In defense of XCOM: Chimera Squad

XCOM: Chimera Squad was announced less than two weeks before it was released, and then was sold for an introductory price of $10. You'd think that would garner it some goodwill—given how often people complain about games being hyped up years ahead of release, looking at you Elder Scrolls 6—but instead it seemed to give people just enough time to sharpen their knives.

Even mild reviews called it a "watered down" version of XCOM, while ours said its strategy layer "feels like fussy, abstract...