2K Games has released the final chapter in its series of trailers detailing the world of The Bureau: XCOM Declassified.
2K Games has released The Aftermath, the final episode of its web series based on 2K Marin’s in-development game, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. To celebrate, 2K hosted a private webcast where video director Henry Hobson and actor Dominic Monaghan discussed the five episode web series and its relation the videogame that it’s based off of. According to Hobson, the web series was tailored to give an accurate portrayal of the game’s setting and tone. “I think with a lot of videogame trailers they step out of the world a little too much,” he said.
If XCOM Declassified the game is anything like The Aftermath, we can expect the game to be a fairly somber experience. The first four episodes served up imagery of shadowy government organizations, brutal alien attacks on an American town, and the torture of an alien prisoner by Bureau agents. The Aftermath takes things to an even higher plateau of a darkness. Comprised primarily of a montage that flashes between the zipping up of a body bag, an earlier pursuit of alien forces and the continued pummeling of the aforementioned prisoner, The Aftermath confirms that agent Ennis Cole (Monaghan), ambushed by aliens two episodes prior, was killed in action.
It ends with Bureau personnel swarming Pima, the town attacked by aliens earlier in the series, as they attempt to cover up what happened there. It’s some legitimately chilling stuff that, according to Monaghan, is simply reflective of how far videogames have come narrative-wise in recent years. “It’s clear that there’s a sophistication that wasn’t around 25 years ago.” Granted, we can’t say for certain that the game itself will be good, especially based off of a series of live action trailers, but we’re still going to take the obvious effort and care put into these videos as a good sign.
