Platform: Steam
Store Page
Price I Paid: Free! (TremorGames)
Apologies on the lateness of the review, I was on holiday, back to normal now though.
Remember that really good XCOM reboot? Y'know, Enemy Unknown, it was another fantastic game made by 2K Games and they successfully rebooted the series, if I'd known that this was gonna be the outcome of a reboot then I would have told everyone not to reboot the fantastically tactical Enemy Unknown. We've went from a tactically bliss game to a third person, cover based shooter with those tactical mechanics blended in with what could have been a fairly decent game. When I say fairly decent, I don't mean the next game for the generations, we shall not worship it's godliness.
2K did their best with this game, I'll give them that. It's hard to give "teh aliens r here" a good storyline and it's rarely been done correctly, come to think of it, the only decent alien game at all is a movie tie in, being the magnificent Alien Isolation. So what's the game's biggest problem? That's difficult to pinpoint but I'll give it a go.
From a graphical standpoint, the game is nothing special, they're not bad, but they're not good either. Same goes for the shooting, it's very difficult to cock up shooting in a third person shooter, this game didn't but it gets so bloody boring it's tedious and monotonous. To combat this, the game tried to incorporate the tactical advantages of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it kind of works in this game and I see what they were going for but it was not executed well or properly at all. It was a nice idea, but there was definitely a way of making it easier to use and more user friendly.
It would be better if the AI wasn't so atrociously awful. You have to babysit them every step of the way as if they're two fully formed, US Military babies. It gets frustrating very fast and takes away from what little atmosphere the game has. Which is a shame because the things the game gets right, it gets them right. For example, when using the tactical-esq view, while it could be better, it works. Makes the AI function for a bit, allowing you to flank an enemy or ambush them. All the aliens look great, regular and classic aliens, the thin men and all the other ones.
It was a very bold move to make a game like this, it didn't pay off but I think it's worth trying it out for yourself to see what they did right and what they did wrong. If you want to play a really good game like The Bureau then play Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway. That was fun and did the tactical stuff well in a first person shooter.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified gets a 5/10
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