XCOM: Chimera Squad - humans and aliens team up

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

When I look at these new XCOM games I'm not sure losing the art director is as much of a loss as you're making it out to be.

 

[Alienman]

When I look at these new XCOM games I'm not sure losing the art director is as much of a loss as you're making it out to be.

Here is the article: https://www.ign.com/articles/xcom-civilization-veterans-new-studio-bit-reactor

Depends I guess. I liked how the games looked and the general atmosphere. With him gone who knows what Xcom 3 would look like.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

I really hated the kind of halfassed toy aesthetic of the new XCOM games. Game just looked like it was some XBOX LIVE thing. The look of the later games make me think this probably isn't the case anymore, but when I first saw XCOM I figured 2K just got the bright idea from the outrage over the XCOM FPS that they could sell $30 game for $60. It especially sucked because, by the time they made that game, it was definitely possible to have pulled off the whole comic book aesthetic of the original game that in the original game you only really get to see in the opening cinematic and some art.

The new modern "cool" Gears of War like armor looked played out even before XCOM came out in 2012, (same was true of the redesigns of the aliens) looking like a lazy knockoff didn't help things either. Funnily just doing the armor (or some version of it anyways) from the 1994 game, which mostly seems to be playing on either Masamune Shirow manga or anime, (or both) would have looked cooler and more modern than the "modern" stuff the game went for. The reworked aliens also suck all the fun of the 50s B movie aliens and monsters thing the original game seemed to be going for.

 

[JDR13]

The art style in XCOM EU and XCOM 2 is fine imo, but I don't know what they were thinking with Chimera Squad.

 

[jackofshadows]

Details: the game autosaved at the beginning of an enemy turn ... and the enemy always moved to a spot where the AI would lock up. Since you are not allowed to open the Esc menu during an enemy turn, there was absolutely nothing I could do, couldn't restart the mission, couldn't abort, nothing like this. Loading the game just went straight to this one guy who proceeded straight to AI lock, every time. Only way out was Alt-F4. Playthrough ruined, game uninstalled and completely given up on.

You most probably could've solved that via console use.

 

[ArchAngel]

Details: the game autosaved at the beginning of an enemy turn ... and the enemy always moved to a spot where the AI would lock up. Since you are not allowed to open the Esc menu during an enemy turn, there was absolutely nothing I could do, couldn't restart the mission, couldn't abort, nothing like this. Loading the game just went straight to this one guy who proceeded straight to AI lock, every time. Only way out was Alt-F4. Playthrough ruined, game uninstalled and completely given up on.

You most probably could've solved that via console use.

I had a bug like that in my only run I did and I did solve it with a console in the end. I don't remember the exact details but help can be found online.

 

[rusty_shackleford]

I had fun with gears tactics if you guys are just looking for a game with xcom-like combat to play with some story attached.
Never played a single other gears game and didn't have any trouble following the story.

pretty sure it's on gamepass as I know a few of you have that(disgusting)

 

[Mazisky]

The art style in XCOM EU and XCOM 2 is fine imo, but I don't know what they were thinking with Chimera Squad.

Chimera Squad lead director is a 20 years old american dude. That's what happened

 

[Lemming42]

Yeah Gays Tactics was really good. Felt different enough from XCOM to justify its own existence. Could have done without the copypaste filler missions between main story missions, and after a certain point you get so overloaded with loot that upgrading your soldiers becomes a chore, but otherwise it was a lot of fun. Definitely would prefer Gays Tactics 2 to another regular GoW game.

 

[Assisted Living Godzilla]

The art style in XCOM EU and XCOM 2 is fine imo, but I don't know what they were thinking with Chimera Squad.

Chimera Squad lead director is a 20 years old american dude. That's what happened

They're also gone, off to this new company with the art director of XCOM and XCOM 2 for some Star Wars game with Respawn. It seems all the crappy and boring art heads went off and formed their own company...or at least left with the studio's old art head.

Here's what they should do for their next XCOM game. They go out, hire some comic book guy like Simon Roy, Giannis Milonogiannis, Esad Rinić, or Daniel Warren Johnson, or get one of those many freelance Japanese concept artist that used to be at companies like Capcom, or get someone like Mahiro Maeda, Tsubasa Masao, or Katsuya Terada and just make the game look like their concept art as closely as possible. You could probably throw a rock and hit a better concept artist than these XCOM games have had. You look at something like their upcoming Midnight Suns game and you wonder why the game itself doesn't just look like the Ryan Stegman Game Informer cover given how massively better that would look than the direction they went with the game's visually.

 

[Serus]

Someone is VERY concerned about graphics in a tactical game. In XCOM 1 and 2 graphic was clear and nice enough not to facepalm so who cares. Would be nice to have better and more original graphics but it is a tertiary consideration in this genre.

 

[Mazisky]

Someone is VERY concerned about graphics in a tactical game. In XCOM 1 and 2 graphic was clear and nice enough not to facepalm so who cares. Would be nice to have better and more original graphics but it is a tertiary consideration in this genre.

NuXcom1\2 graphics are great and way better than any xcom clone. (which is not a great bar honestly)

 

[ArchAngel]

Someone is VERY concerned about graphics in a tactical game. In XCOM 1 and 2 graphic was clear and nice enough not to facepalm so who cares. Would be nice to have better and more original graphics but it is a tertiary consideration in this genre.

NuXcom1\2 graphics are great and way better than any xcom clone. (which is not a great bar honestly)

nu Xcom 1 had good graphics but nu Xcom 2 not so much. Everything is sterile or anime like.

 

[Mazisky]

Someone is VERY concerned about graphics in a tactical game. In XCOM 1 and 2 graphic was clear and nice enough not to facepalm so who cares. Would be nice to have better and more original graphics but it is a tertiary consideration in this genre.

NuXcom1\2 graphics are great and way better than any xcom clone. (which is not a great bar honestly)

nu Xcom 1 had good graphics but nu Xcom 2 not so much. Everything is sterile or anime like.

that's artstyle, another thing. Graphics is tech.

I agree tho. Xcom 1 way better in art and atmosphere

 

[Skorpion]

Been replaying this and I have to say it seems a good game, with flaws but generally a good one.
Has gaming gotten so bad that I am looking at this with rose tinted shades or is this a bit of a hidden gem obscured by not being xcom-3 when I first played it?
Also did you play this with one with the same team in most missions or did you specialize based on each encounter?
Just curious because going back into it again I decided to read some agent comparisons and its wildly debated.

 

[gurugeorge]

Been replaying this and I have to say it seems a good game, with flaws but generally a good one.
Has gaming gotten so bad that I am looking at this with rose tinted shades or is this a bit of a hidden gem obscured by not being xcom-3 when I first played it?
Also did you play this with one with the same team in most missions or did you specialize based on each encounter?
Just curious because going back into it again I decided to read some agent comparisons and its wildly debated.

For me, I did indeed think the game was ok gameplay-wise, it's just that I'd had enough of the taste of the rainbow after about half a dozen missions.

 

[Lemming42]

Been replaying this and I have to say it seems a good game, with flaws but generally a good one.
Has gaming gotten so bad that I am looking at this with rose tinted shades or is this a bit of a hidden gem obscured by not being xcom-3 when I first played it?
Also did you play this with one with the same team in most missions or did you specialize based on each encounter?
Just curious because going back into it again I decided to read some agent comparisons and its wildly debated.

It's a good game. I think I used Godmother, Terminal, Zephyr and Blueblood for basically every mission. Can't remember the exact logic behind that setup, but Zephyr is laughably overpowered and can sometimes clear out like half the map before the first enemy turn. Godmother has the cool shotgun chain shit and I remember her being especially effective during breaches, and Blueblood has a similar multi-shot pistol thing.

Terminal was the weak link, very lame at combat and her healing abilities were rarely needed or useful, but the only other character I really tried was Torque and I just couldn't ever quite figure out how to use her effectively, even though everyone says she's among the best units.

 

[Skorpion]

Been replaying this and I have to say it seems a good game, with flaws but generally a good one.
Has gaming gotten so bad that I am looking at this with rose tinted shades or is this a bit of a hidden gem obscured by not being xcom-3 when I first played it?
Also did you play this with one with the same team in most missions or did you specialize based on each encounter?
Just curious because going back into it again I decided to read some agent comparisons and its wildly debated.

It's a good game. I think I used Godmother, Terminal, Zephyr and Blueblood for basically every mission. Can't remember the exact logic behind that setup, but Zephyr is laughably overpowered and can sometimes clear out like half the map before the first enemy turn. Godmother has the cool shotgun chain shit and I remember her being especially effective during breaches, and Blueblood has a similar multi-shot pistol thing.

Terminal was the weak link, very lame at combat and her healing abilities were rarely needed or useful, but the only other character I really tried was Torque and I just couldn't ever quite figure out how to use her effectively, even though everyone says she's among the best units.

Torque is working out for me but I went off a suggestion to put a reflex grip on her and I think that changes the dynamic.
So far Im having fun with cherub torque blueblood and either godmother or terminal. Still first investigation but it seems fun.
I will try out Zephyr if they come up as the next agent option for sure, thanks!

 

[Zombra]

I wonder why they haven't made an XCOM3? Every single turn-based tactical game out there these days get's compared to XCOM, so you'd think a sequel would get enough attention that it would be a slam-dunk sales wise.

It's even weirder to me that Firaxis never even finished the "spinoff" game Chimera Squad, which seemed to be a test for the cool breaching system that would have been a great addition to the main series. They threw together a single patch which didn't even fix the game and then abandoned it.

 

[ArchAngel]

I wonder why they haven't made an XCOM3? Every single turn-based tactical game out there these days get's compared to XCOM, so you'd think a sequel would get enough attention that it would be a slam-dunk sales wise.

It's even weirder to me that Firaxis never even finished the "spinoff" game Chimera Squad, which seemed to be a test for the cool breaching system that would have been a great addition to the main series. They threw together a single patch which didn't even fix the game and then abandoned it.

They probably got the Marvel deal long time ago while people still cared about Marvel movies and their higher up dreamed of swimming in their own gold coin vaults so moved everyone over

 

[Yosharian]

I'd forgotten about this abomination

 

[Falksi]

Got round to play this past couple of days...."abomination" is right.

The original X-Com games are timeless, but I still had a fair bit of fun with the reebots. Nowhere near as good, but they still held enough quality to be worth playing through a few times.

This bag o' wank though....ugggggh. The maps are garbage, the difficulty too easy (on Normal), and the general changes to the gameplay (such as units taking turns individually instead of each side exchanging turns) are all for the worse. And It's main "Breach" gimmick is lame as fuck too; something which may be interesting if used occasionally, but which saturates this game far too much and just drags it down.

But the fucking garbage story, writing and woke angle is horrific. It fucking bleeds "diversity" in the worst way possible, and turns an average game into one which you just can't help but hate.

It really is the worst thing which could have happened to the series.

 

[ArchAngel]

Got round to play this past couple of days...."abomination" is right.

The original X-Com games are timeless, but I still had a fair bit of fun with the reebots. Nowhere near as good, but they still held enough quality to be worth playing through a few times.

This bag o' wank though....ugggggh. The maps are garbage, the difficulty too easy (on Normal), and the general changes to the gameplay (such as units taking turns individually instead of each side exchanging turns) are all for the worse. And It's main "Breach" gimmick is lame as fuck too; something which may be interesting if used occasionally, but which saturates this game far too much and just drags it down.

But the fucking garbage story, writing and woke angle is horrific. It fucking bleeds "diversity" in the worst way possible, and turns an average game into one which you just can't help but hate.

It really is the worst thing which could have happened to the series.

It was good enough for one playthrough. Still better than their Marvel shit which killed them.

 

[jackofshadows]

The max difficulty was pretty fair I'd say. And the breach mechanic was a cool addition.

The characters and the story were absolutely disgusting though, yes.

Personally I had plenty of fun with subj but the woke shit left a bad taste in my mouth.

 

[Zumbabul]

There was a mod that disable all dialogues in the game. With that mod, the game is much better.