The Bureau: XCOM® Declassified™

The setting, the characters, and the action are all pretty sweet. If it had any other name, it would have been received much more positively . 5 stars from me, I beat this game twice before I even bought it here. If this would have been just a game set in the 60s dealing with an alien invasion, and squad mechanics, I would have down. The Xcom part is not necessary at all, and that's what turns people off before they just enjoy it on it's own.

The game does a good job with the squad feature - a mechanic that many developers fail to get right (Battlefield 4 as example). It's nearly impossible to win the mission alone, and good placing of teammates, timing of their abilities and giving them targets can make the difference between victory or defeat. The weapons selection is OK, nothing too surprising tho. The 60's setting is quite a nice view, and old school science fiction works well. What I miss is the XCOM feeling, for me the story could have been changed with any other universe behind it and it wouldn't make a huge difference. The story itself is the average stuff - Fighting as underdog in missions to slowly regain ground, meeting characters etc. Speaking of characters: The main protagonist is an unlikeable jerk, the rest of the characterdrawing is kinda shallow. No protagonist in the game I miss after finishing it. Beside that the game consists of Corridors of Duty - a straight line from one action bubble to another with no alternative ways, the rooms or areas the fire fights take place are usually filled with lots of cover and at least there are different ways to move to the exit. Stealth mechanics are missing, it has to always end in a battle (at least it's explained in the story why stealth kills won't work). The AI does quite a good job, except for hitting targets. I played with two snipers in the team after the 3rd mission because they actually hit their designated targets compared to the other 3 classes. All in all: Nice game with potential, nothing really bad nor outstanding good. The XCOM label could be replaced with anything else as only some aliens and terms remind of it. For a few hours fun it's good, but replaying it wouldn't make a great difference in the experience. It's more a spin-off than a real prequel to the TBS games

It's not XCOM. It's not XCOM. It's not XCOM. Now that that's out of the way, if you're in the mood for a decent (but not great) third person shooter that plays exactly like Mass Effect with a story torn from the pages of Weird Tales. If that sounds like something that might be up your alley, this is definitely one to check out. While the gameplay may feel fairly rote, the atmosphere, environments and overall flavor of the game is fantastic. It feels like a great combination of X-Files, The Prisoner with a dash of Lovecraft. It's fun, pulpy and just a little weird but admittedly it is not for everyone. Classic XCOM fans should feel justified in staying away, but everyone else with a sense of fun can check this one out.

This is my first XCom game. I can't help notice how similar some aspects of the game's story and setting are related to Half-Life 2 but set in the 60s. I love the setting regardless, especially the retro-scifi aspect. There's lots to explore and choices to choose which affect the story and sometimes the missions. Tactics matter and are interesting. My only beef is what I think is the final mission pours too many tough enemies at you at once in a way to up the difficulty yet its seemingly impossible with a three member team. It's the only mission I had to replay more than five times (and I stopped playing for a while because of it). Guess it's time to get back to trying it so that I can see how it all ends. Anyway, great game. Love the atmosphere, the characters, and the action.

Just purchased the game recently; I didn't see this crash problem mentioned on the GOG reviews, but it hit me hard when I tried to play the game. There's a problem with PhysX causing CTD. I found a solution on a Steam post here: https://steamcommunity.com/app/65930/discussions/0/343787283754990191/ I'll paste the details below just in case the original post ever disappears: "Simple fix. For me I downloaded the newest NVIDIA Drivers. After you download them you will find them here C:\Program Files (x86)\NVIDIA Corporation\PhysX\Engine\82D8704BAB07. Copy a file called PhysXCore.dll then go to C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\common\The Bureau\Binaries\Win32 and find the same file. Delete the old one and paste the one you coppied before. And viola. fix"