XCOM Chimera Squad - Danger-hair, quips, no perma-death, this game has it all.

[TerribleIdeas™]

Well, having played all of the games from the originals, all the way through to that absurd DLC 'War of the Hunters', I'll try to update everyone on how disappointing this is.

 

[Rakdos92]

Lol the snake character hates/ is a racist against nonearth born aliens and people are already melting down.

Please tell me that's ruined her for the thirsty freaks who want to fuck the snake.

Bassssssed

Her character arc is going to be "learning that racism is WROOOONG!!1!"

 

[BlueCandle]

Lol the snake character hates/ is a racist against nonearth born aliens and people are already melting down.

Reminds me of when that pink haired bodybuilder chick from Overwatch was eventually revealed to be rightfully extremely racist towards robots and it was actually kind of based.

 

[Kulee Baba]

It really makes my headspin when I see /v/irgins lambaste this game for alleged progressive themes. They don't want an X-Com where aliens fight alongside humans because that's race mixing. They want old fashioned conservative X-Com.... where humans of all kinds of nationalities and ethnicities fight alongside each other to beat aliens.

With that out of the way the game looks like a mobile spinoff and is priced accordingly. I'm sure I'll end up with a copy when it's marked down to $3. Hopefully if X-Com 3 is about Earth partnering with allied aliens to defeat the invading evil we get space opera of fighting over planets and space fleets, fighting over earth for 3 games will be redundant.

 

[HumanHive]

I remember game journalist Patrick Klepeck playing Fire Emblem (whichever was the first one that went mainstream) with permadeath, and he restarted a mission whenever he lost a character. People called him out on this in the comments but I don't think he ever addressed them.

I know there are people who like the meatgrinder style of UFO Defense, but I'm not one of them and I like that Firaxis made the changes they did.

The people demanding games be insanely difficult rarely live up to their own standard, demanding games that are ultra challenging while playing said games with YouTube or Gamefaqs open on their phone. When I see people complaining that games like Xcom 2 or Dark Souls are too easy, I can't help but think they are trolls or teenagers.


Agents of Mayhem was "essjaydoubleyou-ified".

The thing about XCOM's difficulty is that you are meant to lose squaddies and learn when to cut your loses. The game is balanced such that if you aren't losing here and there, your squad gets overleveled fast and (in the older games at least) you end up with a lot of junk equiptment that should have been left beside a corpse on the battlefield.

I think the older games get a lot of their bad reputation from the ancient heirglyphic UI, lack of good cover in maps, and how your squad isn't just inaccurate but also incapable of properly covering each other - all of which the newer games fixed - but there is a great deal of depth and encouragement to try out new strategies that you just don't see in modern games. It isn't just "hard", it wants to reward your time and take you seriously.

The XCOM Files mod in particular changes the whole pace of the game, really throwing you a few easy pitches at your two agent team before cultists and spiders start ruining your day. Fuck, you have several years till the ayy invasion starts. And when it does, you feel like a real big boy combat team. A long ass ride, but it's probably the best way to play from a story perspective.

 

[Smaug's Smokey Hole]

I know there are people who like the meatgrinder style of UFO Defense, but I'm not one of them and I like that Firaxis made the changes they did.

I thought that added to the fun. When capturing aliens with the stun-weapon it wasn't an experienced soldier with good stats that was sent running straight at a chrysalid, it was a rookie in a jumpsuit with no equipment other than the electric baton. Worst job ever. If that rookie survived that initiation they got a gun, unless they became fast enough then they were on stun duty.

 

[d12]

After my 45 minute waltz into the game I can safely say that Chimera Squad is a serviceable spin-off which builds a lot off of XCOM 2. The gameplay is predictably almost identical with a spattering of new features (alien squaddies with new abilities, the breach system, tiered turn times). Gameplay wise it's basically XCOM 2's tactical mode with the strategic portion being shallower and less important. Personally out of all the new features my favorite of the bunch would have to be the breach system, I think it adds another layer of tactics within encounters. It is a nice addition, however I don't see it being implemented in XCOM 3 given it's need for pre-placed entry points unless Fireaxis removes the procedurely generated map system (god forbid).
Another talking point is that the squaddies are all pre-made and you don't actually get to make and personalize your squad past the cosmetics and gear, which I think is a real shame. I hope that this isn't a portent for pre-made characters ala Jagged Alliance in the main series, it probably isn't but you never know.
From what little I've seen of the plot is that it's serviceable if a little cringey at times. The dialogue in the intro mission made me cringe a bit at how hokey it was at times, I don't know if that's intentional or just bad writing. One thing I've noticed is that there's a lot of Mass Effect alumni in the voice acting, Sectoid Mordin and Triple amputee Tali being the most obvious examples. I haven't noticed any overt Current Year moments but I haven't really been looking for them either so eh.

Overall from what I've seen so far the game's fine for ten bucks although that's probably as much as you should pay for it, this is not a 20 dollar game. I give it a 7/10.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Played it a couple hours this morning. Here are a few thoughts.

The Good

• Actually pretty mechanically sound.
• The breach mechanic is a very good idea. It keeps the action moving. No more crawling the map for 20 minutes trying not to pop a pod at the wrong time. Once a room is clear, it's onto the next.
• Low rank soldiers are a bit tougher and get a few more toys. True masochists may complain about this, but as someone who's played a LOT of XCOM, including higher difficulties and sometimes Iron Man, the early game is just too brutal and luck based. I think it was a good idea to slightly smooth the difficulty curve.
• Mechanically unique characters and abilities.
• Strategic layer is finally starting to hit a balance of being interesting but not overwhelming.
• Good music.

The Bad

• This is an UGLY game. The comic book art style doesn't mesh AT ALL with XCOM. The models, animations, and character designs just look BAD.
• Voice acting is passable at best. Some of it is outright terrible. I want to Minecraft Terminal's VA in particular.
• Writers graduated from the Joss Whedon School of Snark. This is not a compliment.
• Overall a pozzed atmosphere. Best direct example is an in game organization called Earth Above all, which advocates wearing protective clothes, provoking aliens into hitting you, and catching the retribution on video. I mean, I can believe this as part of a fictional universe, but... come on. There's a lot of transparent, hamfisted commentary about how racism is bayud, m'kay? Which is unfortunate, because I think there's a much more subtle and interesting story to be told about aliens and humans laying down their arms and learning to live in peace. But this ain't it. Maybe in XCOM 3.
• No real aesthetic customization. Names, voices, personalities, all are set for you. This isn't YOUR squad, this is Chimera Squad. You have to take what they give you, and if you don't like it, that's too bad. And you won't, because most of the designs are straight out of Tumblr.

The Iffy

• Early game is almost a little TOO easy in places. For example, you start with a psi character named Verge who can do a guaranteed stun once per round, that isn't turn ending for him. This is unlocked from the get go. What?
• Many abilities would be fine if they had longer cooldowns, but as is, they're WAY too strong when you can use them every turn.
• Classes aren't really classes anymore, and characters are more specialized. I don't absolutely HATE this, but I feel like something is missing. I don't mind it for a spin off but I hope it doesn't carry into XCOM 3.
• Not sure how I feel about alternating turns. I assume it's to prevent an all powerful alpha strike, but IMO, figuring out how to do this was part of the game.
• No perma-death. 'nuff said.

The Verdict
It's a'ight. If you can get it for tenbux and like XCOM, give it a try.

 

[Twitter Hate Mob]

So basically they're trying to appeal to the twenty six people who bought XCOM 2 on console, as opposed to the people who stuck over a thousand hours on Long War.

Does it have any form of mod support?

 

[d12]

So basically they're trying to appeal to the twenty six people who bought XCOM 2 on console, as opposed to the people who stuck over a thousand hours on Long War.

Does it have any form of mod support?

It has mod support, yes. However I don't know if there will be a modding community considering this is a more linear game mechanic wise than XCOM 2.

 

[Fagnacious D]

Played it a couple hours this morning. Here are a few thoughts.

The Good

• Actually pretty mechanically sound.
• The breach mechanic is a very good idea. It keeps the action moving. No more crawling the map for 20 minutes trying not to pop a pod at the wrong time. Once a room is clear, it's onto the next.
• Low rank soldiers are a bit tougher and get a few more toys. True masochists may complain about this, but as someone who's played a LOT of XCOM, including higher difficulties and sometimes Iron Man, the early game is just too brutal and luck based. I think it was a good idea to slightly smooth the difficulty curve.
• Mechanically unique characters and abilities.
• Strategic layer is finally starting to hit a balance of being interesting but not overwhelming.
• Good music.

The Bad

• This is an UGLY game. The comic book art style doesn't mesh AT ALL with XCOM. The models, animations, and character designs just look BAD.
• Voice acting is passable at best. Some of it is outright terrible. I want to Minecraft Terminal's VA in particular.
• Writers graduated from the Joss Whedon School of Snark. This is not a compliment.
• Overall a pozzed atmosphere. Best direct example is an in game organization called Earth Above all, which advocates wearing protective clothes, provoking aliens into hitting you, and catching the retribution on video. I mean, I can believe this as part of a fictional universe, but... come on. There's a lot of transparent, hamfisted commentary about how racism is bayud, m'kay? Which is unfortunate, because I think there's a much more subtle and interesting story to be told about aliens and humans laying down their arms and learning to live in peace. But this ain't it. Maybe in XCOM 3.
• No real aesthetic customization. Names, voices, personalities, all are set for you. This isn't YOUR squad, this is Chimera Squad. You have to take what they give you, and if you don't like it, that's too bad. And you won't, because most of the designs are straight out of Tumblr.

The Iffy

• Early game is almost a little TOO easy in places. For example, you start with a psi character named Verge who can do a guaranteed stun once per round, that isn't turn ending for him. This is unlocked from the get go. What?
• Many abilities would be fine if they had longer cooldowns, but as is, they're WAY too strong when you can use them every turn.
• Classes aren't really classes anymore, and characters are more specialized. I don't absolutely HATE this, but I feel like something is missing. I don't mind it for a spin off but I hope it doesn't carry into XCOM 3.
• Not sure how I feel about alternating turns. I assume it's to prevent an all powerful alpha strike, but IMO, figuring out how to do this was part of the game.
• No perma-death. 'nuff said.

The Verdict
It's a'ight. If you can get it for tenbux and like XCOM, give it a try.

A more accurate name to this game would be "Xcom Jr." game play mechanics feel a bit too simplified. The story feels more like a modern kids comic book rather than a sci-fi game (with some horror elements).

Spoiler: Cringe Compilation

 

[Back me up!]

A more accurate name to this game would be "Xcom Jr." game play mechanics feel a bit too simplified. The story feels more like a modern kids comic book rather than a sci-fi game (with some horror elements).

Spoiler: Cringe Compilation

View attachment 1252397

View attachment 1252402

There are going to be soooooooooooooo many dialog replacement mods up on Nexus.

I'm just hoping some one brings over the Doom Slayer class mod and have Doomguy say absolutely nothing the whole time.

 

[mr.moon1488]

A more accurate name to this game would be "Xcom Jr." game play mechanics feel a bit too simplified. The story feels more like a modern kids comic book rather than a sci-fi game (with some horror elements).

Spoiler: Cringe Compilation

View attachment 1252397

View attachment 1252402

Lol, I heard the dialog was bad, but I didn't know it was just outright cringe shit.

 

[robobobo]

I'm reasonably certain the aliens killed billions of people in XCOM 1 and 2. Like, Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot together were a drop in the bucket compared to the death count the aliens caused. Being all, "Oh gee they're just like immigrants uwu" is actually horrifyingly insulting to immigrants. Even if an alien force had "only" killed in the tens of millions of humans, humanity would not rest until every last one was dead, and pretending otherwise is retarded.

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

I'm reasonably certain the aliens killed billions of people in XCOM 1 and 2. Like, Hitler, Stalin, and Pol Pot together were a drop in the bucket compared to the death count the aliens caused. Being all, "Oh gee they're just like immigrants uwu" is actually horrifyingly insulting to immigrants. Even if an alien force had "only" killed in the tens of millions of humans, humanity would not rest until every last one was dead, and pretending otherwise is exceptional.

This is modern Xcom after all, the way the AI tends to be Exceptional makes me think it would happen in game because how stupid they can be.

 

[TerribleIdeas™]

Here's some Trudeau-esque "from the archives" bullshit -

1st impressions - It really does feel like "Baby's 1st XCOM game" for the first little while, and then they start putting armour on absolutely everything, and begin firing in asinine numbers of reinforcements every turn or two.. I also picked the "hidden former Advent cadre mooks" as my first investigation, and I hope the other investigations aren't anything like it, because it's been pretty frustrating with the "anyone goes down and you're fucked, start over loser" mechanic built in.

They also get a special unit that gets -
- to do a complete dash,
- a melee attack with fairly high crit,
- a guaranteed negative effect on hit, and sometimes despite protective effects,
- and then ALSO gets to retreat a single move distance.

Like, sure, I get a similar unit with a cheesy-ass Faux-straylan accent, but she doesn't get the retreat move until something beyond level 4, which still hasn't happened, despite getting her as the first new agent, and only wasting 2 days on her recovering from 1 permanent wound.

I mean, it's okay, but it's not really XCOM; @Fagnacious D was right to call it "XCOM Jr."

Edit - 2nd investigation started, and tell me that the 'leader silhouette' on the right don't scream "Karen Dangerhair, Mall Psychic."

 

[mr.moon1488]

lol the steam discussion board for this is worse than the in-game dialog.

 

[Buddy Booth]

It feels like a mobile game that got a tiny bit too big in scope during development, so they decided to just dump it on steam. My biggest gripe is the alternate turn system. Sure you can manipulate the turn order a little bit, but it still doesn't feel like I can strategyze properly, and extraction is a pain in the ass.
I guess they did it because in these tiny maps you could probably alpha strike the entire enemy team, but then everything gets bloated with armor, you're constantly outnumbered and there's constant waves of reinforcements coming in.
I like the setting, the idea of XCom as a SWAT team or a secret police in a human-alien society. This game makes me wish for the next mainline XCOM game to be a reimagining of Apocalypse.

 

[Lemmingwise]

The breach mechanic is a very good idea. It keeps the action moving. No more crawling the map for 20 minutes trying not to pop a pod at the wrong time. Once a room is clear, it's onto the next.

That's just because the pod mechanic was very bad game design. Just removing it would have worked wonders, too.

The thing about XCOM's difficulty is that you are meant to lose squaddies and learn when to cut your loses. The game is balanced such that if you aren't losing here and there, your squad gets overleveled fast and (in the older games at least) you end up with a lot of junk equiptment that should have been left beside a corpse on the battlefield.

I think the older games get a lot of their bad reputation from the ancient heirglyphic UI, lack of good cover in maps, and how your squad isn't just inaccurate but also incapable of properly covering each other - all of which the newer games fixed - but there is a great deal of depth and encouragement to try out new strategies that you just don't see in modern games. It isn't just "hard", it wants to reward your time and take you seriously.

The XCOM Files mod in particular changes the whole pace of the game, really throwing you a few easy pitches at your two agent team before cultists and spiders start ruining your day. Fuck, you have several years till the ayy invasion starts. And when it does, you feel like a real big boy combat team. A long ass ride, but it's probably the best way to play from a story perspective.

This is what made the first xcom legendary and any followup not so much.

The story shouldn't be "earth slowly levelling up to a growing alien threat", it should be "earth getting its ass wiped by superior technology and genetics and everytime they seem to catch their feet the aliens have a new weapon or alien to scare the shit out of you"

It really makes my headspin when I see /v/irgins lambaste this game for alleged progressive themes. They don't want an X-Com where aliens fight alongside humans because that's race mixing. They want old fashioned conservative X-Com.... where humans of all kinds of nationalities and ethnicities fight alongside each other to beat aliens

Sorry that I see a difference between earths diversity uniting in a desperate moonshot not to become extinct and humans uniting with their alien genociders to play police so that they can integrate aliens into human society.

Just lok how fucking happy they are. They look like they're in stardew valley or animal crossing. Xcom is supposed to be about fear and desperation.

 

[Kulee Baba]

That's just because the pod mechanic was very bad game design. Just removing it would have worked wonders, too.




This is what made the first xcom legendary and any followup not so much.

The story shouldn't be "earth slowly levelling up to a growing alien threat", it should be "earth getting its ass wiped by superior technology and genetics and everytime they seem to catch their feet the aliens have a new weapon or alien to scare the shit out of you"




Sorry that I see a difference between earths diversity uniting in a desperate moonshot not to become extinct and humans uniting with their alien genociders to play police so that they can integrate aliens into human society.

Just lok how fucking happy they are. They look like they're in stardew valley or animal crossing. Xcom is supposed to be about fear and desperation.

View attachment 1253177

Fair enough, again I have little interest in this little spinoff when Firaxis decided to give it a total budget price, it literally debuted at a price lower than most new Indie Games. I think there's a lot of ways you can envision X-Com though. I mean let's not forget one of the greatest video game intros.

Aesthetically X-Com: UFO Defense was going for an 80s X-Men/GI Joe theme. And if this game went back to that lovable visual flare I could totally see those silly soldiers with their Guile haircuts joining forces with good aliens to defeat Cobra Commander or Thanos.

I'm really droning on here and starting to lose my point but what I'm trying to say is X-Com doesn't have to be a semi-serious Tactical Strategy game. I think a great X-Com game kinda blurs the line between silly Sci-Fi and some actual grimdark shit like whole cities being wiped out by UFOs. It definitely should NOT feel like a low budget Mass Effect like Chimera Squad appears to be.

Now the franchise for real niggas, Jagged Alliance needs to be what it set out to be, micromanaging crazy ass mercenaries who are all drunk off Plum Brandy.