XCOM: UFO Defence, the game that started it all. Back in the glory days of turn based strategy games, this title was one of the very best. Being able to manage a base, troops and resources gave players a truly unique experience. As the recent strategy incarnation came about from 2K in the form of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, there was one title that players had been waiting to see more of since its original reveal back in 2011. This was The Bureau: XCOM Declassified and it was going to turn the series into a strategic action RPG experience for the first time. Did this idea work or was it an idea best left for the archives? Let’s ready up the Sky Ranger and find out.

The story circles around FBI agent William Carter, who is tasked to be the courier of a very important case. As the story unfolds, he finds himself in the middle of an alien invasion and is assigned to become one of the key figures in the XCOM initiative. The story is constructed quite well early on. You get to see Carter experience the initial alien invasion as well as witness flashbacks to his past demons. An interesting note to point out is that you can find a dossier of Carter at the beginning of the game in the XCOM base. This helps with identifying the characters past and helps with the later events. Although the story early on is great, later it gets really confusing and in some cases just bizarre. Carter is a well depicted character but the narrative of the game does not help his development mid to late game.

It is great to see the Sectoids make a return to the series, looking very good

Before hitting the gameplay, it is very important to bring up the aesthetic touches of The Bureau. The game is not intended to look realistic by any stretch of the means. It carries across a very similar art style to Bioshock, which works really well. The areas you explore are very different and allow you to see the differences between towns, villages and farmlands. One key issue with the graphics are the sky boxes. These are quite badly done and in most cases seem very pixelated and static. This is very apparent when it comes to later missions as you would expect to see more alien ships fly over in the distance or at least see some more mayhem in the background to further immerse you into the environment. They just lack that extra touch needed to make the world and the situation seem larger in scale, which is a letdown. It is also key to note that quite a few assets seem to be reused and in some cases, character models are directly copied from one NPC to another.

With the graphics out of the way let’s get to the biggest area, the gameplay. This was the one thing that many people were keeping an eye on since the series was initially a turn-based strategy series. Did they do a good job? Kind of. Early on, as you are introduced to the combat and strategic elements, the gameplay is really solid and works really well. Especially when it comes to pin pointing locations for your allies to move to with the shield indicator for cover, as seen in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. Stacking many different orders to your allies does not get them confused or muddled up, as they will commit to every command you give them in order. This helps making very precise decisions that could be the difference between saving or losing one of your operative’s lives. With a good array of different classes to take with you into battle, players will be able to tailor their team to suit their own playstyles.

Your team can also be customised with names and coloured outfits

Now with that said there are quite a few problems involving the gameplay. First off is the variety of weapons. Although there is diversity from human guns to plasma technology, these new weapon types are given to you either too soon or too late. You will soon find yourself using laser technology as your main weapon types before hitting plasma, which is what you would expect. Speaking of plasma weapons, do not expect to go into these until very late in the game. By the time you have plasma technology by your side, you are on the final stretch of the game and the weapons are pretty useless. This brings me on to my next issue which has to do about weapon damage. Early on, as you would expect, you will see that human weapons are not too strong when compared with alien weapons. However, when you reach laser and especially plasma weaponry, you will see that these weapons get very weak very fast. In the final stages of the game you will have just as hard a time fighting enemies with plasma weapons as you would with human weapons, as there seems to be no difference when it comes to damage output. This in turn does not make you or your team feel as if you have come a long way since the beginning and feel as if they are just as weak as they were from day one.

The next problem with the game is the development of Carter. For one you do not have control over what you would want Carter to be, I.E. a Sniper, Support, Tank etc. You are restricted to having Carter with many support abilities such as healing (ironic since the medic CANNOT HEAL), summoning allies and buffing/debuffing the enemy. This is not cool as it doesn’t allow you to turn Carter into your preferred fighting machine, which would have been much better especially for replay value. A redeeming factor of the gameplay was that it truly emphasised strategic placement and use of abilities. If you were out of place, you would die just as quickly as you would in any of the strategy-based XCOM games, which adds a great nostalgic and authentic touch.

The medic cannot heal your team in battle, but can revive people at a faster rate

The last point to bring up concerning The Bureau is the ending. One of the most disappointing endings that I have personally experienced in gaming of late. There will be no spoilers concerning this, however just be prepared to have a lacklustre finish to this seemingly interesting title.

Overall, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified was a great attempt at trying to mould the series into an Action RPG. There were many promising elements in the gameplay along with a well structured story in the beginning of the game. However there are many problems that will interfere with the experience such as glitching AI, inefficient weaponry, questionable lip synching, misuse of certain XCOM alien types and a lack of any real replay value. The game will deliver a disappointing experience overall with an average of seven hours of gameplay, which is incredibly short in comparison to titles such as Bioshock and Mass Effect that share the same genre. If you are an XCOM fan at least give this game a try but maybe wait until the price drops a little.

So there you have the review of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, but what did you think of the game? Was it as powerful as an army of Mutons or was it as weak as a bunch of unarmed Sectoids? Let us know what you think in the comments below and be sure to share with us your XCOM experiences in the VGU Forums.