I want to tell you about an often overlooked game that I really enjoyed my time with.
The setting is AMAZING, you are in 1960s America trying to contain an alien invasion with your team.
It got a lot of flak because it used the XCOM name while being a completely different type of game and it definitely had some flaws (the gameplay reminds one most of Mass Effect 1) - but if you see it on sale somewhere give it a chance, I think you won’t regret it. If anyone else has played it, do share your thoughts :)
I have the same thoughts as you. I love the rebooted XCOM series but The Bureau is a lot of fun too and definitely didn’t deserve the criticism just for being an experiment in a different genre. The Mass Effect comparison is spot on, too.
Personally, was not a fan. While the gameplay is similar to Mass Effect 1’s combat (already not a stand-out, even if not bad), it feels so much more tacked-together, like they hadn’t started figuring out the gameplay until the last minute. Abilities and anything beyond basic basic aiming is clunky, AI characters are outright suicidal and it all just feels samey to play. The setting was cool though, at least.
The big part of the initial reactions had to do with the fact that Enemy Unknown wasn’t announced at the time so people were worried series will move in a completely new direction (anybody remembers Close Combat: First to Fight?).
The other issue (post release) was how different it was from what we’ve seen initially - it was suppose to be set in 1950’s, have first-person perspective, open-ended levels, info gathering, research and horror vibes (check this trailer and this gameplay).
By release that game turned into a third-person shooter with simpler, more linear levels, no research of alien technology and other streamlining measures. That doesn’t mean the final product is bad (I enjoyed it quite a bit and the “twist” near the end was a pretty neat addition), it just didn’t live up to the expectations and slowly fell into relative obscurity.
All in all I agree, play The Bureau if you want a different take on the XCOM universe. It’s a decent game.
Thanks for adding to the conversation! I didn’t know about the direction switch problem. I guess if I was an XCOM fan at the time it would irk me too
This controversy was actually how I found out about the classic XCOM (I may have heard about it before but never really looked into the series before that).
Truth be told, the whole thing could’ve been avoided if not for 2K’s lack of foresight - not only they decided to call the game XCOM but also Enemy Unknown was already in production when they revealed the FPS version. All they had to do was let people know it wasn’t the only project in the pipeline (though lack of such announcement may have been caused by the development issues with EU at the time).
It has beautiful maps, but also one of worst plot twist in gaming, story was engaging until that point.
Honestly it didn’t bother me that much, the story to me was more 7/10 forgettable rather than off-putting.
I’ve dusted off my PS3 and X360 and started playing some of these yellow metascore games from 7th gen, like Haze, Bodycount or Enemy Front.
The Bureau turned out the most fun out of them all, if I were to review it back in the day I’d probably push the score to like 7.5/10
Also fun fact: in the side mission with that Russian spy, Russian spoken by both Carter and the spy is complete gibberish
Gonna be real chief, this is also one I legitimately enjoyed, it mostly got me into xcom in general
I’m a big XCOM fan, but I haven’t ever given this game a shot since it was so different. Will have to check it out.
(I also crossposted this to /c/XCOM)
I had some fun with this game but ran into a late-game softlock which prevented me from finishing it.
Same for me. Huge XCOM fan but I enjoyed The Bureau as well
