Commissar SFLUFAN Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 Surprise, there's a new XCOM spinoff coming next week (PC Gamer) Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad isn't a direct continuation of XCOM 2, but a smaller, standalone spin-off that puts you in control of a fixed set of developer-created, human and human-alien hybrid characters within a branching campaign about 20 hours in length. Interestingly, it'll be half-price on Steam ($10) until May 1, after which it will go up to its regular price of $20. Much has changed in the five years following the events of XCOM 2. The defeated Overlords have fled Earth and a new era of interspecies cooperation has dawned, as humans, hybrids, and the alien soldiers left behind are now working together in an effort to build a new era of peaceful co-existence. Nice job, everyone. But not everyone is happy with this turn of events: Lurking in the shadows are mysterious forces determined to burn this brave new world to the ground, and it's up to Chimera Squad to stop them. Steam Store page Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
number305 Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 Looking forward to this. Between this and Gears Tactics it is a good month if you enjoy this game type! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amazatron Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 Really enticing price point, can't see myself not picking this up as long as it isn't a huge turd. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
number305 Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 17 minutes ago, Amazatron said: Really enticing price point, can't see myself not picking this up as long as it isn't a huge turd. Yeah. I'm expecting it to be short but I don't really see it being bad. There are a ton of new ideas in there. Seems this might be almost a test to see what works and what does not for an eventual xcom3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggydoo Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 In. It reminded me of the other spinoff they did, XCOM Bureau, which I thoroughly enjoyed as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted April 14, 2020 Author Share Posted April 14, 2020 GMG has the game at 54% discount if you're a VIP. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
number305 Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 One more comment on this - I wish more games were announced like this. Hey here is a new game you knew nothing about, you can buy it in two weeks. Bam. Any more it is really hard to get excited about most new announcements. Games get trailers two years before release. It's ridiculous. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 For $10 why not? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted April 15, 2020 Author Share Posted April 15, 2020 Firaxis Reveals More XCOM: Chimera Squad Details: "Neither a Sequel nor an Expansion" (USgamer) Quote The fog of war has cleared and this time there's actually a good surprise: we have more XCOM on the near horizon. 2K and Firaxis Games have announced a brand-new entry in the franchise. XCOM: Chimera Squad is a standalone spinoff that picks up five years after the events of XCOM 2. City 31 is a place where humans, aliens, and hybrids co-exist in peace. Well mostly in peace. There's still some tensions brewing, and Chimera Squad, an assortment of soldiers spanning the many groups within City 31, are there to keep the peace. XCOM: Chimera Squad is not a full-fledged sequel though. Yes, it takes place after XCOM 2, but this is not the X-COM: Terror from the Deep-inspired sequel that some players may have expected. "It’s neither a sequel or expansion to XCOM 2, though its story is set after the events of the past games," a Firaxis spokesperson tells USgamer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XxEvil AshxX Posted April 15, 2020 Share Posted April 15, 2020 That is way too much thinking for me. I'm just not good at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 It's out! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 This looks great. Might buy this for my birthday. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted April 24, 2020 Author Share Posted April 24, 2020 Game Information Game Title: XCOM: Chimera Squad Platforms: PC (Apr 23, 2020) Developer: Firaxis Games Publisher: 2K Games Review Aggregator: OpenCritic - 79 average - 74% recommended Critic Reviews Checkpoint Gaming - 9 / 10 Quote I’ll be thinking about my new squad of quirky techs, determined soldiers, and new alien friends for a long time after finishing XCOM: Chimera Squad, like waiting for the next issue of a great comic book. Screen Rant - 4.5 / 5 stars Quote Even with smaller stakes, XCOM's strategy shines through. Impulsegamer - 4.4 / 5 Quote Mixing elements of the old and new games in the series, this game also mixes the humans and the aliens to create a Chimera Squad to tackle the ongoing threat/s to Earth. Gaming Nexus - 8.5 / 10 Quote Chimera Squad gives XCOM something it needed a lot more of: direction. The stakes are lower, but the execution is smoother. GamingTrend - 85 / 100 Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad brings together a huge list of fresh new ways to play. Each change introduces a new layer of strategy, and the new turn system completely upends what you know about XCOM. This is a daring new take on this venerable series, and having just completed it, I can't wait to run it again. IGN Spain - Spanish - 8.5 / 10 Quote The care of XCOM: Chimera Squad is total despite being a much less ambitious work than XCOM 2 and the only thing that tarnishes its good intentions are a few errors and crashes that can easily be solved in the first days of the title's life. Stevivor - 8.5 / 10 Quote Fans of XCOM will love it if not for its look into the world post-XCOM 2, then for the new characters and abilities at your disposal. Wccftech - 8.5 / 10 Quote Chimera Squad experiments with smaller encounters, more unique characters, and a change in the combat order with remarkable success. Although still weighed down by the traditional issues of the series, Chimera Squad excels in what it set out to achieve and is an incredibly satisfying tactical game. Worth Playing - 8.5 / 10 Quote Overall, XCOM: Chimera Squad is a solid attempt at a stand-alone, quick-play XCOM 2 campaign. The trimmed-down mechanics make it a lot easier to go through the campaign relatively quickly instead of having to dedicate yourself to it. DualShockers - 8 / 10 Quote Neither a full-fledged sequel nor a cheap cash grab, XCOM: Chimera Squad is a solid spin-off with a smaller scale approach to the XCOM formula. Game Informer - 8 / 10 Quote Chimera Squad's action remains incredibly rich, but the slightly repetitive combat mars the overall thrill GameSpot - 8 / 10 Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad refines the series' core tactical strengths to show that sometimes less is more. GamesRadar+ - 4 / 5 stars Quote Firaxis lets its hair down for a fun, ragtag twist on XCOM's proven recipe of tactics and tension. Guardian - 4 / 5 stars Quote In the terrifying aftermath of an invasion from space, a motley band of superheroes must keep the peace in City 31 Metro GameCentral - 8 / 10 Quote An attempt to simplify and streamline XCOM sounds like a disaster in the making but the original's tense turn-based combat is still highly entertaining even in this reduced form. PCGamesN - 8 / 10 Quote Firaxis trades a global war for an urban mission to defend a multicultural, multi-planetary peace. There's a lot to like in this more intimate, experimental spin-off, but the main sequence games are still the ones to beat.Richard Scott-Jones SECTOR.sk - Slovak - 8 / 10 Quote Law enforcement unit in XCOM universe chasing human and alien criminals and it is very good job. Shacknews - 8 / 10 Quote Whether you're picking it up at full-price, or grabbing it during the special launch sale, XCOM: Chimera Squad is a fantastic gem, and an excellent spin-off for one of gaming's most celebrated strategy franchises. VG247 - 4 / 5 stars Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad is perhaps the best value proposition I’ve seen in video games for a long time. Gamersky - Chinese - 7.8 / 10 Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad definitely worth trying but it won't prevail compared with its prequel. The breach mode and the interleaved turns system make the gameplay much faster and intenser. But the wonderful experience only lasts for a few hours because the breach mode is too repetitive. AusGamers - 7.5 / 10 Quote Some of these surprises come in the form of setting, narrative tone, and a more simplified pre-battle management system. Destructoid - 7.5 / 10 Quote While not all of the wild departures fire on all cylinders, XCOM: Chimera Squad's open-ended difficulty settings allow everyone to bend the strong combat groundwork to their will. Chimera Squad embraces the strange, and is predominately better for it. God is a Geek - 7.5 / 10 Quote More than anything, Firaxis appear to be testing the waters with XCOM: Chimera Squad, and as a field test it's mostly successful. However, it ditches far too much of what makes XCOM so fantastic in the first place. Press Start - 7.5 / 10 Quote There are parts of XCOM: Chimera Squad that will definitely disappoint long-time fans of the franchise. As a spin-off that departs in some significant ways from the true, mainline experience, XCOM: Chimera Squad is an excellent entry-level strategy game that’ll still provide a decent challenge to those looking to dip their toes in. Spaziogames - Italian - 7.5 / 10 Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad is a well made spin-off, with some innovation and a new setting. PC Gamer - 72 / 100 Quote A fine superhero SWAT team tactics game smothered by a little too much admin. Gamers Heroes - 70 / 100 Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad is a brave adventure into new territory. Featuring a more interesting narrative design, some much-needed changes to combat, and a cast of interesting characters, all of these things would lead to a brilliant game if it weren't for the myriad of bugs, crashes, and usual XCOM tiring randomness. It's an absolute must-buy for fans of the genre, especially at its current price, but a bit more time in development wouldn't have hurt. IGN - 7 / 10 Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad plays with some interesting new ideas, but doesn't bring them together into a particularly graceful whole. IGN Italy - Italian - 7 / 10 Quote Chimera Squad is a kind of XCOM-in-a-box: lighter, simpler, cheaper, and less interesting. Good if you are looking for some quick tactical fun, especially at this price point, but inferior to War of the Chosen in almost every way. USgamer - 3.5 / 5 stars Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad retains much of what makes XCOM such a special tactics series, in the process adding in some genuine improvements to its already excellent formula. But these improvements are undermined by some strange art choices, as well as a general reluctance to maximize some of its bolder changes. All in all, an interesting experiment, but one that still has a ways to go before reaching its full potential. PowerUp! - 6.9 / 10 Quote XCOM: Chimera Squad is a strange, stripped back version of XCOM that does away with the suspenseful and thrilling moments of missions to focus on action, for better or worse. ACG - Buy Quote Video Review - Quote not available Eurogamer - Eurogamer Recommended Quote The classic formula gets an energising remix in this standalone charmer. Player2.net.au - A or higher Quote If this is what the team at Firaxis can do with a quick spinoff title, I can’t wait to get my hands on the inevitable Xcom 3. Polygon - Polygon Recommends Quote Despite its imperfections, fans of tactical strategy games should snatch XCOM: Chimera Squad up as soon as possible. Rock, Paper, Shotgun - Unscored Quote Overall, Chimera Squad is solid. 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Commissar SFLUFAN Posted April 24, 2020 Author Share Posted April 24, 2020 43 minutes ago, ManUtdRedDevils said: This looks great. Might buy this for my birthday. Merry Birthday - check your PMs 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 35 minutes ago, Emperor Diocletian II said: Merry Birthday - check your PMs Wow. Thank you. I know what I will be doing instead of work today. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggydoo Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 anyone play it yet? Will get it once I officially get off work. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Started it up and played the tutorial mission and first mission. It is definitely a smaller, more intimate experience so far which I like. The structure of each mission has been broken into small arenas where you breach to enter. The breaches are pretty straightforward so there is concern about the repetition of the mechanic. Each mission had 3 breaches each which seems like a lot to me. After you breach, it is basic XCOM. Once all the enemies are dead or captured, your team reloads and moves to the next breach point. Due to this, I have yet to reload a gun in a mission. Again this may not be an issue if areas become larger in size. I like the comic book style story telling. It gives the game more personality than the first two. The characters interact pretty well together so far. It gives the world a more lived in feel. The game has quite a few setting before you start to help tweak difficulty. For instance, you can decide to have your team fully, half or not healed after a mission. It definitely feels more welcoming to new people so far. Could be a great entry point for people intimidated by this type of game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggydoo Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 1 hour ago, ManUtdRedDevils said: The game has quite a few setting before you start to help tweak difficulty. For instance, you can decide to have your team fully, half or not healed after a mission. It definitely feels more welcoming to new people so far. Could be a great entry point for people intimidated by this type of game. Thanks for the quick look! Reminds me of mario rabbids. Can add extra hp before each mission to make it easier for the kiddos. Installing the game now but its taking a bit to dl from steam for such a small game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 24 minutes ago, eggydoo said: Thanks for the quick look! Reminds me of mario rabbids. Can add extra hp before each mission to make it easier for the kiddos. Installing the game now but its taking a bit to dl from steam for such a small game. Yea I can see some similarities. The turn order is actually a welcome addition for me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Due to the small, quick encounters, this would be a great game on Switch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 4 hours ago, ManUtdRedDevils said: For instance, you can decide to have your team fully, half or not healed after a mission. When did this start happening? The not healing after a mission thing Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 36 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said: When did this start happening? The not healing after a mission thing It’s a game setting when you start the game. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Just now, ManUtdRedDevils said: It’s a game setting when you start the game. Right but I mean in the series, is it something that started with the second game or just this game? It wasn't in the first game is what I'm saying. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 5 minutes ago, Keyser_Soze said: Right but I mean in the series, is it something that started with the second game or just this game? It wasn't in the first game is what I'm saying. I believe this is the first time. I played XCOM 2 on release and don’t remember such a setting Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 I don't necessarily mean the setting just if you finish a mission your soldiers not healing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyser_Soze Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 1 hour ago, Keyser_Soze said: I don't necessarily mean the setting just if you finish a mission your soldiers not healing. Actually I thought about it and maybe I have a bad memory or the term "healing" was throwing me off. I do recall if you got critically wounded or wounded at all you would have to recuperate at the infirmary, which goes all the way back to the original original game. I dunno, some reason I didn't make the connection. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggydoo Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 Played a decent amount. Not sure if me but Spoiler Feel like melee and non lethal is really focused on this that now my favorite go to members are the melee guys... especially with xcom accuracy. Anyone else have a different experience? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaladinSolo Posted April 25, 2020 Share Posted April 25, 2020 At 10 dollars its worth it, but so far the breach mechanic is annoying, like outcomes almost seem entirely predetermined, either a breach is absolutely devastating, or you need to plan on which breach ability sets you up best next turn, and its blatantly obvious which it is when you breach, like when all the breach bonuses are stuns enemy on hit, you're not going to kill many of them so just shoot as many of them as possible. Then you clear the area, and are then automatically set up for another breach do it again, each mission is this 2-3 times so far. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggydoo Posted April 26, 2020 Share Posted April 26, 2020 Have a bug where I can't equip a weapon on one of my aliens. Saw on Reddit others are experiencing same issue if you remove a unique weapon from a person while they are in training. I can't deploy this person as well since they don't have a gun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commissar SFLUFAN Posted April 28, 2020 Author Share Posted April 28, 2020 Updated the reviews compilation post with the latest ones from OpenCritic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaladinSolo Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 Bit further in, game definitely needs some clean up, lots of hang ups on actions where nothing will happen for a good 30 seconds or longer, and theres a pretty high chance the game will crash when enemy reinforcements enter. Because of the breaching mechanic and basically making the entire game around it, I think i might be done with this. You breach, kill a couple enemies and then the rest plays out like X-Com except each map is sectioned off into up to 3 areas and you breach into each one, with the other 2 inaccessible until you kill all the enemies in the current area, which is usually very small and almost never requires you to move your guys much, and its just a scramble to kill the next guy on the turn list till they're all dead which usually only takes a turn or two cause you can kill like half of them when you enter. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eggydoo Posted April 30, 2020 Share Posted April 30, 2020 4 hours ago, PaladinSolo said: Bit further in, game definitely needs some clean up, lots of hang ups on actions where nothing will happen for a good 30 seconds or longer, and theres a pretty high chance the game will crash when enemy reinforcements enter. what are you playing on? cause I have not experienced this.... I do see occasional hang up, but its literally like 1-2 seconds for me and only happens when it switches to next unit's turn. Only weird animation bug i've seen so far is when an enemy panics and shoots, you don't see the gun shoot but you see the person they shot at take dmg. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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