Tactical chainsaw
Back in the day, I was actually a big Gears of War fan. I absolutely loved the first game, and more than likely put well over 100 hours into the multiplayer.I was also a big XCOM fan. Crazy to think that I had only started the XCOM series with Enemy Unknown but fell down a rabbit hole of finding other tactical combat games like these to play. So, when I first heard of Gears Tactics, I was intrigued. It seemed to mix XCOM and Gears together, which sounded almost like polar opposites in the gaming spectrum. After putting some time into Gears Tactics, I found myself addicted to the game as well as preferring it to the XCOM formula.
Gears Tactics takes place 12 years before the first Gears of War game. Players take on the role of Gabe Diaz, Kait Diaz’s father, as he is tasked with taking down a Locust leader named Ukkon. He must assemble a team to do this while trying to locate and stop Ukkon from breeding more Locust monsters. It is very Gears of War with its story and delivery, but it works.
MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: PC (reviewed), XB1
Price I’d Pay: $59.99
What really stands out with this title is the combat. While comparisons to XCOM are unavoidable, Gears Tactics does a few things very differently. First off, the game is not played on a grid. Characters have free movement to go wherever they please. Granted, they will want to be in cover as much as possible, because as anyone who has played XCOM knows, if characters aren’t in cover, they are as good as dead. Another difference is the action points usage. Each character has three action points per turn, more if they have special perks or abilites, but those three action points allow the character to do whatever the player chooses. If I wanted to shoot at an enemy three times, Itotally could. It gives the player more freedom to do what they want in a given situation. This also makes the game feel much more frantic in some instances. There is always bullets flying or attackers rushing. This is how the game combats the freedom to do whatever they want. They throw everything and the kitchen sink at the player.
So while the enemies may be pushovers at times, there’s just so many of them coming at me. The enemy types play a big part in it as well. Gnashers rush the player and try to hit characters with a shotgun. If they take damage, they go into a berserk mode where they become even harder to kill. Wretches rush the characters and gain an opportunity to attack once in melee range. It’s better to take them out at a distance using the Overwatch ability. This was present in XCOM. Players can set up their characters to hold a position and keep aim on a certain part of the map, which is specified by a vision cone. If an enemy walks or takes an action in that cone, the player’s characters attack and can possibly kill or at least interrupt their actions. Many abilities comes with cool downs that take multiple turns to refill. Using grenades and special abilities can turn the tide in battle, but can only be used so often.
Each character has a class that can be leveled up. When leveling up, players can use skill points to unlock new active abilities or passive abilities. These are where players can customize the play style of the character. The skill trees have four subcategories, so there is a lot here to deviate. On top of that, each character can equip different weapon mods and armor that can increase stats or even give new passive abilities. There’s a lot here to customize, and finding the right synergy will be both fun and rewarding to players. New mods and equipment can be found on the battlefield via crates that can be optionally picked up. Going for these can be a risk/reward due to them being out in the open. There are certain times I had to give up my chance for new loot just so I could finish the mission without a character dying. In between missions, players can also recruit more team members since certain characters’ deaths result in a mission failed, other “grunt” characters are dispensable and if players are losing team members, they will need to fill the ranks with some fresh soldiers. Each mission comes with a secondary objective to add a bit more challenge to the task. These usually offer up loot rewards that can help with buffing up the team.
The game also has boss fights in Gears of war fashion. These are essentially a puzzle battle that will require players to constantly shift their characters around the battlefield and only attack at certain opportune moments. They are fun and can be really frantic and exciting while still being brutally difficult challenges.
Players can choose to play via mouse and keyboard or with an Xbox One controller. They both work just fine, but since this isn’t a very intense action game, either way works fine. The game can be a graphical powerhouse. In fact, my GTX 1060 was chugging with this game on medium settings. I had to turn down a few things to low to get it to stop stuttering. But even with a 4 year old PC, I was able to run it and still have a great time with it.
Gears Tactics is a fantastic game. The XCOM fans will have a ball with it and maybe even some Gears fans will get into the strategy genre. Who knows? Either way, Splash Damage has created a fine tactical game that fans will enjoy and have a great time with, while not sacrificing the skill wall and difficulty. It is a game I wholeheartedly recommend.
Review copy of game provided by publisher.
