SINGAPORE — It’s been less than a year since the highly-rated XCOM: Enemy Unknown was released, and now another game set within the XCOM universe is about to be released next month. But turn-based strategy fans should not get excited just yet — The Bureau: XCOM declassified is a third-person shooter that’s set in the past, and far from the futuristic XCOM most of us are familiar with.

Set in 1962 at the height of the cold war, the Bureau you’re in has been reassigned to take on a new alien threat instead of Russians. You play as special agent William Carter, and you lead your squad of agents into covert battle before news of the invasion leaks out and cause worldwide panic.

The gameplay for The Bureau might be best described as XCOM meets Rainbow Six. As Carter, you lead the way in exploring the map but once you head into battle your team (consisting of commando, recon, engineer or support) springs into action. Like in Mass Effect 3, they’ll try to run into cover and take down the enemies, but the path to survival lies in managing your team’s abilities. This is done during “Battle Focus” — it works like bullet-time, where time slows down and you’re able to use hotkeys, the mouse, or a controller to decide on what action you wish you team mates to take. Take too long to decide and one of your team members might die anyway, as time doesn’t come to a halt.

In a hands-on session at the 2K Games office in Singapore, I got a sneak peek at one preview level, and try my hand in another. While they’ve filled the game with some trappings of the 60s (your outfits, the human weapons), there are also a lot of alien tech lying around as you explore. And while the game runs smoothly, there’s not a lot to shout about regarding the graphics. That said, the alien tech, the Battle Focus overlay, the action wheel and the cover mechanics — and even some of the aliens — are straight out of XCOM: Enemy Unknown, so for gamers familiar with the turn-based version it’ll visually feel just like a second home.

Once I got into the game all my niggling doubts got thrown out the window, mostly because I just didn’t have time. From ordering my team to distract aliens, to reviving injured team mates (or having them revive me) and firing at the alien invaders, there’s a constant stream of things to do which threaten to spiral out of control. Select the wrong option in the heat of battle, and things can go south — fast.

Add to that the arrival of the larger aliens — like the very familiar mutons — lumbering towards me like a freight truck, and it’s easy to be overwhelmed while constantly triggering Battle Focus hoping for divine rescue as the cooldown timer on my skills ticked away. Unlike XCOM: Enemy Unknown, where time pauses as you make your decisions, giving you a little breathing space, decisions here have to be made in a snap. And you do have to execute your plan well despite not having a birds-eye view of the battlefield. And while I managed to get past the muton during my hands-on by keeping him at a distance and launching grenades, the arrival of the spidery and armoured sectopod was enough to very quickly leave me running like a headless chicken while my teammates fell very quickly.

That’s not a mistake you’ll want because while team mates gain levels and perks as they get more combat time, when they die, they’re gone forever. Going in guns blazing is likely not a viable option.

While some of the trappings of an XCOM game are there — squad based missions with cover and skills in an alien-invasion setting — it remains to see if some of the key reasons for XCOM’s popularity remain. Not being able to witness one of your own team members triumphantly beating the odds to take down an alien might actually reduce the emotional attachment you get.

Another question to be answered — as you travel from mission to mission, it remains to be seen if you stick to your 60s-era clothes, or finally get to wear some armour for a change. The Bureau as I’ve seen so far is truly Mad Men (dapper suits, woolly turtlenecks) with a plasma rifle, but I sure hope my suit absorbs shots by alien turrets just fine.

Still, with the demo levels I’ve seen, it appears that developers 2K Marin (who did Bioshock 2) do have an idea on how best to combine the shooter with the tactical game, while not entirely losing the XCOM flavour. One of the demonstrators described The Bureau as XCOM stress in real-time, and from those frantic moments of assigning my squad as the sectopod crawls closer, I’d have to agree wholeheartedly.

From what I’ve seen, The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is truly a nerve-wrecking experience that, for all its shooter trappings, won’t alienate all but the most narrow-minded fans. That said, questions of just how this story works with the XCOM story we already know remains — we’ll find out in about a month’s time.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified will be released on Aug 23 for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and Windows PCs.

Those who pre-order the game will get access to a bonus side-mission named Codebreakers, and those who pre-order from participating outlets will also get their hands on an exclusive light plasma pistol for the game.