XCOM: Chimera Squad is a turn-based tactical video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K as part of the XCOM series. It is set as a sequel to XCOM 2: War of the Chosen, after a tenuous peace accord between warring human and alien forces has been achieved. The player controls a mixed squad of human and alien special forces soldiers that help maintain the fragile peace of City 31, an experimental city where humans and aliens are attempting cohabitation. While Chimera Squad follows similar tactical elements of the XCOM series, it introduces new gameplay concepts to accelerate the pace of gameplay.
The game was released on Windows on April 24, 2020.
The player takes control of a squad of eleven characters, both human and alien, that form Chimera Squad. Each character has unique abilities, replacing character classes from previous installments in the franchise. The game is divided between turn-based tactical combat and management of the squad’s non-combat activities. These non-combat activities take place in the game’s strategy layer, which allows players to modify or upgrade squad members’ equipment and assign squad members to investigations. The strategy layer shows the level of unrest in each district, and failing to address that unrest leads to the city breaking out into violence.
Once players initiate a combat mission, they choose which of the playable characters will participate. Each mission may have multiple separate combat segments. Missions start in a planning phase called “breach mode”, which allows players to position their units at designated points, from which they will enter the combat area. Different entry points present different bonuses and challenges for players, and players can split their units across multiple entry points.
Once combat starts, player-controlled units and computer-controlled enemies take turns based on their position through a mixed player-enemy turn order, a system which the game calls “interleaved turns”. Some agents have abilities that enable them to modify the turn order, and once per mission the player can force one of their units to act next regardless of the turn order. This is a divergence from previous entries in the XCOM franchise, which had all player-controlled units act then all computer-controlled enemies act. Units have similar options as they did in previous XCOM games, including moving, attacking, taking defensive cover, or using special abilities. Some of these abilities synergize with other character’s abilities.
Characters can be downed during combat, requiring another character to stabilize them, but if any character is not revived in time and dies, the mission fails and has to be restarted. As with previous games in the franchise, players will have the option of enabling “ironman mode”, which limits them to a single save slot and imposes permadeath. A playthrough of the game’s campaign is expected to take around 20 hours.
Like its predecessor, Chimera Squad has extensive support for mods, which allows players to add new characters, missions, and equipment to the game.
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