After its surprise announcement a little over a week ago, the next installment in the XCOM franchise has arrived – with XCOM: Chimera Squad. A new standalone entry that delivers a brand new XCOM-verse story on a budget. And by budget we mean it literally - its introductory price is an almost unheard of $14.98 AUD. And so, when deciding on which of our strategic minds was up the review task we simply took a look a the top-right corner of our collective screens and noticed that it was Adam Mathew’s turn.

An excerpt.

Honestly, if you have never played a game in this series, I probably don't have the space to explain the insane, Wiki-sprawling complexities of what's involved. Action-wise, XCOM is basically about a small squad of avatars taking pot-shots against a belligerent team of aliens or alien-derivative freaks. Every chess piece on this 3D board of carnage has a spot in a shuffling timeline located in the upper right of your screen. And when each piece steps up to the plate, it has a set number of Action Points to either fire, move, or use a fancy ability. Combat in XCOM is all about finding the right time and place to take the shot. Line of sight greatly affects hit-chance (where you’re given a handy percentage indicator), as does hunkering down behind cover.

This basic turn-based tactics DNA returns in XCOM: Chimera Squad, a budget-sized, back-to-basics spin-off that introduces a few interesting wrinkles of its own. Some of these surprises come in the form of setting, narrative tone, and a more simplified pre-battle management system.

One of those wrinkles is the surprisingly engaging new Breach mechanic.

Click Here to Read Our Full XCOM: Chimera Squad Review