It could be very onerous for me not to consider XCOM: Chimera Squad as a warped and watered down model of XCOM correct. We’re nonetheless in the identical universe, preventing lots of the similar enemies. We’re nonetheless alternating between squad-based missions and a boardgamey over-structure, researching new weapons and devices whereas unlocking new skills for our troops. This remains to be, essentially, a game about devising well-coordinated assaults between more and more fancy super-soldiers.
It’s additionally essentially very totally different, as a result of now your enemy’s turns are all muddled up with yours. I’m nonetheless agonising over whether or not that makes it essentially worse.
Let’s pan again a bit, first, as a result of turn-taking is much from the one distinction right here. The game’s world is in a really totally different form, for a begin. The huge dangerous Ethereals from the final two games have buggered off, abandoning a fractured society of formerly-enslaved aliens, people, and hybrids. You’re the police, now, coping with city-level thugs relatively than world-threatening catastrophe. It’s a fantastic concept for a setting, even when it’s a bit tonally jarring. I used to be not able to see Mutons bumming across the streets in sweatpants.
It’s additionally principally ignorable, aside from the best way a few of your squad are snake individuals now. My snake murderer has the voice of a daily girl, which is distracting, however I like that she has a voice in any respect. Your squad is made up of precise characters, who bicker within the locker room. None of them are significantly charming or effectively written, however I nonetheless appreciated their background babble as I pored over loadouts and different strategic choices again on the base.
They can also’t die. If you lose a personality on a mission, you get a game over display relatively than a weighty consequence. Firaxis have excised among the best elements of XCOM, the place you have been pressured to persevere via mortal setbacks. I don’t perceive why. Fatalities would imply you wouldn’t get to see some inter-character banter. But – and I don’t say this flippantly – screw banter. The change robs every game of an arc, and makes the suspense much less palpable. It means I don’t have any dramatic tales about one unit nobly sacrificing their life to avoid wasting everybody. It’s all totally unpalped.
Another huge change is that each combat now takes place in a single room. Your squad breaches into the room in query, prompting you to consider carefully about who ought to go the place. Maybe I ought to ship my psychic hybrid in via that window, the place anybody he hits will get surprised? Or perhaps he’d be higher off with the remainder of the squad, the place he can use that particular smoke bomb to present everybody a defensive buff? The longer missions ship you into three consecutive rooms, so that you spend a great portion of the game mulling over breaches. They work. They’re most likely my favorite a part of Chimera Squad, and I definitely don’t miss the faff of painstakingly manoeuvring my squad between firefights.
Right then, right here we’re. The biggie. Turns. Once your squad is inside, an initiative order seems on the high proper. You act with one troop, then the enemy strikes one, and you retain going till each enemy is lifeless or unconscious. This can drastically simplify your techniques, as a result of it’s almost at all times greatest to kill the items which might be about to take a shot at you. I discovered myself working via a guidelines: can I polish off the subsequent attacking enemy? Can I kill anybody else on the similar time with a snazzy capacity? And is it price utilizing any of my objects?
At occasions, I felt unpleasantly railroaded. There’s much less room for artistic performs, and I used to be usually left with little doubt about what was greatest to do. There’s additionally nonetheless that outdated XCOM drawback, the place doing effectively early units you as much as do effectively later, and also you begin steamrolling when you get forward with analysis and good gear. I spent most of my time taking part in on regular issue, and the again half of the marketing campaign felt trivial. I’d always get away with issues that I shouldn’t, leaving my brokers hideously uncovered, however watching shot after shot both graze them or miss altogether.
There’s an entire system I by no means even noticed, the place squadmates that get knocked out (you possibly can stabilise them to keep away from demise) are changed with upgradable robots. I used to be robust sufficient to disregard all of the nuances that make the game enjoyable. Then I performed somewhat on onerous, and it was like taking part in a special game.
More usually than not, I wouldn’t have the ability to kill enemies outright – or I’d solely have a really small probability of doing so. Suddenly, I used to be agonising over whether or not to take small probabilities on eliminating enemies, or near-guaranteed pictures at piling on harm elsewhere. Everything mattered. I began utilizing defensive skills that I’d by no means wanted to trouble with, and placing actual thought into my squad composition. My plans received extra difficult. I needed to begin planning correctly, capitalising on strikes from a number of turns in the past, like utilizing my snake woman’s tongue to yank an enemy via my gunslinger’s overwatch zone. With brute pressure nonviable, it didn’t really feel like I used to be taking every flip in isolation. They have been interdependent.
It nonetheless by no means reached the complexity of XCOM 2, although. Chimera Squad remains to be streamlined, usually demanding you decide from a handful of prospects, relatively than concocting your personal. There are annoyances, too, just like the attacking AI spreading harm between my items relatively than making an attempt to complete individuals off. I want I may skip forward to the top of a unit’s flip, relatively than watching all of them jog in regards to the place. Sometimes it will get caught on any person’s go, too, and it’s a must to spend a minute beginning at a snake bum.
These are annoyances, although, not game breakers. Overall, Chimera Squad is stable. It’s nonetheless a shadow of its progenitor, with its new concepts not fairly making up for the lack of outdated ones. But in the event you attempt to deal with it as its personal factor, play at a better issue, and do your greatest to disregard the snake’s voice, I’d say it’s price a punt.
