Hits the right tactical notes, but underwhelms at everything else
There is no question that XCOM: Enemy Unknown has reinvigorated the tactics genre. After Firaxis’s success with XCOM, many developers have tried to follow suit including Ubisoft and Nintendo. Unfortunately none of these tactics games have come close to the level of polish and complexity of the XCOM games. Gears Tactics is Microsoft Studios’ attempt to hop on the tactics train. The core tactical gameplay is an absolute joy to play but everything else about the game falters.
Gears Tactics is a prequel to the original Gears of War. Gears Tactics fills-in part of the plotlines developed in the later Gears games by following Gabe Diaz, the father of Kait Diaz, the protagonist in Gears 5. Gabe is a veteran COG soldier, who has intentionally demoted himself to the motorpool because he is disillusioned with the COG leadership. However it is not long until Gabe is ordered by Chairman Prescott to undergo a secret mission with Major Sid Redburn. The mission is to hunt down a Locust scientist named Ukkon, who is responsible for creating the terrifying monsters in the Locust Horde.
A lot of gameplay mechanics in Gears Tactics will feel familiar to XCOM veterans. There is half cover and full cover. Soldiers start with 3 actions and can expense those actions to move, attack or use abilities. There is an overwatch ability used to fortify a position or pressure enemy movement. There is an ironman mode. Soldiers can equip gear, level up and have their own class-specific skill tree. And snipers are completely overpowered (just like in XCOM: EU). However, Gears Tactics is not simply a reskin of XCOM and introduces mechanics from the Gears in meaningful ways. Both your soldiers and enemies can go into a down-but-not-out state and can be recovered by their fellow teammates. There are execution moves using the Chainsaw attack or Bayonet charge that are instant kills but risky to pull off. Some enemies spawn out of E-holes and can be closed using explosives.
The most stark difference from Gears Tactics to the XCOM series is the introduction of Heroes. Heroes are the protagonists of the game and must be included in main missions. Heroes are statistically equivalent to regular soldiers, except they cannot be killed or else the mission ends and they cannot be customized. This aspect is one of my biggest gripes about Gears Tactics. You are only allowed to bring up to 4 soldiers per mission and most main missions require that you bring 2 to 3 Heroes. This incentivizes players to always focus on bringing Heroes in every side mission because they will eventually be needed for the main missions. Even though I eventually had a roster of over 20 soldiers, I stuck with using the same two regular soldiers because all the other spots were reserved for my heroes. Unfortunately you recruit soldiers at such a rapid pace it trivializes the point of developing your non-hero characters
After every mission completion, there will be soldiers that you can recruit. Oddly enough, these soldiers come well equipped and can outpace the levels of the soldiers you currently have in your roster. In fact, one of my soldiers that I have been regularly sending to battle was outleveled and outgeared by a recruit I earned later on. While it is easy to swap gear and customize your new recruits, their usefulness only lasts about 2-3 main missions before you get another random recruit that is statistically better in every way than your older recruits. It completely boggles my mind why even introduce permadeath and customization of regular soldiers when the player is constantly flooded with better and better recruits.
The game is extremely padded in Acts 2 and 3. The same four side quests variations are copy and pasted from the main missions. The variations are as follows:
1. Retrieve supplies from two separate points.
2. Rescue two soldiers within a limited time
3. Escape from Nemacysts that are bombarding your flank
4. Go to an area, raise a bridge/open a gate and then retrieve/destroy something.
It also doesn’t help that there is so little variation in map design. You and your gears will be mostly fighting over desert landscapes. The lack of map variety for a story-focused tactics game started wearing thin on me 10 hours in.
Outside of the core gameplay loop is the barracks. The barracks is where you manage your roster, change equipment, modify skills and customize your non-hero characters. The equipment is obtained through finding loot boxes on the main map or earned through completing special requirements like reloading up to 5 times or not using any frag grenades. Note that these loot boxes cannot be bought with real money. The equipment UI is clearly designed for gamepad controls and does not scale well especially once your roster and equipment reach the double digits. There is one thing I liked about the equipment UI, whenever a new piece of equipment is available for a character, the game will highlight it with a red arrow.
The story never goes anywhere that interesting. I wouldn’t consider the Gears series to have phenomenal storytelling but at least they were entertaining movie spectacles. In Gears Tactics, nothing significant is accomplished other than killing Ukkon. There are fights against a Brumak and a Reaper, but those fights feel so hammed-in and only serve as convenient plot devices so that Ukkon can get away. It doesn’t help that there is barely any character development. Gabe is your typical protagonist with a heart of gold. Sid is a mildly interesting character with a dark past that never gets developed. And Mikalya, someone you encounter early in Act 1, is a one-note character who hates the COG.
Gears Tactics is a technically polished game and successfully recreates the Gears franchise into a tactics game. Unfortunately, everything outside the core gameplay loop is underwhelming. It’s hard to care about customizing soldiers when you can only bring 1 to 2 of them at a time for a main mission. New recruits are substantially stronger than old recruits making it pointless to develop your existing recruits. There is nothing to do outside of the game’s combat other than fiddle around with your soldier’s equipment and skills. The game’s second half is padded out with too many of the same four mission designs and mostly takes place in a desert. The story and its characters are too one-dimensional. Gears Tactics hits all the right tactical notes, but feels empty, with a lack of a secondary gameplay loop and a tedious second and third act.