Rating
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
The year is 1962 and the Cold War has the nation gripped by fear. A top-secret government unit called The Bureau begins investigating a series of mysterious attacks by an enemy more powerful than communism. As agent Carter, call the shots, pull the trigger and lead your squad in a gripping third-person tactical shooter set within a covert war to pr...
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The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Reviews
Professional reviews from gaming critics
I was really worried about this game. In an era where developers seem more interested in boiling every beloved franchise down to a cookie-cutter shooter, it takes real bravery to break out and do something different. Bringing a legitimate tactics structure into the third person shooter genre has given us a game that genuinely feels like XCOM, but is also something a little new to play and as such I really can’t complain about this as I eagerly await the next “genuine” XCOM title.
The Bureau delivers the best squad shooter since Rainbow Six: Vegas, and is successful in spinning an intelligent and twisting narrative, filled with fan service.
The latest 2K Marin game was created in pain. It's even more pleasing that The Bureau is a solid tactical shooter, which is an appetizer before the upcoming great autumn.
With equal emphasis on deep strategy and intense tactical combat, XCOM: Enemy Unknown places players in control of a secret paramilitary organization called XCOM.
With the core experience nowhere near as satisfying or well-polished as it could have been, the only real motivation to continue forward is to get to the next story event, or try to find the elements of the combat system that offer enough enjoyment to stay engaged. That's certainly enough for other franchises to call their campaign a success, but given the anticipation for The Bureau, and the new promise of the XCOM brand, it's not enough here.
It’s 1962 and aliens are invading. The only hope is a secret US military unit called XCOM and a nattily dressed, reformed alcoholic called Agent Carter. Playing as Agent Carter, it’s your job to bring down the xenomorphs in a third-person shooter that hopes to spice up all the story clichés and formulaic action with tactical twists inspired by the turn-based brilliance of last year’s XCOM Enemy Unknown.
Don't call this XCOM. While its tactical combat works well enough to prevent The Bureau: XCOM Declassified from being straight-up bad, everything else is fumbled so often and so bizarrely that I can’t recommend it. Hell, this prequel can’t even manage to explain where the name XCOM comes from even as it shows it being coined – it’s simply pulled out of thin air. That shoddy storytelling and poorly thought-out mechanics become the most memorable thing about it, and that’s not worth much.
“The Burau: XCOM Declassified fails to deliver on a promising set of ideas, with awkward writing and unreliable AI leading the charge into an uneven action/strategy fusion.”
In terms of length the campaign with all the side-missions done clocks in at around 12-14 hours, depending on how much you explore or how well you do. While not game of the year or anything and containing many features found in other games, along with a plot that utterly fails to sensibly connect to XCOM: Enemy Unknown despite 2K Marin’s best efforts, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is nonetheless entertaining. If you ignore the massive series continuity faults and just take the story as a pu...
The Bureau comes as a very pleasant surprise. It’s not a cynical cash-in on Enemy Unknown’s success, it’s not a forgettable me-too third person cover-based shooter and it’s not a clunky shoe-horning of familiar ideas into a new set of mechanics. The Bureau has occasional problems with pacing, it could do with a little more polish and it doesn’t revolutionise shooters but it does adroitly step sideways into a totally unfamiliar genre and it expands the greater fiction while doing so. Another successful XCOM mission.
From a first-person shooter set in the 1950’s to a squad-based third-person shooter set in the early 1960’s, via numerous missteps and delays, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified has been on quite a journey. And while developer 2K Marin may be putting a brave face on it, it’s hard not to identify this as the main reason for the game’s shortcomings.