Review
Played on: Xbox Series X
Released: 2020
Released: 2020
Introduction
2019 saw the release of Gears 5, the latest entry in the mainline Gears of War series, which I rewarded top score in my review. 2020 saw Gears Tactics being released. In a similar fashion to the Halo Wars titles, which are RTS spin-offs in the Halo universe, Gears Tactics is a turn based tactics action game.
Being a massive Gears of War fan, I had to jump in on this title! Even though, this particular genre isn't something I normally play titles within. Not that Halo Wars was either, but I'm more familiar with RTS than turn-based tactics.
Does Gears Tactics hit the right spots for the fans then? Let's rev up our chainsaw guns and take a look!
Premise
As a refreshing and interesting way of exploring the lore further, Gears Tactics takes us back to very beginning of it's lore. The story is set one year after Emergence Day, when the Locust attacked the humans for the first time, which is a massive 12 years prior to the first Gears of War. This angle of the story gives fans an insight to the back story of the conflict and a fresh set of characters, prior to Marcus and his friends. It helps give some insight into the long and drawn out fight against the Locust.
The main character, Gabriel Diaz, bridges a strong connection to the far more recent setting of Gears 4 & 5: he's Kait's father. Neatly tying in the whole timeline, all the way to current day Gears.
Gabriel is joined by a interesting and varied selection of main characters. These are the main cast, that have to survive in order to keep the story and cutscenes going. Losing one of them results in a failed mission. Otherwise though, you find and utilise a lot of random fighters, with no specific say in the story, who all can be lost and die if you don't watch out. Losing characters, that have levelled far, forces you to use new and lower powered characters in replacement.
The environments have a distinct Gears design to them. Ranging from the massive, decadent buildings of fallen, rich, human cities, to warzone ruins, rocky deserts and foggy towns at night. It looks instantly like a Gears game, even though the genre and camera angle is very different from the main series.
Gameplay and features
For those acquainted with the X-Com games, of recent years, Gear Tactics operates in much the same manner. With an operations base working as the hub of the main story, allowing you to choose which fighters to bring into a mission. The type of fighter you choose, be it a sniper or a close combat shotgun specialist, is something you decide upon base on the description of each mission.
The mission types range from trying to hold dominance over two areas, while loot is being captured, to rescuing imprisoned soldiers or rushing an attack prior to a artillery bombardment. Some simply have you reaching an item goal and exiting the battlefield shortly after.
I played the "Jacked" game mode. Where you, not only, get four characters to control, but also Jack the assistant robot. Jack can perk the human characters with his abilities, protecting them from damage or making them aim and damage better. I'm guessing this mode is a little easier, as he gives some advantages to the player. This mode was added post-launch and added a few new enemy types too!
As I mentioned earlier, a lot of the main missions require at least one or two of the main cast, as they are tied to cutscenes building the story. However, the side missions, which increase in number as you progress, let you choose fairly freely who to utilise from your soldiers. Balancing your choice of who you wish to train for combat, will become something to factor in for the later and harder missions.
Gameplay consists of using a numbered set of moves for up to four characters, divided into 3 to 5 steps per character. So moving takes a a certain amount of steps, shooting, overwatch of the battlefield or healing etc. also take an amount of moves and so on. Once all your moves, for all your characters are used, the enemy A.I. takes it's turn. Often sending in a fresh set of enemies entering the battlefield or certain scenes triggering.
This turn based gameplay is relaxing to play, laid back on the couch and the controller setup perfectly handles everything. It allows you to take as much time as you wish before doing each action. Requiring the player to think strategically ahead and planning their attack as a team. I appreciated the turn based pace!
Frustratingly though, small unexpected moves can lead to catastrophic events for your team. I often found myself desperately trying to survive after just a few moves. It's one of those games that require you to be on top of the match, always making the right choices. There's very little room for bad decisions and mistakes.
Making a bad call, often results in you having to restart the whole mission to fix it. Sure, backtracking a checkpoint can fix smaller mistakes, but usually going back one turn won't help you much.
Video
I think Gears Tactics might be the very first Series X/S enhanced title officially. At least as a release with large difference, compared to the XB1 release. Not only are the impressive, in-game rendered, cutscenes now viewable in 60fps, but the whole game now runs at a super-sharp, native 4K. XB1X owners can get the game at a healthy 1440p@60fps at least, Series S owners too!
Detail in textures and world environment are increased on the Series X/S and very much match the highest PC settings.
Gears Tactics needs to be viewed visually in relation to it's genre, same as you would with a RTS game. It's about the scope of the environment and the larger area of view. As such, details up close are simple 3D models, although Gears Tactics does allow you to zoom in quite far, allowing the action scenes with typical Gears camera angles, when you pick a successful shot, show nice close up detail. There's nothing here that pushes this as a visual showcase, but taken into consideration the genre, the successful Gears artstyle and the 60fps, it's a nice looking title.
More impressive however, are the in-game cutscenes, with incredible character models running in realtime. It's nice to see an option to run these at silky smooth 60fps, just like Gears 5 gave you this option after it got Series X/S upgraded. These scenes make the game more interesting to follow overall and build a close bridge with the mainline series visually.
Audio
Music is typical Gears styled, from the opening theme on the main menu to the in-game stuff. It's a often unsettling and dark, but grand and orchestral. Hearing it immediately puts an extra layer of Gears style to accompany the visuals.
Sounds are familiar and typical Gears stuff, with small voiced comments from your characters to help keep the action interesting and personalised. Snarky remarks and cheers from the main cast galore!
Summary
As an eager Gears fan, I enjoyed another title in it's amazing lore. I appreciated the connected story and the familiar areas you visit. However, the type of genre isn't hitting the right spot for me personally when it comes to my patience and lack of complete control of the characters.
Perhaps, it's just training and faulting many a time, that will build my skill set, but I often get the notion that this genre wants you to solve each level in a predetermined way. Even though, Gears Tactics leaves a lot of the decisions up to you. I found the constant, forced main characters in missions a bit underwhelming, just let me build and use the characters I want!
Luckily, they've put a lot of action into the mix, with a nice pacing to it all. Combined with typical Gear weapons, I'm sure most fans will get a kick out of this different genre the series has jumped into. Personally, I felt the Halo Wars angle with RTS games was better suited for me, but that's personal taste.
Fans of titles like the X-Com franchise will probably love this, and perhaps overlook it, if Gears has never been their thing otherwise. A shame, because this really is a game to check out for fans of tactical, turn based, action combined with a big budget and top production values!
