Recent reviews by Synnal

Ok so just finished my third run so time for a review. Things you need to know.

-You will not beat this game on your first run. Its over tuned and challenging (Good thing in my book)
-Rogue like talents and card system give it many ways to approach how you play. (Good thing!)
-Bugs. I have encountered several of them and one that have actively killed my third run. (Boo!)
-For the price point (and the sale its on) its a buy for me. Maybe let the devs fix some bugs if that absolutely kills your drive to play games that JUST came out, but I like it.

Alright so I now have 24ish hours of playtime (Some on my phone) on this gacha game.

<><><>The Good<><><>
-If you love tactics games, a banging soundtrack, and a variety of game modes in a game this is a winner.
-Cross platform so I can play either on my PC or my phone with ease.
<><><>The Neutral<><><>
There is an energy system in the game, however there is a rogue-like mode which requires no energy use and is very fun to play.
Its a gacha game. You can advance with a credit card, however the rewards are very generous.
<><><>The Bad<><><>
Eventually you will hit a point that without reading guides, correctly managing skills or upgrades, and/or want to just kick on auto mode and progress you will have a bad time.
<><><>Final Notes<><><>
I spent collectively an hour just reading up on guides on reddit and haven't encountered some of the blocks people are reporting. As of this review I have spent $30 bucks because I am enjoying the game and will continue to enjoy it for some time.

Pro Tip: PLEASE read a rerolling guide on reddit. Get Gloria / Beryl / Inanna. Even having one of these units is a really good start, BUT you do not require them to progress early to mid game. Late game they are really nice to have.

I have completed the game as of this review.
Playtime: 8 hours - Pretty sure I did all the side quests.

I took my time with this masterpiece of a story. I read every dialogue of every npc I found, went back to those npcs to see if anything was continued (and in many cases there was), and was drawn in every step of the way. This is not a game you play for cunning game mechanics, action sequences, or mind blowing graphics.

This is a tale (Ha, you'll get it) of a deep journey of characters you will fall in love with.

I will simply put it as this: If you love reading a book where you get attached to a character and want more and more and more of their story then pick this up.

TIL: You DO NOT need legendary heroes or to pull on this game to beat content. The currency you get from playing is more then enough with a team of rares / epics to complete it. Big thumbs up on this one. If you want a *slight* and I mean slight advantage then spend .99 cents (well hopefully its .99 cents in your area) and choose the epic named Frurbath. He is a troll looking dude. he will hard carry you through early all the way to late game. You eventually get a rare selector box. Pick Sigrid. Chick poison archer. These two combined just wreck everything.

If you need help or guides, check out stewgaming on youtube. He has a google doc that helped me massively.

That's what I spent on the game and for .99 cents it was worth it.

Ignore the hours played as I believe this also counted Early Access. I'm writing this review STRICTLY about Release version.

Currently as of this review I have entered the last area (non linear campaign after about 30-45 minutes of gameplay) of Act 1...to my knowledge. I have 2 playthroughs near the same progression, one being 24 hours with multiplayer and one at 21 hours being single player. Two different stories, one being good and one me being an absolute murder hobo...or so I thought.
<><><>End of backstory context -> on too the review.<><><>
This is the game you wanted where you thought "Damn it would have been cool or cooler if etc." I started my single player game with one goal: Be a murder hobo playing as The Dark Urge. It started out like that until choices became a thing. Real choices. Deep thinking do I really want this or... and that's when it clicked. This is the game that went "So we went and made these choices matter, now have an existential crisis because YOU HAVE CHOICES. I have legit made some bad choices and I COULD just reload a save file, but I didn't want to because now...I am in this rabbit hole and only wish to see what awaits me through the tunnel.

TLDR: Buy the game. You will not have any regrets paying full price.

I have been playing this dlc for 15 mins. I have completed the first mission. The reactions alone which takes place after this dlc is worth it. I'd recommend getting the season pass if they are putting this much awesome in dlc.

~Review done 6 hours of playtime per save~
~Max party level is 11 atm with 9 units being able to deploy on the field~

If you are a lover of tactical turn based games that have alot of depth and customization for your party then this game is for you. No regrets paying $50 bucks for this game as I have never played this title or its previous versions. If Final Fantasy Tactics had the features this game has, I would love it even more. By this I mean I can CHOOSE to do a random encounter, set the AI on all my units and go make some food / browse reddit while they do all the work for me. Make sure to set your options to Automate battle messages if you want to do this.
This makes leveling new party members so good. You get an total exp pool that is evenly spread among all surviving members and if someone is level capped their exp just goes to the next person and EVEN better if everyone is exp capped, you get an item you can use on ANYONE in your unit list.

TLDR: If you got $50 bucks and love tactic turn based game, YES to everything.
Tip: Middle mouse button (If playing with keyboard) Is your friend. It switches camera angles and sorts the multiple information panels.

For those buying the game on April 1, 2022....The developer decided to do a massive balance change...for april fools. Its not gonna stay this way its..April 1. However the spicy level of tower balance is absolutely nuts and makes the game even more enjoyable. If you do buy the game STRICTLY on April 1st you may have a tough time as you don't have as many upgrades, I would suggest throwing all your XP in ballistas and Poison spray.

Also this game is great and you should buy it.

Alright 11 hours played all in one sitting. Here we go.

<><><>Game play Elements<><><>
- Roguelike - Dungeon Crawler? ✓ ✓
- Difficult? Scales from beginner to Is this Dark Souls meme
- Choices Matter? Yes! Tons of variety that never makes the game stagnant.
- Feeling of Progression / Unlockables? 100% yes. Some builds which you think are weak at first turn S tier unlocking new items.

<><><>Graphics<><><>
Maplestory HD - You don't play a rogue-like for its graphics, you play for the game play. Still decent though!

<><><>Bugs<><><>
11 hours through my first sitting and playing and I didn't encounter one. Can't say that for Cyberpunk...

<><><>Value<><><>
Not a single regret buying it at this price. I have unlocked roughly 28/78 (might be more) items and every run its a different
build due to different bosses.

Get it.

alright I'm a few hours in so let's get a early review in.
First I encountered a bug which forced the game to run on the integrated gpu. I was able to fix this by doing the following:
Locate your Steam Folder in Windows Explorer then go to:
Steamapps -> common -> XCOM-Chimera-Squad- > Binaries -> Win64
Locate the xcom application. Right click on it and choose your graphics card.
I then loaded the game through the application and it gave me a debug menu.
I loaded a game, saved, exited to desktop, and then loaded the game through steam. Worked just fine after that.

Onto gameplay! I'm currently running a impossible difficulty game and have completed 5 missions. By this point I've got to see the core mechanics, agents to use, and etc etc. The systems in this game are THEIR OWN THING. If you came for XCOM 3 thinking they just fluffed some new things in or beefed up graphics then you will be saddened. On that same note its still a very good change to see devs trying something new and it works FOR THIS GAME. I'm enjoying them as a very avid xcom fan who has played from the original series.

Combat: Much faster pace with some slight tweaks to smaller maps so you don't have to go enemy hunting for 20 turns. Maps have chances to include more then one encounter. The new mechanic "Breach Mode" Is amazing in my opinion. Giving advantages, disadvantages, and random elements spices things up and I have already seen (playing on this difficulty) I need to be more tactical. I'm pretty sure if you played on normal this will be a cake-walk. Still a two action system, however each unit are run on a turn based system which abilities that can alter it.

Squad: I've got 6 unlocked so far and boy are each one different. Their skills (When they get promoted) are game changers if you catch yourself in a bad situation. Load outs are key to making sure you aren't gonna get smashed going through the door and a nice thing is you can tint their armor. No character customization such as height, weight, skin color, etc etc. I'm digging them for their very slight story elements they dash in here or there. Nothing heavy.

Final Thoughts: For $10 bucks its worth it. I recommend playing on higher difficulties at the start. There are some bugs so don't come in thinking its polished and 100% tested. If you can ignore the minor details then I'd suggest picking it up.