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Last year, the revived turn-based strategy game XCOM: Enemy Unknown blew critics and fans away with its deep gameplay and nail-biting battles against alien invaders. The fate of its sibling title, a first-person shooter set in the same universe, slipped off the radar. Originally revealed in 2011, this more action-oriented spin-off went very quiet.

That is until a few weeks ago when it burst back onto the scene, with an awesome new trailer which showed a shift from first-person to third-person perspective, and an emphasis on tactical squad play rather than real-time fragfests. What changed? Not very much, according to 2K Marin senior producer Nico Bihary.

"All we did was a camera transition to third person", he told VG247 when quizzed on the project's revamped form. "It gives you a solid visual understanding of the landscape. It gives you a solid tactical space of where you are in the environment as a player, so you understand when you're getting flanked. All we did was transition the camera, but the fundamentals of the game, what we were building, the core tenets of what is required to make The Bureau - or any XCOM game - have been constant throughout development."

The game is certainly looking very promising now - the battles are more up close and personal, but there's a clear strategic core and the 1960s period setting gives it a cool visual hook.

The Bureau: XCOM Declassified is due this August for Xbox 360, PlayStation 3 and PC.