The Bureau: XCOM Declassified on Steam - User reviews, Price & Information
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The year is 1962 and the Cold War has the nation gripped by fear. A top-secret government unit called The Bureau begins investigating a series of mysterious attacks by an enemy more powerful than communism.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a action, tactical and sci-fi game
developed by 2K Marin
and published by 2K.
Released on August 22nd 2013 is available on Windows and MacOS
in 8 languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish - Spain, Japanese, Korean and Russian.
It has received 11,786 reviews of which 8,277 were positive and 3,509 were negative resulting in a rating of 6.9 out of 10. 😐
The game is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam, but you can find it for less on Gamivo.
The Steam community has classified The Bureau: XCOM Declassified into these genres:
Media & Screenshots
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System requirements
These are the minimum specifications needed to play the game. For the best experience, we recommend that you verify them.
Windows
- OS *: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit
- Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHz
- Memory: 2 GB RAM
- Graphics: DirectX9 Compatible ATI Radeon HD 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT
- Storage: 12 GB available space
- Sound Card: DirectX Compatible
- Additional Notes: Incompatible with Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics
MacOS
- OS: Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.7.5 or higher
- Processor: Intel Core i series processor
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- Graphics: AMD HD4870 / NVIDIA 8800GT / Intel Iris Graphics or better
- Storage: 15 GB available space
- Additional Notes: Keyboard and 3 button Mouse or Logitech Dual Analog Stick Gamepad
User reviews & Ratings
Explore reviews from Steam users sharing their experiences and what they love about the game.
Not the greatest game I played, but also not bad - and definetly worth a playthrough for any XCOM fan. Bought the game for like 2€ on sale and played through it in like 3 days. As someone who sometimes finish to struggle games, this one got me hooked enough to barely play anything else until it's done. If you look at the different peaces this game is made of, none of them is really great. The voice acting is kinda meh, the 3rd person shooter aspects are okay, the story isn't necessarily a novelty in the series. But as a whole, it does manage to be enough fan service for me to really enjoy the game. The biggest highlight was the mechanic to order around customizable squadmates - this did make it feel like you're one of the guys on the ground you usually control form bird's eye view in the other XCOM games without losing too much tactics.
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The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a game caught between two worlds, and it shows. From the very beginning, it presents a concept with undeniable intrigue: a tactical third-person shooter set during the height of Cold War paranoia, reimagining the origins of the XCOM organization amid a secret alien invasion in 1962. This backdrop is more than just aesthetic dressing—it becomes the game's strongest asset. The art direction leans heavily into period authenticity, with diners, government bunkers, small-town suburbs, and military installations painted in saturated mid-century tones. Radios hum with era-specific broadcasts, typewriters clack in dimly lit offices, and the early stages of America’s technological and political anxiety are palpable in every scene. This grounding in retro Americana infused with science fiction lends the game a unique identity that helps it stand apart visually, even when the mechanics struggle to match the same level of polish. Where The Bureau starts to show cracks is in its gameplay. The core experience is a third-person shooter with tactical elements—essentially, a hybrid between Mass Effect's squad control and XCOM’s high-level strategy, but without the refinement of either. The game encourages you to pause combat using a radial menu called “Battle Focus,” from which you issue commands to your two AI-controlled teammates. These squadmates come in various classes—engineer, recon, support, and commando—each with its own skill tree and battlefield abilities. The idea is solid in theory: combine real-time shooting with tactical decision-making. In practice, though, the system is bogged down by AI inconsistencies, clunky interface design, and the constant need to micromanage underperforming allies. Instead of feeling like a capable field commander, you often feel like a babysitter, struggling to keep your squad alive rather than orchestrating complex strategies. The combat encounters themselves are uneven. Early missions tease the potential of the system with some tense engagements and decent pacing. However, the repetitive enemy types, predictable patterns, and limited tactical variety eventually cause battles to blur together. There’s a loop that grows stale far too quickly: enter an area, set up cover, deploy a turret, issue a few commands, repeat. It doesn’t help that the enemy AI behaves erratically—sometimes overly aggressive, other times passively waiting for you to dispatch them one by one. As a result, firefights lack the kind of urgency or creativity that games like XCOM: Enemy Unknown or Mass Effect 2 handled so well. The lack of permanent death for agents (outside of optional difficulty settings) further removes any tension that might have made you care about your squadmates. They’re disposable in more ways than one—not just in gameplay, but narratively too. The story, despite its strong setting, is a missed opportunity. You play as Agent William Carter, a brooding, emotionally wounded operative burdened with a mysterious past and a knack for yelling at subordinates. Unfortunately, Carter lacks the charisma or emotional complexity to carry the narrative, and most of the supporting cast is similarly underdeveloped. The dialogue system offers choices that occasionally affect the outcome of missions, but these moments feel superficial and rarely influence the overarching plot in meaningful ways. While there’s an attempt to weave in mystery and intrigue—complete with a twist involving consciousness transfer and alien manipulation—the game never fully earns its more ambitious narrative beats. The emotional stakes feel hollow, not because the story lacks big ideas, but because it fails to ground them in characters we care about. That said, The Bureau does manage to deliver occasional moments of genuine atmosphere. The base hub—XCOM’s early command center—is dense with period detail, and wandering through its halls, eavesdropping on scientists and military personnel, can be surprisingly immersive. There's a sense of mounting dread as the alien threat escalates, and the game’s use of environmental storytelling does a decent job of reinforcing that feeling. Audio logs, newspaper clippings, and overheard conversations help flesh out the world in ways the main story fails to do. These quieter moments, oddly enough, often feel more engaging than the action sequences themselves. Technically, the game runs smoothly on modern systems, though its visual fidelity has not aged particularly well. Character animations are stiff, facial expressions are wooden, and some textures are noticeably flat. The voice acting is serviceable, but rarely exceptional, and the soundtrack—while fitting for the tone—fails to leave much of a lasting impression. There are also a handful of bugs and glitches, though nothing game-breaking. It’s clear that this was a game with an ambitious scope but perhaps not the time, resources, or clarity of vision to fully realize its potential. In the end, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a flawed but fascinating experiment. It tries to reimagine XCOM through the lens of a story-driven shooter while still holding onto its tactical roots, and in doing so, ends up pleasing few. For fans of the XCOM franchise, it lacks the strategic depth and emergent storytelling that defines the series. For shooter fans, the gunplay and squad mechanics feel sluggish and constrained. And for those drawn by the premise and setting, the thin character work and uneven pacing may prove disappointing. Yet for all its shortcomings, there is something admirable about its ambition. The Bureau doesn’t quite succeed in what it sets out to do, but it’s hard to ignore the charm in what it tries. It's the kind of game that some players might love in spite of itself—a misfire, yes, but an interesting one. Rating: 7/10
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Sure. This is not XCOM. And I think that explains some of the bad reviews. Because I agree, XCOM: Enemy Unknown is an awesome game and one of my favorites of all time. But honestly, I don't think The Bureau is doing a terrible job. If you judge it on its own merits, then you will see that it is a perfectly fine cover-based shooter with tactical elements that DOES kinda emulate how a game of XCOM would look like if the Commander was a soldier on the field and not someone giving orders from the comfort of a command centre. It is hectic sometimes, but the command HUD for your two companion soldiers is intuitive, the shooting a lot of fun and rewarding, the enemy types thematic and sometimes even scary, the story absolutely find and with an interesting plot twist towards the end. Sure, walking through the base and listening to Carter talk to various scientists and agents about stuff isnt the most fun and everything in the base kinda feels tagged on to make the game feel longer, but it is not THAT bad or tedious. And yes, the game is over within a couple of hours, but if you are an XCOM fan and you can get this game cheap, then it is totally worth a shot.
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I know it's largely forgotten amongest the XCOM fanbase but i dunno i still very much find it's style of gameplay enjoyable and fun but i guess that's largely because i enjoy having control over my actions instead of relying on rng. Not to say the other titles are bad for that, i'm just less interested in them because of that. Even if we don't get another XCOM like it i'm hoping to find more games that take this games ideas and improve upon them.
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Still a fun and Casual X-com game experience. loved the lore and graphics, game play was okay. If you enjoy the lore side of games, a must get when on sale.
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Frequently Asked Questions
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is currently priced at 19.99€ on Steam.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is currently not on sale. You can purchase it for 19.99€ on Steam.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified received 8,277 positive votes out of a total of 11,786 achieving a rating of 6.90.
😐
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified was developed by 2K Marin and published by 2K.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is playable and fully supported on Windows.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is playable and fully supported on MacOS.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is not playable on Linux.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a single-player game.
There are 3 DLCs available for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. Explore additional content available for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified on Steam.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified does not support mods via Steam Workshop.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified supports Remote Play on TV. Discover more about Steam Remote Play.
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is enabled for Steam Family Sharing. This means you can share the game with authorized users from your Steam Library, allowing them to play it on their own accounts. For more details on how the feature works, you can read the original Steam Family Sharing announcement or visit the Steam Family Sharing user guide and FAQ page.
You can find solutions or submit a support ticket by visiting the Steam Support page for The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
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Last Updates| Steam data | 23 January 2026 18:20 |
|---|---|
| SteamSpy data | 26 January 2026 13:52 |
| Steam price | 29 January 2026 04:46 |
| Steam reviews | 27 January 2026 19:49 |
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- SteamDB - A comprehensive database of everything on Steam about The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
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- ProtonDB - Crowdsourced reports on Linux and Steam Deck The Bureau: XCOM Declassified compatibility
Game modes
Features
Online players
12
Developer
2K Marin
Publisher
2K
Release
22 Aug 2013
Platforms
Remote Play
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