You think strategy, decisions that could cost the life of a valuable soldier and an alien somehow having a 5% chance at dodging a point-blank shotgun blast to the face, and you immediately think of XCOM. The 2010s were a bit of a weird year for the brand, with the underrated The Bureau: XCOM Declassified failing to win much love after a lengthy spell in development hell.
XCOM: Enemy Unknown would carry the franchise forward while The Bureau floundered, bolstering its ranks in 2016 with a sequel that franchise fans couldn’t et enough of. That was 2016 and although some fantastic DLC has been released along the way, gamers have been wonder: What’s next for XCOM? Answer: XCOM Chimera Squad.
Not a full-blown sequel to XCOM 2, Chimera Squad is instead a smaller-budgeted slice of the tactical action that’ll be available on Steam from April 24 for the launch price of $10 and then $20 from May 1. Not bad. Set five years after XCOM 2, has you juggling a squad of aliens and humans as they fight back against new threats to the planet.
The biggest change to the formula? That each member of your squad brings a unique set of skills to the party, as opposed to previous games where you’d hire and train new recruits. It’s up to you to work with what you have, find the best combination of units and achieve your squad goals. “With XCOM: Chimera Squad, we felt there were exciting gameplay opportunities yet to be discovered within the XCOM universe,” said lead designer Mark Nauta to GameSpot.
Gameplay like Breach Mode, interleaved turn order, and the introduction of agents as fully fleshed-out characters will revolutionize how the gameplays while still retaining the combat experience that makes the XCOM series so loved by gaming communities around the world.
Sounds like a Fire Emblem version of XCOM. I’m down for that!
Last Updated: April 14, 2020
For the Emperor!
April 15, 2020 at 11:21
Looks good!