Here's What The Bureau: XCOM Declassified Looks Like Now

I know, it's been hard to keep track of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. It was a shooter, then it was a squad based shooter, then it disappeared, then it was more squad based. To quote every privileged starlet who ever had to wait more than 10 minutes for her food, “Life is soooo haaaaard!”

But this slow crawl to what we're seeing today can actually be mapped out fairly easily. Starting as an FPS, The Bureau had a pretty straight track to something much more tactical. A track that was given a shot of life once XCOM: Enemy Unknown became a hit and everyone realized that gamers could actually still -you know- play games. What we're seeing now is a Brothers in Arms-esque amalgamation of what we saw at E3 a few years ago and the tactical nuance of Enemy Unknown, right down to the cover symbols. I hate to say it looks like a highly tactical Gears of War...but it does.

The player commands a squad through the use of a command wheel which stops time called Battle Focus, and also takes part in old-fashioned cover based combat. Squads can be made up of 4 different classes, each having their specialized abilities, that fall into your standard DPS and support classes. DnD references for the win...you'll see in the video.

I've been paying attention to this title from the very beginning and I can honestly say that this is the best I've seen of it yet. This is the very best direction The Bureau could have gone and we really have the success of Enemy Unknown to thank for it.