XCOM: Chimera Squad

Chimera Squad feels like an experimental game in the XCOM franchise, and that is very welcome. Although not every change and addition worked in here, I still appreciate how bold they have been with this particular smaller title. Now, the question we are all asking ourselves is: where is my XCOM 3?

Chimera Squad is definitely not aimed at XCOM fans. I don’t know if the stated goal of finding new audiences has worked (Steam users like it, but Metacritic users hate it, for example) but to me this is an incongruent vision of the series where you have snake squadmates and meaningless banter instead of worldbuilding and replayability. It’s fine as a one-off, slightly fun but buggy (hopefully non-canon) entry, but if this signifies the future of the franchise, I am worried.

XCOM: Chimera Squad feels a bit like an experiment where the original games serve as the main menu but a few different elements make up the starters and the dessert. The graphics are a nice change, the sounds have good voices, it’s nice to see more focus on the story for once, but the gameplay feels fresh as well as limited or wonky. The game could use some polish, and perhaps (likely) we will see a combination of Chimera Squad with the old-school XCOM in XCOM 3.

I recommend this game to anyone’s ever played an XCOM-like game. Veterans and newbies alike will find something they might like, despite the game needing more polish. Just watch that Anarchy meter. The late-game pressure sneaks on you rather quickly.

Riddled with many different types of bugs, XCOM: Chimera Squad is a hard sell. If you enjoy the setting and want another strategy title to play, this might be it, but you'll probably want to wait.

It’s hard to knock a game like XCOM: Chimera Squad considering its price of admission at launch. Full of content and great combat, it’s an absolute must-buy. Content isn’t an issue here as I got plenty of hours out of the gameplay. Sure, some of it will be trial and error since the soldiers don’t officially die and as long as the city doesn’t go into mass hostility, the fun keeps coming.