14 DAY TRIAL // The Bureau: XCOM Declassified might be a third-person shooter, but the development team at 2K Marin says that it will also capture the tactical aspect that has made Enemy Unknown such a successful reboot of the series.
The team wants to make tactics a core part of the experience via a new feature called Battle Focus, which allows players to pull up a new user interface structure even when under fire in order to give orders to teammates.
Gamers can also use it to flank, get to higher ground or activate the special abilities of the squad and turn the tide of battle.
Alyssa Finley, a vice president at developer 2K Marin, tells ShackNews that “it's a UI element that you can bring up on the fly, while there's still pressure on the battlefield from the aliens, while bullets are buzzing by you.”
Battle Mode is an evolution of the Tag concept that the team worked on in 2011 and was showed at E3 that year.
2K Marin believed that Tag would slow down the core third-person experience and that it would break the overall flow of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, so they decided to evolve it.
Battle Focus does not stop time in the game, so players will have to balance its use with the need to keep moving and firing in order to take out the alien enemies they are facing.
2K Marin wants to make it clear that The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is more than a run and gun experience and can deliver depth to those who loved the reboot of Enemy Unknown delivered by Firaxis.
The new game will be set in 1962 and will focus on a secret service agent who needs to battle aliens while also keeping the entire operation secret.
The game will be launched on August 20 in the United States and three days later in Europe.