Recenzii recente de Actually the Worst Player

XCOM: Chimera Squad is a very different game than the recent XCOM games (I haven't played anything prior to 2012's Enemy Unknown, so I cannot comment on those games). In my opinion, this is absolutely Firaxis testing out some new gameplay features that they may or may not be integrating into XCOM 3 to obtain feedback about how well they work as well as how much players like them. With that in mind, I'll be focusing on the features, with a few additional comments at the end.

PROS:

1) Breach mode. Nearly every review that I've seen loves breach mode, and I have to agree. It was super fun to breach, especially when considering the different options afforded by each entrance. Beyond simply offering different lines of sight, each breach point offers possible buffs and debuffs for entering a certain area. For example, I may do +3 damage during breach on my first agent through the door, but at the same time my last agent may have their weapon disabled afterwards. On the other hand, choosing to go through a side door may cost me the +3 damage, but offer a defense bonus for the round after breach. In my opinion, having these options added a lot of depth to breach mode, making it feel one of the more fully fleshed out portions of the game. My only complain is that alternative breaches (using items like the keycard or C4, or vent breaches) felt criminally underutilized. It wasn't super uncommon to go a full mission at times without a keycard or C4 breach option, or multiple missions without a vent option. Making these options more prevalent could make the breach items feel more important, especially if they are single use per mission. Should I use my keycard on the first breach, or save it for a later breach when my squad could be weaker?

2) Art and music. I personally really enjoyed both the art style and music in Chimera Squad (this is separate from the story and characters, I'll get to those later). I felt the music really fit the more police/counterterrorism squad atmosphere of this game, even if it's not as iconic as some of the XCOM EU/2 soundtracks. In addition, I felt that the environments fit the city well. I loved every mission that I did in the museum level, looking at the exhibits and seeing the plaques dedicated to Bradford/Shen/Tygan on the walls. Chimera Squad is its own game, and this shows in the atmosphere generated by the art and music.

3) The timeline. I was hesitant to put this in the pros, but I'm going to leave it here as a LIGHT pro. It's an interesting concept, and it's one that I wouldn't mind being used occasionally-almost like a sitrep in XCOM 2. However, it's no replacement for the team turns XCOM is known for. While I don't want to see the timeline ENTIRELY trashed for XCOM 3, it's hard to see how they could incorporate it with existing skills based around team turns.

CONS

1) Soldier customization. This game feels like a stopgap/test environment, and here is where it shows. There is little to no customization of your characters, limited solely to a few armor tint options. Additionally, the appearance of your gear doesn't change as you upgrade it. My hope is that this is due to most of the focus for this game being put on the new gameplay features, with customization just put on the backburner to keep the price relatively low. If this is all the customization that we have to look forward to in XCOM 3, there's a serious misstep being made.

2) Skills and items. The skill trees in Chimera Squad are compressed heavily, which I have mixed feelings about. On one hand, I feel that it does fit the pace of the game better. With each character being their own class (as opposed to the set 4 base classes in EU/2), keeping the skill trees short lets you experiment and play around with the different characters a bit more. On the other hand, it can leave some of them feeling a bit light on skills as they hit max level. This is compounded by the loadout issues, specifically in terms of research. in my playthrough, my initial focus was on upgrading my armor and weapons to the highest tier. However, by the time I finished the game I hardly had been given any time to research any of the other items available. The game runs fast, and it REALLY forces you to choose between the items and upgrades you want by the time you hit endgame.

3) The bugs and UI. There's a fair few bugs here, ranging from characters spazzing out to crashing the whole game. However, these do seem inconsistent. I had two crashes in my ~17 hour campaign that simply crashed to my desktop, fixed by me reloading my game. Others had reported crashes that crash their whole computer, or that occur multiple times an hour. In addition, the UI is a bit of a mess. There's some changes that aren't TERRIBLE, but by far the worst outlier is the enemy icons at the bottom of the screen. These have a REALLY bad tendency to overlap and just create a general mess. Hopefully these issues will be fixed shortly, as they can be a major annoyance.

Additional notes that I felt were relevant

1) The story and writing. If you've read any other reviews, I'm sure you've read plenty of complaints about the story. The story is VERY light, mainly you fighting some arbitrary factions as what feels like a setup to XCOM 3. However, it's about what I expected from a $20 (10 if you got it on sale early) game. It's cohesive enough, with characters that have backstories and motivations that at least make sense on the surface. Having read plenty of complaints about the character dialogue, I can't entirely agree with everything that's been said. Yes, the dialogue is absolutely cringey at times. There were a few lines where I definitely audibly sighed. But there are gems buried in the rough. There is a LOT of worldbuilding details being dropped in the background, some major, some minor (did you know apparently cats and sectoids REALLY don't get along?). Some of the more interesting tidbits were in the radio conversations you can overhear after story missions, alluding to things such as collaring of psionics and "the fade"-a disease affecting hybrids. There were even a few gems in conversations between squad members, such as Verge and Godmother discussing whether or not Verge truly regrets what he did in the initial invasion. I'd love to see some of these concepts expanded upon in XCOM 3, though preferably between NPC's rather than soldiers (really hoping we keep the style of solider customization from EU/2). I personally loved the concept of alien squadmates, and would like to see it more (though fully fleshed out in terms of skills and customization) in XCOM 3.

2) Pacing. This game plays a LOT faster than EU/2. Without the wounded mechanic requiring soliders to rest between missions if they're hurt, you can end up sending the same 4 people out every day in a week. The scars to provide a downside to being hurt, but you'll still be moving through missions at a MUCH quicker pace than the prior games. I didn't mind it too much, I think it works for the game that Chimera Squad is. But I feel that it should stay in Chimera Squad. Either way, you'll be spending a lot more time actually in engagements here, as opposed to the prior games.

All in all, Chimera Squad is a different XCOM than the one we're used to. I went in with this expectation (also keeping in mind it is a $20 game) and I personally enjoyed it. However, if you do go in with the expectation of a true successor to XCOM 2, you'll likely be disappointed.