Quick Look: Gears Tactics

Jeff, Vinny dream team

This is such a great pairing for the style of Gears. I feel like a dummy for not realizing it myself.

Game Pass is so good.

Classic Quick Look Opening: Spend 20 minutes of a 60 minute Quick Look going through menus.

I noticed the same thing. Not sure why Vinny was so fascinated with the menus. Maybe we can watch Vinny do a Microsoft Excel Quick Look soon.

Why is Cole's nickname "Cole Train" and not "Cole Slaw"? Missed opportunity.

@zoofame: I'm a handful of hours in to XCOM: Chimera Squad and I'm bummed how it doesn't feel like xcom of old. When you are rotating in new characters for the APC squad, you can never tell what you equipped them with. Where did I put the tranq shot? Who had the grenade?
I liked being able to have four squad teammates actions available for a turn. Then the other side. I could toggle to the other guy and see if I already used the special ability. I'm indifferent about the special abilities from prior xcom games being associated with epic weapons.

Have you tried XCOM:Chimera Squad ?

Any chance y'all are gonna do a Chimera Squad quick look?

I believe I can answer your question. All those portions are a very big part of the game. It would be like doing a Quick Look of Microsoft Excel and not going through any of the tool menus. And now you know why, though you might have known already and were just trying to be a smartass but you never can be to sure of tone on the internet, you know? I'll assume the best.

It's time for.... CORRECTIONS!

Vinny is incorrect, XCOM Chimera Squad does have full controller support, since day one.

I've been playing it with an XBOX One controller.

Excited for this and really enjoying Chimera Squad

I've been rewatching VJ's Deadly Premonition run every morning where they are making lots of Gears jokes so this is just perfect.

Yeah, but it's super buggy so I don't blame him. Mine was showing PS4 icons and some prompts wouldn't work or tooltips wouldn't load.

I pray to God I never stumble upon a tactics game with a shitty UI, that would be the goddamn worst.

Great QL. Love the vibes. Jeff and Vin both seem stoked on this and so am I!

Why aren't these guys do a Persona 5 endurance run? I want it so bad, for very much all the wrong reasons...

Though Persona 4 I actually developed respect for, from a distance anyways.

Kinda. Technically an Xbox controller works, but none of the menus have controller prompts and it's quite a clunky experience.

Thank goodness for AMD's 3-month Game Pass deal, because this looks way better than I expected.

@gummi: yup! I don't blame him for missing it though, it took a few seconds of me pressing buttons for it to register as a controller in the game.

It seems very strange that this isn’t on Xbox one. It really doesn’t make any sense at all.

Just to say it, this was fun to watch. Got to love that second wind.

Like Jeff said, I can only assume this is some sort of statement the Xbox brand is trying to make about their commitment to PC gaming

Huh, I couldn't get it to register an Xbox One controller in Big Picture mode from my Steam link and the game pops up the whole "Not Designed with Controller Support" warning when I launch it. Got it working with my Steam controller pretty well though.

@zoofame:

I'm not deep enough in to say for myself, but the reviews I read said the game eases you in to realizing that it's a different beast than other tactical games. But later on it can get quite crazy...you *have* to stack +actions to take out groups at a time, synergize your abilities and such, you can't just Overwatch your way across the map.

Makes sense to start easy and slowly ramp up if they expect ppl who don't normally play tactics games to give this one a try, too. Sounds like a 40-50 hour campaign, with a difficulty ramp that last through 30-40 of it.

@archimedes83:

Maybe I misunderstand your post, but Chimera Squad has the "unequip items from non-APC squad" button, and shows you what items the 4 characters have equipped before you start the level?

I got an Xbox One controller working with it over Steam Link, more or less. You can use the right stick as mouse and right trigger as mouse button to get through the launcher, but even after the game starts you're left with menus that definitely weren't designed for controller.

It's times like this I regret not hopping on that $5 Steam Controller blowout sale.

This looks neat. I have to say, the character models look really good, but the graphics in the missions don't look quite as good. Still, for the price of Game Pass on the PC, I think I'll check this out.

Seeing those skill trees made me way more interested than I was. Good quick look, folks!

@ethanielrain:

There isn't a way, as far as I can tell, what things you have equipped in the level. Or during the breach phase what powers on cool down on other members of the squad until you select them. Even then it is only the breach powers, making difficult to plan anything while in the breach phase. If you can remember everything you equip, more power to you! Your memory is better than mine.

@vinny said:

Ah! I was just coming to the comments to thank y'all for going over the menus. Partway through the menu stuff is when I realised I wanted to play this game.

For a tactics/strategy game it is super important and I'm glad you recognise that.

Thanks!

@archimedes83: I did misunderstand you. I was talking about the start of a mission, you're right once you get into it.

I'm only a few hours into it so it hasnt been an issue, but I can see it once you get more guys & equipment

@zoofame said:

Well. That's a somewhat arrogant take on a game you've seen 5% of XD. I think the interesting part of this game is HOW WELL they've translated action gameplay into turn-based combat. The point of all those options and tools, the reason they give you 3 action points to use however you want, the impetus for recharging action points after executions is to *keep propelling you forward*. That's why playing it cautiously with overwatch tunnels will often result in you being flanked and surrounded - because the game demands a certain level of proactivity and problem solving. It will be quite a bit more difficult if you don't take advantage of the tools and opportunities you're given. (But of course, the game has multiple difficulties and must accommodate thousands of players who have never played a tactics game and thousands who have played them all.)

The developers have been pretty clear that they wanted the challenge to come from the relentless nature of seemingly more enemies than you can handle, rather than from the constraint of gameplay rules and movement grids (ie: move, shoot, next char).

I appreciate that it's very different from XCOM and Chimera Squad and Phoenix Point etc. Again, IMO, that's what makes it compelling. Regardless, I'm just happy there are more games in this genre to try out and play with their own twists!

This seems very rad, excited to jump in to this.

Now, which developer is brave enough to develop a high budget Warhammer 40K XCOM-like.

@ravelle: It's crazy to me that this isn't a thing yet.

They could use the Kill Team brand and use that as a base for the squad size etc.

@atomicedge: Yeah, just take the good parts from Dawn of War 2 and good parts from Gears: Tactics/XCOM and you have something really good.

Im so embarrassed, I've Played 5 Gears of war games, I had no Idea Cog was an Acronym for Coalition of Governments.....

This is really early on in the game, it gets much more difficult later on with varying enemies. What you saw is the equivalent of an X-com map with only Sectoid and Thin Men spawns, which would be pretty easy. Also Vinny is playing on Intermediate, so yeah you won't need to be that tactical against easy AI.

Vinny seems to go super heavy on the Overwatch and not going aggressive for executions or anything. He even says how it's a bummer that sometimes the enemies go into a downed state, and the whole point of that is to go execute them for the +actions.

Man, I was so excited to play this game and then I realized "right... it's only on PC right now, huh?" Both this and Chimera Squad seem like really good games in a genre I'm usually reticent to get into. Damn. At least this is coming to Xbone, can't necessarily say the same for CS.

On the plus side, I'm glad to hear Vinny takes ample time to explore the menus. Those are a rather important part of tactics games, y'know?

This looks...really good? Gonna install it tonight!

Here's a fact I didn't know I needed, Rocky was removed from the GI Joe lineup in 1987 because Coleco started a line of Rambo toys that were seen as direct competition to GI Joe.

The History & Controversy of Rambo: The Force of Freedom

I wanna play this but its 60 bucks

Looks neat. There's something satisfying about a tactics game where you have to kill dozens of enemies per encounter instead of ending up in a bunch of 5v5-ish fights. Also harkens back to the horde mode a bit.

the one off putting thing for me about getting new soldiers is as you progress in the game new recruits are more powerful than ones you got earlier. so spend time taking fresh dudes into a mission to level them up and at the end of that mission i get rewarded with better dudes. feels like a wast of time so far. maybe they level off a bit, im still act 2. but based on that theory it seems the game wants you to take Hero characters more often early on.

@steveurkel: PC Game Pass, you could get a trial and check it out.
:)