I was not sure what to expect going into Gears Tactics, but let me tell you I am very happy with what has been done here. While the Gears of War series may look like a “meathead” shooter its cover-based mechanics give it a fair bit of strategy. To me, this is what it seems like inspired the creation of this game here.
How to Download Gears Tactics
You can download the game via Steam or Xbox.com (to play on Windows 10) although at the time of writing, Gears Tactics has not got an official Xbox One release.
The Game Review
I am a huge fan of the lore of Gears of War. The setting of this game is really cool in that it takes place 12 years before the first game and features the father of Kait Diaz. Gabe Diaz is trying his best to fight back the Locust horde, save soldiers, add to his ranks, and deal with a new big evil, Ukkon. With Ukkon I got a very General Raam kind of vibe.
I was very impressed with the visuals. Gears 5 (also why did they drop the “Of War”?) looked phenomenal and this comes really close to matching it. I was surprised at just how many cut scenes there were and they did a great job in filling out parts of the lore of the series. Even in the game graphics look fantastic.
Of course, a tactics game is only as good as the gameplay and thankfully Gears Tactics plays just as well as it looks. I was surprised at how fast-paced this game was. You have a team of four Gears and you as you have probably guessed, need to move them around the map to take down a set number of enemies before moving on to the next section.
I found that this is a much more forgiving game than many other tactics-based shooters. The emphasis on the cover is very clever and ties into the Gears gameplay. However, it is your abilities and the way you can combo moves together that make things fun and exciting.
There is permadeath here, but not in the way you might things. You can recruit new people to your cause as you play and these people can fall in battle. The main characters though, if they die, you get a game over and have to try again. I never found myself getting so frustrated that I wanted to quit which I liked.
The progression system in Gears Tactics is very easy to get to grips with. You do not have an overcomplicated skill tree to get to grips with. Instead, most of your time on the menus will be spent with your weapons and gear. You can get new stuff that adds bonuses and these can be stacked so you can come up with a pretty badass loadout if you are clever.
Speaking of cleverness, one clever thing in this game is the boss battles. These are just flat-out awesome! They feature one of the larger characters from the Locust army such as a Brumak. These bouts are spent with you moving around a map, trying to find the right moment to strike.
Gears Tactics pads out its content with side missions. I have no problem at all with side missions, but here you are forced to do a certain amount of them before you can move on to the next story mission. I get what they were going for, but I would much prefer if they let me do the story and then come back and do these at my own pace.
If you like the Gears of War series then I am certain you will like this. Even if you are not normally a tactical shooter kind of gamer, the game is action-packed so I am sure it will win you over. The icing on the cake for me is the fantastic story and getting to know more about where Kait Diaz came from.
