At about the two hour mark I realised that if I was going to make any progression in this game at all I was going to need to think tactically and making effective use of my team mates rather than than firing off rounds myself. The aiming and movement is also not quite as slick as I would like, and as much as I applaud a game not having multiplayer thrown in for the sake of throwing in multiplater ( Hi, Lara Croft), co-op would have been an interesting inclusion here.īut then I realised something – Declassified isn’t really a shooter. Comparing the level and character design of The Last Of Us with Declassified reveals the difference that having a big budget can make. Agent Carter was an especially irritating character thanks to a limp attempt at a gravelly voice, and the entire engine looks like it’s from a previous generation of development technology. Declassified plays like a modern shooter, which at first feels like an awkward juxtaposition given the environments it takes place within, but then the message hits home – the themes that upset Wood so far as to produce really bad films are as applicable now as they were back then.Īt times the game’s delivery is laboured and this put me off it in the early stages despite the appealing narrative and theme. Level design follows the same pattern of “corridor-open area for skirmish-corridor” of those aforementioned games. Guns behave in much the same way as they might in a Battlefield or Call Of Duty game. It’s a good question, because Declassified might be painted by 60’s colours, but for all intents and purposes it plays like a modern military shooter. ![]() Declassified throws in a rejection of mundane suburban lifestyle as part of the empowerment fantasy that all games feel the need to work in, but the question that needs to be asked is Declassified a particularly faithful homage to the pulp fantasy of the 60’s, or an argument that those same fears still exist in society today? It’s a B-grade narrative (with performances to match), but it contains many of the same themes of fear that alien films of the 50’s and 60’s were filled with the threat of an attack by “outsiders” (Communists), the fear of weapons escalation and a distrust of Government. ![]() By shooting up hordes of “outsiders” that are invading that way of life, naturally. As Carter runs through supposedly idealic subruban paradises built in accordance to the American dream and fights around symbols of 60’s Cold War monuments to American politics only he, the person who has rejected that wholesome lifestyle and culture is able to save it. He lost his family via a tragedy while he was away fighting at war, and it left him with a no-compromise dour personality that just happens to be perfect for a game, because it also means that he gets to run around playing hero with no consequence. And, just like Plan 9, XCOM Declassified is also a greater vision than its technical realisation.Īgent Carter is a hard fellow. It’s set in the 60’s but it’s an overwhelmingly modern game, fearful on a metaphoric level for the cultural, social and political challenges we face here in 2013. Not because it’s a bad game (it’s not), but because it exhibits a surprising number of themes and social concerns common to that film, as well as a sheer horror for the banality of suburban lifestyle. What does all this film talk have to do with The Bureau: XCOM Declassified? In some ways, it’s like Plan 9 From Outer Space. Burton was lucky enough to have talent, Ed Wood did not. Burton, a victim of surburban life himself, clearly saw a kindred spirit in Wood, and used the film Ed Wood to give the world a biopic of a man with genuine enthusiasm, intelligence and a great love for film crippled by circumstances and a lack of talent for working in his favoured medium. No small surprise that it was Johnny Depp and Tim Burton that would make the film of his life, then. Wood was a truly horrible director, but the ideas found within his work were remarkably progressive he’s a man that cared deeply about issues from environmentalism through to gender roles in society (another one of his infamous films, Glen or Glenda), and these themes were genuine and quite intelligent, even if they were packaged within total tripe. Wood thought would be his magnum opus, Plan 9 From Outer Space, it’s easy to see how much care went into such a flawed product.
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