The Bureau: XCOM Declassified

2K Marin’s troubled XCOM shooter will step out of the shadows on 20th August in North America and 23rd August in Europe as The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. The title – which was originally planned as a first-person shooter – will now take the form of a squad-based tactical third-person shooter, similar to the Rainbow Six series.

The game is set during the height of the cold war in 1962, and details the origins of the XCOM organisation. “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,” 2K Games’ Alyssa Finley told Joystiq. “Turns out, those incidents were of a far more extraterrestrial origin.”

You’ll play as Special Agent William Carter, who takes customisable agents into the battlefield for combat. The action will play out in real-time as opposed to XCOM: Enemy Unknown’s turn-based approach, but the permadeath mechanic will still play a big part in the gameplay. In short, if you lose a comrade, they’ll be gone forever.

The developer’s said that it’s focusing on current generation platforms for the time being, so don’t expect a PlayStation 4 version just yet. We’ve included the title’s debut live action trailer below. Is this something that you’re interested in? Let us know in the comments section.

[source joystiq.com]