Set twelve years before the first Gears of War, Gears Tactics doesn’t stray too far from the established narrative formula. There’s a lot to enjoy for both fans of the franchise and fans of turn-based tactics titles, just don’t think too hard about what could have been instead of what is. Despite these setbacks, Gears Tactics still has some engaging gameplay and provides a strong foundation that could easily be built on in the future. Gears Tactics doesn’t have issues of poor gameplay or technical hindrances, suffering instead from some shortcomings in the design that holds it back from being truly great. If it had a chance to stand on its own then it might have shined a little brighter. Gears Tactics is a decent little turn-based tactics game that had the misfortune to be released around the same time as an entry from the genre juggernaut that is XCOM.
GEARS TACTICS BASE GAME CODE
A DIGITAL REVIEW CODE WAS PROVIDED BY THE PUBLISHER.
GEARS TACTICS BASE GAME SERIES
THIS GAME WAS TESTED ON AN XBOX SERIES X FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS REVIEW. For a game that was built for PC, it feels as though it is best optimised for this new machine, with a steady frame rate, mouthwatering 4K textures, and fast load times that keep you out of the action no longer than you need to be. Gears Tactics also runs beautifully on Xbox Series X.
By emitting a buff to all of their surrounding bugs, these stronger foes do well to challenge strategies and tactics you might find easy and comfortable, they force you to get aggressive and think outside of the box at times. It feels entirely different with him in tow.Īny comfort you get from Jack’s company is soon undone as the Locust bring a few new tricks of their own, including Deviant-grade enemies. Whether that’s the Jack effect or simply knowing the game, I can’t say for sure. It’s literally like having an extra player on the field-although he’s a support bot and is, therefore, inoffensive-and I did find that I handled situations so much easier than I did on my first pass through.
GEARS TACTICS BASE GAME UPDATE
Fortunately, this update injects the companion bot into the fray and brings with him a range of skills that does dramatically change the feel of each encounter. It didn’t even occur to me the first time I played Tactics that Jack, of all characters, would make the most sense to implement. Like Gears 5, Gears Tactics is also receiving a major update to coincide with its arrival on consoles. For those not prepared to make the leap, the game supports keyboard and mouse for Series X-a nice gesture that could easily have been overlooked. A feature that the developer has implemented since launch is a “precision toggle” which slows the cursor down so that more accurate selections can be made. For those coming from a mouse and keyboard, however, it might feel somewhat clumsy at first, I know I was forever mistakenly cycling through characters when I meant to be sifting through abilities and vice versa, but once you familiarise yourself with the mapping it does feel like second nature.Ĭlearly, a lot of effort has gone into making sure the translation to the controller is as seamless as possible, and the one thing that is generally lacking when games like this make the move to console is the confidence that only a mouse can provide. Though it was built with a keyboard and mouse in mind initially, the leap to controller shouldn’t seem inconceivable-it launched with controller support on PC, after all. (Although that latter point is true of the genre at large, I feel.)
Ultimately, we found the game to be a little content light, while systems within the game actively discourage messing with team composition. It, of course, borrowed elements from distant cousins within the genre, though it did enough to separate itself from the herd -including not restricting character movement to a grid. While steering clear of certain genre staples, it carved out a short, sweet helping of ballistic strategy all the while implementing several core concepts that have made Gears what it is today.Īs a spin-off, I feel it succeeds in capturing the spirit and tone of its source material in ways that Halo Wars couldn’t. Gears Tactics, given the roots of the franchise as a cover shooter, feels like it was low-hanging fruit all along.