But these changes come slow: Gears Tactics has a habit of eking out its ideas over multiple levels, staggering the deployment of new scenarios and enemy types to justify its lengthy campaign. And just as I’d disapprovingly tapped the words ‘no verticality’ into my notepad app, ladders and staircases started appearing in the maps, bringing welcome sniper positions and chokepoints in which to plant grenades. The second act introduces a Mediterranean haze and bronzed architecture that recalls Dubrovnik, giving the impression that you’re shooting up King’s Landing. Thankfully, though, the action does eventually move on to more colourful climes. There’s a thrill to watching e-holes burst open from a new point-of-view, and the novelty of seeing these familiar sights repurposed will carry most Gears fans happily through the first few hours. They’re quasi-European cityscapes, made up of infinite plazas and public fountains - which, in fairness, isn’t exactly a misrepresentation of many European capitals.

The environments you fight in during the first act, too, are deeply reminiscent of those that made the original Gears trilogy the most famous brown games in the world. This is a meaty game about chunky men who reduce their foes to meaty chunks. And as it happens, your soldiers are happy to oblige. Rather than rolling over and dying after taking critical damage, many enemies fall to their knees and bow their heads, practically begging for graphic execution. Both of the heroes at the centre of your squad, Sergeant Diaz and Private Redburn, thrive in melee range. And once the Locust close in on your carefully chosen cover, you’ll find that the serrated underside of your rifle isn’t just for show. Your squaddies don’t just move into cover they slam into it with a percussive thud. Yet the distinct character of Gears comes through in every frame. As a consequence, Gears Tactics concerns a ragtag military fighting a last-ditch battle against a threat it’s still working to understand, ordered around by a shadowy official behind a screen. Developers Splash Damage and The Coalition have chosen to set their adaptation right at the genesis of Gears’ sorry world, opening with the scorched earth bombardment that reduced Sera to rubble and failed to stop the Locust. The fundamentals of Gears Tactics will be familiar to anybody who’s dabbled in Firaxis’ reboots, or the many other skirmish strategy games they’ve inspired.Įven the plot invites comparison. Both games revolutionised their respective genres by making cover explicit, and so it feels perfectly natural to send your COG soldiers bouncing from low wall to van door, searching for the spot that will keep them protected and grant them a view over your enemies. It’s not a huge mental leap to imagine Gears of War as XCOM. He’s an effective totem for a game that doesn’t really have any ambition beyond fan service, even as it successfully transposes Gears to a new perspective. Since he only joins your squad as a pre-order bonus, Gears’ biggest personality is completely peripheral to the campaign. While an enormous presence on the field, a figure of infectious confidence, Cole is completely mute in cutscenes. That’s the very best of Gears Tactics, when despite the necessary rules and stricture of turn-based strategy, the action feels just as chaotic and unpredictable as any trophy match Cole played in his sporting days.īut the Thrashball star is also emblematic of what Gears Tactics is missing: a voice of its own. Yet he reaches his target, and its hide presents no resistance at all - the Locust lifted bodily from the ground and into the air on the end of his spear. His feet fall close together, as if buckling beneath the burden of his retro lancer. The yell that emerges from his throat isn’t so much a battlecry as the sound of a man slipping out of control. All 230 lbs of the Cole Train tips forward, Thrashball pads glinting in the sun, as he barrels blade-down across the battlefield. There’s an animation I’m particularly fond of - the one that plays when I order Augustus Cole to charge an enemy with his bayonet.

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