The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

Better than it has any right to be, but still deeply flawed. [Nov 2013, p.68]

After all the problems, changes and delays in recent years, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified could have been much (much) worse. The result however is decent for the most parts mostly thanks to the intriguing and tactical combat system.

Given its fractured development and lumpen structure, the fact that The Bureau is actually pretty good is arguably victory enough. It's certainly the "contemporary" game 2K wanted - but it's never as inventive or memorable as the strategy game that inspired it.

Declassified may not be innovative or even very pretty, and it certainly has its problems. But this is also a strategy-lite shooter that’s more than the sum of its often rough-hewn parts. It's entertaining from start to finish, and feels a bit brainier than other shooters when it comes to gunning down hordes of enemies. In that regard, Declassified captures at least part of what makes the XCOM franchise so special.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is not the first-person shooter we were promised three years ago. Instead we get a passable third-person shooter with ambitions to be Mass Effect. Unfortunately neither the gameplay nor the story deliver, leaving us with a messy game with a groan-inducing twist.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified aims at combining Mass Effect’s combat with the trappings of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, but it fails to live up to either. The action is capable of offering some thrills, but The Bureau is a poorly put together game with a list of problems that prevent it from rising above mediocre. Disappointing.

It's not ready yet. [Issue#102, p.78]

A mix of tactical and shooter gameplay can work - it has worked in other games before - it just doesn't work well here. It's probably the result of all of the gear changing that the game had to do during development.

As is, The Bureau makes for a decent enough 10 hours of alien-obliterating combat, but all the way through you'll find yourself lamenting the many aspects that feel like they could have, and should have, been better.

It's to 2K Marin's credit that a game that began as an utterly cynical mistreatment of a beloved old title has ended up being an interestingly experimental game.

It’s just a shame that the whole thing comes in a package that looks like a rushed movie tie-in, as with more time to both polish the visuals and perfect the gameplay, The Bureau could have been more than just a throwaway shooter with strategy elements tacked on.

The game gets in its own way, stumbling when it seeks to siphon strategy mechanics into a formula that doesn't support them. The Bureau wants to rocket you into outer space, but it can't escape the gravity of the games that spawned it.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified doesn't tell much of a story, and the gameplay is split between the action-packed missions and the supremely boring HQ meanderings. You'll have a ton of fun when you're actually on missions, but that only accounts for 60% of the time you'll spend in game.

The Bureau is trying hard to pass as a shooter and a strategy game, but seems to accidentally squash its clever ideas with brute force. Though combat might slosh around and threaten to spill, it’s functional. The presentation can only be called cheap, but there’s a dab of polish.

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.