Genre: Third Person Cover Shooter; Sub-genre: Squad-based RPG
ESRB: M (profanity and machine gun violence)
Estimated hours of gameplay (thorough play/quick play): 18/8
Developer: 2K Marin
This is such an amazing year for games with unusual and unfortunate development cycles. Here we have a game that had a bad premise from the beginning that they tried to change time and time again to get it to work. But the end result is actually surprisingly good, I'd say. In fact, it's only minor grievances that grind in my head and turn into bigger problems that force me to scale back from a three star rating. I say this because before, during, and after my time playing Metro: Last Light I felt like I was burnt out on games and bored. But this one was fun enough that I managed to complete it on the hardest difficulty and enjoyed doing so. I wanted to classify this as one of those games that's "just a fun game," but it fell short of that. Here's why.
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| In the 60's, men were required to wear suits and hats into combat. |
Why does this game take place in 1962? Why does any story take place at any certain time? This represents a deliberate choice on the part of the storyteller. Some fantasy settings like Star Wars or Lord of the Rings muddy up the concept of time and make the universe being shown have no connection with our own. This is done to establish unique rules for that universe and properly prepare the audience so that they can understand the surroundings. A movie like Inglourious Basterds takes place in the 40's because the characters are directly involved in World War II and a plot to assassinate Hitler. So how does the setting serve this game? As far as I can tell, it's so that the main character (William Carter) can look dapper and wear a hat while he shoots aliens. And he doesn't even wear that hat past the first couple levels.
I want to point this out because this is where the minor problems that become big problems immediately become evident. This game doesn't know what to give the audience; it's just some random ideas flung out there. Does this game feel like an XCOM game? No. Does it emphasize the nostalgia of the 60's or use this time period to influence the path of the story? No. Going further, I argue that it doesn't know many other important elements of its story. Is this game supposed to be serious or silly? I would say serious because everyone's so damn somber and angry the whole time and no one seems to be enjoying a war with "little green men." But then the music teeters on becoming a fun, brassy old timey serial romp as you charge into battle with your Ghostbusters backpack while being dropped off by a black pilot that no one even mentions is black. Yeah. Wouldn't that be kind of a big deal in 1962? Deliberately avoiding this kind of heavy subject seems like something that belongs in a more light-hearted game.
And then there's the ending. I won't give any spoilers, but it goes from being a simple enough story of repelling an alien invasion into a story rife with "video game nonsense." You know what I mean? Needless, silly plot twists that just leave the audience confused. My advice to video game writers is to just make a simple, effective story. If you try too hard to defy our expectations, you end up denying us things we WANT. That's the thing about expectations; sometimes they reflect what we want from a story rather than causing us to groan about you being cliche.
All in all I'd rate this story as "tolerable." But what we all wanted was a light-hearted adventure with nostalgic silliness! Have Carter say things like, "Listen here, toots. Don't you worry your pretty little head about those little green men. I'm gonna go up to their leader and belt him right in the kisser. You'll see." And then he tips his hat as he makes his way to the inter-galactic bar brawl while some fun and memorable music accents the action. I found myself humming things like the theme to The Naked Gun and Cowboy Bebop as I wished the game would just stop having a stick up its rear and be FUN already. I say all these things because I think Carter is pretty cool! The artists managed to capture a face that's reminiscent of actors like Clint Eastwood, Peter Fonda, or maybe even Humphrey Bogart or something... I don't know. And his voice was over-the-top as the "older, grizzled war veteran," but that makes it all the better in a more light-hearted story. He doesn't have to express a full range of emotions, he just needs to be cool.
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| Men just don't look like this anymore. |
Completely ignoring the setting, the gameplay works great. While your teammates are complete idiots (as is unfortunately the case in many squad-based games) you can exercise a decent level of specific control over them. This is amplified by the fact that many of their abilities don't require line of sight. That helped massively while playing on the hardest difficulty as I was able to run clear away from the battlefield and throw abilities from behind an entire mountain so I could safely pick things off one by one. I did this more often than I liked since the game features a dreaded backwards difficulty curve. On lower difficulties, though, that should be lessened. Along with the ability to actually move around from cover to cover more often. Although that is still ill-advised and requires a defensive cooldowns to be blown. Personally I feel that I always find myself locked down in the same spot for too long in these games and The Bureau inflicts that problem big time. But when you get used to strangling the AI and abusing it to get what you want, the end result is often rewardingly tactical.
Despite my enjoyment of the combat, I believe this might be the highest point of warning to consumers. You see, my time with the Mass Effect series has shown me something. And that's that most players are too lazy to use the tactical features. Watch any gameplay video of this game (or Mass Effect or Dragon Age) and you'll see many people avoiding using the ability wheel, usually using it begrudgingly. I'd wager I spend well over 75% of my time issuing orders around. That other 25% is expending only a few rounds. If that sounds unpleasant, then you likely won't play the game as it was meant to be and you won't get the appeal.
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| Bringing up this wheel gives you so much more! |
Conclusion:
Not a game for XCOM fans or people nostalgic for decades past. It's really just a tactical shooter with some RPG elements (especially lots of talking). Even the RPG elements are shallow due to oversimplified classes and conversations with choices that generally don't affect anything. The ending is stupid, too. Maybe this is best suited for achievement hunters since it's not too difficult to get 34/34 awards in a single ~18 hour playthrough. Although I did miss one due to a possible bug ("Spring Cleaning").
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