A deeply tactical game which is challenging and at the same time tense. Every move matters.
XCOM: Chimera Squad review
- Developer: Firaxis Games
- Publisher: 2K Games
- Platform: PC
- Availability: Out now on PC
The news that a new standalone XCOM game, i.e., XCOM: Chimera Squad was releasing in these, erm, weird times felt like a breath of fresh air. XCOM games always have been super challenging and super fun. And they’re the kind of games that once you’re involved, you’ll only come out after you uncover the entire conspiracy thoroughly. We’d definitely have more of that. So yes, we’re pretty thrilled to play XCOM: Chimera Squad.
Chimera Squad is a follow up to the excellent XCOM 2 that released in 2016, but it isn’t necessarily an XCOM 3. It is kind of like a standalone expansion of XCOM 2 and is priced rightly so, with a launch price of ₹ 999 on Steam. The campaign of XCOM: Chimera Squad provides a tight experience that lasts around 35 Hours.
If you haven’t played tactical games and don’t know what they are, let us explain. In XCOM, you start a mission with your squad, which includes 4 characters, each with their own set of abilities. XCOM: Chimera Squad is the first game to introduce the Breach Mode, which makes you enter (breach) a building or a zone and straight away get into the action. Each character, including enemy units, move as per their turn. During you turn, you can either move to character to take a position in cover, or you can take a shot, throw a grenade, or use a special ability, like Mind Control. The enemy acts in the same way too. This makes tactical games like a game of chess, where you have think a few moves in advance and base your strategy accordingly.
The campaign of XCOM: Chimera Squad provides a tight experience that lasts around 35 Hours.
XCOM: Chimera Squad’s mission play out room by room or encounter by encounter. This is the first game in the series to do that. You choose from where you enter, it can be the main door, or you can blast your way in, or use the vents if available, or hack the back door. Making the right entry is key to catching your enemy by surprise and getting an advantage. Each point of entry tells you how many enemies you’ll find, how likely is damage, any buffs you’ll be getting. Once you breach in, your entire squad takes their shot, and then its classic turn-based XCOM.
The game features a variety of characters, each having a unique style of play. You can use a shotgun pro, or demolitions expert. Fancy a melee expert? Enemies comes in various shapes and sizes too, but towards the end of the game they feel a tad repetitive. As you successfully complete missions, you squad members level up and gain new abilities. You also have to research new technologies to equip your squad with new weapons, armor and accessories.
If a squad member gets severely injured, they get “Scars” which limit some of their abilities, like Will or Movement. You then have to remove them from your squad and send them to training to heal them. You can also train them to increase their hit points or armor.
The game has a fair share of resource management too. There are three resources, Intel, Elyrium and Credits. Each mission gives one kind of resource. Another layer of strategy is added by the Unrest mechanic. You have a City Map which constitutes a collection of districts. Each district has “Unrest” which increases as the days go by, unless you complete a mission in that district to reduce Unrest. More unrest means tougher enemies. Intel can be used to place field teams in districts to somewhat manage the unrest.
XCOM: Chimera Squad is a pretty straight forward game, tight, compact and cohesive. The atmosphere in the game is always tense with a sense of urgency. The Unrest is always high, your resources are always short, and your squad members are always injured. You’ll have to make smart decisions which will like involves trade-offs. To do a mission you’ll need four squad members, but then you’ll also need to field some squad members in researching technology, training and resource gathering missions. If an agent bleeds our entirely during a mission, the mission fails and must be restarted. Likewise, if the Unrest crosses a certain level, the game fails you must load to a previous Saved game.
XCOM: Chimera Squad is a pretty straight forward game, tight, compact and cohesive. The atmosphere in the game is always tense with a sense of urgency.
The core of the fun in XCOM: Chimera Squad lies in careful planning and execution of moves, while keeping your squad alive. Staying in cover, using Overwatch, taking high percentage shots, healing consistently, all are needed to complete an encounter. Your units will get better as they complete missions, they gain powerful abilities as they level up. The campaign took me around 35 hours to complete. Towards the end there were a few level that were repeated and enemies became predictable, but that was only towards the end. Still, for the most time during the play through, the game felt fresh and challenging.
