History VideoGame / TheBureauXCOMDeclassified

''The Bureau: XCOM Declassified'' is a tactical ThirdPersonShooter prequel to the 2012 ''VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown'' by [[Creator/TakeTwoInteractive 2K Games]], for PC, UsefulNotes/XBox360, and UsefulNotes/PlayStation3. It was released on August 20, 2013.

*** It could also be that, since he is connecting to Mosaic, he is able to influence the hallucinations [[spoiler: And when they appear, the actual Outsiders.]] into attacking each other.

& IncrediblyDurableEnemies: Enemies are relatively tanky compared to other shooters; a basic Outsider soldier can take a good couple dozen rounds of M14 autorifle fire before going down, while Sectoid SlaveMooks are maybe half as durable. Headshots, bonus damage from flanking, and researching better weaponry are pretty important to taking out enemies quickly and effectively.

** EliteMooks: The 3 basic Outsiders types (Infantry, Phantoms, and Snipers) all have Elite variants that are equipped with regenerating energy shields and better weapons.

* MyBrainIsBig: Outsider Commanders have enlarged craniums compared to the regular ones. Since Origin doesn't have one, it appears to be a modification to the Commanders as part of their techno=psychic powers.

** At the end of the game, the player ends the invasion and obliterates the Outsider Empire. Fast-forward several decades, and the resulting power vacuum has allowed a new batch of aliens to prepare an even more devastating invasion of the planet. [[spoiler: Canonically, the invasion succeeds and Earth is occupied by the Aliens for two decades.]]

* {{UnPerson}}: On the live-action trailers, it appears to be what XCOM does to any civilian casualties. [[UpToEleven We see this being applied to an entire town]], [[KillItWithFire and clean-up teams torching it to the ground]], on "The Aftermath".

-->-- '''General Douglas [=MacArthur=]'''

* ComputerEqualsTapedrive

* TheConscience: [[spoiler: Asaru, the benevolent Etherial, essentially served as this for his host William Carter, curbing the man's self-destructive tendencies and racist paranoia, even though it's implied Asaru didn't even know that he and Carter were different people at first until TheReveal, essentially being born from Carter in a sense.]]

* AmbiguouslyGay: A bit of [[ArtificialAtmosphericActions ambient dialogue]] in XCOM HQ has an agent speculating that Dr. Weir and his assistant were more than just colleagues and the game goes out of its way to show the two were extremely close. However, Dr. Weir himself never elaborates on the precise nature of their relationship (understandably, [[TheSixties given the setting]]).

* HerrDoktor: [[RunningGag Seems to be a tradition]] [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown for the latest iteration]], as Doctor Heinrich Dresner alludes to the fact that he was, indeed, ''that'' [[StupidJetpackHitler kind of German doctor]], saying that Carter could [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services talk to the OSS]] regarding his "immigration" to the US. According to him, his support for the nazis was a matter of opposing communism and feeding his family, and he had no hand in the human experiments and was was trapped between a rock and a hard place when he found out about them. This is bull: the nazis weren't subtle about their true colors with regards to e.g. exterminating the disabled, "if only I'd known" routines can get bent. For what it's worth when Carter captures [[spoiler:Origin's Ethereal]], Dresner is asked by other scientists if he is planning on studying it. Dresner replies that he has no desire to keep these creatures in cages.

* GenreBlindness: Like the aliens from VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown, Outsider weapons self-destruct when their operator dies. Unlike them, however, the Outsiders sometimes just leave their guns lying around for you to pick up.

* HerrDoktor: [[RunningGag Seems to be a tradition]] [[VideoGame/XCOMEnemyUnknown for the latest iteration]], as Doctor Heinrich Dresner alludes to the fact that he was, indeed, ''that'' [[StupidJetpackHitler kind of German doctor]], saying that Carter could [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Office_of_Strategic_Services talk to the OSS]] regarding his "immigration" to the US.
** However, an audio file found after the first official mission clarifies that he had no hand in the human experiments, and was trapped between a rock and a hard place when he found out about them.
** Additionally, when Carter captures [[spoiler:Origin's Ethereal]], Dresner is asked by other scientists if he is planning on studying it. Dresner replies that he has no desire to keep these creatures in cages.

* AlternateHistory: The game has a full-scale alien invasion taking place in early 1960s America, with the opening attack resulting in the deaths of J. Edgar Hoover and former President Truman among others. XCOM is eventually able to cover up the alien nature of the attack, but only by making everyone believe it was a massive ''Soviet'' invasion. It's actually a miracle that by the time the timeline gets to ''Enemy Unknown'', the world's culture and geopolitics are so close to our own.
** It is not made entirely clear whether Hoover, Truman and other government leaders in fact do survive. The aliens disrupt all long-range electronic communications, which leaves The Bureau operating without any contact to any superior authority. Faulke says near the beginning of the game that as the country is under invasion and they are unable to contact anyone, they are operating under the assumption that the government is ''gone'' until proven otherwise.

* NotSoDifferent: Director Faulke offhandedly mentions his interest in using Mosaic to control humanity in a similar way to how Origin used it to control his people, only "more responsibly". Carter is understandably unsettled, even comparing Faulke to Stalin.

* AcePilot: Barnes, who pilots the Skyranger and later, the Avenger.

* ActionizedSequel[=/=]SequelDifficultySpike: The ''Hangar 6 R&D'' mini-campaign is heavily combat focused, being a series of 12 prolonged, large-scale firefights in various arenas. It is also ''much'' harder than the original campaign, as you end up facing EliteMooks and mini-bosses right off the bat, and in larger numbers than in the campaign, all while being limited to human weapons until the last few arenas.

* AllThereInTheManual[=/=]AuthorsSavingThrow: The ''Hangar 6 R&D'' mini-campaign explains why sleeper agents stop showing up after the first mission (Nico and Dr. Dresner managed to shut down that particular functionality of Mosaic, leaving all infected humans as harmless Sleepwalkers).

* AlternateHistory: The game has a full-scale alien invasion taking place in early 1960's America, with the opening attack resulting in the deaths of J. Edgar Hoover and former President Truman among others. XCOM is eventually able to cover up the alien nature of the attack, but only by making everyone believe it was a massive ''Soviet'' invasion. It's actually a miracle that by the time the timeline gets to ''Enemy Unknown'', the world's culture and geopolitics are so close to our own.

* PlayerCharacter: William Carter. Also either Weaver, Faulke, or Weir in the final mission. [[spoiler:In truth, however, you're actually [[PlayingThePlayer playing Asaru, an Ethereal]].]]