Click To Unmute

Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?

Sign up or Sign in now!

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.
This video has an invalid file format.
00:00:00
Sorry, but you can't access this content!
Please enter your date of birth to view this video

By clicking 'enter', you agree to Giant Bomb's
Terms of Use and Privacy Policy

Here's a Longer Look at The Bureau's 'Battle Focus' Feature in Action

Watch as aliens are dispensed without your character firing a single bullet. His team does plenty of bullet firing, though.

Jun. 27 2013

Posted by: Alex

33 Comments

Avatar image for danthegamer32
DanTheGamer32

266

Forum Posts

171

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 3

User Lists: 0

Edited By DanTheGamer32

@mofaz: D: I loved the Brothers in Arms games... (1 & 2 at least)

As for this game, it looks pretty sweet! I will probably be getting it :) hopefully the Quick Look EX on Wednesday will sell me on it more.

Avatar image for fwankenstein
Fwankenstein

34

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

So it's Mass Effect only you can direct your squad better.

Avatar image for juice8367
juice8367

476

Forum Posts

80

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

this is badass. might be because i prefer 3rd person games but i like that they changed it from fps.

Avatar image for sup
sup

85

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 0

That looks quite nice. Especially the fact that the player never fired a shot.

Avatar image for meatsim
MeatSim

11201

Forum Posts

150

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 23

Edited By MeatSim

Seems kind of like Mass Effect combat, but more tactical.

Avatar image for cybexx
Cybexx

1697

Forum Posts

1458

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 9

This looks pretty good. I really liked the bit where the engineer class throws out the turret and the player lifts it to gain a height advantage. It feels like it is executing better on the concepts that the Mass Effect series was going for but not quite achieved. Bioware talked a lot about being able to combine powers to create combos but the power combos were not very intuitive and I never ended up using them much beyond hitting a singularity with a warp to create an explosion. I hope there is a bunch more of that turret/lift type stuff.

I do kind of wish that 2K Marin had borrowed the suppression mechanic from the Brothers in Arms series since I feel it was a clear way of expressing the importance of flanking in a fire-fight style situation.

Avatar image for accolade
Accolade

574

Forum Posts

1934

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 8

Edited By Accolade

I wish he would have at least taken a shot.

Avatar image for likeassur
LikeaSsur

1625

Forum Posts

517

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Way more cynicism then I was expecting with this. This looks like a squad based shooter finally done right, and we haven't had one of those since Freedom Fighters.

Avatar image for ndn_shadow
NDN_Shadow

161

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

GUI reminds me alot of Bioshock Infinite. The health bars specifically.

Avatar image for mofaz
Mofaz

62

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

This was done successfully several years ago in the Io game Freedom Fighters, which was a brilliant, fun, simple but elegant game.

The concept can definitely work, it just needs the right touch, the Brothers in Arms games also used a similar sort of squad based styling, but those games weren't very good.

Avatar image for shadypingu
ShadyPingu

1857

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By ShadyPingu

Still don't know about this one. Feels like it could go either way from all the footage I've seen.

But dude levitating that turret to angle it over cover, that was pretty good.

Avatar image for dixego
Dixego

412

Forum Posts

40

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

This looks... quite awesome, I must say.

Avatar image for warxsnake
warxsnake

2720

Forum Posts

33

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 3

Perfect preview of the dumb AI with that dude crouching in the middle of the street in plain view of the enemy.

Avatar image for tesla
Tesla

2299

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 4

I've been looking forward to this game, but for me all this video highlights is how much going to that command menu interrupts the flow of the action.

Avatar image for gunsaredrawn
GunsAreDrawn

343

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

This doesn't look very good. They're combining the winning formula used in XCOM Enemy Unknown with a third person shooter and I don't think that works, these games are meant to be fast paced. The stopping the action to give your squadmates orders seems to ruin the pacing and it looks rather cumbersome for consoles and especially when you're not in a top-down/oblique perspective.

Avatar image for deactivated-6109c8479bb3d
deactivated-6109c8479bb3d

345

Forum Posts

15

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 5

User Lists: 1

@wrecks: I'm with you. The original FPS had a very distinct look and feel that was different from Enemy Unknown. I really liked the black goo/black cube aliens of the original trailer. I found those original alien designs to be disturbing, and separated the game from it's successful cousin.

This is gonna sound dismissive, but I think this rework is very reactionary to the success of Enemy Unknown.

Its enemy classes are now analogous to the enemies in EU, which make them more unremarkable and have predictable 'enemy classes'. EU was a reimagining/remake of the first XCOM, so sticking to those old enemies (as predictable as they are) made sense as a homage and strategic classes. I believe that if they stuck to being an FPS, they could have had the potential of creating truly distinct enemies that would have needed to be dealt in truly unconventional, reactionary ways.

It's combat tries to adopt the trappings of EU, but actually resembles Mass Effect more. It's just not the same without the Proc%, because there isn't a "gamble" or staking any bets on every shot. That normally wouldn't matter for a different game. However, they've adopted so much from EU that they're stuck in a limbo on whether or not to adopt the very thing that made EU so good: the risk/reward. If they adopt it: they'd have to be turn-based too, which might just as well be EU2. If they don't, they end up looking like Mass Effect, which they do now.

This game could probably still be 'solid', but I wish they stuck to their guns and gave this one its own personality and not have tried to adapt it to EU.

Avatar image for sarahsdad
sarahsdad

1339

Forum Posts

3436

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 21

So torn on this. I really loved Enemy Unknown, and I really liked Mass Effect, so this should be a no-brainer. Somehow I still find myself questioning it though. I think it's the fact that all the recent videos seem to be of roughly the same fight, just from slightly different angles, or at slightly different times.

I'd swear I've already read where base building and research are scaled back, so I'm worried that it's going to end up being the gun customization and fight scenes from ME3, with almost static backdrops to shuttle you between one combat arena mission and the next.

Avatar image for deranged_midget
Deranged

2022

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 10

User Lists: 5

Edited By Deranged

Not bad, definitely seems different and streamlined.

Avatar image for frymillstrum
frymillstrum

1347

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Oh wow, this is way more like Xcom than I thought. I was expecting an average Third Person Shooter with a very interesting setting.Cool.

Avatar image for kittyvondoom
KittyVonDoom

447

Forum Posts

117

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

Edited By KittyVonDoom

Who needs a gun when you have a hat like that, anyway?

@fistoh said:

@wrecks said:

I may be in the minority, but I was looking forward to the original FPS concept.

I'm sure it would have been fine enough, but as a diehard fan of the original XCOM, it just didn't feel right; the game becoming another modern FPS, and on top of the fact that they seemed to just throw out all the alien types from the old game. Announcing it before they announced Enemy Unknown was a terrible decision.

"First person shooters are all the same and mainstream... I am above the mainstream... KNEE-JERKING THE F OUT OF THIS."

Avatar image for tennmuerti
Tennmuerti

9465

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 7

Edited By Tennmuerti

Pshhhh, noobs.

Who puts guys in half cover when there is perfectly good full cover right next to it?

Avatar image for ross2075
ross2075

86

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

Looks like more of the fun of XCom...cool

Avatar image for zevvion
Zevvion

5965

Forum Posts

1240

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 6

User Lists: 2

This looks interesting. Seems like a third person view Enemy Unknown game. Not sure if about this though. I'll await a Quick Look.

Avatar image for dudewhaa
dudewhaa

45

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

Edited By dudewhaa

looks interesting but as it is now, or at least based on what this video showed....doesn't really look like any fun....

Avatar image for elwoodan
Elwoodan

1098

Forum Posts

1008

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 1

User Lists: 2

yea this looks really cool

Avatar image for fistoh
Fistoh

298

Forum Posts

769

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 2

User Lists: 3

@wrecks said:

I may be in the minority, but I was looking forward to the original FPS concept.

I'm sure it would have been fine enough, but as a diehard fan of the original XCOM, it just didn't feel right; the game becoming another modern FPS, and on top of the fact that they seemed to just throw out all the alien types from the old game. Announcing it before they announced Enemy Unknown was a terrible decision.

As for The Bureau, the team behind it definitely turned things around it looks like. It's also been a long time since I've played a good tactical shooter, so I'm pretty stoked for this.

Avatar image for nathanxplosion
NathanXplosion

196

Forum Posts

0

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

@wrecks: I was to, but that was before I played XCOM: Enemy Unknown, now I am more excited for what the game has become.

Avatar image for slashdance
SlashDance

1867

Forum Posts

1

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 0

I like that the player never fired a shot in this video (unless I missed it).

Avatar image for jettpack
jettpack

142

Forum Posts

16

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 18

yeah, i was super stoked after the original fps concept vid they showed. loved the whole aesthetic. This does look cool tho.

Avatar image for uberjannie
Uberjannie

358

Forum Posts

29

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 1

I hope this is good. I like these kind of games.

Avatar image for tupacalypse
Tupacalypse

136

Forum Posts

16

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 2

@wrecks same, you're not alone, though this still looks cool.

Avatar image for wrecks
wrecks

2685

Forum Posts

1152

Wiki Points

0

Followers

Reviews: 0

User Lists: 13

I may be in the minority, but I was looking forward to the original FPS concept.