Recent reviews by Jeb

I like Ethan Winters now

This could have just been a pdf report but Geoff Keighley went above and beyond putting this together with videos, puzzles and interactable models from the Half Life franchise. Incredibly well written and really opens the door on the many failed projects Valve worked as they underwent the hurdles of creating Source 2 and developing their VR hardware.

I’ll start this review off by saying im not a hardcore strategy player by any means but a big fan of the XCOM games since the reboot and do enjoy strategy games as a casual player

XCOM: Chimera Squad tests new mechanics within the XCOM franchise in this smaller scale spin off title which focuses on close quarters combat. Set 5 years after XCOM 2 War of the Chosen in a post invasion world aliens and humans live side by side in City 31. After an attack on the city's mayor a peace keeping force, Chimera Squad, is formed to bring the culprit to justice. Finding out who was behind this attack will involve bringing down 3 criminals organisations and keeping overall city anarchy down by undertaking a variety of missions across the cities districts. City anarchy is increased with high unrest in the cities individual districts which must be kept down by completing the missions in these districts otherwise the game will end. Players coming from XCOM 2 will be familiar with this feature as it is almost identical to keeping the Advent project progress down in XCOM 2 albeit a bit easier.

The game plays differently to previous titles due to the introduction of new mechanics. You get the chance to recruit various races of aliens for your squad who come with unique abilities, some more useful than others, which creates interesting gameplay from this new array of powers to play with. If you're a fan of the series you'll recognise most of the new squad members races as your adversaries from XCOM enemy Unknown/Within and XCOM 2. Unlike the previous installments where your squad members are randomly generated, in Chimera Squad you recruit 11 squad members who are all somewhat fleshed out characters. I wouldn't say the writing for any of them is amazing but the voice acting is fine and the way they interact in HQ and on missions with each other is charming, making the game feel a bit more alive. Due to each character having their own set class (with some wiggle room for new abilities when levelling up) we say goodbye to most classes from previous titles such as the ranger, grenadier, mech unit and sharpshooter which does make sense for the close quarters combat environments. As these new units are their own characters there is no permadeath and instead a scar system where if your unit is inflicted with high damage or knocked unconscious during a mission they will be left with a scar which gives a debuff unless you send that unit to training to remove it which puts them out of commission for a few ingame days.

The main HQ hub features remain largely unchanged to other XCOM titles so returning players will be familiar with it (minus the micromanaging HQ base building which i personally enjoyed but i'm sure some players will prefer this more streamlined approach).

Another main new mechanic is the breach system. This allows you to choose from multiple points of entry when starting encounters as well as use gadgets such as keycards or breaching charges to create extra entry points. Certain entry points will benefit your squad more than others for example by giving you a 50 extra dodge for a round. I find the breach points uninspiring as they are usually next to each other or across the side of the room. The most interesting points you can get on a mission are sometimes at a higher level than your enemy or certain flexible units can breach behind enemy lines. However these kind of entries are few and far between. Breaching also determines what order your squad members will attack in the timeline. Unlike previous XCOM games where you would use each squad member's actions concurrently in a more binary fashion before ending your turn, there's now a timeline which determines which unit goes next. As this game is focused on more close quarters combat it suits the game however I do miss the synergy of being able to control my entire squad at once and line up attacks. For XCOM 3 it could be interesting to see both kinds of gameplay having some missions in close quarters with this timeline feature and some larger scale battles not using it.

One issue is the lack of map variety. This is something XCOM 2 was criticized for. The game re-uses many of the maps on levels which by the 15 hour mark I started realizing and getting bored while playing having to see the same interiors and exteriors over and over again.

While gameplay is always the most important feature in a turn based game, which the XCOM franchise is known for always excelling at, the game's graphics cant be overlooked. In 2020 the graphics just don't hold up and haven't changed at all since XCOM 2. In my opinion the game looks ugly and bleak especially with most locations just being building interiors and town squares compared to 2012s XCOM Enemy Unknown's vibrant UFO crash sites.

Unfortunately the game is still faced with bugs that plagued XCOM 2 4 YEARS AGO. Random crashes and horrible animation glitches which cause the game to freeze for 10 seconds at a time and the lack of support by Firaxis is pretty unsurprising considering the state XCOM 2 launched in all those years ago and how they went about fixing it. You would have thought 4 years later they could have fixed the in-engine bugs. Clearly this title is to test the waters for XCOM 3 to see what new mechanics people like and don't like but it still doesn't excuse launching a bug riddled mess especially when the announcement and release came out of nowhere. They could have stayed in development for an extra month and no one would be none the wiser. It was released on April 24th and has only received one patch which was just shy of a month later on May 21st.

All that said if you enjoyed previous XCOM games I’d recommend picking it. The story serves as a peek into the new post Advent world players will be in when XCOM 3 launches. New players to the series or genre may find these new mechanics more forgiving, providing a good jumping on point. It is extremely good value for the price. It launched with a 50% discount (£8/$10) and I got 24 hours of gameplay out of it on normal difficulty. I wouldnt say theres as much replay value compared to the other titles unless you like to challenge yourself on higher difficulties with ironman which doesnt allow you to reload saves if you mess up and hardcore mode where failing a mission ends the game. All that said if Firaxis continues to launch games in this unfinished state with the lack of variety and lackluster graphics they could see the XCOM franchise be knocked off the pedestal of best turn based tactic games as other developers release more polished games within the genre .

Good for a free to play game. Couldn't imagine buying this game at launch for full price

A very chill, addictive and rewarding game

In my family we say "Its not christmas without the PAYDAY 2: A Merry Payday Christmas Soundtrack from OVERKILL - a Starbreeze Studio"

not so bad for £15

Left 4 dead...should have been left for dead.

This game will give you endless fun! There are so many things you can do! Buy it right now!

A true classic.