Making things takes other things.
It takes creativity, it takes inspiration...and it takes time.
In fact, that's a big one.
Time.
Generally, the more of it you spend on something, the better it's going to turn out, right?
Well, except for when it turns out worse.
That's because there's a tipping point, and the correlation between the time you spend
on something and the quality of that thing...starts to change.
Like the military's response to the Roswell incident.
The army said it was a flying saucer.
This game deals with both concepts.
The inverse correlation between time and quality, as well as the fascination with flying saucers
and little green men that defined so much of American culture after World War II.
So this one's right in my wheelhouse.
I used to study UFO history.
Fun fact.
And I review video games.
So I know all about modern development trends leading to disappointing products.
As illustrated by The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
So XCOM, right?
Yeah, this is a prequel, of sorts.
It's also the coolest thing about this game.
The Bureau takes place in 1962...and although that's about a decade later than would've
been ideal, it still sets the right stage.
Turns out, despite what you've read in Project Blue Book, the stories are true.
Aliens are here, and they're attacking.
You play as a special agent who's suddenly caught in the middle of it.
More than anything else, that's what this game gets right—setting and contrast.
It does a great job of capturing the zeitgeist of the 1960s.
Huge computers take up entire rooms inside secret military bases, where manly men have
manly discussions through clouds of smoke and testosterone.
Early 60s Americana sets the stage for...alien gunfights, which is where the contrast works
so well.
A small college town, like something out of Animal House, a rural farm with a silo and
a windmill...and now, a strange alien pod, and a huge spaceship.
It creates this awesome contrast between history and fantasy, old and new...and I think that's
easily the most interesting thing about The Bureau.
And you know, that's not to take away from the gameplay, either.
In terms of its design, this is a competent tactical shooter.
You control a small team of agents, each with their own skills and attributes, and you won't
get far without them.
Your teammates are just about useless without your orders, but once you actually start to
give them some direction...that's when things get fun.
Well, and once we steal their technology.
So the tactical element is cool, the theme is great, the game controls well, why all
the babble about the inverse relationship between time and quality, right?
Where does The Bureau go wrong?
Well, this isn't a poorly designed game...it's just a poorly made one.
The Bureau spent several years in development, and then in redevelopment, before finally
being...reworked into something different.
Point is, this just has the feel of a game that was torn apart and put back together,
like, 37 times before it finally stuck.
I mean, from a technical perspective, the game's a mess.
And there's also some stuff that just feels tacked on.
Like the dialogue wheels.
It feels like parts of a different game, shoe-horned into this one.
And that's a classic symptom of over-development.
You know, I had some fun with the game, but I'm not sure if that's because of the game
or my geekiness for that old UFO culture.
I loved shooting a pistol at aliens with plasma rifle.
I loved scheming, bad at it as I am at it, and I really loved the idea.
But that's the thing.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified has a lot of ideas...several years worth of ideas.
It feels, like, several months worth of polish.