Adapting a saga like Gears of War in tactical format is basic a big bet when you know how much this series of TPS is already almost a whole genre. The good news is that there is no need to know (or even appreciate) the saga to love this Gears Tactics since everything is done so that we can understand the framework (minimalist) and the universe Game.
The scenario of this Gears Tactics fits on a Post-it and, as you might expect, it is worthy of a series B (see series Z) with the appearance of nanar. But it is also what makes its charm. We follow the adventures of Gabe Diaz who is none other than the father of the protagonist of Gears 5. The Sera plant (the equivalent of Earth in the Gears universe) is on the verge of collapse because of sire Locuste. Our soldier will be brought to seek survivors to restore the situation. The game plays on the majority of the clichés of action films and the typical male character is a man with arms as big as Schwarzenegger's thighs, a square jaw, an undercut cut and an unaffected vocabulary. In Gears we don't say: "I go to the meeting point"but rather:"I move my ass from there ". Or again, we don't say: "I missed my target " But : "I wolf his dirty junk
Action movie parody
Everything is made to make you think a parody would be only in the course of the action within the scenario and in the cinematics (of quality) which punctuate the gameplay. So, from the first minutes after the tutorial, our character must find a secret file in an administrative office. Quite naturally the file in question is right in the middle of the main office with the standard mention "TOP SECRET". The game is therefore fun and special attention is paid to this kind of detail.
Quality at all levels
In the tutorial, moreover, we know that we are dealing with a game of good quality. Technically, it's already very beautiful, particularly in terms of the textures of the characters and the various animations. We feel that the studio Splash Damage (main developer) and The Coalition have benefited from a good budget from Microsoft so that everything is done in good conditions. The visual effects are good, the actions fluid and we feel a real pleasure to maneuver our Gears. The game is what is called an XCOM-like ie a tactical game in aerial view with turn-based combat. The major difference with XCOM is the absence of these boxes on the ground and the possibility of freely traveling the world. We do not go through a HQ standard between each mission but through an armored vehicle that acts as a mobile base.
Uncompromising
As our adventure progresses, we are led to recruit new Gears and each has their own role to play in the team. Initially, the first two soldiers we meet are automatically incorporated into the team, but later it is possible before each start of the mission to choose who takes part in the action knowing that Gabe Diaz has a compulsory presence. Know also that the death of a Gears is final and only that of the hero definitively ends your game (and therefore requires loading a save). Thus, it is possible the end of a mission to have Gabe as the sole survivor.
The game turns out to be particularly uncompromising. We played in normal difficulty for the correct progress of the test, and even in this configuration, it often happens that you have to load a backup a multitude of times before finding the right tactic to adopt. The game is certainly extremely noisy in its course and its actions but it is not however stupid. He turns out to be extremely intelligent in the choices he forces you to adopt. A single character in the wrong place can totally ruin your strategy, and you must calculate your remaining action points, necessary to complete a task, so as not to find yourself in a dramatic situation. Each Gears has three possible choices in its status bar: Main weapon, secondary weapon and special equipment. For Gabe Diaz, we decided to make him a kind of combat doctor, so in his special equipment, he notably has a regenerative grenade. Once you use this grenade you have to wait three turns minimum (less according to our skills) before you can use it again.
Exhilarating in his staging
Each Gears has a skill tree that needs to be developed over time, making a loss to the team all the more dramatic when it comes to a particularly advanced companion. Especially since it is really possible to personalize in an interesting way our soldiers: transformation of weapons by adding accessories, possibility of changing cannons, adding paint, adding / removing parts of armor … Customization is important and it's a very good thing that offers real added value
Fishing for good ideas
At the end of each mission, loots are recovered, some are given automatically when a target is fulfilled and others are collected in supply boxes which are scattered on the map. This is not a revolution of its kind, but if we add together the good elements of this Gears Tactics we have in front of us a very good game which is clearly at the level of an XCOM. Proof of this is that the hours pass when you play without having a moment to keep an eye on the clock. One part is exhilarating and the actions are enchanted by a beautiful rhythm – Gears fans also appreciate the multiple winks.
Each time we make a "finish" we have the right to zoom in and have a nice animation on our action. Inevitably, cutting out the locusts with the chainsaw is not necessarily very fine, but has brought its small share of satisfaction. Sometimes a mission can be morally powerful when you just reach an objective and success hangs by a thread. But we rarely come out of a session of Gears Tactics by having the feeling of having "suffered". On the contrary, even if the difficulty can sometimes surprise, it emerges from a confrontation always satisfied with having accomplished something as much as the A.I. is sometimes very lively. And that's without counting the presence of boss fights, rich in twists and spikes desired.
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