![]() ![]() One class, the Vanguard, heals itself at the start of each turn and with every wound inflicted. Doing so gives every other member of your squad an extra action that turn.Īnd lastly, Gears Tactics is generous with its heals. If a Locust goes down, you have a chance to send in one of your soldiers to execute them. Anything larger than that is typically “Downed” first though. The smallest enemies, wretches, are killed outright. Likewise, if you go into Overwatch with three actions in reserve, you’ll still fire three times at any enemies who enter line-of-sight-which they do almost in real-time, with groups of enemies moving all at once in a rush to minimize downtime.Įxecutions are also important. If you want to fire your gun all three actions? You can do that. These actions can be split in any way you’d like. Soldiers typically have three actions per turn. Combat encounters are brief, and the body counts high. Gears Tactics isn’t a shooter, but it inherits shooter sensibilities. It’s fast and fluid and lively in a way XCOM 2 never managed, even after patches fixed the worst of the stuttering. Gears Tactics also differentiates itself mechanically though-and I’m loving that aspect even more, I think. I’m looking forward to seeing what’s in Acts Two and Three. It’s helped solidify Gears Tactics in my head, anchored individual missions and moments in a way I rarely see with tactics games. Others have been sprawling hour-long slogs through never-ending reinforcements. ![]() Some are quick jaunts through small environments. The main missions have all felt noticeably different, both the overall vibe and the end-goals. If you’re deep in your fifth XCOM 2 campaign or whatever, that might be a drawback.Īs someone who typically plays games through only once though, I’m finding the variety refreshing. The downside of such heavily authored missions of course is that they’re less replayable. It’s pretty incredible, at least the first time through. The Hammer of Dawn mission is an early standout, but there’s a holdout mission at the gates of a resistance base, a sunset assault across a heavily fortified dam, and even a boss fight against a massive brumak. Some of the side missions feel disposable, but the main missions are typically themed around a unique idea or aesthetic. The presentation is top-notch and keeps missions from blurring together. Day turns to night, night turns to day again. You’re fighting across the city, the Hammer of Dawn reducing entire blocks to burning rubble. #GEARS TACTICS COLE TRAIN SERIES#Where XCOM often presents itself as a series of discrete encounters, with the team flying in from and evaccing back to base at the end, Gears Tactics often strings its missions together. Main missions are usually bookended by cinematics, which give them a real in media res feel. It’s definitely a spinoff, but feels meatier than I was expecting. Again, I’m only a third of the way through, but with Gabe Diaz the father of Gears 5 protagonist Kait, there’s a chance Gears Tactics has real ramifications for the overarching series. Taking place before even the original Gears of War, Gabe Diaz and Sid Redburn are sent on a seemingly doomed mission to assassinate Ukkon, a Locust geneticist. This happens in every genre occasionally, and always leads to the same problem: Why play the knock-off when you could play the original instead? That goes doubly for strategy games, where authored narrative usually takes a backseat to the mechanical moment-to-moment of directing troops.īut Gears Tactics tells one hell of a story. Same interface, same over-the-shoulder action shots, same pacing. And leading up to release, everything I’d seen looked like knock-off XCOM.Ĭloning XCOM isn’t necessarily a bad decision, but ever since XCOM: Enemy Unknown released in 2012 I feel like the tactics genre has sort of “solidified,” if you will. ![]() It’s co-developed by Splash Damage and The Coalition, neither of which has a tactics background. I’m surprised, because my expectations were low. ![]()
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