The history behind The Bureau is fascinating, with the project being developed and iterated on long before the revival of XCOM through the beloved Enemy Unknown. According to Wikipedia at some point, Ken Levine's Irrational was working on the fps iteration of the franchise, which is just really funny. If you thought the nuance-less "we must defend ourselves against these ontologically evil outsiders" motif of XCOM can sometimes get a bit uncomfortably fash already, imagine what it would have been in the hands of the dude who made Bioshock Infinite.
Anyhow, at some point, The Bureau was supposed to be more of a horror/investigation game which aimed to really leverage its 50s settings, and honestly, that version of the game looked pretty interesting. Like, the setting and small quiet moments are honestly the best part of this version of The Bureau, and a game that leaned harder on those elements (rather than start setting all the action in generic spaceships past the halfway mark), would have been something way more on my wavelength.
What we got instead, is a third-person shooter/tactics hybrid, that, while a really coherent design on paper, is just... not that much fun when actually played.
Like, on paper adding a bunch of tactics elements to the classic cover-based TPS formula is a pretty interesting interpretation of the XCOM gameplay, and surprisingly coherent with the direction Enemy Unknown went just a year prior to The Bureau release. But when you play the game... it doesn't quite work. The game needs to be slower-paced than a classic TPS, to allow for tactics to happen, which makes the shooting less exciting, but it's still fast enough that most AoE abilities are kinda difficult to aim accurately; Enemies get very bullet-sponge-y to balance for the fact that your squad-mates are actual game pieces, and not just set dressing (like in a lot of TPSs); The game really wants you to flank your enemies to gain an advantage, but this being real-time means that you're being shot at while trying to flank, which makes it way harder to do; and like, there are so many more small practical annoyances to this formula, that make what is otherwise a competent 2010s shooter kind of a pain to play. Which is a shame to be honest, because, the idea itself of a shooty tactics game is kinda neat.
I dunno, I bear this game no ill will, it clearly went through some troubled development times (you can really see the seams of salvaging in places), and while in the end it's not a particularly fun experience, between some quick glances of a neat retro horror setting, and an interesting, yet not really functional, combat-system, it at least Tried to do something cool. I always appreciate a game that Tries.
It also has a weird twist at the end that I'm not gonna spoil. Between that and the ridiculously grizzled main character, the narrative is just SO late 00s/early 10s shooter tropes. Hate that shit, but tbh kinda also love that shit.
Anyhow, at some point, The Bureau was supposed to be more of a horror/investigation game which aimed to really leverage its 50s settings, and honestly, that version of the game looked pretty interesting. Like, the setting and small quiet moments are honestly the best part of this version of The Bureau, and a game that leaned harder on those elements (rather than start setting all the action in generic spaceships past the halfway mark), would have been something way more on my wavelength.
What we got instead, is a third-person shooter/tactics hybrid, that, while a really coherent design on paper, is just... not that much fun when actually played.
Like, on paper adding a bunch of tactics elements to the classic cover-based TPS formula is a pretty interesting interpretation of the XCOM gameplay, and surprisingly coherent with the direction Enemy Unknown went just a year prior to The Bureau release. But when you play the game... it doesn't quite work. The game needs to be slower-paced than a classic TPS, to allow for tactics to happen, which makes the shooting less exciting, but it's still fast enough that most AoE abilities are kinda difficult to aim accurately; Enemies get very bullet-sponge-y to balance for the fact that your squad-mates are actual game pieces, and not just set dressing (like in a lot of TPSs); The game really wants you to flank your enemies to gain an advantage, but this being real-time means that you're being shot at while trying to flank, which makes it way harder to do; and like, there are so many more small practical annoyances to this formula, that make what is otherwise a competent 2010s shooter kind of a pain to play. Which is a shame to be honest, because, the idea itself of a shooty tactics game is kinda neat.
I dunno, I bear this game no ill will, it clearly went through some troubled development times (you can really see the seams of salvaging in places), and while in the end it's not a particularly fun experience, between some quick glances of a neat retro horror setting, and an interesting, yet not really functional, combat-system, it at least Tried to do something cool. I always appreciate a game that Tries.
It also has a weird twist at the end that I'm not gonna spoil. Between that and the ridiculously grizzled main character, the narrative is just SO late 00s/early 10s shooter tropes. Hate that shit, but tbh kinda also love that shit.
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IraWolf
6 months ago