Gears Tactics

Game is fun from what Ive played but you require a xbox live account logged in to play the game. It can not simply be played from Steam. BEWARE BUYER!

I am moving into chapter 3 and I am ready for the game to end. I am not a big first person shooter enjoyer so I had hoped to enjoy the gears franchise in a different format. However the game isn't really designed for that and centres around tracking down one antagonist to kill over a few story missions and fills out the game with tedious side missions. There is nothing here that resembles an interesting campaign or offers any lore to help introduce players into the gears universe. The tactical combat is good but the rest of the game is bare bones and uninteresting. The bad: Mikayla is an annoying hard ass girl boss trope who ruins the story missions. Side missions lack variety and become tedious after chapter 1. The mission modifiers and additional objectives get in the way of the enjoyment of the game. Managing gear and armour upgrades isn't enjoyable due to the UI. The UI needs improved. Collecting loot boxes during missions is busy work. Not enough deployable gears which means you cant bring one gear of each class on missions. Need to sign into Microsoft account to play. The Good: The combat is good. Character building is decent. Boss missions are cool (but they have questionable mechanics). Decent enemy variety and threats. Overwatch is done really well. Performance is good and the game looks good. Voice acting and cinematics are good.

Requires an Xbox account for no f*cking reason on first boot. Garbage plain and simple.

Requires Xbox login now to play. Was good, was going for a return play but now it will be ignored.

Peak, 10/10. The game knows what it wants to be and nails it in every way.

Too much rng based difficulty, unintuitive controls and unskipabble mini cutscenes. The customisation is good at least.

Turn-based tactical Gears of War game is pretty neat.

Great game

Despite leaving a positive review for Gears Tactics, I *cautiously* recommend this title and suggest buying it with a discount. While its tactical combat has a solid and technologically advanced structure, it is the lack of diverse tactics that limit the game's potential. [list] [*]The combat is mostly resolved with guaranteed damage caused by Frag Grenades, Power Weapons, Chainsaws, and Bayonet Rush abilities. Frag Grenades are especially too strong since they deal extreme damage, can't miss, has AoE, and can be re-used between cooldowns. Might as well change the name of the game to "Frag Tactics". [*]When above methods are unavailable, Overwatch is preferred to (potentially) interrupt enemy actions instead of direct attacks. Combined with the guaranteed damage aspect, Gears Tactics feel like an 'ability puzzle' where you throw out surefire attacks whenever you can and you play defense when those are on cooldown, instead of choosing between uncertain odds, taking risks, and experiencing excitement or despair based on the outcome. [*]Enemy archetype isn't diverse enough, which also exacerbates the monotonous gameplay. Specifically, there should have been units that directly counter explosive damage and overwatch, and the concept of 'armor piercing' and armored enemies should have existed so critical damage isn't the only thing shooter classes pursue. [*]The highest difficulty is balanced poorly, and further necessitates the need of already-overpowered tactics. Enemies equipped with power weapons can consistently one-shot you, and the only way of surviving is not taking high cover inside their vision range, but breaking line-of-sight and completely running away from them. Revival options are completely pointless since your units instantly die when HP is at 0 instead of bleeding out like in lower difficulties. Healing is almost useless since one-shots are prevalent, and tanks (Vanguards) can't do their role until they reach Level 5. The way they handled the hardest difficulty is basically introducing bullet sponges and instant-kills, which feels cheap, and thus I also have to play cheap (I did complete Experienced and Insane, the two hardest options). [*]Basic kill-them-all mission types such as Incursion and Sabotage are boring since there is no turn limit, while Rescue and Control are significantly more difficult than the others since time is finite. It feels like there is no middle ground when it comes to the sense of difficulty between mission types. And despite the increased challenge, I still find myself taking Rescue, Control, and Scavenger Runs more often just to avoid the boredom that the first two missions provide. [/list] Gears Tactics is a game with solid bones and refined mechanics. As a XCOM maniac, Gears Tactics has (or had) potential to be the greatest turn-based tactics game that could surpass XCOM: Enemy Within and even Long War, but unfortunately it is hamstrung by its lack of tactical depth. This feeling I got from GT is similar to other Gears title in general, where the game is supported by the strongest game engine and the smartest engineers in the game industry, but the designers who create content and establish the depth of combat are not pulling their weight. I still recommend Gears Tactics since it is a good take on the traditional genre that has been stale since the release of XCOM, but due to its flaws, I also suggest not buying it at a full price. Get at least 25% discount for the purchase.

The game works really well as a 'tactis' style game. I'd say get it if you enjoy the Gears universe and it's on sale. It's fun and really well optimized.