Gears of War is a very popular franchise within the gaming community. It has set different bars when it comes to quality. The franchise started as an exclusive for Xbox and it didn’t take long before the game caught a lot of attention. GOW was known for a good story and interesting mechanics that build the foundation of different action-packed games. With Gears Tactics, they’re using X-COM as an example and try to make this type of game their own…
You have probably already guessed it but Gears Tactics isn’t your ordinary Gears of War. It’s a game that flips its own foundation and tries to be experimental within its own franchise. They’re trying something new and from what we’ve played, I can tell that this is just another successful chapter to add to the collection. Even though they’re not being completely new, it’s still a breath of fresh air for all those Gears of War veterans.
“Sergeant Gabe Diaz is unique in two ways”
Gears Tactics is a whole new experience and what better way to make a point in this “Tabula Rasa” concept, than to create a new hero within the Gears of War lore. This hero is a bit different and even though he has some connections to the previous GOW, the character’s history or achievements remain a mystery. We are taking on the role of Gabe Diaz, the father of Kait which was the protagonist of GOW 5. Gabe Diaz is unique in two ways. First of all, Gabe is just a mechanic that’s prepared to fight but doesn’t really want to. He is a bit more lowkey than all those other characters within the franchise. Second of all, this character plays a support role instead of the mean killing machine that we’re used to. These 2 things make up for an interesting character and open up the timeline in the developers’ “Negative Space”. In other words, even though there’s a lot of lore within the GOW franchise, not everything has been written down and this opens up doors to unexpected things.
The story of the game takes you to twelve years before the first Gears of War. It was a desperate time that called for desperate measures. A great part of the city was under attack by hordes of Locust. Human beings were being massacred where no one survived. As an attempt to eliminate all of these filthy beasts, the COG decided to use the Hammer of Dawn to eradicate this evil. Unfortunately, their attempt failed and the Locust survived, roaming the streets of their beloved capital. It’s up to sergeant Diaz to take up arms and slender through the alleyways of the capital to find survivors and recruit them for his tactical team. His primary mission is to find and kill Ukkon which is a mad professor monster man who creates his own beasts by combining nature’s filth with technology. Sergeant Diaz and his team are humanity’s only hope.
Gears Tactics is a top-down tactical turn-based action game where you play as an overseer (through the eyes of Gabe Diaz) that commands his troops on the battlefield. You choose their movement direction, action skills, and kill shots. After you’ve used up all of your character’s action points, it’s the enemy’s turn to make their move. Each character has its own weapons, gadgets, skills, and role to play. All of these weapons and gadgets can be upgraded by adding stronger components to their items. These items can boost stats, give passive skills, and make them even better looking. If a character kills an enemy, it gains experience points. These XP points can be used to level up. With each level up, your character gains skill points that can be used in the skill tree of that specific character. Each character plays out a certain role that’ll give them specific skills.
There are 5 unique roles to play: support, scout, heavy, vanguard, and sniper. Each role has access to 4 different tracks within their skill tree to make them even more specialized. For example, a heavy can become a demolitionist or focus more on artillery. Support can become a paragon or a surgeon. So it’s up to the player to customize their character’s abilities to his/ her playstyle. It’s good to have different builds for each role. This way, you’ll be more prepared for what’s to come.
Combining your skills with all of these extra components for your equipment make up for a lethal composition
Each role skill will have great advantages but they aren’t all useful with every battle. It’s better to have a variety of roles that can help you with creating a team that can adapt to every battle situation. Don’t be afraid to experiment because you’ll have a lot of rookies joining your team during your playthrough and the game also offers items that can reset a character’s skill tree, so you can start over. Combining your skills with all of these extra components for your equipment make up for a lethal composition. The loadout can always be changed when you’re starting a mission, so it’s good to know that none of these items are locked. A great addition to this type of game is the customization of colors, type of material, and patterns for your equipment. These aren’t locked after a certain achievement and this allows you to experiment with color pallets from the beginning. Kill with style! There are also in-game loot boxes ( without microtransactions) that can be salvaged from the battlefield.
Even though the game takes a lot of ideas from the X-com franchise, Gears tactics try to make the game their own by implementing known mechanics from the Gears of War franchise. They start with the true basics, all of the enemies or equipment come straight out of the Gears of War lore. So this will lure the veteran players into the game for sure. The game uses the same aesthetics as previous Gears of Wars. Nothing special to it. They also implement the typical Gears of War mechanics like executing enemies with your lancer assault rifle and closing up Emergence Holes with your slinger grenade. These are only a few of the known mechanics that they’ve implemented. A veteran player will get into the game fairly easily. Gears Tactics also tries to change up the basics of a couple of known mechanics in these tactical turn-based shooters. There’s a known feature in the game called “Overwatch”. This action allows the player to be a lot more defensive when needed. By activating this action, the player will cover a certain area of the battlefield. When it’s the enemy’s turn, your character will shoot every enemy crossing your area for as long as their weapon has bullets. Enemy Locust can also activate these “Overwatch” actions and Tactics tries to change this a bit by giving you the option to counter this action before it can do any harm. If the enemy activates this “Overwatch” action, their cover area will be shown on the battlefield and it’s up to you to do something about it. By using your secondary weapon, the “Hammerburst”, you are able to interrupt the “Overwatch” action and do some damage. This counter-attack will give you the edge on the battlefield. The game also allows you to execute downed enemies to give an extra action point to your teammates. Action points are used for movement and abilities. This can certainly change the state of the battlefield for sure. The developers also use a waypoint system to see how your character will move to the designated place of your choosing. This is great to make sure that your character isn’t crossing any enemies or “Overwatch” positions.
Even though, these features are a great addition to the game, a lot of the base mechanics remain the same. Your successful (critical) hits are based on random calculations that are based on weapon modifications, acquired skills, cover, and positioning. Nothing new, if you’re into these types of games. Abilities can be used by spending action points and it takes a couple of turns to re-activate these abilities. Enemies also spawn fairly quickly after a couple of turns which is great, especially to gain those extra XP-points to level up your character. However, I must say that these spawns aren’t always welcome, especially when certain missions need to be completed in a couple of turns. It’s a mechanic that definitely has its advantages but complications as well. Missions of Gears Tactical come in the form of eliminating all enemies, survive different waves, rescue people, complete the mission in a couple of turns, boss fights, … Nothing new but of course this isn’t always a bad thing but it would be great to see some variety in these missions.
Visually speaking, the game looks ok and sometimes great. You can definitely tell that they’re trying to shape the world in the same quality as their previous game but due to the game system, the graphics don’t always shine the way that they’re supposed to. Audio is great and very familiar but the lip-syncing isn’t always top-notch. Some enemies make sound without any movement of their mouths. It’s a good thing that this doesn’t always appear in the game but it’s something you quickly notice. Main characters’ design are okay but the writing isn’t always that great. It’s a shame because most of the Gears of War games have an enjoyable story. Then again, it’s good to see that they’re trying to make an alternate story within the same universe. So hats off for trying. Technical issues with the PC version are very limited. The only problems I had were a couple of frame drops, texture pop-ins, and flickering in the character models.
Conclusion:
Gears Tactics is a welcoming sight when it comes to the Gears of War franchise. It’s definitely a great addition to the series, especially because the developers weren’t afraid to try something new. All of these different puzzle pieces fit the game perfectly and can easily become a decent competition for the X-COM franchise. People who love the Gears of War franchise will definitely feel at home, even when the game type is completely different. The franchise makes this type of game their own by implementing known mechanics of previous games and even trying to experiment with different features that could really fit into the whole Gears of War puzzle. Even though you aren’t a Gears of War fan, you should at least give it a try. Players who are familiar with these types of games will definitely feel at home because none of the basic mechanics truly change. The game just might pull you over into the Gears of War franchise.
