“Sometimes when you utterly love something, change can seem like a hostile assailant.”

I distinctly remember visiting game shops as a young whippersnapper and perusing the ever-shrinking PC section for new morsels to pick up. One game that always stood out to me was Xcom- Enemy Unknown; in part, thanks to the wonderful box art and also partly because it (and it’s sequel Terror from the Deep) is my favourite game of all time. It was a shame that the third game, Apocalypse, didn’t capture the same attention and led to a spree of under par abominations with the Xcom brand slapped on the side. However, I always did like the idea of fighting aliens across a singular cityscape. Maybe some of the devs at Firaxis thought the same because XCOM Chimera Squad gives us the chance to do exactly that.

Into the Breach

While the new XCOM games have refined the gameplay formula, the template has remained the same since those wonderful days of X-Com Enemy Unknown. You move your soldiers and then the aliens move theirs: in Chimera, this tradition has been turned on its head. For a start, each encounter begins with a breach, where you must choose the place and which troops will enter the combat area. These can be a standard doorway but also include rappelling through windows or using C4 on walls. Each of these breach points will offer some advantages and disadvantages, it just depends on how you want to play. If the last member going in will have his weapon disabled for example, you could make sure this is Verge who can unleash chaos with his psychic powers.

The better breach locations will also only be available if you have the right character in the squad or the correct equipment; like Torque with her snake-like body. As you burst into the combat area you will be able to take a few chunks out of the enemy force before scurrying behind cover. The combat areas is far smaller in Chimera and as such this changes the dynamic of gameplay. The large levels all previous XCOM games are about slowly uncovering the battlefield and then taking on the aliens in sporadic gunfights. With this design, you are immediately in those tense fights and this makes for a very different overall experience. In a way Chimera is like an arena game using the turn-based combat from XCOM. You must also consider how many encounters you must beat before the end, so as not to leave your troops with nothing left for the last big push. The breach mechanic is by far my favourite new trick in Chimera and I hope they find a way of working it into future games.

It’s XCOM Jim but not as we know it.

As well as the breach mechanic, you will quickly notice another significant change to the order of things. Instead of each side getting an entire turn phase (overwatch withstanding) you now have an individual running order, which includes smaller events like grenades going off etc. So planning ahead is still important, but this is a more nuanced approach that does a good job of emphasising the personalities now roaming around the combat area. I will say that at first I absolutely hated this new method, but as the hours passed it has really grown on me. When I inevitability replay XCOM 2 later this year, I do wonder which method I will feel the best.

I think one aspect of the original game that I adored was being able to rename your troops. I and a friend would both have our family members fighting the alien scourge, it wasn’t uncommon for me to casually mention at school that my mum has succumbed to a plasma grenade. This customisation has been embraced with the newer games, now allowing you to change sex, appearance and many other cosmetic features. 

Chimera completely does away with this in favour of a number of premade characters, each with their own set of skills and personality. As the war is now mostly over, humans, aliens and hybrids live together in City 31. This means many of these characters are aliens themselves. Each one comes with their own dialogue and unique skill tree which are actually well thought out. As the game’s campaign chugs on you will be presented with a choice of which soldiers to recruit. This assortment of beings will chirp up during briefings or fire out one-liners on the battlefield. While this isn’t Shakespeare, I think they do enough to stand out. Like the other changes that have been made with Chimera, I ended up accepting them and even enjoying the new challenges they brought. By the time I had fully upgraded the various members of my squad, I was starting to appreciate awesome skill combinations that really work well together.

Research has always been one of my favourite parts of the XCOM games. How at first you start out with ineffectual pea shooters and then research the alien tech to stand a chance of fighting back. The first time you send a squad out in advanced armour and toting shiny new plasma guns is a real milestone moment. In Chimera, this system feels tacked on and doesn’t have any of the excitement of previous games. The bigger problem is that when you start finding unique weapons on the field, this totally supersedes the research you’ve done on the standard weapons. Like I will discuss later, this game is a smaller and more intimate affair so I do wonder if a research element was needed at all. 

Paradise City

Each day in City 31 you must attend to various tasks and then choose a mission for that day. Missions range from main campaign levels to side missions or emergency calls. Each will come with various rewards but your success will be linked to the overall anarchy for the city: if this reaches maximum it’s game over. The three resources you must deal with are Elerium (for research) intel (new intel teams and advances equipment) and money to kit your soldier’s out with new gear.

There are nine districts in the city and each has their own levels of unrest to monitor. You can install intel teams in any of the districts and even upgrade them to be more effective. These, in turn, help keep the anarchy at bay and give you more options to deal with the overall situation. It’s not a complicated mechanic but does offer a good representation of the overall struggle you are facing. As Chimera Squad you must face off against a shadowy force trying to stir up unrest between inhabitants of City 31 and even start a new war. After the Mayor of the city is assassinated you must investigate three hostile organisations in the city in order to learn more about the enemy working through them. 

Back at base, you must also assign squad members to other tasks, like helping to manufacture (research). My least favourite solider was unfortunately stuck here for the entirety of the game (sorry Godmother). You can also assign members to other tasks for various benefits, like generating resources you need the most or lowering the city unrest. When your troops have their health reduced to zero they will go into a downed state and must be stabilised within three turns; if they die the mission is over. These unfortunate soldiers can then pick up scars which act as a debuff for future missions, so there is no recovery time as such. However, if you do want these scars removed you must send them to the training centre for a period of days. This actually works really well to keep the flow of combat going. The training centre can also be used to enhance your characters and even add new skills.

Shoestrings and Champagne Wishes

This game was also clearly fashioned from a smaller investment of resources. You can see this by the cheaper comic book cut scenes, a route many indie developers go to bypass expensive 3D cut scenes. The two animations for the truck leaving the base are reused all the way through the game with no variation. Many aspects of the UI, while holding to the XCOM aesthetic, look bare bones. Even while arriving at missions, the surrounding backdrop of City 31 looks quite sparse compared to those in full XCOM/XCOM2 games.

So while all this is true, this game is being sold for £16.99 and for the first week of sale a ridiculously low £8.49. This price point is extraordinarily generous when you consider the overall package. While there have been some corners cut here and there I would have loved some more ideas being thrown into the gameplay loop. However, for every niggle I have over the scope of this game, I have to keep reminding myself that this title isn’t XCOM 3 and it’s not trying to be.

Is it PC?

As I have mentioned, in most ways this is game is cut from the same cloth as the last game but with a more modest budget for trimmings. Even with slightly less oomph, the game does look great with some nice details on show. I’m not sure if it is just me looking harder but there does seem to be more visual jank in this title. Often soldiers will be facing the wrong way when they shoot, movement animations will not display and the UI can also get in the way. These are really minor wrinkles, but worth mentioning. As for performance, the game ran very well for me which, of course, is helped by the levels being more compact. If you are struggling to get a good framerate there are plenty of options in the graphics tab which can be dialled back.

This game was made to be played with keyboard and mouse so let’s just assume everyone reading this review knows that. In terms of sound, this is pretty much a carbon copy of the last game, that is to say very good. Music will play at various points in the game and while nothing really stands out, it does the job and I have no complaints. Unfortunately, the game has hung quite a few times while playing through the campaign, usually when there was a fairly complicated set of actions happening. Thanks to a decent autosave feature this didn’t cost me much time, other than having to restart the game. I hope they do work on the games stability and bugs post-release.

Conclusion 

I think to judge this game fairly you have to consider what Firaxis was trying to accomplish with its release. Maybe this was a pet project for a few of the devs while the next full XCOM game is worked on? As I’ve already mentioned, this could be a testing bed for some new mechanics that could be used in the future. Releasing the game at half price certainly makes it look like this was not a project to make tonnes of cash and instead, they wanted as many people playing it as possible.

Yes, some of the fundamental elements of what I like about XCOM have been changed for this outing and I hope (other than breach) these changes are a one-off. However, given the size of this game, it really had to have a unique approach rather than just be a smaller rerun of the last few XCOM games. The bottom line is this: if you are a fan of this genre or XCOM games specifically, this is an essential purchase (even when it jumps to full price). As for me, these intense battles have XCOM at their heart and have stirred up the desire to play the old games again (and as tradition dictates; while watching X-Files on my other monitor.)

Thank you for reading my review of XCOM: Chimera Squad on PC. With the Covid 19 crisis ongoing my time to review games has been drastically reduced but the wheels are still turning and I hope to return to full speed very soon. Thank you to everyone who offers support and feedback, it means the world. Please follow me @riggedforepic for all my gaming updates and content.