There are five class types, each with their own restricted primary weapon: Support (Lancer), Sniper (Longshot), Vanguard (Retro Lancer), Scout (Gnasher), and Heavy (Mulcher). It’s an expectation of the tactics genre. Gears Tactics‘ approach to overwatch is to draw a visible cone outward toward the opposition - the wider the cone, the less accurate the shots it’s an effective way to always know whether you’re pinned down by an enemy.Īside from Horde modes in newer games, Gears dives into defined classes for the first time.
Hell, sometimes the momentum-keeping move is to throw everyone in a defensive stance on overwatch, letting the enemies run right into your line of fire. Finding synergies between class types, triggering buffs and abilities with kills, switching between characters in the most efficient manner - these are all extremely satisfying but hard-to-master techniques that will have you steamrolling through the Locusts. However, executions are also the most immediate way of gaining momentum, and Gears Tactics is certainly a game of keeping your turns rolling.
Even when the advantage seems obvious, it’s important to weigh the pros and cons of each decision. Other times, everyone needs a reload, no one is in a good position to get a decent shot off, and getting the execution did nothing but pull that one member into a more dangerous spot. Sometimes, this additional move is enough to finish off the remaining threat. It’s the perfect example of how adapting Gears to tactics can elevate both. Rushing to execute a downed enemy grants everyone else on your team an extra action. The Gears-iness of it all bleeds through in a lot of ways, but none as significant and powerful as with executions. That 30 percent accuracy chance doesn’t seem like such a worthwhile gamble if it essentially means a grenade is gonna go off at your feet. A brilliant heat check system is that Tickers - an explosive enemy type that detonate when in blast range of your soldiers - will move forward whenever a shot misses them. It’ll mercilessly punish careless and reckless abandon, sending Locusts to pin down and trap any squadmates who get a little too far ahead of the team. There’s a fine line to encouraging an aggressive style in a strategy game, and Gears Tactics balances on that tightrope gracefully. (It’s less cute when the enemy gets three actions too, moving further than you thought possible for a shotgun blast point-blank into your COG.) Even if they’re used just to slide a good way across the terrain before getting a single shot off, getting three actions makes it feel as though something significant happens every turn. It’s a simple tweak to the formula that goes a long way toward achieving the super soldier power fantasy. The key contributor to making Gears Tactics feel particularly action-oriented is that each squad member is allotted three moves per turn instead of the XCOM-like standard of two actions. Hunkering down in defensive positioning is practically an invitation to get flanked from all sides. This is a fast-paced take on tactics, one that usually favors pushing forward and thinning out the enemy’s numbers before they even get a chance to fire. Gears Tactics‘ most impressive accomplishment is that it’s a fine starting place for Gears fans who have no familiarity with turn-based strategy games, and it’s a fantastic introduction to Gears for tactics aficionados. MSRP: $59.99 included as part of Xbox Game Pass Let’s just say everything explodes smarter. I want to say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts but that might be overthinking it. Gears Tactics is a leveraging of that relationship, an effort that amplifies what each half individually brings to the table. Gears and the tactics genre may not seem like a natural fit, but it really doesn’t take long to understand how they complement one another. Looking down on all those chest-high walls, I realized how much of Gears is about finding prime positioning and waiting for the right moment to attack. It took Gears Tactics‘ fixed overhead angle to really drive the idea home. Sometime in the third act of Gears Tactics, as I was studying the battlefield to find optimal points of cover to send my COGs scurrying behind, the parallels hit me like a ton of bricks: All those Gears games I had been playing since the Xbox 360 were a lot more like strategic tactics games than I had ever pieced together.