The year is 1962 and the Cold War has the nation gripped by fear. A top-secret government unit called The Bureau begins investigating a series of mysterious attacks by an enemy more powerful than communism.
Looks interesting.
Just a follow-up. Having started playing it, I can tell you that so far it is interesting and a nice take on the X-Com franchise. I would say it isn't so much a take on X-Com beside adding some continuity background as much as it tries to add a layer to the general paranoia/political tension of the era.
Just a follow-up. Having started playing it, I can tell you that so far it is interesting and a nice take on the X-Com franchise. I would say it isn't so much a take on X-Com beside adding some continuity background as much as it tries to add a layer to the general paranoia/political tension of the era.
Is it available now?
Is it available now?
Yes, it came out a few days ago.
Haven't heard anyone comment further, but I wanted to say that I really enjoyed this game. If you are a fan of Firaxis' XCOM: Enemy Unknown version, you may find it to be a bit of disappointment.
But the small squad, live-fire idea was well done. It can be frustrating at times to get the right setup, but when you can get a combo kill or just setup the right strategy attack, it can be very satisfying to feel like you pulled off some victories.
The look of the game is well-done. I think the analogy most mentioned is the feel of the Mad Men TV show with aliens and sci-fi tech. That retro-vibe is definitely there and I think it is well-executed. There's also clearly some X-Files "alien mystery" elements that I don't think get as well played out as they could have been.
The game is far from perfect - there are game/story parts that seem incomplete; the AI can be dumb with your sqaudmates - which can lead to TPK; and the dialog piece is interesting but hardly critical to developing the storyline of the game. Still - overall - it is kind of cool game that uses a different sci-fi feel than usual. In some ways, it seemed more reminiscent of games like Fallout 3 or Bioshock 2 in its call back to a different era.
Yeah, it does seem to be a perfectly reasonable game, if not as great as the Firaxis one. The speed with which 2K moved on from talking about THE BUREAU to talking about ENEMY WITHIN seems to indicate they've already written it off, which is discouraging for the team but good for those waiting to buy it on budget: I suspect it'll either be discounted for ENEMY WITHIN's release or for the Christmas/New Year Steam sales, which is when I'll pick it up.
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I think The Bureau suffers the same way Invisible War suffered.
By its own, its a pretty fun game, has its flaws, but overall is a good what I'd call B+ game.
The trick is that the Bureau (like Invisible war) is following up on a bigger, successful brother (XCOM franchise) who it gets compared against.
So a so-so game in an excellent franchise looks like garbage to some folks.
My only major complaint with the bureau was the fact that your squad exists in a bubble around you, making attempting to flank in large arenas kind of irritating as the NPCs come charging out of cover to follow you, and usually get shot down as a result, causing your plan to collapse into frantic 'put back on feet' situations.
Not brilliant, but it was fun and some of the battles were great. The links to XCOM were tenuous, at best, and the attempt to link it in at the end was terrible.
This article on the game's hideously long and complicated development process is fascinating. 2K didn't bother to tell 2K Marin and 2K Australia that their sister-studio Firaxis was already making an XCOM game, and Firaxis (who knew about THE BUREAU from its original 2010 demo) were not allowed to talk to them about it at all. Absolutely insane.