XCOM: Chimera Squad (PC) Releases April 24th

[Seedtype]

Well this is coming out of nowhere quick...




Looks more like a mod thing for XCOM 2, could be good though.



I wonder what this means for a potential XCOM 3 though.

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[Osprey]

I wonder what this means for a potential XCOM 3 though.

I think that it's a good sign. It suggests that they're interested in continuing the franchise and want to keep fans interested, as well as give them something to play, while they wait for a true sequel (which is likely years away). This spin-off doesn't excite me because it's not my style, but I'm glad that Firaxis is so invested in the franchise (and I looked it up: Firaxis is the developer, so it's not something that they farmed out to another developer).

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I wonder how long this is expected to be considering they're selling it for $10. Also surprising to see it's on sale for 50% off as a pre order deal. I'll probably grab it since it's so cheap. One thing I do like is the fact that it has an initiative system for turns. When the alliens had like 15 aliens, it was frustrating watching them all get these attacks in while you're helpless to do anything. Alternating turns a bit more will make things a bit less frustrating I think.

Also, I bet this is good news towards a potential XCOM 3. This seems like a smaller side project. They might be doing something small and quick to get some extra money to continue working on a bigger project.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

I'm not so sure this bodes well for a third game honestly.

The low price point makes me think this is a way to gauge market enthusiasm for the franchise.

XCom 2 was outstanding which makes me think it probably didn't hit its sale target which would have been established by 2K. Do we have any idea if it sold well?

 

[Frankie Spankie]

According to Steam Charts, their peak player count in the first month was 132k.

To put that in perspective to some other popular recent releases, all peaks in their first months:

Doom Eternal (2020) has 84k
Sekiro (2019) was 124k
Resident Evil 2 (2019) was 74k.
Devil May Cry 5 (2019) was 88k
Civilization VI (2016) was 162k

PC gaming has also become more popular in recent years compared to when XCOM 2 was released in 2016. Civ VI is probably the closest comparable both being strategy games and coming out in 2016. All those games (with the exception of Civ VI) also sells really well on consoles obviously. I know XCOM 2 came out on console later but I'm not sure how popular tactical turn based strategy games are in the console market. On the other hand, I also would think they aren't as expensive to make.

All things considered, I would think it was successful. I would think any instance of 100k+ concurrent users on Steam must be considered a success, especially when its in the first month since everybody is paying full price (or close to it if they get a key elsewhere.)

 

[Seedtype]

I wonder how long this is expected to be considering they're selling it for $10. Also surprising to see it's on sale for 50% off as a pre order deal. I'll probably grab it since it's so cheap. One thing I do like is the fact that it has an initiative system for turns. When the alliens had like 15 aliens, it was frustrating watching them all get these attacks in while you're helpless to do anything. Alternating turns a bit more will make things a bit less frustrating I think.

Also, I bet this is good news towards a potential XCOM 3. This seems like a smaller side project. They might be doing something small and quick to get some extra money to continue working on a bigger project.

According to the PC Gamer article I read it's suppose to be a 20 hour campaign. Also, it will have the same mod support as XCOM 2.

I have to admit though, it is kinda weird seeing humans fighting alongside aliens like the Sectoids and the snake guys. I always thought those guys were just barely sentient.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

I wonder how long they considered XCOM 2 to be lol. XCOM is definitely the kind of game that length varies per user.

 

[Do Make Say Think]

Reviews indicate it is essentially XCom 2 with more unit variety for the good guys and smaller maps.

Getting serious XCom Apocalypse vibes from the urban setting. For $15 I am down.

 

[Seedtype]

I'm definitely enjoying the game. Can't really argue against buying it for 10 bucks if you like the Firaxis' XCOM games.

What I like:
-The new turn system. It did take me a little bit to get used to it, but I'm definitely liking it for what it is.
-Breaching is fun.
-I like the various characters' abilities that they have.
-Voice acting is generally good.

What I dislike:
-Everyone sounding the same. In War of the Chosen, the voice actors for the hybrid troopers clearly had some voice processing going on. But everyone in Chimera Squad sounds like a regular human being. I find it hard to believe that Sectoids, Mutons and Snake-people are going to be easy to understand while speaking English, much less sound completely human.
-It doesn't appear to be any potential ally factions in the city. I really liked the three factions in War of the Chosen, it would be cool if there were different political factions to try to sway to the cause.
-I will admit that the characters not being randomly generated destroys a lot of the personal imagination of your troops.
-It must be because I'm on Normal difficulty, but I find the rate of scarring of your troops to be really light, especially since in every mission I'm getting banged up pretty bad. In fact, in the last mission I kinda messed up and three of my squad went down and had to be stabilized. My last character also got pretty banged up, but only one person got any scar(my only one so far in the campaign, 5 missions in). If this was a campaign in XCOM 2, I probably wouldn't be able to field a viable squad with all the injuries that I'm sustaining from mission to mission.

Overall, I think it's worth it, and I'm looking forward to what the next proper full-fledged XCOM game will be.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I had a little credit from Steam trading cards lying around, so I decided to give this one a go. I'm really enjoying it so far.

Granted, the dialogue/voice acting is...okay but not great, and it is a little buggy, but overall I think it's fantastic.

I think I enjoy this style more than XCOM 2, although XCOM 2 was a pretty good game in its own right. It took me awhile to get into XCOM 2, while I was hooked on Chimera Squad right away. Might just be the style appealed to me more....or the timing.


Absolutely worth the $10 USD/$15 CAD. It's still an early recommendation from me, but a recommendation nevertheless.

 

[Frankie Spankie]

After I had some solid play time this weekend, I definitely recommend it. It's a bit different from other XCOM titles and does feel more like a budget version but it's still a lot of fun. I actually love the fact that you alternate turns rather than have your whole squad go followed by the whole enemy squad. I think that's a nice touch. I'm also enjoying breaching and mixing up some of the abilities of different characters. Overall, for $10, it's a great buy.

 

[Commander Clueless]

I really love this game, but I cannot seem to get past a crash in the final Sacred Coil encounter....

...or any time I use Terminal's Second Wind ability....

Really putting a dampener on my favourite game of 2020 so far.