In 2011, Firaxis Games rebooted the classic tactical strategy series X-COM, with their critically acclaimed title XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Casting players as the leader of a multinational paramilitary organization fighting an alien invasion, there was as strong a focus on tight resource management as the combat itself, with missions often feeling like a reprieve from the stress of allocating funds. The sequel doubled down on this by having the aliens win the war and take over the Earth, leaving XCOM a guerilla operation, slowly expanding across the globe to build power before being able to overthrow the invaders. XCOM: Chimera Squad, not a full sequel but a budget-priced spinoff, has aliens and humans living together in a functioning society, with all the good and bad that comes along with that. Taking place in a futuristic mega city, it focuses on a team of aliens and humans working in tandem to quell species-based tensions and suppress extremist terrorist groups looking to add fuel to the fire.

Due to its unique setting, XCOM: Chimera Squad has an unusual focus on lore. While the previous XCOM games gave a decent background on the aliens, it was usually just spewed at you by your scientists or engineers, making it feel distinctly impersonal. By contrast, while Chimera Squad’s story isn’t anything to write home about—the city is under threat and you need to figure out who’s responsible—there’s a greater focus on the day to day life of City 31’s citizens that produces some interesting tidbits. You’ll be presented with quotes from a TV cop procedural, for example, that focuses on a human teamed up with an alien partner, or deliberations from court sessions trying to figure out where creatures with alien powers fit into the legal system. None of it is super impactful, but they’re fun little moments that provide a deeper context to the overall setting and the main missions.

Tying into the more personal touch, Chimera Squad also only gives you a limited selection of pre-made soldiers to choose from, as opposed to the limitless blank slates that comprised XCOM in previous titles. This is probably the biggest change made to the series formula here and, while it produces some interesting results, it doesn’t quite live up to the effectiveness of the original method. Again, you get some interesting worldbuilding through their dialogue, as the aliens recount their thoughts and feelings during the initial invasion or their difficulties assimilating to human culture. Weirdly enough, however, I never felt the same attachment for these characters as I did my blank slate soldiers. The blank slates were free to be whoever I wanted, so I could name them after friends or pop culture figures, and organically develop a personality for them based on the quirks of their performance on missions (not to mention the fantastic mod support for the PC versions that let you install custom clothes or voice packs to really let your characters stand out). The soldiers here, however, feel very stock, with a gruff one and a snarky one and an alien who’s awkward and doesn’t fit in. There’s nothing wrong with any of it, but it’s not as memorable as being allowed to write their stories in my head or develop in-jokes with whoever I’m playing with.

There may be another cause for my lack of concern for my soldiers, which is that they can’t die. Rather, the game won’t allow you to continue if one of them dies. Previous iterations of XCOM were efficient meat grinders, well-oiled with the blood of your squads, so this speaks to another big change this time around: the overall simplification and streamlining of the entire formula. Some changes are minor--such as XCOM 2’s melee attacks returning but as guaranteed hits this time, making them much less risky gambits--but still build up to make the experience feel dumbed down. 

The bigger changes can be quite deflating, though. For example, XCOM 2 had a mechanic where some missions required your squad to reach an evacuation helicopter to end the mission and if one of your soldiers has been downed, he either needs to be carried to the evac zone or will be abandoned and killed when you finish the mission. On a similar mission in Chimera Squad I found myself in a classic XCOM situation: all but one of my soldiers had evacuated and the remaining one fell just short of the evac zone when enemy reinforcements arrived. However, since Chimera Squad only requires you to finish the mission for bleeding out soldiers to be considered safe, when the enemies downed this last soldier the game decided that since all of my active soldiers had evacuated I must have cleared the mission and sent the downed soldier back to my base with no mention of the fact that he had been left for dead by his squad. Another example is that missions are now broken up distinctly into between one and three encounters, small firefights that only span a room or two, rather than the huge sprawling maps there used to be. You lose the sense of exploration and the tension of possibly running into a group of aliens too early, but you do gain the new breach mechanic out of this trade-up. Whenever you clear a room of enemies, you’ll automatically be taken to a menu that presents you with different options for your team to enter the next room, usually offering different bonuses or opportunities to strike first. It’s very reminiscent of the ambushes from XCOM 2, but since it doesn’t offer the same level of customization as ambushes, it gets tired more quickly.

The resource management side of things takes a similar hit. Gone are the scientists and engineers of old; all research and development are done by leftover soldiers who aren’t active on missions. To account for this, injured soldiers are no longer sent to the medic for long periods of time, taking them out of active duty. Instead, they’re given stat debuffs that can be fixed by sending them to the medic, but you’re given the option of when or if you do that. While I’m glad this spinoff is willing to differentiate itself from the main series, and these changes do create a fun take on the XCOM formula, they don’t have the sustainability of the main series and I found myself longing for the brutal cruelty of a mainline entry.

I do want to emphasize that while not all of these changes work, the fundamentals of XCOM are still intact here. Despite it not carrying the same tension as previous titles, there’s still a lot of fun strategy to play with. The unique characters are given some fun class abilities and there’s still satisfaction to be found in pulling off a risky manoeuvre. The breach mechanic is a great take on XCOM 2’s ambushes, even if it doesn’t have quite the same versatility. But the simplification leaves Chimera Squad in an awkward position. Its focus on character and story, plus its status as a spinoff to a sequel, makes it immediately off-putting to newcomers, who would benefit most from the gameplay. Series veterans will still find a lot to enjoy here, but it’s just not built for the kind of longevity of Firaxis’ previous efforts with the series. If you’re a lapsed fan who wants to be eased back into the series, or are just looking for a more mellow XCOM experience, it’s easy to recommend this game, especially at its reduced price, but it’s unlikely it’ll ever replace Enemy Unknown or XCOM 2 in your library.