XCOM Shooter Returns with Major Makeover

[Covenant]

Alright, I'll say it, this time it looks pretty cool.

Everyone may remember the massive explosion of rage that came from many fans of the X-COM franchise when, after a long period of... "hibernation"... the famous strategy franchise returned as a mutant abomination of the Mass Effect Franchise dressed in Mad Men outfits and fighting black particle effects and generic polygon men.

The people who never heard of X-COM before thought it looked cool, the people who love X-COM wanted to erase it from existence, and in a rare moment of self-awareness the developers decided the rage train was going to flatten whatever hopes their game had of going anywhere and benched it. We thought it had been shipped off in a crate for the attentions of "top men" in the Indiana Jones sense of losing it forever and forgetting it.

But we were wrong.

Thankfully the time the game has been dormant has helped it a lot. There's a new trailer out, there's a cooler website, and the focus and tone has changed immensely (if the materials they're putting out are any judge). Instead of merely being a prequel of the original game, this seems to be a title that hinges upon that X-Files heritage I (and surely others) talked about at-length when the shooter came out and riled up all the fossils.

The new look is darker and distinctly more Fallout-y with the addition of some kind of arm device on a character shown a few times. Darker isn't better automatically, but I think it telegraphs an attempt on their part to instill more of a sense of danger to the game. While the original X-COM games were dark only when the player couldn't avoid it (and cartoonishly goofy in the bright sunlight) I'm happy to see an overture to instilling the game with tense moments even if it isn't necessary to darken it up. The weaponry looks less ridiculous in the shots we've been shown, which I believe is a defensive measure (showing the mundane weaponry and not whatever first-tier upgrade everyone will leap to) and a smart PR move.

The goofy Ghostbusters Backpacks are still there, but no big deal. One thing does seem to be missing though:

http://downloads.2kgames.com/thebureau/img/ss-3.jpg

See that shot? What are we not seeing? We are not seeing those stupid-ass polygon men. What we are seeing, however, crouched behind those cars... are lovely, lumpy, grey-faced little Sectoid shits. That's a huge change, and I think one of the things that they took the game off the radar for.

There's other small things here and there, especially the subtle changes in mission parameters. There's a need to operate under the radar, which I love. Repeatedly this has been stated, and even one of the links that lead to the new XCOM shooter page is "EraseTheTruth," which has a gloriously devious Scary Government vibe to it that works so well with the Cold War era. Just like the X-Files, this seems to be a game that wants you to feel that an alien invasion is more than just giant ships hovering over cities. X-COM has never done this well, or even bothered to, so to see it actually do that in some solid way or two would be a huge advancement for the series.

Character permadeath is in too, that's nice.

Oh, and lastly, the agency has never been referred to as "X-COM" at all. On the website they repeatedly call it "The Bureau" and never once, despite many many opportunities, identify it otherwise. Similarly, the game is called "The Bureau: XCOM Unclassified" rather than just "XCOM" or anything similar, which may even be another figleaf and olivebranch salad handed to the fans of the original. I know I had wanted something like this, and it makes me so much happier for some stupid-ass reason to feel like it is building upon the XCOM lore rather than undermining or 'rebooting' it in some lazy way. Cater to my petulant childish whims, 2k, yes. I appreciate it.

While the, ahem, "lore" of the original game is cool but unnecessary, re-staging this not as a legitimate X-COM operation but as a US National job being run by a secret agency of the Government is cool. All in all, unless they really cock it up from here on out, I'm optimistic and I think the major complaints have been heard. No sign of the black goop monsters, which is almost too bad, I liked that kind of 'wierd' way more than I liked the stupid polygon men. The floating monoliths are still around though, so maybe the black oil creatures will reappear, just in the service of the Sectoids and maybe those glowing energy creatures from the XCOM:EU game.

Link to the new game's site below. Not much there, but it has a really cool live-action trailer.

http://www.thebureau-game.com/

Oh, there's also a pre-order link that is currently not working. I am thrilled to see that they made sure to get a screenshot with a Sectoid in it, a cool trailer, and a fun little interactive info page but didn't bother trying to milk me for preorders just yet. The game is apparently slated for August so it's not too long to wait either. This seems like a best-faith effort and a solid re-design. I sincerely hope it is a smashing success, as it would be a strong argument for delaying and revamping to use in the future.

[weemadando]

I don't understand what the hate was about the art for the previous iteration. The polygon men and giant murderous polyhedrons were an awesome bit of design.

[Covenant]

I think most people liked the murderous Polyhedrons in their default shape. It was cool, alien, and very 2001.

The polygon men were an unfortunate choice on their part because they just look so blandly normal, and featuring their big debut as a conventional squad combat unit (rather than an infiltrator) in a gameplay video that also highlighted Chest High Walls, bubble shields, and deployable turrets (as well as Mass Effect special powers) really poured gravel into a lot of people's gears.

If the polymen hadn't been the Alien Redshirts and the combat hadn't been entirely tensionless "crouch to recharge health" shooter bullshit then I assume people's rage wouldn't have spilled over into hating the very look of them. I doubt we've seen the last of the polygon people, but my personal hope is that they persist on as primarily non-combat infiltrators and observers, where the capacity of them to look like normal people would make them a perfect fit for a game that has an emphasis on government cover-ups. If you have to try to corral civilians out of the way, or operate covertly in their midst, having infiltrators among them would be a lingering threat. Anyway, getting off topic.

One of the other reasons the art got shat on is how very unambitious it was, which made it easy for people to casually deride it, despite having some really nice bits. The polygons and oil are their best ideas, and those are just riffing off classic sci-fi, but it is cool in an inorganic way that we do not see enough of. Too much body horror stuff revolves around sticking tubes into humans or making them into zombies or zerg or such.

That said, it almost felt like those elements were relics of a different mindset. The slow, scary, unknowable terror of these totally alien units clashed with the dull, stupid, grease-gun wielding blue lego men and their stationary turrets.

Those turrets are really dull and hopefully get the axe, they look crappy and enforce crappy gameplay. The little floating shooter orbs we're seeing in the new game's screenshots do not offend me and look suitably alien as well, so that would be great. More of an emphasis on simple geometric primitives would be awesome, as those are so unusual to us (we're used to seeing tanks and such stuff, not cubes that melt your face) and honestly, I almost hope the monoliths don't transform into those big laser rings anymore. I really liked how solid and terrifying the monoliths were just as this big hunk of black hanging in the air. Having it spin out into a laser donut wasn't quite as cool. I'd rather have a specific other laser donut unit.

But yeah, a lot of the hate was misplaced. The art direction wasn't great, but it wasn't a finished project quite yet even then. This isn't a million times better, but it is subtly better so far, and they're not showing us much, so there's not much to get angry at.

[Stark]

There's so little information I can't even care. Are the odds of 'erase the truth' e ding up only being game relevant as a little bar that goes up and down and makes you have to do a housekeeping activity as close to 100% as I think?

But it wouldn't be hard to have a better strategic layer than Xcom Enemy Awful.

[Aaron MkII]

All I'm looking for is the 50's/60's aesthetics anyways. Is this the same company that remade the classic one though?

[Covenant]

All I'm looking for is the 50's/60's aesthetics anyways. Is this the same company that remade the classic one though?

The remake was done by Firaxis for 2k, this one is being done by 2k itself. The time for this game is 1962, so the aesthetic is sticking around, but they seem to have improved the look of it somewhat... at least from the three tiny screenshots available.

There's so little information I can't even care. Are the odds of 'erase the truth' ending up only being game relevant as a little bar that goes up and down and makes you have to do a housekeeping activity as close to 100% as I think?

But it wouldn't be hard to have a better strategic layer than Xcom Enemy Awful.

It would be nigh impossible to have a worse one, but I'm not super optimistic about it being good. I've seen no evidence so far that they've put more than a drop or two of thought into the strategic layer. The game may still be fun but I'm guessing the strategic element will either be gone entirely (better than having a shitty one, honestly) or just a simple gimmick system.

My hope is that the game itself is fun and atmospheric to a degree, really. It looks fun. I like the ideas.

As for "erasing the truth" in a game mechanic, no idea, though again I'm not terribly optimistic. I'm guessing they'll neuter all the opportunities for you to "fail" that task, and just bake it right into the mission parameters:
"The aliens appeared at the School Bake Sale. We've evacuated the area, go in and clear things out!"

If they want to actually make it a game mechanic, how can they possibly have a failure state? How many pictures need to leak to the papers before your cover is blown, and once its blown, what happens?

"Oh shit, people know we're fighting an alien menace to stop the conquest of the planet! Fuck! Now we need to give up because... um..."

Like, what, do you get removed as head of the agency? No, you don't, you're just an elite agent, not the leader. Do they call in the army? Fire you? Is the world lost without individual, special you? And since you're not actually the leader of the organization, why is keeping things "silent" your job? That's why I'm guessing it isn't. I like the idea but I really don't think it'll make it into the mechanics. Maybe you'll have missions where you specifically target civilians who "know too much" and drag them off to 1960's Guantanamo for re-education, and have "cleanup crews" who scatter weather balloon pieces all over these busted-ass towns.

[Vendetta]

All I'm looking for is the 50's/60's aesthetics anyways. Is this the same company that remade the classic one though?

Nah, it's the guys that did Bioshock 2. Which is why the original trailer of it looked like the core gameplay was lifted wholesale from Bioshock.

But it wouldn't be hard to have a better strategic layer than Xcom Enemy Awful.

The more I think about it the more I think XCEU was thrown together amazingly quickly in response to the amazing nerdrage that greeted the shooter on announce. There are so many janky things like the animation timings and the way they just went with it on loads of abstractions that make me think they just wanted any old strategy game as fast as possible.

[weemadando]

Some tweets from Dan Hindes, the current editor of PC Powerfully, points out some things I had to known:

“@dhindes I wrote a coverstory on The Bureau: XCOM Declassified back in 2010 when it was still just 'XCOM' and first-person”

“@dhindes Two things that 2K Australia said stood out to me. First: There are no cutscenes. We want you to have ownership of the story”

“@dhindes Second: None of the missions are linear or scripted. Each map is an open, non-linear play space, randomly populated with enemies”

“@dhindes Your objective was never to clear the entire map; it was a small part of the map. Progressing further for more resources was risk/reward”

“@dhindes The idea that you can be intrigued or enticed by an opportunity but end up having to hot-foot it back to your sedan was very much there”

“@dhindes What I saw of XCOM at E3 2012 didn't communicate that. Aside from the perspective shift, it was linear, scripted and cutscene-heavy”

“@dhindes Even from my time at the studio however it was clear 2K Australia and 2K Marin were simply not cooperating; hence mass exodus of AU talent”

“@dhindes So whatever direction 2K Marin takes The Bureau, I hope it at least evokes those two core tenets. Those were INTERESTING and EXCITING.”

[Stark]

Doesn't SOUND interesting. Without any idea of what the play goals will be (and how the purported risk/reward thing works and even if it does) its meaningless buzz-generation.

[weemadando]

It does show that they were selling the game the wrong way.

They should have gone with the tried and tested "Like Skyrim with X", maybe "aliens" or "proton packs".

[Tolya]

With the previous iteration you actually had a little doubt if it's going to be bad or not, because you couldn't immediately pick out the default playstyle. I for one was wondering how would fighting a black hole in suburbs would look like and that wondering kept me interested in the game.

Now, it looks like Gears of Xcom.

[Covenant]

Now, it looks like Gears of Xcom.

I think it felt more Gearsy before. They had talked about open environments but showed these linear boxed-in corridor fights against waves of lego men defended by shields and chest high walls. We've seen an alien wall once so far (I believe that's what I see) in the new stuff but haven't been told it is still super linear.

This is how I felt too. There were essentially two games being displayed, depending on when you were checking the news. Early on it was a first person shooter with mysterious black goo enemies, huge roving geometric primitives that could evaporate cars and houses and so forth, and a feeling of fighting an entirely asymmetrical fight against an alien menace. You had the freedom to explore whole houses, walk around these neighborhoods in a more organic fashion (since it wasn't set up as corridors) and you weren't on a bug-hunt but being tasked to do "something" before the aliens ramped up their activity there and sent in more and more dangerous stuff. Not a complete picture but interesting.

But then they threw in squad tactics, convenient chest high walls, bubble shields, and waves upon waves of blue polygon humans who carry rifles and sometimes employ stationary turrets. The first game was interesting (if in need of some X-COM polish) and the second game is an ultra shitty FPS.

I'm hoping they swing more for the first one but while I'm optimistic I'm not an idiot.

[Darksider]

Question. In the previews i've seen, the game is officially titled The Bureau: XCOM declassified.

Are they still going to make this part of the XCOM universe as like a prequel, or is it a complete stand alone?

[Stark]

Does it matter? The 'XCOM universe' is ...

Actually I guess you're right and if they don't tie it in somehow it is basically thoughtless branding, with the added bonus that if it didn't have XCOM in the name nerds would be less RAEG.

This is why I don't call the card game XCOM, lol.

[Darksider]

I think the old-school XCOM fanboys were satisfied enough with Enemy Unknown that they wouldn't really RAEG against this anymore, even if it were still just called XCOM.

But then again who knows.

[Stark]

But does the brand really bring them anything if its just 50s Xfiles? I mean XCOMs story is laughable crap but if its alt history XCOM, would they need the brand to get any attention?

[Covenant]

Well, X-COM isn't based on story, but it does have one. So they could easily link it to the X-COM series by saying that back in '62 there was a low-level alien incursion that never really became a war, but did demonstrate an extraterrestrial threat existed. The leaders of the world-wide Illuminati (the Shadow Council) decide that their interests are threatened, and a multinational force for the defense of the planet is formed. Oh, and they had to kill JFK to make it happen, or some shit. Said threat never materializes, most of the truth is hidden, destroyed, etc, but the X-COM project is maintained on a back-burner level until the X-COM game's events occur. The issue with the X-COM story is that XCOM:EU has one of the worst ending story arcs of any game I've ever seen, no hyperbole. Maybe a sequel will save it, but they really shot themselves in the foot there. I'm probably more interested in the XCOM story of "The Bureau" than I am of the actual XCOM series now.

I think the RAEG of old X-COMMIES is not to be underestimated. We're an extremely touchy bunch, and the name change does a bunch of good stuff. First, people who haven't played XCOM won't be confused, and no veteran wants some new kid to go "Yeah, I love XCOM, that game is sweet--especially level 3, when Jenkins and the Female Sectoid get captured by Z-COM operatives! I burned through all my minigun ammo sooo fast!"

Second, it identifies this as a spinoff product, which fizzles the RAEG a lot. Third, it evokes the X-Files roots of the game, which is cool. Even if I want to hate it, I can't hate it entirely, because the idea of playing some men in black (but not the MiB) is an attractive option.

I would say that the brand is basically useless to them though. Not entirely, because people like me may be curious to shoot sectoids/mutons/whatever from a first person perspective in a game that isn't shittyawful. But curious is not "enthusiastic," and it'll really depend if the game is any fun.

[Covenant]

Bit more info on the game, as well as more art and some reflections by the developers on the path they took from 2010 to 2013 in terms of art and design:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/05 ... d-footage/

Basically the big takeaway from this is that the game will still have a heavily narrative-ized campaign, but the side characters are entirely mortal, the enemies are going to feature both Sectoids and Mutons, and it seems like the Lego Men are entirely gone. However, the obelisks and such should probably still be around, since they WERE in that live action trailer.

It also goes into some demonstrations of the squad controls and command abilities. While it probably has too much of a focus on "Tank, Rogue, Cleric, Wizard" for my tastes, it does look like they've put a lot more thought into it and the movement controls seem pretty solid for a game of this type. I enjoyed the graphical elements they recycled from XCOM:EU into this one, which is an entirely silly thing but it did seem like they were trying, and it reinforced a feeling of X-COMmy tactical control to have such granular control over my dudes.

I was surprised, and frankly upset, to hear that there were major differences between the first concept (the one with the black oil and obelisks blasting houses) and the second concept (the one with the lego men and the shitty Mass Effect command system), and that it seems like they dropped the fun investigatory elements in order to have a more "military" enemy who can fight "on even terms" with the heroes, and that's why they made the lego men.

The shitty looking oil balls were stupid looking but they were a kinda cool idea, overall. It seems like when they went from the 2010 build to the 2011 build they dropped most of the most creative elements and really made things less ambitious with the humanoid enemy swarms and invincible ally squad combat game. It's like they were worried about throwing the baby out with the bathwater, so they just threw out the baby. I have a very hard time understanding their train of logic here.

If they had kept the first person view and interesting abstract enemies, but made the allies more responsive and mortal, that would have been an okay game. But why would you decide to make the game "more like X-COM" by keeping your allies invincible and making the enemies entirely unthreatening? I dunno. Idiots. In any case, this one looks cooler, and probably a more interesting Alien Blasting adventure than the actual XCOM:EU experience right now.