GEARS TACTICS REVIEW - TACTICAL ERROR

The announcement of Gears Tactics made me screw up the whole face on. Of course, the universe Gears has much in common with XCom universe and Tactics probably try to grab a share of this pie, but would it work? The explosive action of the series Gears she could really turn into a slower style of play, more measured and more thoughtful? I had serious doubts. I had reason to worry. Although a competent framework is in place, Gears Tactics unnecessarily simplifies the genre and is imbued with strange design decisions.

Set shortly after the emergence of locusts on Sera Gears Tactics tells the story of Gabe Diaz. It manages the motor pool, but it has not always been so. Forced back into action by circumstances, that is to Gabe and a team of heroes and growling constantly expanding track Ukkon; a desert that threatens to worsen the situation of humanity. While the configuration had leaned me forward with curiosity, the story beats little to connect the dots. Although Gabe and Sid certainly seem to be interesting characters, Gears Tactics actually not enough to establish a link with their welfare.

More often than not, thumbnails felt to miss much of the necessary context. They are well made and well directed, but did not give me a reason to be interested in the party. Mikayla, who is anti-COG, joined the team at first, but the necessity of this union has never meaningless. I wanted to see his internal struggle. I wanted to see the conflict between Gears and crew Mikayla. This is not, however, and this is a huge missed opportunity. Following the memorable distribution Gears 5, it was disappointing that the bonus pre Thrashball Cole is the most remarkable of the lot.

What is particularly detrimental to the weight of history, this is how it is all disjointed. The moments which I should have been worrying about pretty easy to spot, but the momentum is constantly smothered by the mission structure.

repetitive AF

Unfortunately, there are few types of missions in Gears Tactics. The rescue soldiers recovering macguffins and protection of supply are the most common in the main and side missions. The repetition of the structure is expected in gaming tactics to turn, but the implementation of these structures makes them interesting subsequent missions. I expected to have to change my style of play, choose teams that synergize well and be smart in the way, but the game seems determined to rely on artificial circumstances for a variety of meetings. In the second act, I sélectionnais side missions depending on the type of mission that I could do it faster.

The third time I have been asked to collect case (more on these later) Nemacyst fleeing the bombing on the same card, I squinted at the screen, desperate to understand what changed. The number of enemies and the height of their zero ranking gotcha was the answer.

Classic villains of Gears of War as Tickers, Boomers and Snipers appear over time and require adjustment, but your initial adjustments also take you long term. Instead, Gears Tactics adds volume to the problem. More wicked waves are shot in more places. This is fine if you have a real big bag of tricks to use, but just shoot, throw grenades and-watch is by far the most effective strategy.

boss encounters - another thing that Gears is known - occur occasionally. These are big set pieces, and they have quite specific victory conditions. Remember to be smart and exploit a weakness - how about you follow steps 1 through 5 of this manual entitled Fighting a Brumak for Dummies?

Permadeath - the Gaming trademark turn-based - is there, but in a limited format. Heroes like Gabe must survive a mission you send them, and there is honestly very few situations where the use of a non-hero grunt is needed. Yes, there are 2 classes that have no associated hero, but when all the characters play the same way, the motivation to build a balanced team is minimal. All characters get at least 3 action points per turn, vaguely move the same distance per share can throw grenades and shoot / monitor with their class weapon.

Each type of class has a skill tree with 4 paths of specialization. You can mix and match along the way, even if I found most active skills have limited value. Make recharge my sniper if they kill an enemy on this one? This is a good one. Hitting enemies at a distance of x out of coverage? Literally never used.

The missions reward you with random boxes of mods for your weapons and armor of the legendary common scale. That's good, but I soon realized that once you find something that works, there is no reason to experiment. Unless you are producing a legendary version of what you already love, statistics bonuses are minors, adding 5% or more to critical chance or health, among others. Passive skills are more useful, but really no more than the others. What I say here is that whatever mods you have installed, and there is no other way to customize the behavior of your characters.

Well God that this man has a family!

You may think that I really torn this game, and you are right. I think Gears Tactics make a point-and-click, throw grenades to win the game Gears of War was a mistake, but mechanically, it's not bad at all. In fact, it is perfectly competent. On the battlefield, it does things you expect from the genre. For the majority.

Because it is determined to be other than a clone XCom Gears Tactics eliminates the use of a grid for the movement of the characters. This makes control of the line of sight fine a useful tactic, but it is also difficult to estimate the effective range of an enemy. % Chance of hitting the numbers are realistic, avoiding the dreaded XCom <90% chance = 100% missed equation too. He did a great job of visceral feel in the moment, with the brutal impact that you expect from the series. Yes, you can definitely cutting the Locust in two, and it's almost as satisfying as manually accelerate your Start 3rd person.

Sometimes, however, this precision causes problems. The game has a way to indicate that you have a bead on Locust 1 if you move to where you fly, then do not let shoot. It's either a bug or a small mouse movement that removed the line of sight, and I can not say I'm satisfied with one of these options. Other bugs have arisen earlier in my time with Gears Tactics where the action points seemed to disappear at random after moving to cover, but I'm not really convinced me that I'm not just imagining it.

It is easy to go wrong when the user interface is more awkward than it should be. Key information such as the remaining AP blend into the sea of ​​numbers, while the interface equipment is a nightmare and the game does a poor job to reveal what was recently released cosmetically.

Visually, most of the hard work has been done on Gears 5 seems to have made the jump. The figures are particularly impressive in the close-ups and cutscenes except Mikayla falls into the valley strange blank stares. Environments and structures appear and feel also suitable for Gears, though you visit exactly the same places again and again and again. My combo Ryzen 5 2070 Super did everything to 60 fps in 4K, with all mounted sliders. Impressive. Looking at the specifications, even a machine of many years should have no problem running Gears Tactics. There are however many textures in the cutscenes. Do not we have exceeded this last generation?

Gears Tactics try new things, but ultimately results in a less tactical game than its name suggests. It's a competent experience but completely exudes character with a lackluster story and every tool is a hammer-class design. Add a repetitive mission structure and Gears Tactics is far less replayable as the giants of the genre.