A
fter failing to save the world in XCOM: Enemy
Unknown, your ragtag special-forces team
successfully overthrew the hybrid alien occupation
force in XCOM 2! But the aliens didn’t go away. In fact, they’re
now living alongside humanity, sharing the same
apartments, working the same jobs and, in some cases,
committing the same crimes.
This last part is most relevant to you, as the head of
Chimera Squad, a new police task force dedicated to
ridding City 31 of both human and extra-terrestrial crime.
Unfortunately, you have your work cut out, as City 31’s mayor
has just been assassinated. There are three suspected
gangs involved, and you need to take them all down.
Chimera Squad gives XCOM a radical and exciting new
premise, and it brings some significant changes to how
the base game functions. Missions now include multiple
separate encounters, each of which begins with the Breach
phase. Here, your alien SWAT team bursts into a room
through doors, windows and ventilation shafts, gaining a
chance to shoot at enemies before the main encounter.It’s an explosive opening to a tactical scenario that’s very
different from previous XCOM games. Rather than each
side taking turns individually, all units on both sides occupy
a single timeline, with their turns mixed up together. This
means your movements and actions need to be precise,
with the ultimate aim of denying your opponent the ability
to capitalise on their turns.
At first, this new turn system can feel quite limiting, as you
can usually only work with one Agent at one time. However,
once you’ve upgraded your Agents a few levels, the
opportunities to take advantage of the turn system expand
greatly. Verge, for example, can use his Sectoid mind-
control abilities to send enemies into a stupor, put them to
sleep or make them go berserk and attack their comrades,
essentially giving you an extra chance to deal damage.
Torque, meanwhile, is a snake-alien who can grab enemies
from afar with her tongue, then bind them in her coils to
prevent them from moving.
Mechanically, Chimera Squad is rock solid, from the
tension-generating city map where you juggle doing
missions with combatting general unrest, to the way the
game slowly ups the ante with more powerful enemies,
and a greater variety of weapons and equipment.
That said, there are some presentation issues. Chimera
Squad’s writing tries too hard to be funny and upbeat, losing
much of the gravitas that made XCOM such an absorbing
fantasy. The visual-novel-style dialogue portraits are
also jarring, giving Chimera Squad the tone of a dating sim
rather than a challenging tactics game. A more strait-laced
approach would have fit Chimera Squad better, but it’s still
another fantastically designed alien puzzle-box from Firaxis.
RICK LANE/VERDICT
A refreshing
change of the
board state from
XCOM, although
some stylistic
elements don’t
complement the
gamethatwell.OVERALL SCORE
80 %
XCO M
+^ Great premise
+^ Breach mode
is fantastic
+^ Cleverly
redesigned
core loopEX CON-^ Turn changes
feel limiting at
the outset
-^ Some irksome
presentation
issues
XCOM:Chimera Squad / £16.99 inc VAT
DEVELOPER Firaxis / PUBLISHER 2K Games