The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Trailer Brings On The Destruction

2K Games released a new trailer for the upcoming third-person, real-time strategy shooter, The Bureau. The game was originally a generic, hand-holding FPS that did nothing new and was essentially Brothers in Arms with aliens, but more limited and more hand-holdy. The Bureau changes all of that.

2K Marin was behind the first XCOM remake and the reception from the gaming community was not good at all. We were looking at a game that was trying to be a cash-in on the Call of Duty craze because “strategy games weren't the hottest thing”, and it was obvious it wasn't going to appeal to the Call of Duty fans and it sure as heck wasn't going to appeal to the old-school fans of the original X-Com.

Thankfully, 2K wasn't as deaf as Microsoft when it came to fan feedback and they quickly saw the negative implications the game was having on the gaming community. 2K wisely backtracked and redid the whole thing from scratch and managed to churn out a success with XCOM, an actual real-time strategy game through-and-through.

This new shooter-strategy title from 2K actually looks really good because it's a good we haven't played before – it's a concept that hasn't been explored at all throughout this seven year-long generation and it's good to see 2K branching out with The Bureau.

The game allows players to put together a team of three and investigate alien invasion scenarios using period-based weapons with realized concepts of what “futuristic” or space-age weapons would be like during that era. It's a neat twist.

In addition to the weapons and visual aesthetic, the game also offers real-time strategy controls to dictate where and how your teammates take down the alien menace, but true-to-X-Com fashion, you and your mates can get hit with perma-death. You can gather up new skills, research new gear and engage in some third-person action while also utilizing your wits.

The best part about The Bureau is that it removes a lot of hand-holding and linearity that was present in the other first-person shooter rendition, which was essentially just another blockbuster shooter.

I'm genuinely excited for The Bureau, and the game has a good chance of cashing in on both strategy and action fans if it can hit that sleeper-hit sweet spot. You can learn more about the title, which is due out this August, by visiting the official website.