In the first few minutes after starting up XCOM: Chimera Squad, returning series players will likely feel both rushed and a little confused, but give the game some time and it's easy to fall into the familiar rhythm of base upgrades, statistics and resource management, and tactical turn-based battles players are used to.
No longer can players spend literal hours inching their squad forward step by step across a map, and the death of a main character now forces a game over instead of just being thought of as another casualty of war, but once players grow accustomed to these changes XCOM: Chimera Squad still offers the tactical options and science fiction tropes fans of the franchise are looking for. There's a speed to XCOM: Chimera Squad which the series has been slowly building towards throughout both main installments of the modern-day rebooted XCOM franchise, but reaching it means the game must sacrifice some important elements which made it popular to begin with.