I won the mission, and to celebrate that win everything just kinda … ends? This can happen just when it feels like the mission is just getting good, and during those moments it almost feels like my reward for doing well is taken away. It may happen because you’ve failed to protect a main character and need to start over, but sometimes you’ve just accumulated enough of a resource to fulfill the objective and trigger the cutscene, which ends the round instantly. Missions will sometimes stop on a dime, ripping you out of the game too suddenly. My team never seemed to be as connected to what was going on as I’m used to from other games. Everyone needs to man up and stay frosty! Meanwhile, the board is completely empty, and you’re just killing time for a few rounds before another wave of enemies invariably drops from the sky. Soldiers will crack wise with a tense bark, or command new recruits to act more like soldiers. When things are going well for your side, the game can sometimes fail to provide a tone that matches where you are in a level. The wires holding everything together are too often visible, and it wrecks what little immersion Gears Tactics manages to build up. Image: Splash Damage, The Coalition/Xbox Game Studiosīut the game falls apart when it tries to create a cohesive, unified experience. In fact, this is the only turn-based tactics game that I’ve ever played that comes with its own benchmarking system. Every map includes a fully rotatable camera, and the lighting and the textures are all top notch. Cutscenes were indistinguishable to my eye from those in Gears 5, as were some of the animations. Gears Tactics holds up the franchises standards for visual quality, as well. Learning how to keep things rolling so the enemy barely has a chance to respond feels good, and brings the game the weighty feeling of power and capacity for violence that made the originals so satisfying. Toss in some deft work with a hand grenade or two and it’s mission accomplished. You can run roughshod over the enemy by chaining your successful attacks together, even against impossible odds. Execute a downed enemy? Everyone on your side gets another action. Nail a sniper shot at long range? Reload your weapon and take a few more shots. Pinion a Locust on your old-school bayonet? Take another shot. I started to understand what the game needs from me to come to life. Both of them get three actions and a gun. There’s just not much to differentiate a Vanguard from a Support soldier in the first third of the game. Gears Tactics features few of the game-changing abilities common in modern XCOM titles, and instead offers far more incremental upgrades for each of its five character classes. Units snap into cover, use attacks of opportunity on passing enemies, and generally flit around the board in a very Gearsian way.īut Gears Tactics is bogged down by the same sort of rules-heavy minutiae that can drive casual players away from systems like Warhammer 40,000. That subtle difference gives Gears Tactics the fluidity of movement - referred to as “horizontal platforming” by its developers - that drives the Gears franchise. There’s no grid that provides strict rules for how units can move, so the game actually has more in common with miniatures-based wargames and skirmish systems like Bolt Action, Infinity, and Warhammer 40,000: Kill Team. Gears Tactics might look like a clever clone of Firaxis’ XCOM games, but it’s something else entirely. Things bounce back and forth until one side is eliminated, or until that particular mission’s objectives are met. Gears Tactics is played from an overhead perspective, with Coalition of Ordered Government, or COG, soldiers and the evil Locust forces each taking their turns before moving to the next round of play. A very different gameplay loop Image: Splash Damage, The Coalition/Xbox Game Studios Gears Tactics lacks the pacing that makes the iconic third-person shooters so much fun to play, and it’s weighed down by a reliance on stunt missions that detract from its otherwise solid fundamentals. The same is true for Gears Tactics, the franchise’s first ever turn-based strategy game.īut the moment that developer Splash Damage asks players to stand still - whether it’s for a drawn-out boss battle, a defensive mission, or simply to peruse the menu system - the illusion falls apart. Gears of War games are at their best when players are pushing forward, chewing through the Locust horde with chainsaw bayonets.
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