XCOM:Chimera Squad – Gameplay and Development

XCOM: Chimera Squad is a turn-based tactical video game developed by Firaxis Games and published by 2K games as part of the XCOM series. It is set as a sequel to XCOM 2: War Choose 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 Microsoft Windows on April 24, 2020.

Gameplay

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 or to patrol one of the city’s nine sectors.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.

Development

According to XCOM 2 lead developer Jake Solomon, the development team for Chimera Squad includes many people from the XCOM 2 team, though he himself was not part of the project. Work on Chimera Squad began after completion of the XCOM 2: War of the Chosen expansion.