Lead Systems Designer James Clarendon at 2K Marin discusses in his blog the challenges with the different difficulty settings in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. Clarendon goes on to explain the differences between the four difficulty settings which include Rookie, Squaddie, Veteran and Commander. Each setting offers different challenges with the game’s YOLO “You Only Live Once” or permadeath aesthetic of The Bureau. When a squad mate goes down, they are incapacitated and will bleed out and die if the player or a member of the squad doesn’t get to them in time. The time it takes for someone to bleed out changes depending on the difficulty setting as does the ability to replace injured squad members. You can read the entire blog here: http://www.2kgames.com/blog/embracing-challenge-in-the-bureau-xcom-declassified

2K Marin has also released a new gameplay video depicting what players shouldn’t do in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. This new video is titled YOLO and shows different ways of getting squad members killed. Each squad member ranks up with gameplay and will learn new abilities in The Bureau: XCOM Declassified. This is the same system that carries over from XCOM: Enemy Unknown and let me tell you, if you loose too many squad members like I did in almost every fight, the game gets more difficult as you continue to play. Protect your squad members so they aren’t yelling YOLO in combat.