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

[Lemmingwise]

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


View attachment 1254838

That's not natural evolution

This is more like playing god and trying to genetically alter language.

I encountered the same in a text game, where you encounter a bard in an alley who starts singing about your exploits. But since there is only text and before any introduction it speaks of "they", I presumed I was being surrounded by a group of people. Eventually it becomes clear it's just this one person and I have to try to imagine why my character immediately knew the character was a "they". I could only imagine the bard as being purple haired and septumpierced at that point. An odd sight in an otherwise magic medieval setting.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Thanks for the info. Sounds like I'm just fine with enemy within.

Just get the True Concealment mod. It delays timers until you break concealment. While most of the mods I use make the game harder, this is my one concession. I find it a lot more balanced. Hell, you can GET this ability in the base WotC game, it's just a semi-random ability from a specific faction. This just gives it to you for free, which is frankly how it always fucking should have been.

I've played through now, and... well, most of my original thoughts still stand. Reasonably good mechanics, shitty art and writing, lots of game breaking bugs.

This game is fucking easy by XCOM standards. Other than the infamous Sacred Coil finale, I blitzed through it on expert, and even there I'm pretty sure I could get through it easy enough if I hadn't so badly miscalculated the proper squad setup.

I really wish the aliens were more alien rather than just being humans with a weird physical appearance. I know there's SOME alien behavior... but kinda not really. That said, Axiom is the only character I really found tolerable. Just a soldier looking for a war to fight.

Ending and villain were anti-climatic but at least it wasn't a hamfisted "Make Earth Great Again" Republican.

Basically, don't hire Joss Whedon to write a game in your series about humanity's desperate struggle for survival against an overwhelmingly superior opponent. I actually don't think Whedon was involved with this game, but if he wasn't, I couldn't tell.

 

[TerribleIdeas™]

Just get the True Concealment mod. It delays timers until you break concealment. While most of the mods I use make the game harder, this is my one concession. I find it a lot more balanced. Hell, you can GET this ability in the base WotC game, it's just a semi-random ability from a specific faction. This just gives it to you for free, which is frankly how it always fucking should have been.

I've played through now, and... well, most of my original thoughts still stand. Reasonably good mechanics, shitty art and writing, lots of game breaking bugs.

This game is fucking easy by XCOM standards. Other than the infamous Sacred Coil finale, I blitzed through it on expert, and even there I'm pretty sure I could get through it easy enough if I hadn't so badly miscalculated the proper squad setup.

I really wish the aliens were more alien rather than just being humans with a weird physical appearance. I know there's SOME alien behavior... but kinda not really. That said, Axiom is the only character I really found tolerable. Just a soldier looking for a war to fight.

Ending and villain were anti-climatic but at least it wasn't a hamfisted "Make Earth Great Again" Republican.

Basically, don't hire Joss Whedon to write a game in your series about humanity's desperate struggle for survival against an overwhelmingly superior opponent. I actually don't think Whedon was involved with this game, but if he wasn't, I couldn't tell.

Are there any squad setups that don't rely heavily on mixing Terminal's Cooperation, Snake-tits "tongue a friendly to give them an extra turn, and motility grenade? As soon as I figured out a solid pattern for it, I was hammering through missions at a breakneck pace.

And the only appreciable difference I noticed going from regular difficulty to hard was more armour, more hp, and shorter timers on all the "get to the box before the timer runs out" extra objectives.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

Are there any squad setups that don't rely heavily on mixing Terminal's Cooperation, Snake-tits "tongue a friendly to give them an extra turn, and motility grenade? As soon as I figured out a solid pattern for it, I was hammering through missions at a breakneck pace.

And the only appreciable difference I noticed going from regular difficulty to hard was more armour, more hp, and shorter timers on all the "get to the box before the timer runs out" extra objectives.

Eh. Terminal's healing is pretty important for the early game, but once you have the extra pocket in medium armor, you're fine to leave her at home in favor of medkits for everyone. That said, she's hands down the best support character in the game, and one of the best period. Too bad she's such an annoying bitch.

Personally, I didn't like Torque. At all. I levelled her up to max hoping she would get better, and she didn't. I left her at home after that. But I seem to be in the minority on that one.

Motility is handy, but you don't really NEED it.

My dream team would be...

Claymore: Unlimited explosives. Can deal ten guaranteed damage per round, two of those being shred. Multiply that by every enemy within the explosion radius. Maybe more if you're lucky enough to find adhesive grenades to keep enemies from leaving said radius. Oh, and he can regen those every encounter.
Verge: Is there anything he can't do? Verge is an absolute monster once he gets rolling with 2 or 3 enemies in the Network. They boost his aim, give him regen at higher levels, and once per mission he can flip a coin on each of them for temporary mind control. He has solid shutdown power as well. His only real weakness is inorganic enemies, and Sacred Coil is already the toughest faction.
Terminal: Unlimited healing, extra actions where you need them, delaying a turn on a particularly dangerous enemy, good coverage of reinforcement zones due to her Overwatch bonuses (if you can guess the right one).
Blueblood: A pure, undiluted murder machine. Give him Talon Rounds and a Superior Laser Sight and watch the crits fly. Plus free reloads so you never have to slow down, plus Faceoff once per mission (unfortunately limited by mag size now, but we can't have it all).

This is a setup where you establish a gunline. No going deep. Hold your ground and pick them off. Without Cherub or Axiom, there's no dedicated tank in the squad. But Terminal can shore up HP and defense as needed, and Claymore and Verge are no chumps in the defense department. Claymore for his extra armor, Verge for his extra dodge and insane regen potential.

But that's just me.

EDIT: Terminal's Cooperation isn't necessarily as amazing as it looks. She's just trading one of her actions to give one to someone else. Now that's often the thing to do, but in terms of strict "action economy" (God I hate that term), it's more of a sidegrade.

 

[TerribleIdeas™]

Eh. Terminal's healing is pretty important for the early game, but once you have the extra pocket in medium armor, you're fine to leave her at home in favor of medkits for everyone. That said, she's hands down the best support character in the game, and one of the best period. Too bad she's such an annoying bitch.

Personally, I didn't like Torque. At all. I levelled her up to max hoping she would get better, and she didn't. I left her at home after that. But I seem to be in the minority on that one.

Motility is handy, but you don't really NEED it.

My dream team would be...

Claymore: Unlimited explosives. Can deal ten guaranteed damage per round, two of those being shred. Multiply that by every enemy within the explosion radius. Maybe more if you're lucky enough to find adhesive grenades to keep enemies from leaving said radius. Oh, and he can regen those every encounter.
Verge: Is there anything he can't do? Verge is an absolute monster once he gets rolling with 2 or 3 enemies in the Network. They boost his aim, give him regen at higher levels, and once per mission he can flip a coin on each of them for temporary mind control. He has solid shutdown power as well. His only real weakness is inorganic enemies, and Sacred Coil is already the toughest faction.
Terminal: Unlimited healing, extra actions where you need them, delaying a turn on a particularly dangerous enemy, good coverage of reinforcement zones due to her Overwatch bonuses (if you can guess the right one).
Blueblood: A pure, undiluted murder machine. Give him Talon Rounds and a Superior Laser Sight and watch the crits fly. Plus free reloads so you never have to slow down, plus Faceoff once per mission (unfortunately limited by mag size now, but we can't have it all).

This is a setup where you establish a gunline. No going deep. Hold your ground and pick them off. Without Cherub or Axiom, there's no dedicated tank in the squad. But Terminal can shore up HP and defense as needed, and Claymore and Verge are no chumps in the defense department. Claymore for his extra armor, Verge for his extra dodge and insane regen potential.

But that's just me.

EDIT: Terminal's Cooperation isn't necessarily as amazing as it looks. She's just trading one of her actions to give one to someone else. Now that's often the thing to do, but in terms of strict "action economy" (God I hate that term), it's more of a sidegrade.

My team for the last 2 investigations and the endgame was the Faux-Strayan broad, Terminal, Torque, and Blueblood, and mostly reliant on BB to hammer the shit out of most everything, with the boxer broad running around to ignore armour on most everything.

 

[Lord of the Large Pants]

My team for the last 2 investigations and the endgame was the Faux-Strayan broad, Terminal, Torque, and Blueblood, and mostly reliant on BB to hammer the shit out of most everything, with the boxer broad running around to ignore armour on most everything.

I had some trouble making Zephyr work for me, but I think it's because I took Lockdown (which I didn't realize has a piss poor accuracy rating) rather than her armor piercing ability. I'd give her another shot on a future playthrough.

Torque... well, yeah, I just don't get Torque.

 

[TerribleIdeas™]

I had some trouble making Zephyr work for me, but I think it's because I took Lockdown (which I didn't realize has a piss poor accuracy rating) rather than her armor piercing ability. I'd give her another shot on a future playthrough.

Torque... well, yeah, I just don't get Torque.

I used "tongue other" on her first move, then either repositioned, or shot something, usually; the utility was the extra action, or locking down something that was particularly irritating with bind. Claymore is okay, I guess, with his shrapnel bomb, but I also grabbed the other specialist, so I'm hoping her shock attack with the gremlin ramps up more at some point, since it's armour piercing.

 

[acmeurquhart]

Aren't titties just venom glands that produce malk?

I think they produce mіlk, not malk.

 

[Cactuar King]

Personally, I didn't like Torque. At all. I levelled her up to max hoping she would get better, and she didn't. I left her at home after that. But I seem to be in the minority on that one.

I agree, she's not that great. Unfortunately, I'm kind of stuck with her since in the last mission before the endgame, Axiom got hit with a Mobility Scar. and I don't want to bring Terminal or Patchwork along. I thought she'd be cool to play as since she's not another ugly looking human character...

 

[Lemmingwise]

Are there any squad setups that don't rely heavily on mixing Terminal's Cooperation, Snake-tits "tongue a friendly to give them an extra turn, and motility grenade? As soon as I figured out a solid pattern for it, I was hammering through missions at a breakneck pace.

And the only appreciable difference I noticed going from regular difficulty to hard was more armour, more hp, and shorter timers on all the "get to the box before the timer runs out" extra objectives.

I did great with shield alien, explosives guy, pistol guy and mindwarp guy.

I got a frag grenade for explosives guy early from the black market, which he refreshes every breach. Destroy cover for free. Use pistol guy to kill 2. If anyone gets damaged, give them shields AND fire with shield guy. Mindwarp guy uses stun and shoot. Depending on the situation, you get three characters that do double actions every turn and one that runs for the objective, generally (never the shield guy as he usually shields the runner).

Because you have 2 guys with pistols it makes sense to go for pistol upgrades first.

But this really is too much advice. The game is easy as fuck.

 

[NerdShamer]

Fellas, just how bad are the levels of wokeness in the story? I need a kiwi-tier perspective into this.

I can live with the tumblr artwork and the stronk wymmen of color from the trailers, the idea of humanity making peace with the aliens and forcing thenselves to coexist peacefully (having playable aliens and mutts is interesting enough to make it worth it imo), but if the game is agressively woke instead of just being insidious I don't think I'll be able to overlook its faults. It's like "netflix show woke" or does it go further beyond?

One of the guys works on an prison ship. He ain't happy. He is janitor. Prisoners aren't happy and are bloodthirsty for some reason. While pilot wants to nuke city. Xcom kills the pilot. Custodian guy wants to atone his sins by walking into radioactive engine room to die. He saves day instead of just dying because of wokeness. @NerdShamer would walk into engine room for suicide than clean after tards.

By the way does game ever goes beyond: "Nooooooo! XCOM is here! But they won't stop my plans in time!" " "Hahahahaha! Breach gun went brrrrrrrrr!! "

 

[Lemmingwise]

I emded up finishing the game and wishing I hadn't.

The game throws easy balls all the way.

Grenades are the most OP thing ever. We've gone from enemy unknown where grenades had to be timed and could be timed wrong, and could go a little off target and bounce back into your face to new xcom where they were the most certain damage ever, to new new xcom where it's a free action to throw a grenade.

They're a free action for the enemies too, but they don't use them often and unlike your characters instant grenades, their grenades take some time before they explode. Sure, it's fun for terminal to swap position and have an alien be damaged by their own grenade, it just feels like I'm playing goat simulator rather than xcom.

Same thing with mindbreak and panic. My guy panics? He takes a free shot on the enemy, then gets cover and skips a turn. Their guy panics? He takes a shot at another alien then skips a turn.

My guy is mindcontrolled? I take one shot at the guy who did it, whether I kill him or graze him, the mindcontrol is broken.

He uses psi abilities to mindmeld with an ally? You kill the melder, you kill both (except in the last two-three levels).

You can make some really bad choices for skill development. And it's important to upgrade your weapon's damage.

The story is pisspoor. I think the atmosphere could best be desribed as being like it's inside the offices of buzzfeed or vice. Cattyness, faux supportiveness, smallmindedness, talking about netflix and the quality of takeout food. There are one or two cool ideas on there (alien refugees that want to go back, a godlike villain that one of your squadies is a clone off), but nothing is really done to take those ideas anywhere.

Besides being really easy and early focus on building security teams to farm intel early and reduce city problems later makes it very easy to manage anarchy, buy superior equipment from the scavenger market.

It's a shame. Mechanically it really is a very good game, if it wasn't so easy. The game is actionpacked from start to finish, the time pressure is somewhat better than the "charging a bomb" snorefest, even though nearly every mission is a variant of this.

There's something silly that missions where you have to escort a civilian and keep them safe and quickly have to get out as enemies are infinitely spawning. When one if your characters is the last to have to escape and they get shot, subdued, or otherwise put into a coma, you win the mission and that character (along with all unconscious enemies you managed to bring along to get intel out).

Flavorwise its terrible. But mechanically it's sound. They get a scar and to retrIn, which is a decent penalty.

 

[NerdShamer]

Honestly, it would be more interesting if you had an base to expand, New aliens and an larger cast (for multitasking). But this thing was doomed to be bargain bin trash as soon as the ads rolled out.

Hopefully xcom 3 gives us an tank.

 

[Lemmingwise]

Honestly, it would be more interesting if you had an base to expand, New aliens and an larger cast (for multitasking). But this thing was doomed to be bargain bin trash as soon as the ads rolled out.

Hopefully xcom 3 gives us an tank.

Mechanically I find the streamlined upgrading of teams in chimera the best take on xcom base management since the original games. At least your choices have some impact. It's a little unbalanced, but at least you're playing in a system where there's room to make good and bad decisions.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

I'm morbidly curious about the characters. It's like having a game set in 1960 where you play a SWAT team that involves former nazis, commie revolutionaries and nigerian warlords. There can be some interesting turns you can take the team, but with modern writing it's doubtful. And for what I understand the game just takes it in strides? The aliens are now technically a minority so "following orders" is a valid defence of their history?

 

[Snekposter]

Not gonna lie, a 1960's version of XCOM where your team are all former yet possibly not former Nazis, angry commies, and random African death squad members would be a hell of a fun game.

 

[Cactuar King]

I'm morbidly curious about the characters. It's like having a game set in 1960 where you play a SWAT team that involves former nazis, commie revolutionaries and nigerian warlords. There can be some interesting turns you can take the team, but with modern writing it's doubtful. And for what I understand the game just takes it in strides? The aliens are now technically a minority so "following orders" is a valid defence of their history?

Maybe I misinterpreted it, but I thought it was stated the aliens were all being mass-mind controlled by the Ethereals, save for some exceptions, like the Skirmishers. Doesn't seem to be the case for Chimera Squad though, since apparently Verge "learned empathy" during the war due to all the time he spent mind controlling humans.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Maybe I misinterpreted it, but I thought it was stated the aliens were all being mass-mind controlled by the Ethereals, save for some exceptions, like the Skirmishers. Doesn't seem to be the case for Chimera Squad though, since apparently Verge "learned empathy" during the war due to all the time he spent mind controlling humans.

Unless it's some mind control by some sort of a computer chip stuck in the alien's head (which raises the question of how and why humans went the process of removing those chips) then the explanation is retarded. Were the aliens also controlled while they ate and took a shit? How many ethereals are necessary to control all those aliens without the aliens being able to even fight back?

 

[ChucklesTheJester]

Were the aliens also controlled while they ate and took a shit?

This question only makes sense given verge is from the first war. If they didn't say verge was from the first wr we wouldn't have to question this which annyoing to me. It like they didn't think hard at all about the implications of that line.

Before one could assume sctoids don't need to eat, or shit because of the fact the first game brings up the idea that they all clones. Why would the etherals make expendable clones eat, shit, ect when they likely wont live long being cannon fodder.

This brings up futher questions. Do the ethereals take all the remainding Xcom 1 Sctoids, and "Upgrade" them with human DNA to make the Xcom 2 sctoids. That what Verge looking like he does imply, if he is as old as to be around since the first war. That and on top of just cloneing the new and improved ones.


Also here some food for thought Verge not only had to grow a mouth, teeth, and everything like that, but also a anus. Mind you Sectoids do eat, and if they eat they must have a anus.

The amount of questions this raises reaches autism level of they didn't care or think much of the lore when making this game.

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

This question only makes sense given verge is from the first war. If they didn't say verge was from the first wr we wouldn't have to question this which annyoing to me. It like they didn't think hard at all about the implications of that line.

Before one could assume sctoids don't need to eat, or shit because of the fact the first game brings up the idea that they all clones. Why would the etherals make expendable clones eat, shit, ect when they likely wont live long being cannon fodder.

This brings up futher questions. Do the ethereals take all the remainding Xcom 1 Sctoids, and "Upgrade" them with human DNA to make the Xcom 2 sctoids. That what Verge looking like he does imply, if he is as old as to be around since the first war. That and on top of just cloneing the new and improved ones.


Also here some food for thought Verge not only had to grow a mouth, teeth, and everything like that, but also a anus. Mind you Sectoids do eat, and if they eat they must have a anus.

The amount of questions this raises reaches autism level of they didn't care or think much of the lore when making this game.

I'm not that big into X-Com lore but it makes absolutely no sense to make organisms without a digestive system. It's not like it's a massive energy waster (about 10% of the daily energy according to a quick google search). And if it's something that requires moving and thinking then it would need a ton of built in energy before it drops dead, which means you need to constantly replace dead aliens over the entire front line.