The Bureau: XCOM Declassified - This game is a glitchfest
15This is a chronicle of my bewildered first impressions and also a couple of mechanics glitches I found during a single game session of The Bureau I had a day or two ago. I didn't expect the game to be THIS buggy... in other words, it was a positive surprise.
0:00 - Something rare and unforeseeable happened right off the bat: I started the game with an audio bug that disabled all dialogue inside the game (except in pre-rendered cutscenes).
I didn't even realize the game was bugged out at first. But eventually my suspicions grew because not a single character said anything inside the game... But that's getting ahead of things. First, let's just list the mechanics glitches I found during my casual glitch testing.
0:41 - Endless Punching glitch.
If you give a squad command and then do a melee attack in quick succession, Carter's melee attack may glitch up, becoming infinite. The melee attack doesn't look entirely normal either: it seems it has a small build-up, as if it was charged up a bit before release.
After the glitch is active, it seems impossible to stop. None of your actions do anything and you can't examine prompts either, so there's a chance you even get stuck in the level. I didn't try the glitch in the vicinity of enemies or cutscenes yet, so there might still be more to it.
1:21 - Extra Vaulting glitch.
If you give a squad command, then wait a second or so, then vault over a cover, then spam squad command button to give another command as early as possible, you often activate this glitch. Carter will automatically do another vault over non-existing cover in front of him. Tapping squad command button or X may cause him to do a third vault as well, after which the glitch is over.
1:48 - since Carter rises up in air during vaults, you can get over small walls with extra vaults in some areas of the game. This is a small OoB right in the area where you first learn of squad commands, but it's just a small, closed-off area, so it's not too useful to go there.
2:02 - Displaced Vaulting glitch.
If you give a squad command, then quickly vault over a cover, then give another squad command around the time Carter has finished his vault, you often get this glitch effect. Carter does a glitched vault which lifts him up above the cover point.
This variation doesn't seem as useful. Just moving a little bit will drop Carter back down to ground level. However, it IS possible to start Extra Vaulting from a little higher in air to get over even higher walls this way, I guess.
2:28 - Sunken Carter glitch.
A rare related glitch effect is that Carter becomes displaced and sinks inside ground a bit. I don't know how to do this one at will - it might be related to specific level geometry instead of the player's timing.
You can move around while sunken quite freely because the only things which end this glitch so far are vaulting over cover again or retrying.
Just out of curiosity, I continued playing onward in the level with both sunken Carter glitch and the fabled No Dialogue bug, resulting in some pretty odd looking scenarios...
3:19 - While sunken, Carter becomes so short that he can't reach some item prompts around the levels.
Also, the physics of the game were so weird and wonky I thought they had somehow glitched up as well... But just to make sure, I returned here after resetting console, and everything still acted just as weird. So it's just normal behavior of the game. Oh well.
3:45 - Sunken Carter is actually really good in combat. This is because he is a small target whom enemy bullets can't reach while behind cover. Meanwhile, his bullets WILL hit enemies just fine.
4:54 - Cutscene time! Carter remains sunken even inside in-game scenes, which is great. Meanwhile, no one is able to say things out loud because of the No Dialogue bug.
Dialogue tree lines are all instantly skipped because of the bug. The game just fast forwards through them without your say in the matter.
5:24 - Investigation points produce no reaction at all while No Dialogue bug is active.
6:04 - The railings in the area leading to the weird vortex seem extra precarious. It seemed as if Carter could've just walked through them, but I didn't want to risk it because I wanted to keep sunken Carter mode on even longer.
6:36 - Here's the highlight of my gaming session; that one moment when everything clicked together, and I understood it had all been worth it.
7:56 - No Dialogue bug even skips radio calls, which is actually a huge time saving measure in a speedrun... IF we ever learn how to do this bug at will.
The bug must've started in main menu already, because it was active right from the first moments of the game. Perhaps some combination of settings or a menu glitch causes this bug to happen?
8:25 - my time as sunken Carter came to a tragic end at the end of Mission 1 because I had no idea what to do... because of the No Dialogue bug. Et tu, Brute?
8:42 - the No Dialogue bug went on until I finally reset the console.