The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Review

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Review

This review will be brief (by brief I mean a few pages long) so I will mainly talk about the main aspects of this game, at the same trying not to be biased (big Xcom fan), this is also my first video game review so if there’s any mistakes or spelling errors I’ll try and edit them later on.

The Bureau is the 2^nd latest installment of the Xcom series, the latest was Enemy within, an expansion pack for Enemy Unknown. The Bureau strays away from the previous
installments, being set in the past instead of the future and a 3^rd person tactical shooter instead of a top down tactical map view. The Bureau is set in the earlier 1960s, the game focuses on an alien invasion and you play as William Carter, who sounds like Clint Eastwood, trying to stop the alien invasion, while finding a cure for a virus which turns humans into sleepwalkers, (Zombies which do not attack).

Sleepwalkers, despite their appearance are harmless

  The game starts off with a meeting, the director of a group called Xcom informs a number of representatives from the CIA, FBI and US Army about a new signal, not human, one character blames communists, due to the game being set in the early 1960s, after a brief discussion it than skips to the main character William Carter, I won’t give any more information about the opening, apart from that it jumps straight into the action. After a brief introduction you jump straight into the action, aliens invading and attacking a military base called “Groom Range”, you witness you fellow solders get wiped out by alien forces, I must say this level is one of the best openings I’ve played in a while, explosions and destruction everywhere. Let’s talk about characters, most of the characters are dull and generic, these characters are the more interesting characters, let’s start off with  the main character William Carter, war hero and CIA operative, who lost his family to a house fire, he blames himself for what happened, Carter is one of the most interesting characters on the game, a few other characters are Director Faulke, Carters boss who spends most of his time talking about how to defeat the aliens and what’s the next step, Agent Weaver is the second main character, she hates aliens more than Carter does and the last character is Nico Dasilva, he only appears a few times in the game despite being one of the most important characters, he appears in the DLC “Hanger as a playable character.
    

Let’s talk about the gameplay, the gameplay is similar  to the Mass Effect series, using quick commands to order your squad to move or take down an enemy, which is great apart from that sometimes your  squad fail to move to a specific location and will sometimes run at the enemy, it’s not perfect and it’s not bad. The Bureau, much like every Xcom game uses a squad system, recruit solders and create your own squad, the hardest part is making sure they survive or its game over, I remember playing Enemy Unknown I spent hours trying to keep my squad alive, The Bureau changes this it’s a lot easier now, I’ve only lost one squad member compared to the number I’ve lost in Enemy Unknown, anyway let’s talk about the classes, the classes are commando, medic, sniper and engineer, each one has a unique power, so medics can heal you, snipers/scouts can call support , engineers can lay down turrets and commandos can distract the enemy.  Much like the previous Xcom games you can customize your squad, by changing the colour of their suits, changing their weapon load out and backpack, the customization is basic, but gets the job done. The only downside to the squad system is that you can only pick two, which sometimes is a pain, because most of the time you are outnumbered, however it adds a challenge to the game.

Let’s talk about the enemies on the game, two words can describe them unforgiving and annoying, I’ll explain why, enemies earlier on in the game are extremely tough, even on normal difficult the enemies are hard to defeat, so expect to get annoyed and end up throwing your controller out the window. Much like your squad, the aliens have classes, so Snipers, solders (called outsiders), greys (sectoids, if you’ve played Xcom Enemy Unknown, they are the easiest enemy to defeat, not any more) and lastly Muton (The brute, if not the hardest alien on the game to defeat, especially later on in the game). The aliens are one of the smartest enemies I’ve seen in a game, they flank, they throw grenades; communicate with each other and so on, my only negative thing about them is that sometimes they run around like a headless chicken, meaning that you can easily attack them and they won’t fire back.

Keeping your squad alive is essential in this game 

 Let’s talk about the level designs and missions the level designs are amazing, being set in the late 50s early 60s, so diners, garages, hair dresses and so on of course with a twist, the aliens have built their own structures around former towns, houses have been demolished, cars and trucks litter the street along with corpses, the level designs are dark and gritty, later on in the game you get to visit space and another planet, sounds fun but it’s really not.

Let’s talk about missions; The Bureau has three types of missions, the first is the main storyline, these missions are focused around the story, the second type is side quests, which are mainly investigating small towns and military outposts, blowing up alien factories etc, some side missions are unplayable, meaning that you can only send your agents to do the missions, the higher the rank of the agent the more likely the mission will be successful, my only gripe with this is that you can’t fail the mission, unless you send your lowest agents, even than you still have a chance to pass the missions, these missions are really only used to level up your agents and to tell a back story to events happening in the main storyline.

 

Level designs are almost life like

 

Let’s talk about the sound, I won’t go into much detail about the sound, apart from saying that it is great, the sound of gunshots and laser shots are well done, however sometimes sound effects can be out of sync and some characters do not move their lips when talking, however the music in the background makes up for it, I remember playing one mission where you visit an empty camp site, most of the campsite was destroyed, the only thing which was left standing was radio which at the time was playing "Walking after midnight", it was amazing yet at the same time creepy because it was still playing despite a war going, if you like songs from 50s and 60s, like Buddy Holly, Hank Williams and Patsy Cline, this game is perfect for you.

Dialogue can a be a bit boring sometimes

Overall The Bureau is an amazing game, despite going through a number of developments, the game was originally going to be a first person shooter similar to Bioshock, however it was later changed, (the original E3 2011-2012 footage is still around on YouTube, I’ll recommend watching it). The game starts off strong, but later on the game gets a bit confusing, some features like, traveling through space and going to other planets seem out of place, maybe because the game is set way before the moon landing. I will also mention the downloadable content what has been released, the first is a weapon, a light plasma pistol extremely useful and powerful, the second is hanger 6 r&d, adds a short campaign to the game and a new playable character.  With all these points The Bureau deserves to be a worthy

7/1O  

The Good

·      Amazing soundtrack

·      Interesting storyline

·      10-14 hours long

·      Large Level designs

The Bad

·      Not enough side mission’s

·      Some characters seem boring and dull

·      AI Squad 

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