This is equally true for their weapon and armor upgrades, as the difficulty scale in Gears Tactics is no joke. Whether you hastily toss skill points down or meticulously optimize each Gear’s talents, it is quite imperative that you assign their points as available. This is handy for players who want to maximize their efficiency while minimizing their time spent in menus. These specializations are given names that help players intuitively understand the playstyle of each, enabling them to quickly assign skills points towards their specialization goal. Each Gear starts with a class and from there can work towards any of the four specializations. Just when we thought we couldn’t ask for anything more, we get handed yet another wonderfully entertaining tool to assist in the dispatching of our familiar Locust Horde fiends: skill trees. White is common, green is uncommon, blue is rare, etc. The colour of the case determines the quality of the gear inside, which mostly follows the now-standard loot-to-colour order. While not hidden, they can be easily overlooked in the heat of battle. Players must always keep an eye out for these cases on the battlefield. The mods and other equipment you use to enhance your Gears is collected primarily through cases. This is another one of those touches that really elevates a game’s overall experience for players, even if most of them can’t put their finger on the differences themselves. Side note: I was doubly impressed to find out that your upgraded equipment is properly reflected in cut scenes. Each Gear has specific equipment that can accept a variety of attachments, enhancing the performance (and appearance) of your weaponry. Speaking of skill trees, I was quite impressed by the depth of options offered when customizing my Gears Tactics characters. Each character has actions that can be used for movement, firing at enemies, reloading, throwing grenades, setting up overwatch or one of many other special actions – some of which are gained over time through the extensive skill tree that helps give each character a unique feel. These improvements aside, Gears Tactics still feels similar enough to other turn-based tactical games for veterans of the genre to pick it up with little to no learning curve. Like I said, these minor differences really start to pile up and can be the difference between an okay game and a truly impressive one. Additionally, while other titles like XCOM and Mutant Year Zero confine players to very rigid grids, where all of the cover and environment fits perfectly into those grids, Gears Tactics offers a more realistic look and feel. While these are certainly not the central points of interest in a game of this genre, they are integral to providing players with an elevated gaming experience. Gears Tactics shows just how engrossing a turn-based tactical shooter can be when accompanied by decent storytelling and a believable environment. The detailed cut-scenes, less restricted movement (we don’t have to live in a square grid anymore!) rich environment and improved storytelling made it quite clear that I was looking at an evolution of the turn-based tactical shooter, not a clone. The entire experience seemed way too familiar at first, but soon the differences started to poke holes in my first impression. When I first booted up Gears Tactics, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking that I was about to walk into an XCOM re-skin. I certainly hope that the wide variety of weaponry available in the previous games will be a key part of Tactics because, let’s face it, Gears’ success was built on a tower of chainsawed grubs. With the rest of the games in the franchise sporting a heavy focus on fast-paced action, it will be quite interesting to see how a slower, turn-based and more cerebral approach to the Gears universe plays out. Officially dropping on PC tomorrow, Gears Tactics is a turn-based tactical shooter set in the Gears of War universe.
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