The Bureau: XCOM® Declassified™

When "The Bureau XCOM Declassified" was first announced it was going to be a first person shooter just with slight tactical elements and a completely different aesthetic to the original Xcom games. This caused a severe fan backlash and resulted in the devs saying very vitriolic statements like "you can't sell a strategy game in today's climate". Implying that the publisher 2K was just putting this game out to cash in on an old IP that still had name recognition. After this backlash Firaxis jumped in and created Xcom Enemy Unknown. Which was exactly what the fans wanted. Enemy Unknown did so surprisingly well it even funded an expansion pack and later a sequel. This begged the question, what would happen to the first person shooter project? Well it was turned into this game. The Bureau was turned into a third person shooter with Mass Effect elements. A lot of which seem out of place like they were shoehorned in as a response to the backlash. A lot of the problems with this game amount to it just being very safe and generic. The alien designs look extremely generic compared to the original first person shooter trailer. The main character is extremely bland and forgettable. The game's twist is the only memorable story moment and it leads to a very unsatisfying ending choice. It's unsurprising this game was so quickly forgotten by people because it really felt like the product an apathetic publisher was just churning out to make back on their investment. This to me is the definition of an average to mediocre game. Overall even to fans of shooters I would suggest looking elsewhere. It feels very boring and passionless. And I would sincerely suggest getting Xcom Enemy Unknown instead. Which felt highly polished and very inspired by comparison.

This was implied to be a prequel to the excellent XCOM: Enemy Unknown. However, this game has very little to do with either the XCOM reboots or the older titles. The development changed hands multiple times and it shows. There is no crafting, a staple of the series. Once you find a gun, it's available to everyone capable of using it. This means the careful planning of your research and construction of the other games is gone. Your squad's AI is terrible, often they will leave cover and stand in open gunfire while screaming they are under fire. Gone is the chess-like moves of the current XCOM games, it's pretty much your squad is cannon fodder and you'll do all the work. There is no pressure to do missions. In the other games the aliens will slowly build up in strength and numbers so you must continue to progress. That's not the case here. You have no consequences to doing This Mission over That Mission, another staple of strategy gone. You can't run in your base, which is tedious as often you have to go from one side to the next to progress the story. Slowly plodding along just to talk to Person A, then have to slowly walk back to talk to Person B happens Far Too Often. The story is... rough. The protagonist is so cliche and unlikeable. At one point (no spoilers) he did something so brain-dead stupid you wonder why the other characters didn't slap some sense into him. FINAL VERDICT Avoid this game even if it's on sale. If you've never played an XCOM game, you'll find better 3rd person shooters out there. If you have played an XCOM game, this is an XCOM game in name only.

Everything was going smooth until the last fucking encounter when they throw at you millions of enemies sudden just to piss you off. Seriously was liking this game until the last last part. I have no time to waste on this crap. If you can get it on sale for 4-5 eur you should try it but this is not x com game.

Crap stability - have fun copying DLLs around if you want the game to not crash. Crap controls (dock/hide on ledge and run is on same key) - wanna just duck anywhere? Tough luck - consolitis! And if to mock you - your AI mates do this. Wanna cancel an order - touch luck - backspace - un-rebindable! Crap AI. And now the killer: Half of that crap AI is on your side. It's like herding ants. Not going over the middle of the battlefield but behind cover while planting something? Going back to cover after leaving because hand grenade? Shooting at all? "Commander - we need help" lol. Thankfully I got this for only 5 bux.

This was hands down the worst X-Com game.. I bought this game day 1 of retail release on steam and it's one of my 20 more regretted games that I've paid for.. This plays nothing like any of the other X-Com games for starters.. The path finding was epic fail, and companions were useless unless manual control was used (even then odds of hitting a target is slim).. Leaving any of the other members of your team not controlled by the player just potatoes that couldn't hit the ground in front of them... I played and uninstalled it back in 2013 after encountering too many other bugs in the game added with the AI and pathfinding fails i couldn't enjoy it then.. Not sure what was or wasn't fixed/patched after I quitting it.. It should have and could have been a great game..