Recent reviews by 1helluvaman

[Conceptualization: Easy] Games can be art.

TL;DR: a decent XCOM spin-off with some interesting new things and focus on combat. Buy it if you miss XCOM and can deal with the simplified strategic (Geoscape) part of the gameplay and mediocre plot.
If you haven't played any XCOMs, buy XCOM 1 or XCOM 2 (XCOM 2 + WotC is the best choice), these are better and deeper. XCOM 1 can be played on mobile, with the wonderful Enemy Within DLC!

LONG VERSION:

So I have just beaten the game: non-Ironman, second-hardest difficulty (before it was called Classic, but i think they changed the name). My thoughts while emotions are fresh:

OVERALL the game is good if you miss XCOM. The campaign is not very long (though took me almost 30 hours to beat so compared to most other games it IS long). I have restarted encounters/missions 4-5 times.
The events take place 5 years after XCOM's victory in XCOM 2 where humans learn to live with aliens. The Chimera Squad is formed in City 31 to combat terrorists (think SWAT).
Many people claim that 5 years is too quick for people to get used to living and communicating with aliens who threatened Earth. (They also rage about the game being filled with 'SJW ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥t'.) I agree but believe that writers tried to look at the brighter side and praise our ability to cooperate and tolerate. The SJW part is where I disagree completely — there's nothing wrong about a squad of humans and aliens who communicate and joke. The quality of the dialogues is not the best though, and I can't say I really followed the plot — it's mediocre at best, but that's not what I like about XCOM.

Each combat is a sequence of encounters, each of encounters begins with the Breach phase, where you choose how to position your operatives on predefined Breach points. You can also use some abilities or equipment there. I can't say this is a game changer but it freshens up the fights, especially when you choose to restart the encounter.
During the Breach you choose which enemies to shoot. Some are Agressive, and they will shoot back, some are on Alert and will do something defensive, some are Surprised and will do nothing. There are also some Breach-specific agent abilities (e.g. Verge can lift an enemy, thus preventing them from shooting back).
After the Breach your operatives take random covers and classic XCOM game play begins. Well, not classic — in Chimera Squad agents and enemies take turns. The order in which your Agents take turns is defined during Breach. You have some limited abilities to manipulate this order during combat. This is a crucial change for the XCOM combat's formula. I like it, and I think it plays well with the game's overall structure, but some may dislike it.
You can see the amount of encounters before every mission. However, on some missions you will have more encounters than this number; I didn't like this at first, but then I realized that this certainly makes the game less predictable and routine.

Strategic-wise, the game got worse compared to the previous games. Research is nowhere near as fun as before — you just research new armor that gives you +1 armor point and a utility slot (and you can't have 2 grenades on an Agent! Maybe one Agent can do this but the ones I played with can't do that — pretty sad considering how useful they had always been for me in XCOM 1-2) or guns that give +1 damage.
There are 3 criminal factions in the city that you need to beat. Some use robots, some are psionics etc. You choose a faction and fight it until your victory, then you choose another and repeat the process. As I said, there are different types of enemies in each faction so this makes sense. You can also research faction's items and buy them in the shop when the faction is beaten.
There are plot missions which unlock after a certain amount of days, and there are random missions that pop every day; you can choose to take them or skip the day.
Also you can add a new operative to the squad when you beat a faction, at the end of the game you will have 8 (max squad size is 4, though). Each operative has unique abilities and as in previous games you unlock new abilities with each level, on some levels there are 2 options to choose from.
The rest of the strategic part is really nothing to care about: there is Anarchy level that rises when some parts of the city are on unrest and if the said level reaches some number you fail the game... But it's easily manageable and I was never on the brink of failure. And there are no disadvantages if the Anarchy level is high.

Of course this is a step back from previous games. But, on the positive side, it lets you focus on the combat, which is quite enjoyable in this spin-off, and the game's pace feels faster. After each encounter your operatives heel to full HP instantly and are ready for next combat. If they were gravely wounded on a mission (1-2 HP or downed completely) they will receive a scar which can be removed if you put an Agent on a few days' training. You don't have to manage fatigue and wounds like in XCOM 2 (or was it in Long War 2? I played plenty of both and often mix them up).

Summing all this up, I'd say it's a decent game (even more so considering its price tag) with fun combat that feels fresh and familiar at the same time. The missions never felt routine (looking at you XCOM 1-2! I mean they're fun but sometimes I found myself bored). But the game would look even better on mobile platforms, I would probably give it another go should it be released on Android.

P.S. I did experience some crashes and sometimes had to restart the game; maybe hardware problems, consider other reviews if you want a bigger picture about the game's performance. Also there are some minor bugs which could be seen in previous XCOMs (e.g. sometimes you don't see the damage dealt message, sometimes the camera is acting crazy etc.) but overall it plays well with stable FPS.
My con fig is i5 6500 / 16 GB RAM / Radeon 5700 XT.

QUICK GAMEPLAY ADVICE (VERY LIGHT SPOILERS):

— Remember that the breach order is the turn order!
— Blue blood is a killing machine
— Terminal is insanely useful (she can heal an ally every turn, has an ability to immediately give 1 action to another Agent) and I took it to most missions, if not all
— Zephyr is okay, it lacks damage, but she can draw fire and (when leveled up) root/stun multiple enemies, this helps. Try sending her first in all Breaches to enable Parry
— When you beat the last faction, you will have to send squad on critical missions for 2 consecutive days. These are final missions, you might want to account for this and try to delay beating the faction as long as possible to unlock everything

Still the best third-person shooter out there. There is a cover system and bullet-time jumps, but the gameplay is never about 'sit tight and shoot'; you have to be on the move constantly, enemies will outnumber you but they will also outmaneuver you if you don't move. Max has weight and you have to think ahead if you don't want to end up bumping into a wall when jumping. Overall the gameplay feels very natural and challenging.
The storyline is weird, to my mind it's OK. But I am certain that it's not a revelation, neither it is flawless; motivation of some characters is questionable etc. But this story puts us into the darkest corners of Brazil, setting-wise there's nothing like Max Payne 3.
Music. HEALTH did some magic here, the OST is a perfect match here. Airport scene is in my heart forever.

There's one thing I don't like about this game: it's cutscenes. They tend to be quite long (not Kojima-like long but long nevertheless) and sometimes they are unskippable. This is bad for replayability (or for people who don't like the plot).

It's a shame this game didn't sell well. If you like third-person shooters, treat yourself and play this gem, it deserves your attention.

Не лезь, блин, пилот, твою мать, тупой. Ты чё, плохо в прошлой временной ветке сказали, что ли? Залезь, еп, аднака обратно, чёрт тебя дери! Тактик, блин. — Жуки тебя сожрут, блин. Зачем ты б?.. (Век опутывает паутиной) — АААА! — Бллинс! — ЁЁЁЁ! — Ду-ра! Бл… — ААА! — (Кряхтя) блин. — УУА-А-АААА! — Да емое, жука! (Безумный смех до конца миссии) — Оттащи ей, на. — Да как её оттащить? Блин, дурак, черт, ты, полководец. — Кулаком ей в глаз, в глаз, чтобы на один тайл отлетела! — УААА! УААА! ААА! — В воду, в воду давай! — А! Ай, блин! — В воду давай, блин! Пилот глупый, ты! — Ты чё, горишь? — Глупец ты, да ты… — Ублюдок, блин. — Лох, шахматист косоголовый, блин! Тупорылая жестянка, блин. — На… Ну все. Грид закончился. Открывай временную дырку и погнали по новой...