XCOM: Chimera Squad takes place five years after the Resistance successfully defeated the Elders and reclaimed Earth from the aliens. In Chimera Squad, humans and aliens must learn to live in peace on an Earth which has become a home for both the freed humans and the defeated aliens. Chimera Squad’s job is to ensure that peace is upheld in City 31 since the city is the center of hope for coexistence between humans and aliens.

Because Chimera Squad operates in a city rather than the whole world, their weapons and tactics differ from those of XCOM. They are more like a SWAT team members than soldiers. This leads to a major diversion in the traditional XCOM formula, and some of the changes hit while others don’t.

10 Best: Breach Mode

One of the most interesting gameplay mechanics in Chimera Squad is the introduction of breaching. The player must set his/her team up next to a breach point in a particular order, and then the characters burst through and fire on the enemies inside.

It’s cinematic to watch and has major implications on how the encounter will go. It is reminiscent of the ambush mechanic in XCOM: 2 except the order in which units enter affects when they’ll go in the turn order.

9 Worst: Lower Damage

One of the coolest parts of XCOM 2 was watching a sniper one-shot anything thanks to a high-crit rate and deadeye. Unfortunately, the weapons in Chimera Squad have relatively low damage throughout a playthrough. While this does make the game more difficult tactically, it’s easy to miss the high damage rates of the previous title.

The character Zephyr doesn’t even get increased damage, so, by late-game, the best she can do is finish low-health enemies off or do chip damage.

8 Best: Introduction Of Alien Characters

Sometimes, it’s fun to have nonhuman characters that are controllable, and Chimera Squad has quite of them. Verge, Axiom, and Torque are the three alien characters that are playable, and Cherub and Zephyr are the two hybrids that are playable.

They all have some interesting dialogue with the human characters, and they’re usually about the war. It definitely shows how humans and aliens still have a bit of prejudice and disdain for the other side, but also that the walls are starting to break down between the two sides.

7 Worst: Unbalanced Characters

The characters in Chimera Squad aren’t very balanced. There are some characters that will always be taken on missions, and some will always be on the bench doing something else. It’s really less that some characters are bad and more that some characters are way too good.

Terminal is a great example: she has a ton of utility like healing every turn, and she has a substantial effect on turn order. She’s really the only character in the game that can heal the way she does, so not taking her would be an absolute waste. A lot of the other characters just can’t compete with her utility.

6 Best: No Base Building

Chimera Squad didn’t really need base building in the first place. They weren’t an organization that was just starting like in Enemy Unknown, or an underground resistance with little supplies. They’re a police force trying to protect the civilians of the city. Their base is already how it should be.

Also, base-building can be a little tedious in an XCOM game, especially in multiple playthroughs. At first, it is a struggle to figure out what to build and when. But, on subsequent playthroughs, a player usually already knows what the best course of action is for base building, so not having it in Chimera Squad is an improvement.

5  Worst: City Anarchy Timer

The City Anarchy countdown timer makes the game feel easier than previous games because there are never any random losses in the timer. In XCOM 2, the timer until the Avatar project is completed is constantly moving, and, in Enemy Unknown/Within, a couple countries usually leave at some point.

Even on the harder difficulties, it’s possible to prevent the timer from moving with solid resource management. It doesn’t really feel like a threat at all most of the time, unlike the Avatar project, which was a constant threat.

4 Best: Choosing Target Of Investigation

After the first mission, it is up to Chimera Squad to investigate three crime syndicates and bring them down to find out who assassinated the mayor of City 31. The choice is up to the player to decide who should be taken down first, second, then third. This gives the player options of who would be easiest to take down at first and last.

For example, waiting to take on the Sacred Coil until Patchwork is recruited would be a great strategy. Since all the factions are different, choosing who to go after first can be a crucial choice for a playthrough.

3 Worst: No Character Death

While it was upsetting to lose a beloved character in the previous games, it always made the game feel real and tragic. Players had to keep their units safe to protect them from being killed in the line of duty.

Chimera Squad does not instill this fear of losing a character in a player. Characters aren’t allowed to die and instead begin to bleed out. If they can’t be saved, it’s game over. It’s very unrealistic for a game about fighting and for a franchise known for its brutal perma-death.

2 Best: Unique Characters

Instead of the traditional four basic character classes that characters can fill, Chimera Squad is made up of unique characters with their own skill sets. This means that they all play differently and work with certain other characters better than others.

They also each have some personality that is shown in how they speak to each other and to Whisper. It also shows their unique relationships with one another and how they feel about working with humans, aliens, or hybrids. It gives the feel of relatively normal beings who have special abilities rather than unfeeling killing machines.

1 Worst: No Customization

The thing in Enemy Unknown that everyone loved and was deeply expanded in XCOM: 2 was character customization. XCOM 2 had a plethora of customization options for characters to make a squad look as cool as possible.

Unfortunately, there is almost no customization in Chimera Squad. The only thing a player can do is change the color of someone’s outfit. The whole squad can match, but the color doesn’t really change much except for some of the cloth a character wears. There are no changes to armor, and they don’t look nearly as appealing as those in XCOM: 2.