XCOM: Chimera Squad is one of the largest surprises released this year. Released 18 days after its announcement, Chimera Squad does experimental things to the XCOM formula.

Core combat mechanics have been altered, base building has been removed, and world-building is at an all-time high. With the ambitious changes Chimera Squad makes, a few of them are bound to raise questions. The setting, mechanics, and strange details can raise an eyebrow for XCOMfans and newcomers alike. Ranging from ammo to an unintuitive base, here are 10 things that make no sense about XCOM: Chimera Squad. This article contains spoilers for XCOM 2 and slight spoilers for XCOM: Chimera Squad.

10 Poor Base Design

XCOM might have been able to repurpose a cargo vessel into a stronghold with The Avenger, but it seems that they are unable to make intuitive designs for buildings.

At the start of every mission, Chimera Squad’s APC drives out of the headquarters and heads to a sector in City 31. The strange thing is the APC is stationed beside the exit instead of directly in front, resulting in the driver having to make an S turn every time they enter or exit the base. You would think that learning alien technology from the second game would result in better-designed buildings.

9 Purchasing Assembly Project Gear

The Assembly is XCOM: Chimera Squad’s research center from past games, granting new and powerful tools after a few days of researching a project.

Since Chimera Squad isn’t researching tech from dead aliens, they have to use a sort of 3D printer to help create better gear. This should mean that the Assembly automatically makes its researched items for you, but it only does this sometimes. Making every weapon in Chimera Squad’s arsenal modular doesn’t take as much as a credit, yet improving the damage of their weapons requires a repurchasing of said archetype? It makes sense from a gameplay perspective, but it seems strange that this 3D Assembler only sometimes needs resources.

8 Missing Point Blank Shots

XCOM: Chimera Squad might have altered core parts of the XCOM formula, but it certainly feels and plays like a traditional title. Part of that is the classic chance to hit percentages.

Your soldiers can have a shotgun, be within a meter of an enemy target, yet still miss the shot because the game decided you had a 95% chance to hit. The animation for this is comical as well, having your soldier line up the perfect shot then aiming 45 degrees too wide at the last second. Probability might dictate that the shot can miss, but seeing Godmother aim the opposite direction last second doesn’t make any sense.

7 Aliens Assimilating Into Society

Previous XCOM games made it clear that humanity, specifically XCOM, hated extraterrestrials. That is why it’s so strange that over 5 years, aliens and humans are mostly living in perfect harmony together.

Most of XCOM 2 was spent killing thousands of aliens to take back Earth, most soldiers holding a grudge for what they did to the planet. Yet, billboards for alien products and entertainment can be seen throughout Chimera Squad. Aliens also speak perfect English and are contempt with XCOM overlooking security on the planet. Grudges like that typically don’t go away after 5 years.

6 Infinite Magazines

Back when XCOM was developed by MicroProse, soldiers had to worry about ammunition as well as their chance to hit. To simplify the formula, Enemy Unknown removed managing spare ammo to keep gameplay fast-paced.

That still doesn’t explain how Agents in Chimera Squad can carry an infinite amount of magazines for their favorite weapons. Most weapons in Chimera Squad hold a set amount of rounds before a new magazine must be reloaded, but the reload action can be done as much as you want. Where are they holding all of this ammo?

5 Agent Recruitment

Replicating the recruitment process in previous titles, hiring Agents in Chimera Squad is mostly random. The moments where you obtain a new Agent are fixed, but the Agents you can recruit themselves are completely random.

The player gets to choose one of three different Agents during this process, not allowing more than 8 Agents per playthrough. Why not just recruit all available Agents at once? There’s more than enough locker space in HQ to allow everyone to work together.

4 Squad Limit

In terms of gameplay, the hard squad limit of 4 in Chimera Squad is one of the game’s best changes. It encourages synergies between Agents and makes positioning more important than ever.

Once you start looking at it from a realistic perspective, this limit falls apart. If Androids can be deployed immediately after an Agent goes down, why not replace those Androids with additional Agents? Better yet, why not just deploy those Androids alongside Agents during the mission? It doesn’t make any sense.

3 The Commander

Everyone referred to you as the Commander in XCOM: Enemy Unknown and XCOM 2, revealed in the second game that you are a real person in this universe. Does this mean that you’re still the Commander in Chimera Squad?

No one refers to the Commander directly in this game, suggesting that you are not playing as the Commander in Chimera Squad. Are the Agents behaving on their own accord, or is Whisper controlling them this time around? It wouldn’t be so strange in the Commander wasn’t a critical character in the second installment.

2 Torque’s Bind Kills

A small nitpick, but Torque’s Bind ability is lethal in Chimera Squad. Torque will frequently mention during a failed incapacitation that she should have “strangled you” instead, heavily implying that her Bind knocks enemies unconscious.

This is not the case. Any enemy that is Bound and takes fatal damage dies. It might be because her body crushes the target to death, but why does she imply that it is supposed to knock targets out? Bind might have been changed late in development to kill, or maybe Torque is used to constricting larger prey.

1 Who Needs Stun Guns?

Fans of Enemy Unknown were surprised when Chimera Squad reintroduced pacifying targets. The way it’s handled this time around, though, makes little sense.

In Enemy Unknown, capturing aliens involved creating a special holding chamber and a stun gun that could knock them unconscious. For Chimera Squad, no special room is needed and players simply use the butt end of their gun to get the job done. Even better, Tranq Rounds exist to make any gun non-lethal. Dr. Vahlen must have overthought how to take aliens alive.

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