The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (2013)

This videogame looked promising at first, a 1960s Cold War setting, XCOM branding, and the idea of blending squad tactics with a third-person shooter. This was my first XCOM game and it looked interesting enough to me, because I was used to similar games at the time, but after a few hours, it just didn’t click. The atmosphere feels underused, the story is slow to get going, and the gameplay looked interesting in trailers and reviews, but did not managed to catch my attention long enough. The squad commands are clunky, and the early missions feel repetitive. It’s not bad exactly, but it didn’t hook me enough to keep going, it might please fans of the series though.

As I played more, the combat started to feel like it was stuck between two ideas and never fully committed to either. As a shooter, the gunplay lacks weight and urgency, and as a tactical game, it feels too simplified and restrictive. Issuing commands pauses the action, but the options are limited enough that it rarely feels clever or satisfying, and firefights often blur together instead of building memorable scenarios.

What disappointed me most is how much potential the game leaves on the table. The 1960s paranoia, secret government agencies, and alien invasion themes could have carried a much stronger narrative and identity, but they remain mostly surface-level. Instead of pulling me deeper into its world, the game feels like a cautious experiment that never finds confidence in what it wants to be, making it hard to recommend unless you’re already curious about this odd chapter in XCOM’s history.

As far as XCOM games go this one is an odd duck. Part of that is the retro 1960s America aesthetic which is definitely different than the muscly near-future vibe of most other XCOM games. But this game made some weird design choices and had some strange story beats too. Here is my experience with the game.

--The Good--

I'm a real sucker for retro Americana aesthetics in video games. That's one of the reasons I remain a staunch defender of Bioshock Infinite. So when everyone in this game is standing around smoking, wearing fedoras and ties, and hacking away at typewriters I was already having a great time. I also especially enjoyed the missions where you actually had to move through human settlements because they featured all those same aesthetics.

The gameplay itself though was hit-or-miss. It is basically a squad-based tactical shooter with active pausing (if you don't mind some video game lingo). Nothing ground breaking, but still entertaining when it worked. There were moments when everything came together and I really felt like I was fighting an overwhelming alien horde with a few good men at my side. I felt like one of those down-and-dirty war heroes. But sometimes I found myself wrestling with the controls and the over-eager AI of my own squadmates. Autosave is pretty generous though, so when that happened I'd just reload the last checkpoint and start the battle over again.

--The Bad--

Most of my problems with this game came down to the story. The first major problem was that this game was a bit shy, avoiding uncomfortable truths from 1960s America. There was one scene (early in the game) where a black man was confronting a white man about leaving town to avoid getting killed by aliens. I don't want to regurgitate the whole scene right here, but if you saw it you could tell that the game wanted to make a statement about racism, but that it just couldn't pull the trigger. It almost felt like it was a more racially charged scene at one point but someone toned it down. I'm a white guy so I don't want to overstate my case here and speak for people of color. I was just disappointed in how the game took an easier path.

The second major problem I had with the story is that it had some weird moments and a weird rhythm, especially towards the end. It is difficult to describe exactly why it was problematic. I think it was a combination of flat and uninteresting characters, a seeming lack of understanding of how human psychology actually works, and an attempt to add some "twists" that just felt tacked on and unearned. I can't say too much more without giving away some big spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.

--The Verdict--

Like many media experiences, your expectations going in to this game will have a big influence on your play through. If you are expecting a traditional XCOM experience set in 1960s America you will be disappointed. If you are hoping for deep tactics or deep customization you will be disappointed. If you are hoping for an interesting ending or interesting characters you will be disappointed. But if you can get rid of those high expectations you will find a passable and even entertaining tactical third-person shooter. It is relatively short (it took me about 15 hours to tackle the main campaign) and has some fun battles.

Grab it on sale though. I got mine for $4 USD, but I'd probably pay as much as $10.

Imagine a game company who wanted to make the most annoying game possible. How would they do it. Would they make a shooter with mediocre controls and sticky covers? Would they make your teammates not only dumb, but positively suicidal? Would they make it buggy so that sometimes they froze in place after you issue an order or the sound suddenly started to get choppy after reloading? Maybe they would make your bullet capacity so stupidly low that the message "Low on ammo" appears almost instantly after you start a firefight? What if your mates are constantly shouting the same exact canned reactions over and over? And what if one of them is "Run! Grenade!" but most of the time they just stand there waiting for it to blow them to pieces?

Yes, and they would also give it the most nonsense title they could come up with.

Gameplay: 2 /5 Story: 3 /5 Presentation: 3 /5 Difficulty: 2 / 5

Basis:

Story= plot progression, intrigue, characters, world

Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty

Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music

Nothing really made it stand out as special. I did get frustrated that half the time enemies would spawn right on top of your squad's position if you pushed forward too much in a firefight. That is a very frustrating game design flaw.

I dusted off my old PS3 to play this game that was a part of my Humble Bundle deal. Going in I knew this was an XCOM game not well loved by the XCOM community & I hadn't any real interest in playing it, until I heard a reviewer mention it was about the founding of XCOM in the 60s. A game set in history? Yes sir, I'll play through that.
So, I'll start with that, the setting. I'd say the 2K team did a good job in capturing the feeling of the late 50s\early 60s. Your Area 51 base looks like an old NASA control room with the bulky, old computers and a haze of cigarette smoke hanging everywhere. All of the clothing looks very period, though I hate Carter's dumb turtleneck. All of the towns, farms, and forests you visit, which are about the only scenes you visit, have a very 50s, small town feel. And I liked that you had missions that take place in Indiana, New Mexico, & Oregon; not just New York or LA. And over the Base PA you hear reports about Cincinnati & other places. But as you progress with the story, you spend less time in 60s America and more in alien spaceships. Some people refer to it being very Fallout-ish. I figured it was just because it was set in the 50s & that's all they can relate to it, but they have an actual point seeing as your character has what looks like a Pip-Boy on his arm. The alien design is rather bland in this game. The buildings are all slate gray, sharp techno buildings and the main enemy, Outsiders, are pretty unmentionable, though their weird sideways mouth made me uneasy. There are classic XCOM baddies too, well just Sectoids & Mutons. If I were making this game I would really play up the cheese factor, revel in the fact it's set in the 50s, the prime time of Sci-Fi theater. Give the aliens a much more 50s aesthetic. I did like that the UFO the Americans build looks like an old-school flying saucer.
The gameplay is where the game falls down the most. It's a very bland, Mass Effect style cover shooter, solid, but bland. All the missions are "Run from A to B with a few arenas in between" & there's a useless dialouge system that's really only used in the base, rarely do you have a conversation with anyone in a mission. There is a Brothers in Arms type tactical mode for your squad of meat shields. It's not bad, but not good. The guns are lacking in my opinion too. It's an alien invasion, I would play up the resistance angle & give us more human guns to pick from, by mission 3 you already have moved on to the alien guns.
The story isn't great either, but the end has a neat twist. it's a standard story for the subject, & I enjoyed that the Director was voiced by Paladin Danse. Towards the beginning, the story seemed to gloss over certain parts. Characters knew things that the story acts like the player should know too, but I felt I was missing a few story beats. You play as Agent Carter; yeah, I wish I was playing as the smoking, Captain America one. No, it's WIlliam Carter, total jerk & Charlie Sheen look-a-like, with a past that tortures him to drink. His voice actor tried a little too hard to be grisled to a point of hilarity.
Now, right here I'm going to spoil the ending a little right here, so here I go. You learn pretty early that something isn't right with Carter, he seems to have a deeper connection to the aliens than he realizes. It turns out he has been bonded with an Ethereal that has been guiding his actions throughout the game. Once he kicks the alien out we realize it was the alien that was making Carter a functioning, tolerable prick. He is really a complete nut job who hasn't gotten over the ghosts of his past, and you play the last level as one of the secondary characters who takes on the Ethereal. That was a decent twist on the "Controlled by an alien" plot.

All in all, this game does get a bit repetitive in the gameplay department quickly, but I liked the 50s-ness.

i guilty admit to enjoying this game, it had some interesting aspects to it. suprisingly a lot of detail and creaitivity, and i first and foremost love to walk around and look in corners at random crud, (and it has a lot of crud to like to look at) but as a game it's mediocre. the best bits of it are actually in the xcom base talking to researchers personnel and going on side quests, etc. here we have filler, flavor, flair and (a bit of loreish) fun.

on the shooter side, the weapons are decent enough, squad customization is quite nice, there is a lot to like, and also a lot to hate. gameplay is a bit droll, the tacitcal dynamics while clever do get old kind of quick! RPG elements feel a bit gimicky given the pace and progression of things (but it's still a nice gesture!) i went into this game having only watched a shit trailer which doesnt do it any justice, this is more than just some ripoff of the franchise, it's got a lot of nice ties ins, however, its a small niche of a subtype of player who would actually enjoy it maybe:
probably should have some xp with xcom
have to like the lore/premise of xcom
have to like a lot of games in general (mass effect, Gears of War, etc)
liking that snazzy retrofurtism/fallouty junk helps
need low expectations
I am starting to notice just how many games have design that is largely inspired by mass effect, it works kind of nicely here , but i cant see much replay value. To draw a comparison it reminds me a bit of the Mars War logs series in terms of quality, style, tone and audience, but far more gneeric in the action aspect and way less on CnC and RPG elements... FWIW, If they make a sequel to the bureau i'll be sure to pick it up simply for continuity. the narrative was actually pretty above average for most games, and it had some nice twista and turns. nice story, some good story arcs above average characters nice detail in certain spots lore friendly and respectful of xcom franchise (wasn't expecting this one bit!)

mediocre cover shooter technical lag issues later in game (had to restart game ever mission) no real replay value i'm not really a fan of this ending, wasnt really 'resolved' via gameplay in the end the bureau was a strange game i found that shoehorns in a bit of besthesda take of fallout and gets away with it quite nicely due to the lorefriendly setting of advanced technologies in a retor environ. this adds a bit of flavor and style/aetsethic which it zeroes in on quite nicely. Little details are quite nice, like how smoking is rampant in the war room and the game has hazy filters for it to address the fact. For a franchise that has had some dry iterations this isnt half bad, but it's also not a TBT game... so wtf. I like the effort of translation and still thought it was cool but it only goes so far, yet at the same time a lot of games would beneift from having some of the details and agency the player has in this game. Still the burning question of who the game is meant for remains, it alienates classic xcom fans (who are diehard TBT nuts) and its not as good as authentic ME. That leaves a narrow band of who might appreciate and get good mileage out of it.