XCOM: Chimera Squad im Test : Test |CUP | Specs |Config

tl;dr: As soon as it was announced, XCOM: Chimera Squad has already appeared. ComputerBase took a closer look at the round strategy game and both tested the game and created numerous benchmarks. There, the old Unreal Engine 3.5 is not particularly pretty, but it is also not too demanding.

You seldom experience something like this. On April 14th, 2K Games announced a spin-off to XCOM out of nowhere and less than two weeks later the game is already here. XCOM: Chimera Squad does quite a few things differently from XCOM and XCOM 2 and experiments with numerous changed elements. The test clarifies whether that was successful and how the PC version works.

Chimera Squad is cheap with all the advantages and disadvantages

XCOM: Chimera Squad costs just 20 euros, until May 1st, only 10 euros. That is very positive, but of course it is hardly surprising that the spin-off, unlike XCOM 2, is technically lagging behind the release. The old Unreal Engine 3.5 is used again and optically Chimera Squad does not come close to the full price title XCOM 2 (technology test).

It starts with the almost missing cutscenes, continues with the simpler in-game sequences and ends with the game itself offering less optically. The developers tried to compensate for this with a slightly comic-like style, but immediately noticed. XCOM: Chimera Squad isn’t ugly, it’s just a lot less pompous. In view of the purchase price, especially at 10 euros, nothing can be said against the graphics, but there has to be a lot of progress for XCOM 3.

The graphics menu of XCOM: Chimera Squad is kept simple and very similar to that of XCOM 2. There are enough individual options, but comfort functions are almost entirely missing. There is only one FPS limiter (30 FPS, 60 FPS, 120 FPS and 144 FPS), but other features such as sample screenshots or up- or down-sampling are missing.

5 preset for a customized graphic

XCOM: Chimera Squad offers with “Minimal”, “Low”, “Medium”, “High” and “Maximum” 5 different graphic presets, whereby maximal also represents the highest possible details.

If you switch back from maximum to high, you primarily have to accept compromises in terms of shadows. These are then generally a little softer, while some objects are no longer covered with shadows at all. As a result, lattice fences suddenly no longer cast any shadows or the individual lattices are simply completely ignored. In addition, the textures lose some of their sharpness.

The middle preset makes the shadows even softer and other objects are excluded from the shadow display. In addition, the surrounding obscuration is also turned back. Medium is the last recommended setting, because with Low there are hardly any shadows and surrounding obscuration, which significantly reduces the quality. In addition, anti-aliasing is no longer effective. The minimum preset looks optically identical to Low.

The presets make big differences

The performance differences between the individual presets are large with one exception. If you switch back from the maximum setting to high, you hardly get any more power. On a GeForce RTX 2070 Super, the frame rate increases by just 5 percent, on a Radeon RX 5700 XT by just 2 percent. From the middle preset onwards, the jumps are significantly larger. Because then it goes a decent 26 or 27 percent forward.

With the low preset, XCOM: Chimera Squad becomes significantly uglier, but also significantly faster. On the AMD graphics card the plus is 33 percent, on an Nvidia accelerator it is 26 percent. The minimum setting increases the frame rate by a further 5 and 16 percent.

FXAA is available as anti-aliasing

XCOM: Chimera Squad uses FXAA for anti-aliasing, while MSAA, unlike XCOM 2, is not available. But that’s not tragic, FXAA does a decent job in the game, both in terms of image sharpness and smoothing. In the meantime, there are better solutions in both disciplines, but that hardly hurts with the simple graphics.

The textures are functional

The textures match the graphics of XCOM: Chimera Squad, they are not more than functional. In connection with the graphic style used, these are quite suitable, but you should not expect larger details from the surfaces. But the memory consumption is also limited. A 4 GB graphics card memory is sufficient for 1,920 × 1080 with maximum texture quality, 6 GB is recommended for 2,560 × 1,440 and 3,840 × 2,160.

On the next page: GPU as well as CPU benchmarks and frame times