Despite some stumbles, Splash Damage has successfully taken the essence of the Gears franchise and transferred it into a turn-based strategy game. Gears Tactics is a true Gears title with a campaign that builds and expands the franchise’s lore, all while introducing new characters and adding new wrinkles to old ones. The turn-based gameplay fits well within the universe, providing plenty of strategy both on and off the field. Combined with some genuinely excellent main missions, Gears Tactics comes together nicely. It does frequently stumble thanks to the repetitive and frequent side quests that vastly hurt the pacing, but remains a joy to play throughout its many hours. Gears Tactics is a solid turn-based game that’ll make Gears and tactics fans happy.
The handiest first Talent is The Pawn (from having that Scoundrel point) which grants free extra movement, though it is mutually exclusive with Executioner. Other great candidates include Living Armor for much needed magical armor recovery, Hothead for more critical hot chance, Opportunist to prevent enemy movement, and What a Rush to punish enemies that manage to damage health direc
Knights might not be the most tactful profession, but they will easily help the party by rushing to the frontlines, dispatching light infantry, and protecting their weaker allies. With a little more magic support, a Knight will turn into an unstoppable juggern
Whithermoore’s Girdle (Belt): find Whithermoore’s Soul Jar inside the Fort Joy keep and destroy it. Go into the Elf Cave and head to the basement (need either high Wits or have a Dwarf to enter the hole). The belt has free Me
The game even gives players the gear from fallen soldiers back, so they'll be able to give the replacement soldier the dead soldier’s great armor or weapons straight away. This only works for random recruits though, letting one of the main characters die in battle will result in a game o
The prequel to the popular third-person shooter franchise Gears of War , Gears Tactics is a turn-based strategy game that is a diversion from the traditional norms of the genre. It looks great, and the layout gives it the feel of a core Gears of War game despite being a strategy g
Messing around with customization between missions sucked up way too much of my time – and that’s not particularly a bad thing. The equipment menus could’ve been redesigned for more convenient loadout swaps, sure, but the high volume of tweakables was pleasantly surpris
When players start an XCOM game they only have a handful of fresh soldiers who feel unprepared for the mission ahead of them. As a player progresses through the game it seems like every advance in technology or newly available resource is countered by some new weapon in the alien’s arse
Few modern turn-based strategy games can compete with the engaging and enjoyable gameplay the XCOM series has. While the original XCOM games are classics, they might be difficult to get into if someone a newcomer to the ge
The weapon applications are similarly impressive. Torque Bows, Longshot Snipers, Gnashers – they all hurt just as much as they did in the originals. Even the unique Active Reload mechanic is (somewhat) emulated via the "fast fingers" perk for the Sniper class. Seeing the wide array of Gears weapons in action from a birds-eye view is pretty fr
Speaking of bullet penetration, keep in mind it’s a double-edged sword. Grenades can damage friendly units if they’re too close to the point of impact, but so can every other attack, a fact players might learn the hard way if you have a unit on overwatch and they hit one of your soldiers who’s behind a moving en
Gears Tactics automatically assigns which characters go in which order. But this is more of a suggestion than a steadfast rule. As long as it’s the player's turn, they can move and use action points for whichever character they w
At the end of the day, Gears Tactics transitions the series into a new genre admirably well. Although there is much to be desired regarding mission variety and replayability, the developers did a great job interweaving classic Gears combat and weaponry into a tactical format, making for a positive experience over
The release of Gears Tactics immediately caused gamers to begin comparing the two franchises in an attempt to declare one better than the other. Did Gears Tactics dethrone the king, or is the XCOM franchise still the best of the sci-fi squad-based, tactical/strategy ge
If using Gift Bags, Indomitable can be a great Talent at second level to reduce the duration of nasty status effects. This can be further paired with Walk It Off , though this second ability also reduces beneficial stats as well. Bigger and Better and All Skilled Up are also always good Talent options for more combat skills and Civil Abilit
The character-driven story in Gears Tactics is more compelling, and allows for voiced characters whose banter is amusing at times. For a player’s first play-through, this method of storytelling allows for a more interesting narrative, but the player will already know the story on subsequent play-throughs. In XCOM , each SLG game news is different. The soldiers will be different, the player can build their base in a different country, and the locations under attack will be different. Additionally, a player could focus on different avenues of research and technology (or psionics) than in previous playthroughs. This makes XCOM infinitely more replaya