The Bureau: XCOM Declassified to come out in August

2K Games has finally unveiled the first action game set in the XCOM universe. The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will hit store shelves on August 23 and will be available for the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC. 2K Games has also released a trailer for the game:

The game will tell us all about the origin of the XCOM organisation. It is set in 1962 in the midst of the Cold War. The story revolves around an organisation called the Bureau that was created to deal with the Soviet Union, and then turned into a group that would take on the alien threat. The protagonist is special agent William Carter, who, much like the Men In Black, fights against an alien invasion and has to keep the common populace in the dark.

The game has been in development for ages, and was announced even before the Firaxis strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown was unveiled. It was originally going to be an FPS, but that idea seems to have been scrapped in favour of a third-person squad-based shooter.

Creative Director at studio 2K Marin, Morgan Gray, told Polygon that the game won’t be a typical run-and-gun shooter. “What we’re attempting to do is a third-person squad-based tactical shooter,” Gray said. “Putting you right there in the field. No more sitting back, watching everything unfold from a god’s eye view.”

“What we’re trying to achieve on the gameplay front is a very tactical … a game that demands skillful play from the player and a game that expects that,” he said. “In true XCOM fashion, it’s not just your Rambo brawn, but it’s using your brains, your team, the technology at your disposal, creating plans and then executing them.”