Recent reviews by nldw

remove the awful fly.mp3 sound effect every 5 seconds

renaissance of gaming

please fix the anti-cheat and stop making EU players use brazilian servers

game runs fantastic for me on 980ti / i7 6700k / 16GB ram - looks amazing on high

remarkably bug free despite the complaints

do not ignore the difficulty names
"nightmare" will actually give you nightmares

Do not play this game thinking it's a sequel to XCOM 2, EU, EW, or even the mobile adaptation of EW.

While Chimera Squad is absolutely a fun game, I really hope that it isn't the direction Firaxis are taking with further sequels in the franchise. For the price they're asking there is an awful lot of content cut away from the game compared to XCOM 2; no more squad customisation (albeit this is likely due to the more linear nature of the story and the predetermined characters within it), a much more stripped-back tech system, no more scientists or engineers, no more base management, no more large-scale world map, no more squad healing (a major change), etcetera. Missions have also taken a toll in the stripping away; encounters are now somewhat staged into where you enter and exit (though the game gives some freedom in the 'breach' system) - this generally leaves the game feeling a lot easier as a result.

The removal of all of this stuff and the general 'dumbing down' of Chimera Squad might turn off most looking for a more 'traditional' XCOM playthrough - with lengthy amounts of time spent customising squad members, assigning specific loadouts and upgrades and classes, and swapping them in-and-out for healing and training. Instead, characters are instantly healed when a mission ends (save for debuffs which must be removed through training), they are 'recruited' with specific classes, loadouts and appearances, and - oddly enough - have no cooldowns on any of their gear while within combat. All-in-all, this leaves Chimera Squad feeling more like a mobile game than an entry into the series on PC.

This isn't to say that the game is all bad, though - far from it. The reason I recommend Chimera Squad is twofold; one, for people who have played XCOM 2 and it's predecessors to death, it's a fun change-of-pace to be able to engage in rapid, quick-fire missions without much interjection between them. The AI remains the same, the gameplay remains fundamentally similar (save for the addition of breaching), and the tight, enclosed spaces your squad fights in makes for satisfying, quickly-finishing gunfights.

The new breaching system also makes for satisfying, cinematic moments too; your squad will bust in with the order you assign using the entry point you assign, gunning down whoever you choose to target first. Some members get special abilities to buff this phase, and - at times - it can feel a bit like cheating when you wipe a room without any time spent in the action phase, though ultimately the slow-mo physics of the mode leave it feeling cool regardless.

The new city map is nice too, and the ability to actively earn income and effect the anarchy meter for each district (the equivalent of the panic levels for each continent in XCOM EU) without having to engage in a mission every 30 seconds is nice. It would be even nicer if the store system wasn't cut back from XCOM EU, but I suppose that comes with the rest of the simplifications made.

The voice acting is rather hit-or-miss; some characters come across snarky, disinterested and rude when they're meant to be elite SWAT-style troops, and some are just plainly boring. I find it strange that they chose to use default, un-filtered human voices for mutons, sectoids and everything in-between; I figured mutons would sound an awful lot more bassy and gruff (but then again, I don't write the lore). There's some nice fan service in places, and the game does a pretty good job in tying up what happened following XCOM 2 (despite a couple of plot holes and unexplained terms).

The engine has also seen some improvements, from what I've noticed - the game runs much smoother than XCOM 2 (though this might be due to the reduction of content), and it takes less of a toll on my system overall (which leads me to believe that Chimera Squad was planned to be a mobile game at one point or another) - a welcome change as XCOM 2 would leave my PC huffing at times.

Overall, I wouldn't say Chimera Squad is designed to be XCOM 3, or even XCOM 2: Episode 1. Rather, Chimera Squad is an entry-level game for newcomers to XCOM or turn-based strategy overall, or for those looking for a change-of-pace compared to XCOM 2 and EU/EW (albeit with much less meat-on-the-bone). If you're looking for any of those things, this game is a pretty good choice, provided you can get it cheaper than full price. Feeling a light to decent 7 on this one. Tran-

UPDATE: None of the game's ueasset files are encrypted with AES, and all of them are bought from the asset store, so the developer is literally giving away other people's work at this point. Why is this on Steam.


I don't know how this game has positive reviews. Either the developer is paying people or these are bots; regardless, this game is by far the worst product I've ever bought on Steam. Stock Unreal physics, assets bought from the store, little-to-no bug testing (your game will straight up just stop taking inputs sometimes after you die), a server browser that doesn't actually update, and NPCs that can one-shot-kill you with aimbot (essentially meaning you can't spawn if someone spawns an NPC on the server).

Literally no redeeming value whatsoever. I don't care if the game was made by one person, you shouldn't release this onto Steam and expect people to pay you to play it.


- this review made by based "based on what" anakin skywalker "woooah" yankee with "no" brim

strong contender for GOTY 2019

I really don't like this game.