Gears Tactics turns Gears of War into XCOM

That Gears of War has a turn-based strategic spin-off seems completely natural. When the first chapter was released in 2006 it not only served to show the technological potential of Xbox 360 , or of Unreal Engine 3 , but it was a real revolution also in terms of gameplay. A tactical shooter with slow-paced covers , which emphasized strategy more than reflexes. Gears of War changed gaming and gave way to a proliferation of games with similar characteristics, definitively clearing the covers in video games.

Gears Tactics has as main objective to maintain the integrity of the imagery of the Gears of War series

For this reason, it is no wonder that it can be transformed into a turn-based strategy that, in perfect XCOM style , places the covers at the center of the game mechanics. Developed by Splash Damage with the support of The Coalition on the Unreal Engine 4 platform , Gears Tactics has as its main objective to maintain the integrity of the imagery of the series, carried out in recent years by The Coalition itself. It is spectacular, cinematic and literally a pleasure for the eyes and ears. Together with a certain simplification, and greater immediacy than XCOM, this production recalls in some ways what Xbox Game Studios did with Halo Wars .

But such purists do not stop reading, at least not immediately. Gears Tactics still manages to introduce those two or three variations on the theme compared to the classic X-COM capable of making the experience very pleasant. The main changes concern the greater dynamism of the units on the battlefield, the new type of "guard", or lookout , and the executions , a classic element of Gears of War. In fact, you can reduce the units at the end of their life, get closer to them and finish them with a bloody execution in the classic GoW style. In this way, an additional extra action is obtained for all units involved in the combat limited to the current turn, increasing dynamism and strategic opportunities.

What Gears Tactics is clearly superior to XCOM 2 , although the two games are based on the same graphics engine, is the technical aspect. This allows you to play on larger maps and face a significantly higher number of opponents, increasing the pace and unpredictability. The only unsatisfactory technical component is that related to environmental destruction: apart from some sporadic coverage, no element of the game maps is subject to destruction.

Gears Tactics re-proposes all the ferocity of the typical fights of GoW and the tight rhythms of its narration, with an antecedent story compared to all those we already know, and which features Gabe , father of the protagonist of the Gears 5 story , Kait Diaz . Each mission begins and ends with a narrative sequence that appears to come from one of the games in the main series.

The action is not interspersed as much by the turn-based structure as by the availability of bullets in the loaders of the Gear soldiers engaged in the conflict. Crucial is the lookout, which is set through a cone whose dimensions are definable by the player. Each agent, on the opponent's turn, activates when one of the enemies acts inside the cone. The wider the cone, the less accurate the blows of the agent will be. The secondary weapon, the classic Snub , is also very importantby Gears of War. This, in fact, if it hits, removes the lookout of an opposing soldier. The lookout is more important than the classic Guard of the games of this genre: it can represent a real barrage, not only injuring the opponents but interrupting their action and their attempt to approach the position of the Gear agents.

Obviously, guarding the sensitive corners of the map is crucial. We must not be circumvented by the enemy and we must circumvent his lookouts, trying to move with precision. Also because the artificial intelligence of the soldiers moved by the computer seems superior to X-COM, and in some way borrowed from the tactical shooters of the Gears of War series. The game of lookouts is recurrent and the deadlocks on the agenda; also because it may happen that it is not possible to circumvent an enemy on the lookout, for example because we are in conditions of numerical inferiority, and the only possibility remains to answer a lookout with a lookout. To respond to a lookout with a lookout one must extend the cone until just before the position of the opposing agent.

Compared to other games of the genre, moreover, it should be emphasized a greater variety in terms of opposing units to face. Each of them has different characteristics, is resistant to a certain type of attack and vulnerable to others. The Emergence Holes also bring hordes of enemies onto the battlefield, as the series tradition dictates, which must be tackled with rhythm and tactics. Even for the opponents, weapons make the difference: the Locusts with the Gnasher , therefore, must be faced with sniper rifles. For Abietti it is more convenient to use a Gnasher.

Close felling is one of the other clichés of the original GoW that cannot be missing but, be careful, they cannot always be used. Some enemies, such as Abietti, are able to respond to the attack and in turn deal a blow, resulting in a drastic loss of vital resources for our soldier. Many Abietti are usually present in the maps and defeating them is possible only by barricading our soldiers behind the covers and skillfully arranging the lookouts: in their turn we will also see 10 or 20 of them fall as appropriate. In short, situations certainly not usual in a normal XCOM.

Such a wide opportunity to carry out executions and kills gives way to significantly increase the number of actions per shift. Indeed, the player will have to seek this type of advantage to compensate for the numerical inferiority with respect to the Locusts that advance towards the positions of the Gear. Being able to deal several shots per turn, therefore, is the only possibility to make up for the limited level of movement of your team.

The main changes concern the greater dynamism of the units on the battlefield, the new type of "guard", or lookout , and the executions , a classic element of Gears of War

What defines a soldier's class and characteristics is the weapon he wields. The class soldiers Support feature the classic Lancer with chainsaw , while Scout has the shotgun Gnasher and Vanguard of the Lancer with a bayonet . We also have Mulcher , or heavy machine guns, and sniper riflesto define the other two classes available. These weapons can be customized by adding barrels, sights, bulkier magazines and more. The changes not only affect the aesthetics of the weapons but also their characteristics, giving, depending on the installations, greater capacity in terms of critical hits, precision and other types of secondary effects. Different customizations are also found in terms of equipment, significantly changing the physiognomy of the characters. In the missions there are crates, which must be reached and opened within the limit of available turns: they are very important because they keep crucial equipment advances.

In Gears Tactics there is no XCOM-style games management hub, but everything is faster and more immediate. After each mission, we can only upgrade soldiers and weapons based on their experience on the battlefield. The more enemies they kill, the faster the agents climb their personal progression. For each level of experience they achieve they get skill points to use in the classic tree structure to give them new active and passive skills. There are four specializations available for each class, which are activated according to the arrangement of the unlocks on the skill tree. For example, we have Assault, Head of Leather, Overseer and Paladin for Vanguard.

These choices allow you to modify the agent according to your tactical style, even without the wealth of skills typical of an XCOM. In short, here the main focus is on narrative involvement, while losing a lot in terms of the depth of personalization, the aspect that is probably most dear to the X-COM enthusiast.

For each Chapter players can face a certain number of side missions and each Gear can only participate in one side mission per Chapter (this to simulate the unavailability of X-COM agents when they are engaged in other missions). When you unlock the next campaign mission, then, all team members become available again. Secondary missions have recurring objectives: for example, checking sensitive points to get supplies, freeing jailed agents or recovering as many supply crates as possible while an alien attack progresses progressively on the map. These are settings that bring to mind certain multiplayer game modes typical of Gears of War.

The Splash Damage authors thought riprorre fighting against huge terrifying creatures like Brumak or Corpser . These fights involve scattering the agents around the map to prevent the opponent from concentrating their attacks. Then, to hit him in the sensitive points, to slow him down in his advance and to take away vital resources. It takes several turns to be able to break it down and a very different tactical disposition compared to traditional battles and also compared to the classic setting of X-COM.

In these situations as in others, GoW's style is not lost at all. The typical muscles of the narration of the COG's exploits against the Locusts are there, and the fans of history and narrative involvement who have appreciated the previous GoWs will not be disappointed by Gears Tactics. Gabe Diaz is involved in a secret mission with fellow Coalition of Ordered Governments (COG) soldier , Sid Redburn , to assassinate Ukkon , a Locust scientist involved in creating terrible new units for the Locust armies.

Gears Tactics is an exclusively single player game , with no multiplayer game modes. The experience is quite long, and for each act there are several side missions available to the player. It cannot be saved freely, but only at checkpoints (there is the Ironman mode which also prevents the latter type of saving), and this means that even in the best cases a portion of the mission must be repeated.