First thing first: you can’t quick save and quick load your way out of trouble.
There are a few tidbits and nods for fans of Gears 4 and Gears 5, but generally it’s what you would expect from a mass market action title. Narrative-wise, you play as Gabe Diaz who is tasked with leading a convoy squad of Gears to combat a Locust mad scientist named Ukkon. All while wearing its gib-tastic coat of paint loud and proud. Gears Tactics not only is a fresh new squad-based tactics spin, but it takes a lot from past high-level combat-savvy strategy titles and introduces a number of novel concepts that improve the genre. After all, it’s entrenched in military and sci-fi tropes and knowhow strategic combat and squad management is part and parcel of the experience.
#Gears tactics zealot series#
Wouldn’t you know it, these two elements are what an Xbox-exclusive series like Gears needed to jump-start the franchise in a logical direction. In fact, the furthest thing from my mind is a turn-based strategic Gears game that somehow does things better than 2012’s de facto strategy title XCOM: Enemy Unknown. The last thing that pops to mind is “RPG elements” and “turn-based combat”. Oh, and real-time cover-based shooting with some semblance of tactics. When you think Gears of War, you think “chest-high walls”, “brick s***house armor”, “guns with chainsaw attachments”, “emergence holes”, and explosions. Genre: Turn-Based Strategy Game With Chainsaw Guns & Terrifying Mole Men