Out of nowhere, Firaxis Games has announcedXCOM: Chimera Squad, a brand new game in the popular turn-based strategy series.XCOM: Chimera Squadwon’t be quite as big in scope asXCOM 2or theWar of the Chosenexpansion, but it should still provide fans of the franchise with plenty to do when it launches later this month.
XCOM: Chimera Squadwill launch on April 24 for PC. No console versions have been announced at the time of this writing, but ifXCOM: Chimera Squadis anything like the otherXCOMgames, one has to imagine that a console port will come about at some point down the line. The game will initially retail for just $9.99 from April 24 until April 30, after which theXCOM: Chimera Squadprice will increase to $19.99.
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XCOM: Chimera Squadis set five years after the end ofXCOM 2, with humans, hybrids, and aliens now all working together. However, there are some who oppose this interspecies alliance and seek to destroy it, and so Chimera Squad, a task force comprised of humans, hybrids, and aliens, is formed to counteract these hostiles. The game will feature classicXCOMturn-based combat, along with some new gameplay features like Breach Mode.
XCOM: Chimera Squad’s Breach Mode and more are detailed in a new video released by Firaxis that provides a detailed Gameplay Overview of what fans can expect. Overall, it seems as thoughXCOM: Chimera Squadwill please fans of the franchise, but anyone expecting it to beXCOM 3will be disappointed. It’s presented as more of a smaller-scale spin-off game as opposed to the next big step for theXCOMfranchise.
Regardless,XCOM: Chimera Squadseems like it has a better chance of being a hit than some of the otherXCOMspin-off games that have released over the years. Fans may recallThe Bureau: XCOM Declassified, which earned mostly negative reviews and was generally seen as a low point for the series. However, there are a couple of key differences betweenThe Bureau: XCOM DeclassifiedandXCOM: Chimera Squadthat may mean the latter is better received.
For one,XCOM: Chimera Squadseems to be retaining the general gameplay that fans of the franchise like instead of trying to turn it into a third-person shooter. And secondly, the game is being developed by Firaxis, the celebrated studio that successfully revived theXCOMfranchisein the first place. Luckily, withXCOM: Chimera Squadlaunching so soon after its announcement, fans don’t have to wait long at all to see how it stacks up compared to other games in the series.
