The Bureau: XCOM® Declassified™

Since the beginning of the game, you note that the game will put you through a very straight path, which you just follow, kill the enemies, and unravel the story (which isn't anything great). The tactics part of the game is the only good part if you're really a fan of it, but otherwise, the game got repetitive and boring pretty fast for me.

I loved The Bureau back when it originally came out in 2013, but I wasn't entirely sure what my experience with the game would be in 2018. Now after having replayed and sinking 40+ hours across Steam and GOG I can safely say this is one of my all-time favorite games. Commanding your squad and dominating the area by throwing down turrets, helper drones, and mind controlling enemies is a pure joy. Engagements are often tense and exhilarating on max difficulty where you will more often than not be constantly on the move and reshuffling the positions of your squad so they aren't obliterated by one of the many hulking opponents in the game. The lack of a complete pause when giving out orders, instead applying a slow-down effect where you can still be damaged, causing you to think fast, only increases the tension of combat. On top of that what really hooked me was the story and world design. Everything is played completely straight, you're never taken out of it with horrible comic relief characters. The vivid depiction of 1960s America ravaged by an alien invasion is taken seriously, which allows for a lot of quality character interactions and story developments. It's really quite immersive. If you account for The Bureau going through and surviving multiple reboots during development, which unfortunately turned it into more of a lower budget title, and the fact that the regular XCOM series is still kicking, then you might very well find something special here with this one.

Bring on the sci-fi B movie cheese. While The Bureau starts out with a bang, it kind of ends up becoming a bit too rote towards the latter part of the game. The continued combat encounters simply become too samey-feeling. So much so I ended up turning down the difficulty at the end so I could simply conclude the story. Its lower-budget status can also be seen in some at times truly bizarre facial animations. All in all, I don't regret my time spent on playing the game, but I wouldn't put it on anybody's must-play list. It's one of the many enjoyable-but-forgettable titles.

2K has retroactively changed their EULA. Now they collect literally anything on your computer (including but not exclusively visited websites or payment information for example). Not sure if they are also installing rootkit like software in the gog version like they do in non gog versions. gog should consider banning all 2k games because I dont think that their EULA complies with gogs vision...

Really enjoy the retro Sci-Fi vibe. Have been with the X-Com franchise from pretty much zero our of UFO Defense. The squad based cover shooter mechanics are average, and rather uninspired. These can be easily overlooked for the atmosphere, story and ambience though. The fact I can only play in windowed mode without a third party program for borderless full screen costs it a star. Would recommend this to fans of the franchise. Worth playing and was a good deal despite it's technical problems at four bucks on sale.