2. Inventive Use Of Enemy Unknown Ideals
As I have said previously, I loved XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It really cracked the strategy genre on a console, and the choice, randomness and creativity it asked of you was a joy to playthrough. Hence why I was worried when I went into the press event for The Bureau. I knew that the game had had trouble in production as well as well as being a complete gameplay shift to a third person shooter. As I have alluded before though, my worries are put to rest on playing the portion I got my hands on. For even a third person shooter, it is remarkable how much like the previous instalment this feels. This is definitely a tactical shooter to its very core. The way the game plays it almost feels turned based. This is largely due to the Battle Focus element of gameplay that I will get to in a little bit. But even in the little details, the game definitely feels like an XCOM game. Take your squad for example. In the main gameplay you can bring two squad members with you into any mission. These squad mates have special classes that make them specialists in certain areas of combat. You have to consider before every mission and the kind of balance you want in your squad. Do you want to have Support or Engineers units to back you up while you get up close and personal or if you want a Soldier to head your group while you hang back and snipe, you can suit it to how you want to play. Striking the right balance in a team is key to success as ever. Also like previous X-Com games, you can level up your squad mates to improve their power, but if they fall in battle and you can't revive them with medic-kits before they bleed out, then they are gone from the game forever. This reinstates that drama that Enemy Unknown always hung above the players head while playing a mission. Just as in Enemy Unknown you can also customise your squad, to how they fight, how they look and even their name. This level of customisation was important to the last XCOM because it gave you a personal attachment with your squad, so it is lovely to see a level of customisation come back to the game. Imperatively, you can also colour their clothes as you want, so now if you want to have your engineer fighting an alien invasion in what looks like a pink and purple zoot suit, you can! That is very important to me. There are also similarities in other areas as well. You will be expected to upgrade other aspects of your combat such as picking up normal, laser and plasma weapons and develop your own skills to help you in battle against the alien invasion. The game also has one big map that you control your operation from, choosing missions, looking at local news reports and taking on side quests to aid your fight against the invasion. Even something as simple as shared assets from Enemy Unknown really help to sell the XCOM experience in The Bureau. If you were worried that the game wouldn't end up feeling like an XCOM game, then I can at least report that it fits into the series nicely.