XCOM Chimera Squad

[DANGERMAN]

This is a spin off of XCOM, with much the same principles, but a few changes to some key aspects of the game. It's launched cheap, I think about £8.50, 50% off, I can only presume to get people to play it and generate some buff around it so they don't have to advertise it, and it is competing with Gears Tactics

 

I'm enjoying it so far. It's still XCOM, you set your units behind cover, choose to shoot, use an ability, defend or overwatch. You'll still need to heal, use grenades, and you'll still miss from point blank range. The difference in the main combat loop is that it's now turn based in a traditional srpg sense, so not team by team, now a couple of your characters might get a turn then one of theirs. you'll get a few moves that can push turns down the queue or bring yours up. It doesn't sound like a huge difference, and some turns it isn't, but it is another level of tactics, worrying about which enemy to target

 

The stuff around the main combat is kind of similar to main XCOM. Characters still level up and learn new skills, you have to research new technology, equip gear. The world still gets panicked and turns on you, I'm not sure what the consequence is other than a game over, but you can do missions to ease a districts rising stress, now instead of satellites you can put teams in districts allowing you to freeze the meter or reduce it every few terms.

 

The big change is that characters aren't just generic, they're set with specific moves. You only start off with 4, but you do start to add more. It's not particularly character lead, I don't know anyone's personalities really, but I know that there's a couple of characters I like to use more than others. I like the big guy who can smash things, I feel like I should be using the shield guy more, he can boost defence of other characters, I should probably make more use of that. The Psi alien can learn levitate and mind control enemies, neither of these seem to work the way I'd expect, he might need to be replaced. His move should be stopping enemies from attacking our team, seems to barely ever work, so maybe I'm not understanding it.

 

One change that I've noticed but might just be an early game thing, the game relies on 'breaching'. You burst in to rooms, time stops, there may be perks or downsides to the breach, but it happens a few times a mission and is used to break up rooms. It means you're dealing with quite small rooms, lots of cover, I've just got a guy who seems to be a sniper build, I'm not sure how much use he's going to be. But it's nice to have some tailored moves that force your hand to try some new stuff.

 

The only issue I have is the issue I have with all XCOM games, I always feel like there's something I don't understand, the macro stuff. I always feel like I'm missing something, or I'm not building the right way and I'm a few turns away from getting a game over I can't recover from

[AndyKurosaki]

As much as I enjoy the Xcom games, I’m spectacularly bad at them. Tactics just doesn’t seem to be my strong point.