The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is a third-person shooter that heavily focuses on cover elements and strategy to work your way through encounters with alien enemies. It can be a run and gun shooter if you wish, but you probably won’t get very far without dying several times, especially on harder difficulty settings. You really need to pick and choose your cover points and plan of attack, then use the other members of your strike force to the best of their abilities. That said, here are some tips to get you started.
– First and foremost, cover is important in XCOM. You will die quickly and easily if you don’t find proper cover during a firefight. Unlike some other games, you can’t just find one stop and take down most of the enemies without moving; enemies are fairly smart about their movements. You’ll need to keep a close eye on every enemy in sight, and move to better cover if they flank or position themselves to get a better shot.
– While concerning yourself with cover, you’ll also have to keep an eye on your allies. You can bark basic commands, or enter Battle Focus mode that allows you to issue more specific commands to them. You can move them to better cover, have them mark targets, lay out mines, heal your character and more. You’ll need to change your strategy with almost every fight. Assess the situation and determine the best course of action for you and your fellow officers at the Bureau.
– If you fail to move your allies properly, they’ll take heavy damage and bleed out. If this happens, you need to get these guys back on their feet. On the hardest difficulty setting, you can’t revive downed allies to help you during a fight. You’ll still need to tend to their wounds, but they won’t rejoin the fight until after the mission is complete.
– Once you have a strategy set for you and your team, you’ll need some weaponry. As you progress through each level, make sure to stop at every gun or bullet stash. It’s not hard to run out of ammo, and you can’t carry many weapons with you. It’s also important to look around the room during a firefight to see if there are other weapons around. Grenades work especially well against a large number of enemies, but running out of ammo is your main concern. Once you’re out, there isn’t much you can do unless you find another weapon or ammo in the room. Always be aware of your surroundings as soon as you enter a room/area, and don’t engage the enemy until you’re ready.
– As your progress further into the game, strategy becomes more important. Learn how best to utilize your team during a firefight in the early levels so that it’s second nature when things get rough later on.
– Know your opponents. Once you activate Battle Focus, highlight the desired enemy and press the required trigger (LT on Xbox 360) to perform a scan that displays that alien’s strengths, be it healing fellow invaders or chucking explosives. Most importantly, make note of weak points during a fight. A Sectopod, for example, is vulnerable in the rear. Meanwhile, always make it a priority to kill alien healers first, as they’ll continue to make life difficult as long as they’re alive.
– Perks work on cool down timers, meaning you cannot use one or another agent’s until it is available; times vary. Always keep this in mind, especially when it comes to healing everyone at once. Save it as long as possible.
– Agents perform better when you assign them tasks. Don’t let these guys make their own decisions. Instead, mark specific targets, utilize individual perks and move them to cover.
We’ll have more XCOM strategies coming your way over the next few weeks, so stay tuned to Prima Games.
