When making a spin off, developers have two choices; they can either take the safe route and provide an experience similar to that of the main franchise, filling a gap between numbered sequels such as with the Kingdom Hearts and Assassin’s Creed spin off”s, or they can take the experimental route and completely change the dynamic of an established franchise, risking the wrath of keyboard wielding fan boys the world over. CCP Games did this with Dust 514, an FPS that not only took place within EVE Online‘s universe, but complimented it. Now 2K Marin are giving it a go with The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, a spin off title set in the world of XCOM: Enemy Unknown that may have strayed too far from its origins.
• Developer: 2K Marin
• Publisher: 2K
• Reviewed on: Xbox 360
• Also Available On: PC, Playstation 3
• Release Date: Available Now
Set in 1962 at the beginning of the war with the Outsiders, The Bureau revolves around William Carter, a plastic federal agent with a gruff voice and tragic past; he is the very personification of cliché. The story begins with Carter in a hotel room awaiting the pick up of a mysterious brief case he’s transporting. Without spoiling too much, all hell breaks loose and after a close encounter and a tight escape, Carter finds himself enlisted in the titular Bureau.
We’ve seen this set up a thousand times before, and the rest of the game doesn’t get any more original. Every element of The Bureau has been ‘borrowed’ from a number of superior existing games that I’m willing to bet are already in your collection. It feels like a homage or sorts, tipping its hat to its biggest inspirations, but by doing so it finds itself without its own identity.
Visually The Bureau is incredibly bland. It’s not the worst looking game I’ve seen, but it’s so painfully average it’s depressing. The same three colours are reused over the same three or four environments and assets. This is most evident in the optional missions, the majority of which seem to take place in and around the same farm.
The characters faces look like they’re melting, and their mouth movements are completely out of sync with their dialogue. I’m not expecting the same standard as Uncharted, but this late into a console cycle I’d be forgive for wanting a better standard than a 70’s Kung Fu movie. Everyone sounds bored and wooden, even during the games more emotional moments. The delivery of the whole thing feels like a B-Movie, which if intentional is actually quite genius.
Conversations with NPC’s use a very familiar looking dialogue wheel, giving the option to find out more of the story, unlock side missions, or just get on with the action. The extra dialogue options don’t carry anything of interest, and often repeat bits of information or deliver it out of sequence. It’s commendable that 2K Marin have at least tried to incorporate an element of choice into the game, and as the end approaches the choices start to feel like they will have some impact on the outcome, but the story is so lacking in substance that for the most part they serve no real purpose.
The story leaves a lot to be desired, and just as it seems to be developing, it’s over. There are optional audio logs and letters spread throughout HQ and missions to find, each containing a little extra information about the current point in the narrative, but they lack the depth of the logs found in games like Bioshock, and it feels like 2K Marlin have tried to fall back on their experiences with Bioshock 2 in order to deliver the story this way, but unfortunately they don’t have the ground work and example set by Ken Levine this time round, and it really shows.
The bulk of the gameplay revolves around missions, that can be selected and embarked on from a console in the Operations Room within The Bureau HQ, which itself acts as a lobby. Missions must first be unlocked, usually by speaking to particular NPC’s within HQ. Carter is free to wander around headquarters between missions and talk to NPCs, several of which have missions for Carter and Co. to take part in in the HQ itself, often rewarding extra missions and equipment.
2K Marin read the rule book on cover based shooters and followed it to the letter. Carter and his merry men spend most of their time walking through bland corridors until they reach an open area complete with conveniently placed knee high walls for a prolonged fire fight. It’s incredibly linear, and although there are the occasional branching paths to explore they usually just contain a letter or audio log about nothing in particular. Or a backpack.
There are three mission types in The Bureau; major, minor, and deployment. Major missions are the core of the game, they last the longest and progress the story; and minor missions see Carter and his team deployed somewhere to complete a small task in order to receive some new equipment.
Borrowing a key element from Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, the deployment missions see teams of agents being selected and sent out to complete objectives to gain rewards such as new equipment and agents. The deployed agents gain experience points while in the field, and can be levelled up upon return. Once they have levelled, they can be sent out on other deployment missions (assuming they’re unlocked), or put in Carters team for field missions. Each deployment mission last as long as it takes for Carter to deploy and return from the field, so with the right management it’s possible to complete multiple minor and dispatch missions before continuing with the story.
This element of freedom though, happens to be the narratives greatest downfall. As nice as it is to have the option to go out on side missions to break up the story a little, their placement completely ruins the pace of the story. I often found myself taking a detour to a minor mission when just a couple of minutes before I was told I urgently need to go somewhere else. This completely removed any sense of urgency from the story, the events of the world instead feeling like they were being put on hold for fifteen minutes while I visiting a farm.
Agents can be found in the field during deployment missions, or recruited from the console in the ops room. The are four classes to choose from; Support, Recon, Commando, and Engineer; each with different skill sets allowing for great team customisation. The agent customisation options are fantastic, if a little limited. They can be named, given a class, have a face chosen, the colour of there clothes can be picked, and how thy develop as they level up is manually selected. The interaction with each characters development is designed to make you grow attached to each agent, and it works quite well. I actually found myself caring whether they lived or died, and when they were downed I fought that much harder to get to them in time to revive them. Once they die in battle they’re gone forever, so it pays to be a cautious soldier as well as a stern leader.
The combat is borrowed heavily from Mass Effect in its mechanics, and although it works quite well, the fights can often become insanely repetitive as Carter faces off against wave after wave of enemies. The difficulty tends to spike quite harshly too in some of the battles, but a quick reload and a change of tactics will see the problem resolved. It’s through control of the squad however, that The Bureau begins to shine.
At the touch of a button a radial menu appears; it is split into three sections, each section housing a team members skills that can be used in battle. It’s possible to instruct the agents to move around the battlefield, and select multiple skills at a time. When the action resumes the chosen skills are fired off in the order they were selected. This makes for some fantastically tactical fights, and when the right combination of skills has been figured out Carter and his team become a force to be reckoned with, bringing elite enemies down in a matter of seconds, as opposed to the drawn out struggle that occurred a few fights ago.
Killing enemies grants exp which is used to level up. Abilities and perks are unlocked at each level and can be either passive or aggressive. Unfortunately there aren’t many to choose from, so the character development isn’t as in depth as it should be, and with a maximum of ten levels for Carter and five levels for each agent under him, the levelling system like something of an after thought.
There are numerous weapons to find and collect, which when acquired in the field are then available to equip between missions or at drop boxes found throughout missions. There are also Backpack Schematics to find which make new backpacks available to equip. Backpacks offer different perks, such as reduced damage or increased health, lending another level of strategy and customisation.
The Bureau has all the parts of a great game, they just haven’t been put together very well. Through borrowing elements of superior games and recreating them in a way so close to their origins you’d be forgiven for believing it was DLC, it makes The Bureau lack an identity of its own, much in the same way tribute bands lack one, and can at times be embarrassing to watch. The story feels like it’s been drastically cut, with the campaign wrapping up at around the eight hour mark. It’s incredibly short, and with a lack of multiplayer there isn’t any real replay value, even achievement and trophy hunters will only need one playthrough to get what they want out of it.
It isn’t a bad game by any stretch of the imagination, but its shortcomings are too frequent and noticeable to allow it to climb out of the pit of average it’s desperately trying to escape from. For every step forward it takes, something will occur that sends it two steps back, whether it be as trivial as bad AI or as infuriating as an encounter with one of its many bugs. If you’re a fan of third person shooters and B-Movies you can do a lot worse than The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, it’s just a shame that you can also do so much better.
Ian C
Whilst I mostly agree with a lot of what was said, I just finished my review as well (8.5/10) and my biggest crit here is: 8hrs? I think not. I have been playing the game non stop and am already at 13 hours for all the side missions and deployments.
In fact the best bits of the game come at the end when the game really changes it up and goes full meta almost breaking the fouth wall not unlike Mass Effect 3 and Bioshock Infinite.
You mention some issues with the graphics but then flip and say, well if it’s SUPPOSED to be like a B-Movie then that’s genius? …Well you know what it is!
The game is campy as all get up like Men in Black crossed with Mars Attacks and Ghost Busters and so yes, it is genius.
I saw no melting faces in fact I thought it was on the edge of the uncanny valley and the soft painted visage of the American country side was a nice contrast to the otherwise sterile Alien invasion.
Look, it’s different and there is something highly ironic about a Human made flying saucer going in to attack a Halo esque Mother ship but that is why the game is soooo good
Tim
I think you were harsh but the majority of your criticisms were fair, accurate and hard to argue with. Overall the game plays much better than I thought but feels like it could have done with a bit longer in the development oven to smooth out all the glitches and issues – but damn am I having fun with this game.
The one thing I will take some issue with is the time taken to complete – I have no idea how you got through the game so quickly = / Guessing you didn’t find/do all the sidemissions? Has taken me over 8 hours so far and narratively feels like I am still someway off the end. I will reserve judgement on factors such as the story until it has concluded but I liked having a deeper glimpse into the XCOM universe.
If you like the sound of an exploration of an XCOM universe in a Mass Effect manner and can put up with a few minor bugs and the worst lip syncing this side of Mars then The Bureau is well worth a look.
Rik
I did all the minor and dispatch missions, but missed one or two of the investigation missions in the base unfortunately.
PacManPolarBear
I pulled 17 hours out of the The Bureau. Which is a pretty great value for the money spent compared to most single player third person shooters. I liked the multiple endings too. The game needed a lot more polish, resulting in much of the game feeling very average, but I had a blast playing on Veteran and I really liked the plot twist before the last mission.