We attended a 1-hour virtual presentation in which we can see gameplay and discover the keys to Gears Tactics (PC and Xbox Game Pass).
The Gears of War franchise continues to expand with new installments encompassed within its universe. This is the case of Gears Tactics, a single player turn-based strategy title that will allow us to discover the story of Gabe Diaz (father of Kait Diaz) by reliving the events that took place 12 years before the plot that we were able to experience in the first Gears of War. Thanks to Splash Damage, The Coalition and Microsoft, we have accessed a virtual preview in which we have been shown in scoop more than an hour of live gameplay of the game. Below we unravel all its keys in order to understand exactly how this new piece fits into the great puzzle of the Gears of War saga, which will arrive on April 28 on PC (Steam) and Xbox Game Pass. Later it will also come to Xbox One, but for the moment the development team has reserved any news about it.
High quality cinematics and an interesting story to discover
As we have advanced, the history of Gears Tactics puts us in the shoes of Gabe Diaz, a military strategist who leads a squad through various cities of the planet Sera with the aim of ending the Horde Locust and all the creatures that the make up. With the help of various recruits, Gabe and his team will go after Locust's army leader: Ukkon. It will not be an easy path, since before reaching it they will have to kill a large number and variety of monsters and dangerous bosses.
In the presentation we attended, we were able to see various high-quality cinematics, something that reinforces the idea that Tyler Bielman (design director at Gears Tactics) transmitted to us by ensuring that we will live an interesting story with well-built characters, just as it happens in the main Gears of War saga. We cannot talk in detail about all the scenes we saw, but we can anticipate that we will have different cinematics at the beginning of each mission and others, so they will not be limited to certain key scenes but will be recurring throughout the game.
Strategic gameplay and full of freedom of movement
One of the first decisions that we must make before starting to play is the level of difficulty that we want to face. It is confirmed that there are up to 4 degrees and an additional one called "Ironman" that can be applied to any of the other modes and is an added difficulty when setting our actions (and therefore not being able to go back or modify anything), in addition to offering a series of limitations that harden the experience.
As for gameplay, we have a top view from which we can observe the entire playing field and our squad, in addition to the enemies, in order to carry out a certain strategy depending on the situation that presents itself. Bielman assures that, contrary to what happens in other strategy titles, in Gears Tactics we will have great freedom of movement to adapt to each enemy movement and that there is not only one way of doing things, but it will depend on us and our game style to win or not to win.
As you can see in the images that accompany this piece, each character we control has at his disposal various different abilities. These are related to their Class, so they will not have the same Tank as a Scout, for example. Depending on the units that we have deployed at that time and the position of the enemies, we will have to proceed attacking with more caution, going directly to the boss, reducing the smaller units first, etc.
An example of ability that we could see is the so-called "Overwatch". It allows us to place a cone-shaped lookout area so that the moment enemies pass through it, we can fire an automatic and highly damaging burst of bullets at them. It is a kind of trap that will not always work and that some of our enemies will also know how to use, so we will have to avoid crossing these areas when they are active or distract the enemies that are running them.
Time and turns are two essential values in any self-respecting strategy game, so we will have to measure well what skills or attacks we execute at each moment in order to win the race against the enemy team. Regarding the available weapons, we will see several that we will immediately recognize from the Gears of War saga such as the Lancer and its variants. As in the main franchise installments, each player will carry a primary weapon, a secondary weapon (small, pistol type) and grenades to cause explosive damage. Each works best against one type of enemy, so we'll have to learn how to use them efficiently on the battlefield to make the most of our turns.
Great battles against bosses
One of the battles that we could see live during the presentation was against a great boss named "Corpser". It is a great monster that protects itself with reinforced arms and that we will not be able to hurt until we throw explosives and thus force it to open its armor. For this reason, it is confirmed that each great boss will have a series of vulnerabilities and strengths that we must overcome to win.
Specifically, the Corpser was surrounded by a series of lesser minions that we can defeat to loot and clear the area before directing our firepower towards the boss. These battles are complex and long, something that we could verify because during the game session they did not have time to defeat the boss because time was upon them. For this reason, we could not see the end of the enemy size but we could see various ways to face it, attack and some effective strategies to protect the team from their attacks, since one of the victory conditions this time was that Sid, Gabe and Mikayla (three members of our team) remained alive during the confrontation.
Customization of our squad, equipment and weapons
Another section that we could see in detail is the customization of our squad, equipment and weapons. Gears Tactics offers a wide range of customization options to be able to improve the firepower of our weaponry or other parameters such as increasing its critical range. These modifications also affect the external appearance of the weapons, so we can choose them based on their aesthetics as well as their efficiency in combat.
Each character has its own skill tree that we can unlock and improve as we level up. Thanks to this, it is up to the player to decide which type of class to opt for. For example, in the case of Gabe Díaz he can shoot for the following branches: combat doctor, strategist, surgeon or “paragon”. With this, The Coalition make sure to offer a wide variety of customization options as long as each user decides how to build and train their team to face the dangers that await them.
No microtransactions and other details
Another of the details confirmed by the game's development team is that there will be no microtransactions of any kind, so all items can be acquired by playing. With this measure they ensure that there is no pay to win and intend to encourage players to continue playing to unlock legendary weapons, find the most effective way to overcome all barriers that the campaign puts before them and, of course, discover the mysteries and the outcome of the story of Gabe Diaz and the rest of his team.
Overall, we get good impressions of what we have seen from Gears Tactics. Even so, we still cannot offer a clear and formed opinion due to not having directly held the title in our hands and therefore not being able to assess aspects such as technical performance. What we saw on screen seemed to live up to expectations for a title with these characteristics and one of the aspects that most surprised us was that of the cinematics and their graphic quality, at the height of the main saga.
In the playable it seems quite affordable, contrary to what happens in other strategy titles, very overwhelming for inexperienced players in the genre. For this reason, since Splash Damage and The Coalition have tried to establish a balance in Gears Tactics so that it can be enjoyed by players who love the game universe as well as fans of strategy titles.
We will leave doubts about whether this proposal will end up convincing the public from April 28, at which time the title will become available on PC (Windows Store and Steam), in addition to Xbox Game Pass for PC (Beta) . Therefore, you can enjoy from day one at no additional cost in the subscription service that Microsoft continues to update every month.
