The Bureau: XCOM Declassified has gone through many different shifts and changes over its long gestation period, but the game has finally has a release date set for August 20, and 2K Marin has now released a video of the gameplay to VG24/7.
The video showcases the mission called "The Signal," where the player track down a missing agent. The squad the player controls quickly gets behind some cover, and then revealed Battlefocus, the mode that slows down time and shows a wheel of battle options for the squad. These include standard options like moving the squad member or using one of the many power ups that a squad member gets by leveling up. Once this happens, gameplay resumes, as the player and his squad directly engage the enemy as lasers fly through the air and cars get upturned by explosions.
The video also discusses the classes available in the game: Recon, Support, Engineer, and Commando. Commandoes do lots of damage and are good for frontal assaults. Support provide various stat boosts to help out the other members of the squad. Engineers are able to build turrets and other useful devices. Recon are able to scout out areas and provide support as well.
In action, we see the player give commands to the squadmates, and then confront the enemy. Combat is in real time, and gives players the chance to issue orders using Battlefocus. The player engages the enemy with laser weapons, and uses his squad to distract the enemy and take out a sniper as he flanks the aliens. Players can switch to other members of the squad to give orders such as moving to better locations and use grenades to scatter the aliens.
The Bureau plays much differently than Enemy Unknown. Players get the chance to directly control their squad, rather than issue orders one turn at a time. We will have to find out if fans react with the same fascination with The Bureau as Enemy Unknown once the game comes out this summer.