The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

OK, so The Bureau is different to what XCOM fans would be used to, but does that make it a bad game? As a squad based shooter, The Bureau is reasonably good.

A competent tactical shooter that doesn't push any boundaries and is only peripherally related to XCOM. [Oct 2013, p.96]

The Bureau isn’t nearly as good as Enemy Unknown. Muddle through that initial disappointment though, and you’ll discover a fun third-person shooter/strategy hybrid that, while flawed, refreshingly taxes the brain cells and trigger finger in equal measure.

XCOM is like a BioShock wannabe. However, its great ambitions have led to its heart attack, and its tedious resuscitation leaves a mark. In the end, it woke up as a totally different game with the entirely new title. Well, the most important thing is that the game works, it entertains, it's looking good, and it runs like a wind. In short, the well-made tactical shooter.

All in all I believe if you pick up The Bureau I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. Unless you still think it’s an investigative ‘50s-set FPS. Or a proper strategy game. Then you might be.

With better polish and an add genius touch, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified could have been a great game. But for now, it's old technique, it's bugs and numerous incoherencies don't let this game into the hall of fame of videogames. Happily, the worthy gameplay, the 60's ambiance and the XCOM universe are here to salvage the game. The mix between action and strategy works well, and the choice in dialogues brings a cool RPG touch. In the end we go through missions with quite an enjoyment in spite of all this, and we don't leave the bureau that easily.

Not your average XCOM, but more of an "XCOM take on the Mass Effect recipe". Still, it's an enjoyable game with a nicely written story.

2K Marin has done their best with the almost impossible task to create a narrative rich, tactic driven TPS that justifies the name of "XCOM". The result is a decent and professional effort from a team that could have done better without being tied to that name.

The underutilized XCOM base is an appropriate metaphor for The Bureau itself. Limitless possibilities for intrigue, tactics, mystery and terror appear to be on offer. But The Bureau keeps most of it to itself, leaving only scraps and the grunt work of killing aliens.

Third-person shooter fans will find some fun, and XCOM fans that don’t mind some real-time action can get their fill as well. Just don’t expect anything revolutionary or mind blowing when playing it.

A mediocre cover-based shooter combined with a mediocre turn-based tactics experience that is peppered with RPG seasoning, and the whole is lesser than the sum of its parts.

The storytelling keeps you interested but neither the shooter nor the tactical elements live up to their potential.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified feels confused and half-finished, a hollow but beautiful slog through XCOM’s early years.

It’s a pity that this once high-concept project devolved into a mindless imitation of Mass Effect.

For all that The Bureau get’s wrong, it is at least a passable tactical shooter with a novel, well-realised setting. If you love the golden age of science-fiction, there’s something here for you. Just don’t expect it to ever get truly interesting, because XCOM Declassified never captures what XCOM is all about.

Wasted potential. [Issue#139, p.98]

A solid tactical action game of the third person perspective that lacks miscellaneous content and sturdy narrative along with its mission design. The beginning and the end are excellent, but the in-between part is lame. [Issue#233]

Like the redacted CIA documents featured so heavily in the game’s marketing, The Bureau comes across as disjointed, baffling and inconsistent. But moments of clarity may well keep you interested in what lies beneath that faltering surface.

Maybe if it had scaled back the scope of its X-Files-meets-the era of Mad Men concept, focusing on the earliest incursions of the massive conflict brought to bear in Enemy Unknown, it might have helped rein in some of the crazier, stupider, and more aggressively junky portions of the game.

The horrible voice acting, the bad controls and the mediocre level design prevents The Bureau: Xcom Declassified from reaching full potential.

All in all, it's just the shadow of a bigger, more ambitious game and proof that it's not always sensible to listen to that angry mob on the internet. Sometimes you just have to stay the course, weather the storm and trust that your vision was right all along. Otherwise you end with something that – solid as it may be – is missing consistency, direction and identity. It's just a shame that it had to happen to this one.

It’s a slick slice of B-movie alien blasting, in short, but we’re glad it’s standing alongside a more authentic take on XCOM rather than wearing its visage but not quite acting the same.

Most of the pieces for an interesting, compelling experience are there, but they simply never come together to create a memorable affair.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified mirrors but never masters. When it gets down to the shallow shooting, it fares well, equipping you with some fun futuristic weapons and letting you go to town on nasty intergalactic intruders. But the game gets in its own way, stumbling when it seeks to siphon strategy mechanics into a formula that doesn't support them.

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.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified aptly illustrates my view of the XCOM series, as a whole. All of it sounds fun on paper (Mass Effect-style combat in a 1960s setting) but the execution falls flat. Whereas Enemy Unknown was simply overrated, but still solid for a single playthrough, The Bureau was a struggle to even finish. Every conversation was painful, every trip through the home base felt pointless and every combat mission left me screaming at my teammates’ incapacitated bodies.

There’s a good game here and it’s certainly the contemporary title 2K was looking for, but it’s Firaxis’ “outdated” effort that comes out on top if you want a modern taste of XCOM.