Gears Tactics Catch-All

Gears Tactics is out April 28th and it's looking really good. It takes the modern XCOM concepts and changes some of them very drastically. A lot of thought and presentation is going into this to differentiate it from XCOM and something like Phoenix Point.

Some quick bullet points about what separates it from other XCOM-likes:

  • on Xbox Game Pass day and date with Steam; PC first then consoles later
  • no grid system
  • characters have higher HP
  • there are hero characters and they have a once-per-mission self-revive
  • more focus on being aggressive and hordes of enemies
  • 5 classes of soldier with their own unique skill trees and primary weapon
  • 3 upgradable armour slots and upgrade slots for weapons
  • lots of visual customization options for your squad; similar to the Dawn of War character builder
  • no base building or meta-game
  • cut-scenes before and after each missions; focus on story
  • main character is Gabe Diaz, father of Kait Diaz from Gears 5 & 5; set 12 years before original Gears of War
  • overwatch is now aimed and length and width of cone can be adjusted
  • each character has three actions per turn that can be used however you wish
  • when an enemy gets into a down but not out state, can be executed; this gives the entire squad an extra action point

Media:
Gamespot

PC Gamer

Eurogamer

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Looks awesome, thanks for tagging this info and links!

Looks killer. Very curious about this one.

At, probably, $1 through the XBox Game Pass for PC, I'll be in on day 1 with no reservations.

Christopher Odd has a Gears Tactics Let's Play up. In case you wanna see what it's all about before you use up the bandwith to download it.

RPS review puts it as excellent, up there with your XCOMs.

Jonman wrote:

RPS review puts it as excellent, up there with your XCOMs.

I watched about an hour of gameplay this morning and I’m really excited for some of the things they did differently and how those changes seem to fit right in line with Gears games. This one looks very good.

Reviews are pretty solid all across the board. Really excited to play this after I'm through some other stuff. So happy it's on XBox Game Pass.

Firaxis were bloody smart dropping new XCOM at a discounted price the week before this - it's already got it's hooks into me.

Sounds like one more reason to give Games Pass a spin.

Only played an hour, but this game is pretty cool so far. The cinematics is just like a regular Gears game.

You'll need a Microsoft account.

I am eager to hear opinions on whether people recommend XCOM Chimera or Tactics. Both are downloaded and awaiting first pick.

Thanks,
Chad

I’ll eventually get to both but it will probably be a few months.

chooka1 wrote:

I am eager to hear opinions on whether people recommend XCOM Chimera or Tactics. Both are downloaded and awaiting first pick.

Thanks,
Chad

Based on my own experience of XCOM Chimera and reviews of Gears Tactics, I don't think there's a wrong answer.

That said, as an XCOM fanboy who has found Gears a monumentally tedious franchise, I don't regret going XCOM first, but I'm sure as sh*t playing Gears afterwards.

They are very very different games. Personally I like them both but I see how difficult it's going to be to play them at the same time, so I will need to choose and I think I am going to choose Gears for now (new release hehe!).

To be a bit more specific, Gears is more story-driven (even if it's a Gears kind of story), has more character development options, missions are longer, turns are side vs. side (as opposed to by person) and there is much more flexibility within the turn (you can spend 2 APs on one soldier, do stuff on others, come back to the first one, etc.), you have 3 APs to start with and abilities to get more, you can shoot-move-shoot.

The UI (between the missions) stinks in both though.

I really enjoyed the first 2 missions in Gears and I also enjoyed the first investigation in XCOM but I am leaning towards Gears for now. Gears feels like a proper full game while XCOM feels like a cute little side project. Nothing is wrong with cute little side projects but I think I want to dive into a full game, if it makes sense.

Jonman wrote:
chooka1 wrote:

I am eager to hear opinions on whether people recommend XCOM Chimera or Tactics. Both are downloaded and awaiting first pick.

Thanks,
Chad

Based on my own experience of XCOM Chimera and reviews of Gears Tactics, I don't think there's a wrong answer.

That said, as an XCOM fanboy who has found Gears a monumentally tedious franchise, I don't regret going XCOM first, but I'm sure as sh*t playing Gears afterwards.

Came to post and found Jonman beat me to it. Chimera Squad has some bugs I wish would get worked out, but otherwise is a bang on XCOM distillation. Trying to hold back on picking up Gears for the moment, but if I get one more XCOM:CS CTD, I think it'll be time to wait for a patch or three.

I've played both albeit much more of XCOM, and I would lean towards XCOM, even with its existing flaws. There's just a little more joy in XCOM. It's a Saturday Morning Cartoon, whereas Gears is still hanging on to its early 00's video-game-ass aesthetic. Depending on your preferences, XCOM's also requires a little more precision and decision making, whereas Gears has a bit more room for error.

Just a note on the setting: this is (somewhat bizarrely) my first Gears game, and man, this world is just aggressively not charming. I understand that the character design for this series is "man-cube", but geez, it seems like they could have cleaned up the silhouettes a little bit. People's feet just don't look like that, even stylized. The locusts don't look subterranean, they mostly just look like they've been doing a bunch of leg and bench presses. It may be a silly thing to pick on, but I've been finding that setting is more and more something I really lean on for enjoyment in my games.

They are wearing space boots! Just think of Gears as an 80s / early 90s action movie or cartoon. I have no problems with the style.

I feel like this game needs some serious tweaking to be 'fun'. I got to a mission yesterday where I just could not make a single action without it costing me. I'm not the best at Tactical games. I play XCOM on the regular setting. But, this is something else. There's a difference between being difficult and being oppressive.

I watched Christopher Odd play through the same mission to see how he managed it (Since he's light-years better than me at these games) and he got squad wiped, too. So, I have little hope of doing any better next time I try.

And it's not just getting squad wiped. That happens. It's the feeling that you can do almost nothing productive during your turns that makes this game severely unfun. I'm gonna give it some time to see if it just hasn't "clicked" with me, but as of right now this game is on notice. I've still got XCOM 2 installed and my time is valuable (even though I'm locked in the house haha).

skeletonframes wrote:

I feel like this game needs some serious tweaking to be 'fun'. I got to a mission yesterday where I just could not make a single action without it costing me. I'm not the best at Tactical games. I play XCOM on the regular setting. But, this is something else. There's a difference between being difficult and being oppressive.

I watched Christopher Odd play through the same mission to see how he managed it (Since he's light-years better than me at these games) and he got squad wiped, too. So, I have little hope of doing any better next time I try.

Which mission is that? I've finished 4 (?) chapters on normal, got to the first side mission and haven't had my squad wiped yet. Or any squadmates downed really, although a couple were pretty close. I found the game to be a bit on the easy side so far and wonder if it's going to get tougher. Even earlier on, you start getting quite a few tools to get an upper hand over the enemies.

I think it was the 4th mission, actually. Where you find the big tank and have to face a few waves of enemies.

How are you approaching gameplay? Do you use Overwatch a lot? I think the game really wants me to but, coming from XCOM, I’m trying not to rely on it so much. It really seems like a necessary ability, though. Maybe save the last action for Overwatch on most moves?

Edit: Played the mission again and breezed through. Go figure. I really think saving your last Action Point for Overwatch is key.

skeletonframes wrote:

I think it was the 4th mission, actually. Where you find the big tank and have to face a few waves of enemies.

How are you approaching gameplay? Do you use Overwatch a lot? I think the game really wants me to but, coming from XCOM, I’m trying not to rely on it so much. It really seems like a necessary ability, though. Maybe save the last action for Overwatch on most moves?

Edit: Played the mission again and breezed through. Go figure. I really think saving your last Action Point for Overwatch is key.

Yep, I watched him, it was fun.

I think you've made a great point - Overwatch is very important in this game. And positioning. The difference with XCOM here is that Overwatch, when triggered, interrupts their action, which wastes their action points and stops them in place out of cover. It makes it a very important tool.

Christopher made a few grave mistakes in that mission and he understood one of them (wasting all grenades early) as he was making it. Another one I noticed is he tends to set Overwatch too far out, which results in it missing a lot. Position-wise, he tends to keep his troops too close together, where in this game, IMO, it pays to spread a bit, cover multiple approaches and attack from flanks.

Also you want to get your troops in good positions before you step into the mission's target area as it will trigger the next event and you want to be ready.

I also haven't seen many abilities unlocked on his soldiers - by this mission, I've had at least 2 guys (Gabe and Sid) at level 3 with a few new abilities unlocked. Plus I've got that, I assume pre-order, football player dude at level 3 too, I think he is given to all Gamepass players.

As I mentioned above, Gears is quite different from XCOM and demands quite a bit of re-learning in the beginning. And that's why I also think it's not a good idea to play these 2 games in parallel.

THE PRE-ORDER FOOTBALL PLAYER DUDE IS AUGUST "COLETRAIN" COLE AND YOU WILL PUT RESPECT ON HIS NAME FOR HE IS THE PATRON SAINT OF GAMERS WITH JOBS! TERRY TATE OFFICE LINEBACKER!

Hedinn wrote:

I also haven't seen many abilities unlocked on his soldiers - by this mission, I've had at least 2 guys (Gabe and Sid) at level 3 with a few new abilities unlocked. Plus I've got that, I assume pre-order, football player dude at level 3 too, I think he is given to all Gamepass players.

I'm playing on Normal as well and didn't have many abilities. I went with the two starting characters, Cole Train, and a Shotgun Gear. I think the game could be a tad better at menus. I had a few points I had not even used.

2 things. I wish I could right-mouse button back a menu. I wish the menus were more separate with armor, weapons, and ability points.

I am now cruising through missions, so I'm sure I will eat dirt hard soon enough.

Yeah, between the mission UI sucks a lot, especially when you have like 9 people to manage, it's a nightmare.

I like the character development options, you can make quite different builds, but, again, I fear it's going to become impossible to remember what builds your guys have and what you wanted to do with them all.

Oh and sorry to offend THE PATRON SAINT, the only thing I can do to amend my wrong ways is to make sure he gets the best gear in-game and doesn't get sacrificed for the team.

I only had time to play through the opening mission, but I like what I've played so far. It seems very fast and fluid, which is definitely not something I'd normally say about a turn-based tactics game like this. I also like that the game opens with the accessibility options menu. From memory, I don't think I've seen that before - would be cool to see that be an industry standard.

kazooka wrote:

Just a note on the setting: this is (somewhat bizarrely) my first Gears game, and man, this world is just aggressively not charming. I understand that the character design for this series is "man-cube", but geez, it seems like they could have cleaned up the silhouettes a little bit. People's feet just don't look like that, even stylized. The locusts don't look subterranean, they mostly just look like they've been doing a bunch of leg and bench presses. It may be a silly thing to pick on, but I've been finding that setting is more and more something I really lean on for enjoyment in my games.

I haven't played much Gears before either (just a couple hours or so of Gears 5) and this is similar to how I'm feeling. It really feels like a product of the original Gears of War's time. Which makes sense enough, but it sure makes it hard for me to be too enthusiastic about it.

I'm finding it more approachable than other tactics games. Over the years, I've tried and bounced off of Xcom, Jagged Alliance, Sudden Strike, and modern Xcom. In general, I just don't like turn-based tactics games. The only games in that space that I really got into were the UFO:Afterlight/Aftershock games (these used a wierd planning/simultaneous execution system).

Curiously, Gears Tactics feels a little bit more like those old UFO games than like other games in the tactics genre. Maybe because it is more fast paced. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that creating an overwatch kill zone is almost always a better choice than actively shooting at an enemy.

That first boss was....something. Took me 3 tries, but I figured out how to go about it and only got 1 character downed during it. Though, I took the methodical approach the time I beat it and it took me every bit of 25 minutes, maybe even more for just that fight.

I'm interested but at A$100 it's way too expensive. I've not bought the new XCOM spinoff yet either, modded Battletech and watching Westworld has eaten my time up.

I read the RPS review and it was looong. Surprised it got such a write-up. Is it really okay to drop the overworld part of the genre? Kind of gives me the impression it's like Diablo after you finish a chapter and the boss drops a bunch of loot you get to pore over. Or Dawn of War 2 between missions.

Bfgp wrote:

I'm interested but at A$100 it's way too expensive. I've not bought the new XCOM spinoff yet either, modded Battletech and watching Westworld has eaten my time up.

I read the RPS review and it was looong. Surprised it got such a write-up. Is it really okay to drop the overworld part of the genre? Kind of gives me the impression it's like Diablo after you finish a chapter and the boss drops a bunch of loot you get to pore over. Or Dawn of War 2 between missions.

Can you sign up for Game Pass? My first month cost me $1 USD... not a shabby price for Gears