Fun squad commands with cover shooting
Mentioned in ~1 in 3 positive reviews
“The biggest highlight was the mechanic to order around customizable squadmates”
Steam review · 13.4 h played ↗
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Mixed · 68%Mixed · 68%2K Marin2013Third-Person Shooter · Action · Strategy
The verdict
A Mass Effect-style 1960s cover shooter with light squad commands and great atmosphere, but dumb squad AI, repetitive combat and crashes. Skip it if you want real XCOM.
Great for
Fans of 360-era cover shooters and Cold War sci-fi who buy it on deep sale and expect no turn-based XCOM
Main risk
Expecting classic XCOM, then facing clunky repetitive combat, dumb squadmates and launch crashes
What players love
Great 1960s Cold War atmosphere
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“The standout feature here is the [b]incredible 1960s atmosphere[/b].”
Steam review · 22 h played ↗
Solid, interesting story and lore
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 positive reviews
“Great story! Be aware that it is not played like any other XCOM of the series.”
Steam review · 22.1 h played ↗
Good art direction and aged-well visuals
Mentioned in ~1 in 10 positive reviews
“graphics still hold good after 13 years”
Steam review · 10.1 h played ↗
Cheap on sale and decent fun
Mentioned in ~1 in 13 positive reviews
“Def worth the 3 bucks or so it regularly goes on sale for.”
Steam review · 0.6 h played ↗
What players complain about
Dumb squad AI needing babysitting
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“Your teammates constantly get behind the wrong side of cover, run straight through enemy fire, and do other boneheaded maneuvers if you don't constantly babysit them.”
Steam review · 12.8 h played ↗
Not really XCOM, a Mass Effect clone
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“This is not an Xcom game, just some third person slop they slapped the Xcom name onto it.”
Steam review · 0.1 h played ↗
Crashes and won't launch on modern PCs
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“after about 20 crashes and various fixes, the game still doesn't want to work properly”
Steam review · 0.2 h played ↗
Repetitive, boring combat with bullet sponges
Mentioned in ~1 in 6 negative reviews
“you see absolutely everything the game has to offer in the first two hours.”
Steam review · 3 h played ↗
Clunky controls and awkward interface
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“It feels like I'm fighting the controls most of the time, such as sticking to cover when I want to leave and snapping to cover when I don't want to.”
Steam review · 9.8 h played ↗
Story falls apart and choices don't matter
Mentioned in ~1 in 12 negative reviews
“the story falls apart into a rushed mess”
Steam review · 16.7 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: VerifiedController support12 GB
Minimum
OSWindows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit
ProcessorIntel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz
Memory2 GB RAM
GraphicsDirectX9 Compatible ATI Radeon HD 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT
Storage12 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit
ProcessorQuad Core Processor
Memory4 GB RAM
GraphicsDirectX11 Compatible, AMD Radeon HD 6950 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
Storage12 GB available space
OSWindows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit
ProcessorIntel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz
Memory2 GB RAM
GraphicsDirectX9 Compatible ATI Radeon HD 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT
Storage12 GB available space
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