 If you're reading this, you may be an alien. An alien invasion prompts the creation of the XCOM project. Designed specifically to research alien technology and protect Earth from hostile invaders, one surprisingly effective XCOM agent must hit the aliens at their core before Earth is completely annihilated.
1. Gameplay
The Bureau is a good game with a great story that should have been made into its own series separate from XCOM. If it had, I could see this game series becoming a smash hit. Unfortunately, the stigma of being a spinoff, especially one that deviates in style so greatly from the originals, will almost certainly prevent this game from getting a well-deserved sequel.  XCOM fans will recognize some familiar faces. In The Bureau, the player takes control of William Carter during the early stages of an Alien invasion. The game has its various twists and turns that really shine during the last couple of hours of the campaign. The early chapters felt a bit dull for an alien invasion game, and this was compounded by the lack of weapons, powers, and upgrades at the early levels. But once the game finally hits its stride it goes forward full throttle. What The Bureau does well, it pulls off magnificently. For example, the player can give orders to squadmates at any time during combat. These commands take place in a super slow motion mode, where the player can float around the battlefield in order to give specific location-based orders. If you want to move your squadmate to a specific location, you select him, fly to the location, and hit accept. The entire process flows so smoothly that I hold it up as the perfect marriage between strategy and shooter.  Unfortunately, this game isn’t perfect. Excluding its obvious differences from the other XCOM games (an unfair comparison), there were a few key areas where I felt the game was underwhelming. The player has a conversation wheel to use during dialog, and certain conversation options clearly have an “aggressive” or “peaceful” set of options. However, most of the time I never felt like either of these options had any obvious consequences. Most people didn’t seem to like me more when I was nicer to them, nor did they seem to hate me more when I was aggressive. Certain decisions lead to some rewards (like recruiting a Communist infiltrator), but others had no effect on the final outcome of the game at all (such as being nice to a captured alien).  Nothing you can say will stop this. I want this game to get a sequel. It deserves it. The things that I want improved are not fundamental flaws. The game has a solid story, solid characters, solid script, and (for the most part) solid mechanics. The lack of side missions, lack of obvious consequences for dialog options, and lack of upgrades outside of abilities can all be fixed in a sequel. Unfortunately, this game can never wash off the stigma of being an ugly stepchild to the XCOM franchise, so I seriously doubt that it will ever be explored further.
This game lasted me a little over 11 hours total, but I have mixed feelings about exactly what that means. I wanted the game to include more side missions, since I felt that there were far too few in the game (I believe there were six). However, I thought that the main campaign was of the perfect length to effectively drive the story. There may be some replay value in going back to save certain people or kill others, but I didn’t notice my choices having much effect on the epilogue other than in who was doing the talking. With no multiplayer modes and no ability to play cooperatively with friends, the replay value of this game is severely limited.
This game can get annoying at times, but this usually has to do with the difficulty level that the player initially sets (a staple element in every game). Some battles are more difficult than others, especially those that come late in the game, but with the right strategic approach the player can get through them. The most annoying element was that I never felt like my ally AI were able to effectively function on their own. I would give them commands that they would fulfill, but they always felt like support for my character. In a single mission, I would get well more than 50 kills while they would struggle to get 4 or 5. Because of this, I had to pick abilities for myself and for my squadmates that would support my ability to engage in combat effectively without being flanked, which severely limited my tactical options in combat. 2. Parental Notices
Violence is by far the most prominent mature element in this game. The player will eventually gain access to an arsenal of weaponry with different visual effects. Hits from all weapons will result in blood from all biological enemies (no blood comes from mechanical enemies). In light combat situations against a small handful of enemies, the blood can seem quite noticeable. In heavy combat situations, blood is quickly lost in the search for the next target or in entering the next command.  Looks like I splattered a few flies. These hits are much easier to see with human weapons, which are based in ballistics, than in the alien weapons, which are based in lasers and plasma. The visual effects of the alien weapons does hide some of the blood from view.  There is blood in this picture. However, plasma weapons do cause some additional effects on an enemy’s death. Enemies that are killed with plasma weapons will almost instantly char and fall to the ground. However, dead bodies disappear within seconds, so I didn’t notice this effect until very late in the game.  That looks painful. Enemies with an obvious head and neck structure can also be decapitated if hit in the head with a sniper round. This effect is fairly obvious early in the game, but much more difficult to see when using laser or plasma snipers.  BOOM! Headshot! Explosives do not cause any additional blood or gore.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
This game takes place in the early 1960s, so smoking is still a prominent feature of society. Many characters in the XCOM headquarters are seen smoking. This becomes less prominent after the first few missions, since the player will only interact with a select few non-smoking individuals.  9 out of 10 doctors agree that's a fat cigar. The main character is an alcoholic. A few of the cutscenes show him drinking or discuss his drinking problems. There is also one section where the player can drink something (presumably alcohol) from a small flask as a tribute to a fallen comrade. This is a very quick section, though, and there are no adverse effects from taking the drink.  It might just be a flask of water, right? If a character was heavily damaged, he would go down. Another friendly character would have to come over and heal him with some unknown spray. The spray was never discussed in detail.  Don't forget to spritz my arms too.
One of the characters implies that the player can make bets over skill in the firing range, but this game doesn’t include any currency and never gives the player the option to challenge other characters for a reward. As a result, gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
Anti-law is not a factor in this game.
There are no multiplayer modes for this game.
Extreme sports are not a factor in this game.
The aliens control technology far beyond the capabilities of humans in the early 1960s. Compared to the M4 rifle and M1911 pistol, the aliens’ laser and plasma-based weapons seem quite magical. However, since these are all clearly based in technology, I do not consider them to be magical in nature. What I did consider to be magical were the various powers and abilities that the player and other characters can obtain and use during combat. The first power the player gets is the ability to heal his squadmates. The game does explain how the player gets this power and others, but doesn’t explain how they work. If the healing, summoning, buffing, and other abilities were included in a fantasy game they would definitely fall under the category of magical.  Rise and rise again.
Human Disfigurement Many civilians in the game have been infected with some sort of incurable disease that turns them into mindless zombie drones. These zombies are easily distinguishable because a black, tar-like substance oozes from their eyes.  Is that a mustache? Weapons of Mass Destruction WMDs are brought up a couple of times, mostly early on in the game. In the prologue mission, the player has to escape the alien invasion by detonating a nuclear bomb at a test facility. The player narrowly escapes in a helicopter. In a side mission, a nuclear missile is set to launch directly onto Washington DC. The player has to quickly infiltrate the launch facility and redirect the blast to the Bikini Atoll (an active nuclear test location).  Bon Voyage! Eventually the humans use a new element called “Eridium” to create a massive bomb. They bring this bomb to the alien homeworld and blow up a huge portion of the alien’s central command structure.
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