14 DAY TRIAL // After re-announcing to the world the XCOM shooter, which is now called The Bureau: XCOM Declassified, 2K Games has started sharing more details about its story, its mechanics, and how it will act as a prequel to last year's XCOM: Enemy Unknown.
2K Games was initially set to reboot the XCOM franchise with a first-person shooter made by 2K Marin. Since then, developer Firaxis released the turn-based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown, which went on to sell really well and earn critical acclaim.
Now, the publisher has re-announced the shooter, in the form of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
According to 2K Games Vice President of Product Development, Alyssa Finley, the title will act as a prequel and charts the creation of what ends up being the XCOM organization.
"The Bureau's initial charter was to investigate a series of incidents that the government thought were all Soviet infiltration and maybe a precursor to a nuclear war. Turns out, those incidents were of a far more extraterrestrial origin," Finley told Joystiq.
"The Bureau has to quickly adapt from their original charter to become the kind of organization that could identify alien threats, find ways to turn the alien technology against them and cover up evidence of what happened so that the American public could go on with their lives and not go into a panic about being invaded by aliens."
What's more, the success of XCOM: Enemy Unknown has made a positive impact on the new game, which, according to Senior Producer Nico Bihary, has helped 2K Marin improve on its project.
"There's quite a bit of familiarity between what we're doing versus what [Firaxis] is doing. What worked to our advantage, it really allowed us to put together a really compelling origin story because [Enemy Unknown] already established the current version of XCOM. It's been contextualized for us, so if we tell an origin story, people understand what we're talking about."
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will be released on August 20 for PC, PS3, and Xbox 360.