What?
Exclusive interview with the developers The Bureau: Xcom Declassified
Where?
London
In the June issue, we already told you about The Bureau. Initially, it was a first -person shooter, which for the universe Xcom Very unusual. The series has always been about accurate planning and tactical maneuvers (well, if you don’t remember the “interceptor”), and in the new game the character investigated the perfect houses in one of the many cities of the United States and suddenly stumbled upon an extraless threat that more like a reasonable resin, and not stereotypical aliens with large heads.
[[Bullet]] The holiday in a small town turned a nightmare: the aliens destroyed all the inhabitants and patiently wait in ambush.
Relatively calm moments were interrupted by sufficiently tense clashes with the invaders. After these brief demonstrations – not a word for almost a few years, and only recently the developers said that the project has changed the concept, became a tactical shooter from a third party and moved from the Rocuellovsky fifties to a more recognizable time period – the sixties – the sixties.
The game is already released in August, and more and more information appears on it, so we went to the studio 2k Marin , To chat with developers personally and find out the most interesting and important details about the new project.
The Bureau talks about the formation of an organization that originally worked with other countries, but due to understandable circumstances, she had to engage in extraterrestrial threats. In parallel with this, we monitor the history of the protagonist and employee of the Out Bureau of William Carter. He is a gloomy figure and even tragic in some ways. His prototype from the fifties looked like a more strong -willed character – with a square jaw and a fearless look, while the “new” William is less like a person from a campaign leaflet and, with all other things, suffers from alcoholism, and is also prone to stress. Immediately visible: Hero of Lovecraft. Imagine, a white collar suddenly encounters alien invaders, takes responsibility over his subordinates and is forced to face his face with an alien threat. Agents work in small cities where information can be easily distorted or even hidden.
[[Bullet]] when using a tactical regime, time does not stop completely, but it is enough to give orders and evaluate the situation.
So far we have seen only one demonstration level of the game: agents are landing in New Mexico, on the outskirts of a small town. The emphasis on The Bureau is more shifted to work in the team, but not detached, somewhere on top, and next to the allies, in a field where every salvo from an enemy plasma rifle can be felt in their own skin. Subordinates have various talents: an engineer minishes the territory, and the support class can put a protective barrier. We fight not only with the usual sectoids, but also with the new race of the invaders of Zudzhari – these creatures were specifically invented as an equivalent force to agents. Such aliens work harmoniously and are capable of insidious tricks: bypassed from the flank, distract your partners and install turrets. The stage turned out to be linear, the characters run from shelter to shelter, ammunition always lacks, and the game makes you constantly make decisions and react in time to the tricks of aliens.
In addition, we were shown a very small piece of the bureau itself, where you can choose plot missions for the team, send agents to side tasks. The rest of the project is most reminiscent of Mass Effect , where the allies also had to command and correctly distribute them in shelters (in any case, at high levels of complexity their help was invaluable).
Interview with Alissa Finley
We talked with Alissa Finley, Vice President 2k Marin, after the presentation she told us everything that you need to know about The Bureau at the moment.
You agree that after the changes you made, the game became less frightening?
In 2010, we were perfectly able to transfer the tension: it was impossible to guess what was waiting for you around the corner. But what we did not succeed is the command work, when the leader is responsible for his subordinates and the choice made on the battlefield can significantly affect the further course of the war.
[[Bullet]] sectoids in The Bureau play the role of enslaved races, like vortigontes from
We could instill fear and horror in the player, but there were no team spirit and tactical solutions in the project. Since then, one of our main tasks was Amazon Slots sister sites to recreate him. Here, say, the possibility of tactical planning on the battlefield helps to quickly respond to enemy actions. If one of yours is killed, then because you were mistaken somewhere, and not because an unknown creature crawled out from somewhere and was dishonestly interrupted. In a word, a lot has been done to provide players with an instrumentation necessary for understanding what is happening on the battlefield and the best solution to problems.
It seems to us that the very idea of combining tactics and the horror is fraught with problems. In tactical games you need to keep abreast of everything. The horrors are called to scare, keep the player in ignorance and create the effect of immersion … which disappears when the tactical regime with his interface is turned on, where everything is in sight.
I can't agree. I was scared to trembling when I played in XCOM: Enemy Unknown. It is worth seeing a sectoid capable of subordinating your mind, and the horror takes, although I know very well that you should not be afraid of it. The awareness of the consequences that my mistakes in battle can also lead to fear-this is still a great responsibility that makes us play at the peak of opportunities.
About someone else's glory
When we first saw your game, it was a great restart, a serious project in the beautiful surroundings of the fifties. And now we already have one very successful XCOM game, and you have four months left to prove to everyone: you do not give way to ENEMY Unknown. How do you feel about this project intercepted your laurels?
In fact, I believe that we are very lucky in this regard, because if you are going to tell someone’s history of formation, then it would be good for people to know what it is about. Otherwise, everyone except fans of the classic franchise will be difficult to understand what the game is about and what we are achieving. In my opinion, Enemy Unknown coped with this task perfectly, and indeed this is a great game.
I do not think that its creators deprived us of something, rather they put up the bar, which our game will have to be equal. In the end, Enemy Unknown is a step -by -step game designed for a certain game manner and a circle of players. We try to show XCOM from the side familiar to those who have already played tactical team militants, but have not yet played in XCOM and, perhaps, is not going to, because step -by -step games are not for them. The opportunity in this way to join the franchise can open eyes to people to the whole potential of XCOM and inspire them to play other games.
[[Bullet]] This character is no longer helping – the aliens infected him with a virus, and
I'm already confused, for me they are all xcom.
We prefer to call our game The Bureau, the other is Enemy Unknown, and no confusion.
Why did you make an announcement only when there is nothing left before the release? We have known about the game for years, and now there are only four months left.
You yourself answered your question! We have been known about us for years, we went through various stages of work and made further statements, having a game in our hands, which you can be proud of – not just talk about it, but show it to you. Because it was said plenty. You heard ads, the first and second; Now it's time for you to personally meet the game and see what XCOM is.
On the visual style and cultural features
We interviewed the creator of XCOM, Julian Hollop, on GDC, and he said that he considers your game very beautiful. The same time, however, the beauty has faded a little has passed since then ..
We have changed the design of the game. At first, in the version of the fifties, we had America Norman Rocuella – peace, peace, two children and a dog … Then we began to develop the plot and realized that this story should be moved in time, in the sixties, beat both paranoia from the Cold War, and Bay of pigs – it would fit there like a native. In addition, we greatly moved in an artistic plan from Rockwell towards a more realistic and harsh image. I agree, this has changed the game very much, but it is quite consistent with the story that it tells.
And you are not afraid that people with provincial America are familiar mainly on import television series about the sixties – “Smolville”, “Madles”?
Rightly noticed. But the same “madmen” are a good help, they reflect the consumption culture so characteristic of the sixties. As for the historical context – we will try to give you enough backstory and materials to study, so that the players are not familiar with American history can figure out.
[[Bullet]] initially agents are armed with carbines, but nothing prevents them from choosing
Is it possible to say that the game is more focused on the console than on a PC?
I repeat, we try to attract players familiar to modern tactical team militants from a third person. But in general, we try to please all fans of the series; Our team has PC-IGR enthusiasts who make sure that the interface and management in the PC version are at the proper level.
The first XCOM was a British game, but you definitely get a very American game – not international, unlike Enemy Unknown.
When we set out to tell the history of the formation of the organization, we needed a set of characters. These people should have been aware of what was happening. In the sixties, the information spread slowly. Something could happen, say, in Russia, and the rest of the world would not have suspected it. Therefore, we deliberately decided to tell a lot … Home history, after which we can already imagine where the World Organization came from, and there XCOM, as we know and love it.
And this next stage – development in an international organization – will be part of the game or a separate next project?
Now we are paying attention to American history. It is likely that at the same time, somewhere else in the world was similar, but we do not touch it and adhere to one chosen point of view.
On the typology of aliens and military secrets
How we are faced with the same aliens in the sixties of the last century, and at the beginning of the current?
You can ask a question even more global: how did all the aliens from the classic xcom arise in general? In that game there is no indication of the unified origin of the aliens, so we worked as the story of Zudzhari (“strangers”, the people-employer), which becomes a link. As for how this is generally possible, the very name of our game answers this question. One of the tasks of the bureau was to suppress and hide emergency incidents, to support the illusion of power. Obviously, all this was hidden and America should never have found out how close the global alien invasion was.
[[Bullet]] American authorities hide: already in the sixties they came up with a technology for
The converted XCOM logo on the floor of the command center is very in the spirit of NASA.
This is true. We studied the emblem of NASA, and this organization largely affects our work. And, of course, the design and architecture of the sixties – we wanted to contrast such a picture with aliens with their huge terraforming towers in the middle of the American town, show a sharp contrast between America who is familiar to you and an alien unknown.
We did not manage to play at the base, but you can talk about it more?
What we showed here is only a piece of a real base. The most interesting thing is hidden behind a large locked door, and you can get there in the full version of the game.