see why people might feel disappointed. I, too, enjoyed fiddling around with my soldiers in XCOM2, adding scars when they were heavily injured, or tattoos for the ones who killed an Alien Ruler etc. Some dialogues are sweet in their own way: Verge asking Cherub to eat "Old World Meals" while he is guesting in Cherub's mind so Verge can savor the meal as well is one of those "roleplaying-worldbuilding-aspects" I love to discover in a game because it tells you a lot about the relationship between 2 characters without actually hitting you with a fence-pole ("modern" storytelling shoves "SEE? THOSE ARE FRIENDS!!!111 REAL GOOD FRIENDS!!!!!!" in your face). I could complain a little about the voices, though; it is not that the voice-overs do a "bad" job (though I would have loved to have more distinct accents within the human members as well - fitting to their birthplaces and/or where they were brought up); I am rather talking about the "Off-Worlders", such as the afformentioned Torque (who technically is, by definition, an Earthling, since she hatched on Earth ^.^) . Maybe it's completely intentional that she's not speaking like Kaa or Sir Hiss (after all it's a cliché and how would we know how a Snake would speak in human tongue, right?) but fact is that there are biological "barriers" (despite the genetic engineering) which would make some Off-worlders sound clearly "non-human" (we see the Vipers from XCOM have about the same range of facial expressions as real snakes, including no real "lips" to move; so try to speak with "stiff lips" and see how that would sound). However - this is a minor "complaint" and I rather enjoy WHAT the characters are saying, so the "how" is neglectable. It would have been the cherry on the icing... but I usually enjoy the pure cake a lot more ;) The biggest change is: in "Chimera Squad" there is now an "intiative chain" rather than "My group goes first, then the it's the enemies' turn". From XCOM and XCOM2 one is used to cycle through the team, finding the Noobsie ((I call all my soldiers affectionally "Noobsies")) who is suited best to act first (e.g: in the last round it was the heavy, afterwards it's maybe the medic). In "Chimera Squad" it is like on a roleplaying-table once initiative is rolled, so e.g. Cherub goes first, then 2 enemies, then 2 of your squadmates, then an enemy again .... You can delay a character's action, however you have to plan ahead to do so. Just like with the previous games you get rewards for capturing opponents (you render them unconscious for intel, instead of skulljacking or zapping them), and the Breach-mechanic adds a nice little flavour (just like in XCOM2 the stealth-mechanic added some flavour, too). However the maps feel rather small, therefore a mission only takes half as long as in the actual XCOM-games, which is a bit "levelled" by the fact that "constant re-inforcments" are often a thing. So you do not only coordinate your breaches but also your retreats ((which satisfies my inner Joseph E. Johnston)). Technically you can "farm" experience for your troops that way relatively easy (similar to certain missions in XCOM2) but especially at the beginning you might be short on medkits and/or reliable Medics. However, despite the rather "small" levels there are some nice details to discover (I loved the viper in shirt and tie working at one office xD). You get some maps reminding you of the "clean and bright" cities from XCOM2 (which looked like a nice place to live, though), and on other maps you see the "gritty back alleys" of London or Manhattan from a "Law and Order"-episode. Since you are doing tasks "only" in one city you probably won't feel as "epic" as you usually feel when you save Earth from the Elders (you rather feel like the coordinator of a police force), but I don't find it necessary that every game gives you an "Epic" feeling. One should treat this game like one should treat a Spin-off of a series, or a TV-show that started out as a (funny) hommage to another show (Like "The Orville" started out to be an hommage to Star Trek but grew into something on its own), and not as the "XCOM3" fans (including me) are wishing for.

Horrible, Repetitive Lobotomized game. Not worthy of the XCOM name. Pure crap. An XCOM Fan.

This is not an XCOM game. This is an abomination of a game set in the XCOM reboot universe. I bought this years ago, tried to play it, hated it, shelved it, and recently decided to beat it. There's a lot to unpack as to why this is the worst XCOM game I've ever played and I've played them all since PS1 days. The biggest issue is not just the repetitive nature of the fights, it's that there is ZERO build diversity in the characters. The game forces you to chose from 11 of 14 set "heroes" for each play through. You cannot unlock all 14 in one play through without a mod - because they thought people would want to replay this pile of garbage. You're stuck with a squad of 4 for fights and cannot expand them. When you level armor and guns, they don't change cosmetically. The resources at the beginning and mid of the game are ridiculously scarce, but over abundant late game. The enemies are braindead, there's just a lot of them the deeper you go. For the later content, you are forced to use one specific character (Terminal) because there's only one medic in the game. The best skills in the game don't come from skill trees, but from singular weapons you acquire, not the ones you build. All of the good skills have a "one use per mission" logic. The skills have practically no synergy between heroes. Some of the heroes are downright awful. And not in a "late game they get a cool overpowered skill"...they just suck. So hopefully, by the end you have 4 maxed ranked characters, each with a boosted skill, a legendary gun, and have to figure out when you're going to use it. - to explain: Fights are broken down into "encounters". Your team of 4 breeches into a room/highway/etc and takes on the bad guys in that area. In side missions, there's one encounter. You can level the bad heroes there. In the mission critical ones...there's 3 encounters. This game is not about tactics. It's a logistic sim. And not a very good one at that. You will spend your time in one of 5 or 6 missions, over and over and over and over for about 20 hours of game play. Lastly...it forces you to use chronomancy. If a character dies in a fight, they force you to restart the encounter/mission. I have played A LOT of turn based games. Wasteland 3, the Valkyria Chronicles, all the XCOMS (except the FBI one, I keep forgetting I didn't grab that one), Shadowrun, Last Train Home, and the Larian Studios offerings. XCOM Chimera is none of those games. It's not even half a chapter in one of those games. It's just a grindy slogfest with no feeling like it's "my squad". And I did not appreciate the lack of a SINGLE playable white character. Fireaxis seems to have caught the DEI virus. You can play as aliens, but not as a white dude. Just avoid this title. There's a reason only 26% of all players beat the campaign. It's so horrible, I may boycott FIreaxis all together.

Even if you are a big fan of the XCOM franchise and the Firaxcom remakes, this game is probably not worth the trouble. What I kind of feel from this game is an increasing lack of confidence from the developers in the XCOM formula. First there was Firaxcom 1, a janky prototype that tried to put a modern cinematic spin on the original with some light horror leanings. Then there was Firaxcom 2, more polished, going a bit more into the hero side of things rather than the tactical commander fighting an unwinnable war, smaller scale with light stealth mechanics, but still unmistakably XCOM. And then we get Chimaera squad. If you didn't have XCOM in the name I would not draw any ascociation, permadeath is gone, we are now full into the "hero" paradigm where your soldiers are no longer expendable, they have personalities and thoughts that they will unload on you, you are no longer fighting a war where sacrifices have to be made and things are tough, you are making sure the mission succeeds without a hitch so that the heroes can go home and digest it for you. Its a very different vibe and it is not XCOM whether you measure based on the original or even Firaxcom 2. But alright, clearly we went off in this new direction with the quippy dialogue and the interpersonal banter because it was just so compelling right? We get to see how all these wacky alien races from the previous games can learn to coexist and the troubles that brings. No. That should have been the angle given the game direction but the dialogue is kinda tone deaf, there is no real grit to any of it, it all reads like an office drama. Unfortunately I think the game kinda went woke and tore down everything to accomodate. Arguably the only compelling character in the whole roster is torque, and even then its kind of a little too reminescent of a bitter young person lashing out at society. The aliens don't feel like aliens at all, but stereotypes of people, and the humans, of which there are way too many for a game called chimaera squad are just as pointless. Godmother is just a hardass girlboss, I could not tell you a thing about her. Terminal is basically zoomer Shen from XCOM2 but oh no, she is also deeply traumatized. Shelter is some kind of frightened child stuck inside the body of an adult male. Patchwork I almost forgot was in the game, I guess she is also shen from Xcom 2 leaning more into the tech nerd side. Claymore is some kind of quirky indian foodie? Blueblood is just... regular cop guy who is too kool for skool? Let me remind everyone, this is supposed to be like the elite responder team, not a mental healthcare support group. These are meant to be soldiers who fought an unwinnable war against an unknown, supernatural enemy yet half of them come off as spirited housewives and the other half as regular people with some mental health struggles, except for blueblood he's just a cool guy that shoots good. What was so compelling in this lineup that it warranted destroying the pre-existing identity of XCOM? These characters don't do anything, they don't change or grow, they are just bantering for the whole game. And let's not forget, its not like firaxis doesn't have it in them to make cool characters. Remember Dragunova? Mox? Volk, Betos, the chosen? These people felt like hardened super soldiers while still having a human side (especially the chosen, but who could forget the dragunova Mox cutscene), we wanted to learn more about them as players and they fit right in narratively. I mean sure, this is a spinoff, but it is so out of sync with both the main series and the series roots that it should not carry the name XCOM. So anyway, the fact that this is kind of the core of the game now should already be a massive red flag. Gameplay-wise the maps are even smaller and more bitesized. What started as an attempt to simulate a battlefield has turned into something of a turn based puzzle game. You have so many unique abilities, many of whom minimize the effects of chance which is another staple of XCOM. It just becomes a game of puzzling out how to use your abilities and win the encounter cleanly. To be perfectly fair, I don't think there is anything wrong with that on a conceptual level, to some degree it is fun to puzzle out the turns, but everything is so much more simple and streamlined. The character skill trees only have 2 or 1 choices per tier (1 meaning no choice, you just get a predetermined ability). There isn't that much to think about whether it be on the loadout screen or in combat. There isn't any danger since you either beat the mission or you try again. The meta-game is also simpler, it was a bit too simple in the main game already and now even more so. If the franchise continued in this direction the only place chimeara squad 2 could be released would be as a mobile game. This is no longer XCOM, this is a story campaign with some light turn based puzzle combat. And the game is small, I played through 1.8 ish campaigns (didn't finish the last one cause I just got bored), and that took me around 30 hours. Compare that to XCOM2 where I have somewhere in the ballpark of 1000+ hours (not for 1 campaign of course, a big chunk of that is due to long war). In one word, the game just feels kind of dissapointing. The ambition is too small, it doesn't seem to understand the franchise it belongs to and the "innovations" it makes are arguably just regressions.