We wouldn't be surprised if you didn't find out that a new Xcom installation was on the way. Unknown until more than a week ago Xcom: Chimera squad announced. Although this bizarre announcement rhythm is not the only thing that surprised the Chimera squad, as the title will be presented as such only 20 euros and a 50% discount on the first week in the store, more value than competition. As if that wasn't enough, for the first time in this series we can have a bunch of different characters, both human and alien. With all the news and the unusual police structure, Firaxis was presented with surprise.
Xcoms are benchmarks in strategy games, but they also have their drawbacks. The gameplay can end up being monotonous and the story usually progresses slowly, at least until everything is resolved in the last part. So there are things that can be improved. The Chimera squad fits this idea of trying new things in every area: gameplay, setting and history.
The title of the title comes from the special section of Xcom that we should lead. The work is assigned to assist at the City 31 police station, which until recently has been a peaceful, peaceful place for people and strangers. This is important, and it's been five years since the Xcom 2 deal and things have changed a lot. We will have to investigate the murder and destroy the various criminal groups to find the truth. New to all of this is that there are many new locations and objectives, which offer different enemies, as well as the layout and atmosphere. For example, at one point in the game we dealt with a group of assassins working on a MayMe fight and on another attacking group they paid close attention to the intelligence. It is overcome with variety, and while some machines may seem trivial, they gleam the world at city level and open up many challenges to the breath of fresh air.
What does not change is that you will have to be very careful when accepting posts to ensure that resources are adequate and, at the same time, that the City's 31 interruption rate is not high because game over. As the story progresses, we will be severely punished for ignoring a mission or problem in neighboring areas, as it often results in an increase in chaos. Also, more dark events will occur, making it difficult to complete the journey by installing powerful aliens on each mission, such as Big Daddy's Andromedones. That is a good idea, but the peaks of difficulty are extreme, since we have a lot of easy-to-have fun activities and a few complicated ones, at least when we play them normally. It is rare that we face a positive challenge at this level and it is a shame, because a constant and constant challenge is essential to enjoying the normal fight based on repentance.
Where the biggest changes are in the characters and the fight. The Chimera squad has a group of 11 characters who are set to open a bit. That is to say, the old randomly created soldiers are left behind, we now have characters with their own stories, skills and personalities to improve and gradually improve. There are humans, offspring, mutons, sectoids, and even tumors. Although it does not include his personality (which is not Xcom's intention), the small conversations add a fun narrative feeling that accompanies the fraternity but also the novel police theme of this installment.
The new characters fit well with the team mechanics of up to four of each objective. So, in true SWAT style, they will enter enemy territory, first by using what they call infringement. The party can kick the doors, hit the wall, crawl through the halls, or jump through the windows, and change the base of the battle. Tall machines have up to three spaces, making this feature more important than it might seem. Like all other battles, our team can decide the war on special items and skills. For example, a "healer", The terminal, can treat a whole group for 2 lives and even the most aggressive ones like Axiom muton (one of our favorites) can also team up with abilities like his Ram, which can make enemies come in and fear to see him go through the door.
And when we attack enemies, one of Xcom's most prominent changes is flourishing: the Chimera squad, a turnaround system. Similar to Dragons and Dungeons, turning is a supported action, so each member of the squad, enemy, or bomb has its own time per cycle. In our opinion it is a very good model and makes the game lightweight. In addition, it perfects the character's abilities in a professional way, because time is now the most important thing. If a partner is in danger, we can use the Terminal's power to give him or her additional action on his / her behalf. Therefore, understanding this new temporal aspect can either result in us losing or losing the battle, because we can now know whether a partner can move or heal itself before an enemy attack, or whether he or she needs treatment or a partner to provide you with a shield. With a character like Claymore, capable of throwing bombs, it's important to keep an eye out for your downsides. Will it give enemies time to move or will the bomb explode ahead of their time? In short, we believe that this new exchange program looks a lot better than the previous one, and is an exciting advance for Franchise.
We have only one complaint regarding the gameplay of the Chimera squad, the lack of enemy information, with no damage to it and when they will attack. In Xcom: Enemy Anonymous this detailed in formation can be obtained by pressing F1 and there have already been several Xcom 2 mods that have restored this feature since they removed it. If you could just click the enemy icon in the corner and see details on their capabilities, effective results and potential attacks, it would be a good addition. In addition, it would not only be useful in terms of strategy, but it would also give the player the opportunity to become better acquainted with battles with the world. It's a shame we don't have this feature, but we can only wait for it to be installed in the future.
On the other hand, even though we like the new addition related to the well-designed characters of the Chimera squad, we will be very happy with all of those features. This is because it is a much more powerful game than its predecessor and its headquarters are left a bit forgotten. There are very few things to think about besides wars. At headquarters you can start new projects, change machines and buy equipment, that's it. In previous installations, it was so easy for us to be overwhelmed by the headquarters and all the decisions we had to make here, above all, we questioned our choices. In the meantime, it's very easy for us to review the situation and focus on sending our friends we want to send to the battle. It's a lot harder than the base game but the combat part is more fun or entertaining.
On a technical level, the Chimera squad is similar to the Xcom 2, in that it works with the same technology. At a glance it is excellent and has some amazing details about the type of game you're in. The performance is excellent, loading times are fast and the rate per second is very stable. In addition, we also want to praise the title for the good work it did with the lyrics and the sound, because, while the previous installations, the lyrics, dialogues and letters were annoying at times (there were too many inconsistent comments on the genre "Commander … we have a problem"), in this case we think – The franchise is on the right track.
However, we also encountered a number of technical problems for Xcom 2. The camera angle is sometimes not very good, even though we already know this. Many objects decide to fly in the air, and some enemies are temporarily cold when turning. The user interface can provide error information, even though it later corrects itself. But the worst thing about the game was that we were blocked a few times. However, since the game has an autosave system, it is unlikely that we will lose much of the game's progress due to this kind of problem.
So how does the franchise feel? For us it is an improvement in almost every aspect. It's a much more direct experience than before, with more rhythm and better gameplay. In addition, the police layout gives it a new touch and lets you get to know other parts of the Xcom universe. Narration is not its strong point, so we should not expect too much from it. However, we would like him to give more of his cartoon-making image and excellent viewing style. We finally had the character characters and the plot would work better. There may be some who don't come looking for more, but it gets to the point where they embark on a journey with their heads set for that strategy and that of history.
It has 20-30 hours of fun in the campaign, so the Xcom: Chimera squad is a great ingredient considering its initial price, and can take a little time to thank for its support of Mod and the opportunity to play Ironman mode challenges. So, all of these things are improvements to Xcom's formula and its great features, in addition to adding a lot of new features, such as a team of actors and a new support system.
