Review for Gears Tactics. Game for PC and Xbox Series X, the video game was released on 28/04/2020
Thanks to the effort of Splash Damage and The Coalition, the next-generation at Microsoft does not come without exclusives and Gear Tactics represents the real news for the launch of Series X, with a console adaptation coming just 6 months after its release on PC. Put aside the mouse and keyboard, the latter can also be used on Xbox One and Xbox Series X / S, and shoulder the faithful Lancer, we are ready to hold the pad to face the new spin-off of Gears of War but, this time, in a completely atypical genre for Xbox consoles: we will face the Locusts in a strategic turn.
Gears Tactics is configured as a real chapter of the series and you notice it from the very first bars of the game in which you can see characters, cinematics, details and so on, worthy of a high-end production. Likewise it should be noted that the arrival of Gears Tactics on Xbox consoles it is not a simple port but a noteworthy adaptation, with a whole series of tricks ranging from the optimization of the controls via pad to the new Jack mode, able to enrich a gameplay that proves to be profound and with very complex mechanics, despite its apparent initial simplicity.
The fact that this new chapter wants to fit into the franchise not as a simple excursus towards a different genre, of which, however, we will find several points in common, can be seen from the presentation of the protagonist Gabriel "Gabe" Diaz. This surname, although common, should be very familiar to players of Gears of War 4 and, above all, Gears 5. In fact Gabe Diaz is the father of Kait, protagonist of the fifth chronological chapter of the franchise, but his events are prior to the facts narrated in the main series: a year has passed since Emergency Day and the Hammer of Dawn is about to be launched against the locust offensive.
Set in the city of Aldair, as we said the story of Gears Tactics follows the veteran and hero of the Pendulum Wars Gabe Diaz who, after giving up his military career, abandoned missions and guerrillas to find refuge in military workshops. However, after being forcibly brought back into action by President Prescott and Major Sid Redburn, he will find himself against his will once again on a mission to retrieve classified documents essential for the continuation of the war campaign.
From here on thereGabe's goal will be to hunt down Ukkon, scientist of the Locusts and creator of the creation of the greatest war monsters fielded by the Worms against humanity. To achieve our goal, however, we will have to recruit the survivors of the launch of the Hammer of Dawn which, as devastating as it was against the enemies of the underground, also razed a large part of the city to the ground, claiming victims among the COG soldiers themselves.
Gears Tactics gameplay is pretty damn fun and varied in the early game, also in the secondary missions that we are going to face as interludes to the various chapters of the three acts that make up the narrative arc of the title Splash Damage and The Coalition. Let's start by saying that the heroes and soldiers, recruitable in our caravan, differ in 5 classes characterized by a specific weapon: Support (Lancer), Vanguard (Retro Lancer), Sniper (Longshot), Scout (Gnasher) and Machine gunner (Mulcher) ). Our team will usually consist of 2 to 4 characters, with the natural limitation of some essential elements such as Gabe and Sid and the ubiquitous support robot in Jack mode, while in the secondary missions we will be able to choose at will who to deploy among our fellow soldiers.
The battles take place in turns with each character able to perform different actions in succession or alternating with the others, depending on the tactic we want to adopt. Here we find points in common with the Gears of War series, the polar opposite as a genre but similar for the use of the system of shelters and the possibility of deploying and giving orders to our soldiers. In fact, we will be able to move, shoot, use the peculiar abilities, take advantage of the various shelters that the map offers, position ourselves on the lookout to prevent hostile actions, throw a grenade or a Stim for energy recovery and so on. In short, the multiple actions will allow us to significantly vary our approach to the mission by choosing from time to time greater caution and or greater aggression on the battlefield.
Resolved the mission in our favor, each character deployed will earn experience points necessary for passing to the next level and the consequent accumulation of 2 skill points that can be spent in a classic skill tree. This feature will allow you to balance each class in a different way and customize our hero or soldier with unique skills that can be used in battle. Thanks to the rewards of the missions, main and secondary, and the loot recovered from the various chests hidden in the maps, we will also be able to change the various accessories of the main weapon, model of secondary weapon, type of grenade and pieces of armor (consisting of helmet, upper and lower armor).
Furthermore it will be possible to customize the colors and textures of the equipment of our small army and, with the exception of the protagonists, I will also be able to personalize the physical appearance - hair color, particular signs and various accessories - in order to make each component of our caravan more unique.
And the enemies? As well as for Humans, also the Worms will have different classes ranging from the classic Locusts to the Boomers, passing through Abietti, Ticker and so on, +
There are also, as can be seen from the various trailers released by Microsoft, "big" enemies such as the famous Corpser or the Brumak already faced in the chapters of the main series and here re-proposed in challenging boss fights at the end of the act. In short, between firefights and exciting cut scenes, the result of well-characterized and charismatic characters, the story and the initial gameplay of Gears Tactics start rocket and then slow down significantly already from the second act in which the secondary missions will begin to be more and more repetitive and pure fillers to the main plot.
This is the main flaw of a game that on the one hand invites the player to recruit new recruits, saved in many cases in secondary missions, while on the other it limits their use in the game chapters to relegate them to secondary missions, almost superfluous by a certain point onwards. The choice will therefore become almost obligatory in tending to deploy the essential characters always and in any case, in order to increase their level and increase their skill tree. A real shame because the basic concept, the caravan and the recruitment, is really spot on but then gets lost in practical terms in trying to increase the discreet longevity that characterizes the title. Nevertheless, the gameplay is well-run and refined with a truly amazing ease of learning the commands via pad.
In Gears Tactics you can't help but be delighted by the excellent level of texture detail and graphic quality in general achieved with the revived Unreal Engine 4, a rare commodity in turn-based strategy, with a good yield in the Xbox One X Enhanced version and even better. on Xbox Series X. All this power, however, if you want to nitpick, involves some above average loads and, at least on the Xbox One side, even during missions, without precluding the general fluidity of the title. A top-level graphic sector could only be accompanied, as the franchise has always accustomed us, to a sound of the highest caliber thanks to an effective and credible dubbing completely in Spanish and all the sound effects now familiar to fans of the franchise. The soundtrack, on the other hand, does not shine for its originality but is still enjoyable in re-proposing familiar and epic leitmotifs. In short, as we said at the beginning of the review, once again Gears Tactics can be considered in all respects a valuable and important piece of the Gears of War franchise.
Chapter Series X
After the launch of the new console and having been able to test the title on Microsoft's next-gen, we can only confirm what good we have seen on Xbox One X. But in addition to that, the gaming experience on the new console is different and amazing with almost non-existent uploads, stable frame rate and general fluidity of a title where you can see the graphic improvements thanks to high resolution textures and HDR. The icing on the cake is the quick resume, feature massively advertised by Microsoft and which is very useful for a title that allows you to play "calmly" and which can be accompanied by one of the other titles optimized for Xbox Series X available at launch. In short, the only exclusive weight on the console of the Redmond company - together with the indie The Falconeer - does not disappoint expectations and manages to confirm all the merits of this next-gen.
Gears Tactics is not a simple spin-off and it is not a clumsy attempt to push the franchise into another genre, in fact it is the opposite. The turn-based strategy that Splash Damage and The Coalition made for Microsoft Game Studios is a true chapter in the Gears of War series with recognizable and charismatic characters, a well-written and engaging storyline combined with a well-honed graphics engine and solid gameplay and varied. It could have been a superlative title but some gaps, mainly due to the monotonous and not very incisive secondary missions and the lack of replayability typical of the multiplayer sector, make Gears Tactics an excellent title that bodes well for the start of a new trend in the Gears series of War.
► Gears Tactics is a Strategy-Tactical type game developed by Splash Damage and published by Black Tusk Studios for PC and Xbox Series X, the video game was released on 28/04/2020
