The release of XCOM: Chimera Squad seems like such a long time ago, however I would have to say that everything in these Coronavirus times seems like a long time! Anyway, I have had the game on my XPS laptop for about three weeks now and I'm able to give a bit of a better insight into the game than when I wrote my initial First Impressions.

The Review

Chimera Squad places you in the shoes of a sort of Tactical Response force in the otherwise alien/human city of "City 31". Your group is the hard hitting arm of the local police force on secondment from XCOM after the Resistance managed to eject the alien invaders from Earth in XCOM2.

Your squad consists of a mix of human and alien combat specialists, and there is very little in the way of subtlety in the way that you approach problems (probably all the "easy" PR problems are handled by the regular police). There are 3 "terrorist" factions loose in City 31, all of whom are quite resistant to the idea of Humans and Aliens co-existing together. Some of these cells are Human supremacists and others are Alien Resistance fighters, they are all happy to start getting trigger happy when you drive your armoured car through the front door. That said, I think anyone would be pretty pissed if someone smashed in your front door...

So, City 31... the replacement for the Geoscape from XCOM. If you thought that the Geoscape from XCOM was bland and just a board for the metagame, well, you are going to be even less inspired by the City 31 map. It serves as the mission launchpad and the place where you play whack-a-mole to control the onset of district unrest which leads to city-wide Anarchy which is the lose condition for the game.

At first it appears that unrest and anarchy are things to be stomped on at all costs... however, you quickly find that that is impossible, and that you are going to be just managing the outbreaks whilst allowing other districts rise a bit in unrest. It is very much like the Doomsday counter in XCOM2, impossible to keep at zero but instead you are looking to balance the growth rate with your own development as a strike team.

Like all XCOM games, there is a tech tree present with a general hand-wave excuse as to why you can't just storm all the bad guys with the biggest baddest tech that you developed at the end of the victorious XCOM2 Resistance War. Something about sending you a faulty or obsolete manufacturing kit.... it's lame and very much self-consciously gamey. Compared to the regular XCOM tech tree, it is a bit confusing what leads to what... the weapons and equipment are pretty straightforward, but those that relate to base development and field teams are not quite so clear... especially base upgrading.

Your team consists of various Alien or Human combat specialists that recall the various class types from XCOM2. These are all unique characters and there is a fail condition if any of them bleed out in the tactical combat. This is required for the controlled story-telling focus of this XCOM outing as opposed to the emergent narrative that is the staple of the regular XCOM series.

I do understand the need for the uniqueness of characters for the narrative... however, they are so rarely directly referred to in the larger plot that this uniqueness seems a bit wasted. In fact, they only seem to be present in little voice interludes that play during the mission entry screens or the map overlay. "Charming" little banters between some supremely stereotypical characters.... it is borderline annoying.

The skills that they pick up are also not really that exciting... there is much less development than the regular soldiers in the regular XCOM setting, which is a bit strange given that these guys are supposed to be a sort of elite force.

One of the biggest changes to the tactical meat-and-bones of the XCOM recipe is the addition of the Breach mechanic. This is where you will be choosing the various entry points into the tactical battle which will give various buffs and debuffs as well as some possible crossfire possibilities. It is a neat little trick that works well with the confined tactical maps that correspond to the enclosed urban battlefield of City 31.

It is a welcome change that fits well with the close quarters battling that ensues, and you do get some pretty cool animations and your various agents smash doors, pick locks, rappel down skylights or blast walls to make their entrances. It is also a moment when any special abilities or equipment (like flashbangs) can be deployed to debuff the defenders inside.

Much of the tactical play is exactly like the XCOM2 formula of move and action. It is a great system, and so there is no real pressing need to fix the battle tested mechanic. However, the introduction of the interleaved turns does mean that you will be juggling the priorities of which enemies to debuff and to take down first. This makes the fast snappy battles in extreme close quarters (on the order of 3-5 turns for the entire tactical firefight) more of an exercise in managing the order with which you address the potential incoming threats and the time that you have to deal with them. It is a completely different experience to the slower, longer range encounters that you had with the regular XCOM2... I would have to say that I prefer the original XCOM2 engagement tempi and distances, but it is something hat you quickly adapt to... using the tactics of a long range encounter will have you in some serious hot water here!

The three enemy factions are also twists on the various classes and factions that you discovered in XCOM2 (especially in War of the Chosen). They have different strengths and weaknesses which means that you will be employing slightly different tactics to take them down. However, they are a bit of a bland lot... even with the flavour narrative of the investigations into the underground organisations doesn't really do much to lend depth to them..

Conclusion

If you are an avid XCOM2 fan and hanging out for the next installment in XCOM3, Chimera Squad is an interesting twist to the XCOM franchise. The change in the tactical battles to a much faster and vicious close quarters urban setting makes for a huge change in the way that you deploy and control your units. The two big changes to the tactical setting are the Breach and Interleaved Turn mechanics, and I will be quite curious to see if these "enhancements" will make it to the final XCOM3 version. I suspect that Interleaved Turns might... but the Breach mechanic really is quite uniquely suited to the Close Quarters battle settings that would make it seem completely out of place with the traditional XCOM encounters.

The tighter narrative focus is quite interesting... it is nice to check in on the happenings of the XCOM world in the years following the Resistance winning the war in XCOM2. However, the story and characters are so completely forgettable that it could be any sort of generic story. The last foray into a narrative first game in the XCOM2 DLC ("Tactical Legacy Pack") told the story of the Resistance in the days between XCOM1 and XCOM2... and it was engaging and more gripping than this attempt.

I felt very little connection to the characters, in fact, some of them outright irritated me! Mostly they were just story tropes and had stereotypical characterisations... and the storyline, well... it was okay, but it wasn't at all gripping.

XCOM: Chimera Squad... it doesn't cost much, it scratches that XCOM itch... but I had hopes that it would be better!

Review Specs

DELL XPS15 (9560)

CPU: i7-7700HQ
RAM: 16 GB
Storage: SSD
GPU: Nvidia GTX 1050

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