Strategy video games are near and dear to my heart. My childhood was full of long nights playing Age of Empires II, Empire Earth, and Civilization III. Later, when my friend’s older brother decided we were mature enough to appreciate one of the greatest in the RTS genre, we were introduced to Starcraft.

XCOM Chimera Squad is my definition of a pleasant surprise. Just soldiering through quarantine on a lazy April Tuesday afternoon, across my news feed comes the improbable: a new XCOM game getting shadow dropped. Chimera squad is a $20 exploration into the ways that XCOM can, and I believe will, evolve.