XCOM: Chimera Squad - Released
 

The tactical game XCOM: Chimera Squad is now available:

More information.

From some of the reviews and videos it looks like its an XCom: Lite with okay premise, kum by ya wokeness ("diversity is our strength"), and terrible dialogue.

Looks playable though. Better than 90% of most knockoff budget titles.

It looks an expansion that you don't need the original to play.

Not diverse enough to let you create your own characters, inane hipster comments at every turn…

Purchased with a hefty discount already, which has cushioned the blow.

It is streamed. It took a huge dive though within a day.

Could be a cheap probe to test waters as gameplaywise, XCOM dried up from one to 2 and an XCOM 3 might need a refresher to stand over XCOM2.

Still the same overall campaing structure, with missions meant to be won,a campaign is lost despite a succession of won missions by lack of knowledge of the curve etc

The activation queue introduces changes (players still keep the initiative) like grenades. Even though they do not scatter, their detonation may be put off to the following turn, any enemy not activiting on that turn being caught.
As a result, it downgraded the importance of grenade like weapons.



So it makes no change with previous XCOMs.

From what I saw, your x-com team isn't made from procedurally generated soldier, but a set squad. Very little soldier appearance customization can be done I think the maps are all static as well. using Grenades won't end your turn now. UI is a little bit tricky to use and some descriptions of combat skills aren't always clearly defined.

For $10, looks worth it, but I doubt most people with play through it more than once. I've heard it has about 20-30 hours of content.

Xcom1 did not dry up to xcom 2….where do you come up with this stuff?

20 hours seem unlikely considering that streamers have yet to finish one playthrough.

A short length could work toward replaying a campaign based on gameplay and not only on content draining(most content left over is team compositio but this involves introducing uncertainty on the outcome of a campaign, which is impossible considering that players play vid products to soothe their insecurities.

It was stated gameplaywise. On this day, people who have shown little to no interest into gameplay should have learned the value of the flag. Not done yet so time to scream for an haircut probably.

This is exactly what I was thinking, as well. Though I don't think XCOM 2 dried up at all. Perhaps in story, but not gameplay.

I really hope Firaxis doesn't add the underwater crap for XCOM 3. I'd rather see another initial invasion reboot as that seemed more 'tense' than XCOM 2's subversion plot. But both games were amazing.

Chimera Squad is not something I'm interested in, really at all.

I'm enjoying it. I doubt I'll replay it when I'm done but it's certainly fun for what it is, and I like the 2D cut scenes and character portraits a lot more than what we have in the other games, I didn't realise I would find pre made characters more fun but must admit I do. Making one customised main character would have been a nice touch though.

The strategic layer is pretty so-so, but it's pretty mediocre in the newer Xcoms as well.

All in all, well worth the purchase to me.

Decided to buy Troubleshooter instead.

It comes with a story and there is no doomsday mechanics, you do missions at your own pace and I love the music.
Not everything is good though, for example overwatch is still not automatic but is an action like in XCom.

What?

I expected this to be a blunder, so I saved my money, and more importantly, my time.

Sorry for those who were hyped.

About half way through the game currently. I do miss agent customization, but there is still plenty of replay value here with the missions, loadouts, and unique weapons that can be found. You get to pick the agents you start out with and acquire more to choose as you progress. I am hoping the mod community comes up with other ways to make the game better as well.

Y'now, Its hard to take your high and might attitude when you keep promoting Japanese crap.

Regarding the "Doomsday mechanic" I would find the strategy layer extremely lacking without it and don't have a problem with it at all. It's been present in all Xcom games (that counts) in one way or another and I wouldn't have it any other way.

The missions are another matter though, they tend to be a bit timer heavy to my liking, where it starts to become much more a puzzle game than a tactical one. Many missions have constant enemy reinforcements, timers on bombs, enemies running away or killing civilians. I don't mind *some* missions that are like that, but my somewhat defensively oriented skill choices makes me forced to replay missions a lot more than I would wish. I'm even considering restarting at a lower difficulty… (*gasp*)

Enemies running away, they usually stack up for a final fight, killing civilians/hostages, does not seem to determine failure/success (or it takes to lose a lot of them) etc

Loose timers that can be ignored for the most part, nothing constraining.

When trying to figure out how it comes that board games, tabletop games etc still churn out quality UgoIgo games contrary to the computer scene, one key element that board games are submitted to time availability, gamers have two, three or four hours to play a game hence the game must be completed under that limit.
Which means that pressing gamers into decisions is common and hard to reject.
With constraining timers most of the time.

On the opposite, UgoIgo vid products allow players to extend, to drag, to stretch time as much as possible, they can play over infinite rounds, turns etc

Major cause to explain the difference in quality.

Actually, one expectation about this vid product is that they could have introduced a mechanics of affinity between squad members (due to the low number of options) so that a team performs better as they are fielded together.
As Fire Emblen did years ago.

Gameplaywise is the keyword. Players with no interest in gameplay have no interest in the quote.

Well sorry if japanese games hurt your feelings so much you call them crap.

But which japanese game in this case could that possibly be, I don't remember mentioning any in this thread?

Japanese crap really? Someone hates JRPG's.:lol:

I'll take your word for it, the game isn't very good at informing you what happens when the timers run out, so after failing a mission early because I didn't realise there was a timer I'm bent on not allowing then to run out. Ice noticed the enemies running away tend to bunch up in the last stage, but often they also try to escape the last stage which kind of limits the options to "kill those two units before they get away".

Still enjoying the game though.

might be better as a mmog on a mobile phone.

I don't think anyone other than Huawei can produce a phone good enough for it. But as it happens, those phones you won't be able to buy. :D

Timers are so loose they can be ignored, players do not strategize around them, they are not made a priority.
Streamers play on impossible, with the hardcore mode a line between them.
Only watched one guy failing a boss mission and another reporting he had failed one mission.

Timers do not press players into action, they do not structure their plans around achieving timer conditions, they do not care about hostages (save for a few missions with specific hostages and yet), do not care about civilians etc

When a timer gives 40 turns to complete a mission and players usually complete it in a 25,30 turns, a timer can be ignored.

Very different from board games that include timers that press players into action, plans are specifically drafted to keep in line with timers.

There aren't any 40 turn timers, the crucial ones are two-three turns. They don't matter once you got a leveled squad though, most encounters are cleared in that time from mid-game onward. I was considering lowering the difficulty in the beginning, now in the end game I'm glad I didn't.