Review: Gears Tactics

While Tactics stays true to the lore and world-building of the original games, its gameplay can feel foreign to those who are new to turn-based tactical strategy games. Each move needs to be made carefully to ensure that all units survive and that your team doesn't get overwhelmed by the large hordes of enemies. While players are encouraged not to die in the original Gears games, the consequences for dying in Tactics are a lot more severe as units that die do not come back. This makes knowing some battlefield basics key to succeeding in Gears Tacti

Gears Tactics, as a prequel, doesn’t answer any of the questions Gears 5 left us with, but is still a tale worth exploring, whether it be for the new characters or the additional context the game provides to the universe. It will also provide many hours of gameplay. Gears Tactics will last players between 20-30 hours, depending on the difficulty. It's a lengthy campaign with an additional Veteran Mode available upon your first completion. Unfortunately, not all activities in Gears Tactics are created equally. That length is split between main and side missions. Main missions are by far the best with impeccable design that forces players to study the battlefield and make smart decisions. It’s here that the gameplay and design come together to create truly fantastic moments that rival the best encounters in the main series. Boss fights particularly stand out as moments that require players to balance positioning, ability usage and range to stay alive and claim victory. Gears Tactics is at its best when playing these missions.

Gears Tactics’ structure crumbles around the side missions due to a lack of variety. The game features four types of side missions: Rescue, Sabotage, Scavenger Run and Control. In Rescue, you need to save two soldiers from torture pods. Sabotage sees the squad attack a Locust stronghold and destroy its Imulsion supply. Scavenger Run tasks players with grabbing equipment as Nemacyst bombings inch closer each turn. Finally, Control has the squad holding two positions to collect supplies. There’s nothing inherently wrong with these types of objectives, but Gears Tactics overly relies on them to its detriment. It regularly sidelines its own story and main missions to task players with these side missions. It’s not bad until you realize that the game interrupts the flow of the campaign after nearly every main mission and completely throw off the pacing of the entire game. One mission you could be laying a trap for Ukkon, and the next, rather than springing it, you must complete two side quests. In an effort to increase the length, Gears Tactics actively sabotages the pacing of its campaign. Considering the campaign makes up the entirety of the Gears Tactics experience, the amount of required side missions to continue the story is just too much.


As players will quickly come to realize, taking cover is the most basic but most important part of Gears Tactics . Cover can keep the player safe from harm's way and can allow the player to hold a point push up on an enemy easier than being out in the o


Grenadiers are heavy units that can tank a few hits. Similar to wretches, grenadiers will rush friendly units with their shotguns which makes them a lot scarier to deal with than Wretches. However, they have to get close to your units in order to deal damage. Try to take them out from far away, and prioritize attacking these units if they overstep their bou
The game also, surprisingly, doesn’t have much to do once the credits roll. Outside of Veteran Mode, which does tweak the formula with modifiers, there are no additional multiplayer or co-op modes to jump into. For a franchise that built itself on robust multiplayer and co-op options, Gears Tactics feels light on modes. While it may focus too much on side quests, it makes up for it with solid gameplay. Like a traditional tactics style game, Gears Tactics is played from a top-down perspective with players taking turns to maneuver around the map, attack and set up tactical positions. During your turn, each character gets three actions to move, take cover, fire on enemies, set up overwatch, use abilities or execute downed enemies.
Players can take up to four members into battle with units coming in five different classes (Support, Vanguard, Sniper, Heavy and Support), each with their advantages and disadvantages. Support’s weapon of choice is the Lancer and utilizes healing and motivational abilities. Vanguards serve as the tanks with their Retro Lancers. Snipers, equipped with the Longshot, cover allies from long distances. Heavy’s and Strategyessays.Com their Mulchers plant themselves into a spot and lay down suppressing fire. Finally, Scouts and their Gnashers can move fast and hide from enemy troops. There’s lots of variety and strategic decisions to consider when building a team, especially since you can’t take every class with you and non-Hero characters can permanently die if you’re not careful.