The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a 2013 tactical third-person shooter video game developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K. The eighth title in the turn-based strategy series X-COM and a narrative prequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, it was released for PlayStation 3, Windows, and Xbox 360 in August 2013. Set in late 1962 at the height of the Cold War, the game's premise mainly revolves around The Bureau, the predecessor of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, as they attempt to repel an alien invasion. As a tactical shooter, players can use the battle focus mode to issue commands to two other agents accompanying the protagonist, William Carter. Players can permanently lose their squad members so they must make good tactical decisions.
The game's development was protracted and troubled. Development began in 2006 and soon became a collaboration between 2K Marin and 2K Australia. Initially, the 2K Australia team wanted to create a mysterious first-person shooter with fearful alien life forms, and the player would be tasked to take photographs of them and research them in a secret government organization. However, after 2K Australia was removed from the project due to communication issues between the two studios, the Marin team decided to focus more on teamwork and tactical elements and rebranded the game as The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. The Day the Earth Stood Still and The X-Files inspired the game's artistic style while The Right Stuff inspired the game's narrative.
Revealed as XCOM in April 2010, the game was meant to be a reboot of the series; the idea was met with mixed reactions from critics. It missed several target release windows before release. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified received mixed reviews upon release, with critics praising the game's tactical elements and art style but criticizing the game's artificial intelligence, permadeath system, narrative, and gameplay. Most critics considered the game a disappointing entry into the series.
Gameplay
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a tactical shooter played from a third-person perspective. In the game, the player assumes control of Agent William Carter, a field agent who has to defend the US from a hostile extraterrestrial force known as the Outsiders. The Bureau's headquarters serves as the game's hub space where Carter can interact with other people of interest. Using a dialogue tree, players can select different conversation options when talking to non-playable characters. Players also recruit agents in the headquarters and choose one of four different classes for them—commando, engineer, recon, and support. Each class has different abilities and weapons. For instance, the commando class specializes in direct offensive abilities and rifles, while the engineer class relies on landmines and automatic turrets. Players also choose the recruit's background from six possible options; each provides a minor perk that enhances the recruit's combat efficiency. Recruits can be further customized with different faces and uniforms. In mission areas, players are accompanied by only two recruited agents; other agents stay at the base or are dispatched to secondary tasks.To combat the alien enemies, the player uses human and alien firearms, ranging from pistols and grenades to scatter laser and laser rifle. In order to flank enemies and avoid being shot by them, players can hide behind and switch between cover. If a cover is effective, a blue holographic shield is shown, otherwise a red shield is shown. Since ammunition is limited, players look for resupply in different ammo stashes or pick up new weapons by exploring each mission area. Players can assign commands to two companions who are controlled by artificial intelligence. By entering the battle focus mode, in which time slows down nearly to a halt, players can instruct the companions to move to different positions, hide behind cover, target an enemy, or use a skill. In the console versions, commands are issued via a radial wheel, whereas in the PC version, commands are shown as a flat row of options for players to select. In the battle focus mode, the area of effects and the percentage of success of each attack, and the health status of the squad members, are displayed. Actions can be chained together to create combo attacks though special abilities usually have a cooldown time. An agent will become permanently unconscious or die if Carter is unable to revive the agent. Players explore each mission area to find documents and audio recordings that provide insight about the game's world.
Carter and his squad members gain experience points by completing missions and secondary tasks. The experience points allow the player character and their squad members to level up and gain new abilities. New options in the game's branching skill tree would also become available for players to unlock. The upgrade choices are binary—unselected choices are locked forever. Some of these upgrades include alien powers such as cloaking, levitation, and pulse wave. Backpacks can be collected to boost the passive perks.
Synopsis
Setting
The game is set in late 1962 at the height of the Cold War between the United States and Soviet Union. Prior to the events of the game, US President John F. Kennedy authorized the creation of the Bureau of Strategic Emergency Command, which was intended to coordinate US military forces in the event of a Soviet invasion of the US. A top-secret underground command bunker was constructed to house the bureau and military and civilian personnel were secretly contacted and told to report there in the event of an invasion. The bureau's director, Myron Faulke, had another vision for his organization: a bulwark against attacks from the Outsiders, hostile extraterrestrial forces who he believed had been operating on Earth for the past six months and had some connection to the recently discovered super-element elerium. As the game begins, Central Intelligence Agency special agent William Carter is tasked with delivering an important package to Faulke at the Bureau's research labs at Groom Range.Plot
Responding to Director Faulke's summons, William Carter waits in a room at the Groom Range facility where he meets a military officer who informs him that she is to escort him to Faulke to deliver his briefcase. Carter is wary and refuses to go. A black fluid discharges from the officer's eyes; she shoots Carter and opens the case. The case emits a blinding light which incinerates the officer and stuns Carter. Moments later, Carter awakens to find his gunshot wound inexplicably healed and the case destroyed. The base comes under attack. Carter attempts to rescue Faulke as the attackers, identified as the Outsiders by bureau agents whom Carter encounters, easily slaughter the base's garrison. He eventually finds Faulke, but is too late to save J. Edgar Hoover, CIA director Frost, and General Deems. Carter escapes the Groom Range facility by tram just as Outsider devices cause the mountain to implode. He stalls the Outsider pursuit with a powerful Elerium bomb and he and Faulke flee on a Skyranger helicopter.At the Bureau's command bunker, Faulke announces that communications worldwide are jammed and other US military bases have been destroyed in similar attacks. With no way to contact the White House and other American military leaders, Faulke formally activates the bureau which is renamed as XCOM. To counter the Outsider threat, Faulke assumes control of the country's remaining military forces while XCOM operatives planted in major cities keep the civilian populace from panicking by downplaying the attacks as safety drills.
Over the following weeks, Carter leads teams of agents across the country to retrieve important personnel, defend strategic sites, and recover what alien technology they can for research. Gradually, the bureau pieces together the Outsiders' motives: to conquer the Earth and terraform it into a new home world while simultaneously enslaving humanity. The interrogation of an Outsider infiltrator, who Carter can gradually bring over to their side via persuasion, reveals that their species is commanded by an entity known as Origin through a psionic network called Mosaic, which the Infiltrator was disconnected from. Carter's team travels through a portal to the Outsider home world using the Avenger, a flying saucer XCOM has developed. There, Carter discovers that Mosaic is powered by an enslaved Ethereal, a being of pure energy with immense psionic power. The Outsiders have been searching for a dormant Ethereal on Earth that now inhabits his body. He manages to capture Origin's Ethereal, detonates a bomb at Mosaic's entry point, and returns to Earth.
At XCOM's base, the captured Ethereal named Shamash psionically contacts the Ethereal inside of Carter, Asaru. It becomes apparent that the player has actually been playing as Asaru. In its recently awakened state, Asaru believed itself to be human and psionically controlling William Carter. Shamash claims that because both the Outsiders and humans have learned how to capture Ethereals, the humans must be destroyed so that a force like Mosaic is never rebuilt. Upon hearing this, Carter manages to temporarily break free of Asaru and kills Shamash, who goes on to believe that Asaru will enslave them anyway. XCOM's base is discovered by the Outsiders after Faulke forces Weir, a previously retrieved cryptologist, to reconnect the Infiltrator to find where Origin is hiding and Carter attempts to defend it while attempting to break free from Asaru's control. Carter plants an explosive device with a thirty-second timer because he believes that the Ethereal will never allow him to be free.
Conclusion
Four endings are possible depending on the choices made at this point. If Asaru refuses to relinquish control of Carter, the bomb goes off and kills both of them.Alternatively, Asaru can release Carter but only to willingly merge with either Dr. Weir, Agent Weaver, or Director Faulke. The new host knocks Carter unconscious and the remaining agents abandon the base. They discover that Origin still exists within the remains of the Mosaic network and has transported itself to Earth's orbit in order to command the Outsiders stranded on the planet. The crew of the Avenger mounts their final attack against Origin's ship, with Asaru providing the new host with the powers it had given Carter. During the mission, one of the other two host options is sacrificed and the other is rescued and Carter, who believes that Asaru is no different from the Outsiders, is either executed or incarcerated. Asaru's host discovers a secondary entry point for Mosaic and psionically integrates with the network and destroys Origin and its influence over the Outsiders.
The aftermath of the Outsider invasion is revealed in the form of a debriefing of Asaru's host.
- If Asaru merges with Weir, he persuades the Outsiders to cease their attack and help rebuild before departing amicably to continue their search for a homeworld; Outsider technology is carefully disassembled and stored away, sites of Outsider attacks are quietly erased from the national register or explained away as natural disasters.
- If Asaru merges with Weaver, she forces the Outsiders to kill each other; all Outsider technology and evidence of their attacks is destroyed, in some cases with nuclear weapons.
- If Asaru merges with Faulke, he commands the Outsiders to stand down and rebuild before being exterminated; some Outsider technology is preserved and provides considerable scientific and military advances, sites of Outsider attacks are erased.