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[Chiefwaffles]

Steam Store Page - $20, currently discounted at $10 until May 1st. Releases April 23rd.
Game Reveal/Cinematic Trailer
Gameplay Overview Trailer

Ever wanted an XCOM game from Firaxis, set 5 years after the events of XCOM 2 featuring you leading a team of humans and alien-human hybrids to maintain peace in City 31? And wanted it for $20, or at $10 since for some reason it has a 50% discount on its $20 baseline price before it's released? And want it in 9 days?
Well boy oh boy do I have news for you. XCOM Chimera Squad was announced this morning. You lead the titular Chimera Squad which includes VIPERS among sectoid hybrids and boring ol' humans and other hybrids. The setting is City 31, a model city of unity between humans and alien hybrids. Lots of X-Com Apocalypse vibes here.

Here's a brief feature overview compiled by yours truly, though I recommend watching the gameplay trailer (which is an informative walkthrough of the new mechanics -- not really a traditional gameplay trailer which just uses interspersed 5-second clips in an exciting fashion).

• Characters & Permadeath - Or, "there is no permadeath." Yep. Chimera Squad features a singular cast of characters as your agents. If one's HP drops to 0 in a mission and you don't stabilize them before they bleed out (and they will always have a bleed out timer), you lose the mission rather than lose the character.
• Interlaced Turns - Instead of a single turn per side, the game uses an initiative system (think Divinity Original Sin for those of you who've played it) where each unit has their own place in the "timeline" and makes their actions when the timeline reaches them; importantly, units' positions in the timeline are not sorted by side so you can have enemy units doing their things before you have all your units act, and the same thing goes for the enemy. Abilities are present which allow manipulation of this system, like bringing an agent's turn order all the way up as the next unit to act.
• Encounters & Breach Mode - Each mission is divided into "encounters" (which I think are effectively just sub-'levels' within the mission?), with each encounter having its own breach phase. In breach mode, you choose the turn order of your agents and their entry points. Some entry points are restricted to specific types of units and equipment. Like snakepeople being able to slither through vents.
• Strategy Layer - The strategy layer/geoscape is present here as it is in every other XCOM game. Panic from XCOM2012 makes an effective return in the form of unrest. You have to manage the unrest of the districts of City 31 and failure to do so causes a collapse into chaos and game loss.

As a note, Chimera Squad has a different lead designer than XCOM2012 & XCOM 2 (which had Jake Solomon). That, the price, and the announcement so close to the release date suggest this is less-so the next entry in the series, and is rather more of a spin-off. Rainbow Six: XCOM.

[Ultimuh]

Yeah, this is a different Xcom than what people are used to.
The absence of permadeath is kinda disappointing to me.

[ZeroGravitas]

i hate to say "it's not x-com" since obviously people have been saying this ever since the firaxis reboot, but

folks, this really isn't x-com. the characters are presets, with specific abilities. it's like Invisible Inc.

i'm guessing there won't be any basebuilding or research, either. i get the feeling it will just be some tactical missions with cutscenes in between.

[a1s]

i'm guessing there won't be any basebuilding or research, either. i get the feeling it will just be some tactical missions with cutscenes in between.

They mention an over-map and research in the trailer.

[nenjin]

I'm getting "The Bureau" vibes from this.

[EuchreJack]

I'm getting "The Bureau" vibes from this.

Beat me to it.

[Dostoevsky]

Initiative system alone makes me tempted to pick it up. For some reason TRPGs lacking a proper initiative system just... bug me. The overwatch system in this series mitigates that somewhat, admittedly.

Edit: Just a back-and-forth system with the potential for fiddling instead of proper initiative, looks like?

Gameplay video is indeed pretty informative. Looks like a more tightly focused experience further leaning into the direction taken with the newer XCOM entries.

Also, admittedly I never finished XCOM2, but... does this 'unified city' future make much sense within the storyline of XCOM2?

[ZeroGravitas]

i'm guessing there won't be any basebuilding or research, either. i get the feeling it will just be some tactical missions with cutscenes in between.

They mention an over-map and research in the trailer.

yeah, but it's just the one city, and the "research" is only research for manufacturing stuff ("patterns"). you won't research new abilities or new planes or new power stuff, because none of that exists anymore. the characters are all predefined, so you don't recruit new people or new classes. between that and the lack of basebuilding, the vast majority of research is gone. it's just time-delay for churning out new equipment. they depict minor weapon mods (auto-loader, stock, etc) and probably something like improved medkits. it's not the research that you expect from an x-com game, where the research is key to advancing the plot.

I'm getting "The Bureau" vibes from this.

Bureau + Apocalypse, i think

[scriver]

Im getting "that Mutant game which uses the XCOM engine but XCOMified" vibes from this

[Chiefwaffles]

Edit: Just a back-and-forth system with the potential for fiddling instead of proper initiative, looks like?

Ah, is the OP misleading then? ‘Cause if so I’m happy to edit it.

And yeah. This isn’t XCOM. But it’s $10 and releases in a bit over a week having been announced today, so it doesn’t bother me at all. Looks interesting and fun, and it doesn’t try to pretend it’s more than it is.
I’d guess it’s a significantly smaller team implementing mechanics they’re playing with for theoretical XCOM 3, while the main team works on the mainline game. Maybe. It’s not a guarantee that this part of Firaxis is working on XCOM as its main thing.

[Rince Wind]

It is still more XCOM than Enforcer ever was. Or Interceptor.

It sounds fun, but I'll wait for the reviews after release.

[Iduno]

Ever wanted an XCOM game from Firaxis

No.

Lots of X-Com Apocalypse vibes here.

*Narrows eyes*

As a note, Chimera Squad has a different lead designer than XCOM2012 & XCOM 2 (which had Jake Solomon). That, the price, and the announcement so close to the release date suggest this is less-so the next entry in the series, and is rather more of a spin-off. Rainbow Six: XCOM.

I think we already have a topic on this one.


I'm exaggerating for humorous effect, probably.

[Chiefwaffles]

I dunno man. Maintaining peace among different factions in one single huge futuristic city featuring alien-human hybrids from past alien invasions? Seems pretty Apocalypse to me.

Also for the love of god can we not do the blatant Firaxis XCom hate here please? It’s obviously valid to not like the newer games but we already got over this when XCOM2012 was announced. Yes we get it Firaxis is ruining literally everything ever and the new games are the absolute worst. Cool.

[marples]

I'm guessing this will soon be available on android and ios.

[itisnotlogical]

Ever wanted an XCOM game from Firaxis

No.

Lots of X-Com Apocalypse vibes here.

*Narrows eyes*

As a note, Chimera Squad has a different lead designer than XCOM2012 & XCOM 2 (which had Jake Solomon). That, the price, and the announcement so close to the release date suggest this is less-so the next entry in the series, and is rather more of a spin-off. Rainbow Six: XCOM.

I think we already have a topic on this one.


I'm exaggerating for humorous effect, probably.

new thing bad old thing good