The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

A good game. It takes the strategy from XCOM and makes it work within a shooter-based gameplay. It's an enjoyable sci-fi shooter.

By resembling both a shooter and real-time version of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified isn’t the easiest game to grasp. Yet, if you tough it out through the game’s initial hours, there’s a lot gratification to be found in AI team management.

Although not perfect, The Bureau is a brilliant squad shooter with an intriguing story and brains.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a good shooter occasionally elevated beyond that by its subject matter. Unfortunately, every time it has a really good idea, someone else has already done it.

A smartly turned-out squad-based cover shooter, not to mention an authentic-feeling and authentic-looking period piece, The Bureau might not be as good as Enemy Unknown, but it certainly has a style and a charm of its own. The years of development hell have been worth it.

The Bureau is Enemy Unknown’s hyperactive younger sibling who delivers something different while still fitting in well with its predecessors.

Being an XCOM fan, I was sincerely hopeful that they didn’t destroy the name of this franchise with a generic third-person shooter, which could have easily been the case. But they didn’t. They did so much more. They expertly crafted the beloved gameplay elements of the XCOM universe into an intuitive third-person experience, while delivering an interesting story, which is no easy task.

There’s no sugarcoating the fact that The Bureau lacks much of the refinement we expect from modern triple-A games, but anyone who looks past the flawed surface will find a game bursting with brilliant ideas. With smart, engaging tactical combat and one of the most compelling sci-fi narratives the medium has seen to date, this one’s destined to become a cult classic.

Interesting gameplay mechanics and a suspense-rich plot make it a game worth to be tried, even if it could have been much better.

But in the end, The Bureau is a completely different game that stands on its own. While they didn’t make the next game of the year, 2K Marin has crafted their own XCOM adventure. It’s one that features some lifeless characters and a nonsensical story, but also some of the best squad-based third person shooting you’re going to see all year.