page_title: The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
section_title: As The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (2012–2013)
hierarchical_section_title: The Bureau: XCOM Declassified / Development / As The Bureau: XCOM Declassified (2012–2013)
caption_attribution_description: English: Norm's restaurant on La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, California
context_page_description: The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a 2013 tactical third-person shooter video game. It was developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K Games. As the eighth title in the turn-based strategy series X-COM and a narrative prequel to XCOM: Enemy Unknown, the game was released for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in August 2013. Set in late 1962 at the height of the Cold War, the game's premise mainly revolves around The Bureau, the predecessor of the Extraterrestrial Combat Unit, as they attempt to repel an alien invasion. As a tactical shooter, players can use the battle focus mode to issue commands to two other agents accompanying the protagonist, William Carter. Players can permanently lose their squad members so they must make good tactical decisions.
  The game's development was protracted and troubled. Development began in 2006 and soon became a collaboration between 2K Marin and 2K Australia. Initially, the 2K Australia team wanted to create a mysterious first-person shooter with fearful alien life forms, and the player would be tasked to take photographs of them and research them in a secret government organization.
context_section_description: After the departure of Thomas, Zak McClendon, the narrative designer of BioShock 2, led the game's gameplay design. Under his guidance, 2K Marin began including classic X-COM enemies into the game. Having missed multiple milestones, the game entered its alpha stage in mid-2012; the game was playable from beginning to end. The game entered the beta stage in March 2013 and the publishing arm of 2K Games began promoting the game more heavily. During this period, 2K Marin also exchanged ideas with Firaxis Games. The game has multiple references to XCOM: Enemy Unknown and other X-COM games, though the enemies are less advanced than those in Firaxis' reboot since the story takes place over 60 years earlier. 
  In late 2012, the studio experimented with real-time strategy gameplay, in which players controlled agents from a top-down perspective. The radial wheel was reintroduced, though the team realized that players did not give commands to other characters during the testing phase. Early playtesters also complained that switching between agents was too slow and cumbersome. To solve the problem, the team streamlined gameplay by removing Time Units and the ability to assume control of different agents. Playtesters found the radial wheel confusing to use because there were too many skills to choose from when all agents reached their maximum levels. The team, in response, created a radial menu in which the selected option would expand and the rest of the menu would shrink in size.
  With the game's setting shifted to the 1960s, the art style became more realistic. It was inspired by The Day The Earth Stood Still, The X-Files, and Mad Man. The 1960s architecture featured in the game was inspired by the Googie style. Erik Caponi served as the game's narrative lead. His main task was to fill the gaps in the overarching story previously written by Thomas. He was inspired by The Right Stuff and The Conversation. In the game, each mission is a self-contained narrative, similar to an episode of a television show. He compared it to a role-playing game (RPG) in which the story is more personalized. Players action would bring consequences to the game's world that would result in several alternate endings. To increase player agency, different side objectives were introduced to the game.
  According to Gray, the XCOM base was an important part of the game. Grey described the base as "a character in itself" and one that would slowly change as the story unfolds. He compared it to the Normandy ship in the Mass Effect trilogy. Unlike XCOM: Enemy Unknown, players could not conduct any research as time did not pass between missions and the team believed that research would disrupt the game's narrative and remove the game's tension. Players can pick up alien weaponry in the field, an approach which was seen as more immediate by the team. The base is also the place in which players recruit new agents. The team felt that it was impractical to create hundreds of agents with unique personalities and voices and hoped that players could instead relate to them through gameplay. Players could not recruit female agents because Caponi wanted the misogyny of the period to be represented in the game.
  Seeing the popularity of difficult games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown, Dark Souls and Fire Emblem, the team designed the game to be unforgiving. Players are easily outnumbered and agents can die permanently. This prompts players to utilize different tactics in order to survive. According to Finley, run and gun would result in the death of the protagonist. The AI was programmed to ensure that the accompanying agents could survive on their own, though they require player input to function effectively. The game was designed to cater to a wide audience, including both strategy fans and action game players. Inspired by Fallout 3, the design team aimed to create a fluid gameplay experience with deep strategy gameplay. In addition, the team slowed down the movement speed of the playable character to encourage players to think tactically before they entered the warzone.
caption: The 1960s architecture featured in the game was inspired by the Googie style.
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