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Gears Tactics

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Gears Tactics
Developer(s)Splash Damage
The Coalition
Publisher(s)Xbox Game Studios
Designer(s)Tyler Bielman
SeriesGears of War
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Xbox One
ReleaseApril 28, 2020
Genre(s)Turn-based tactics
Mode(s)Single-player

Gears Tactics is an upcoming turn-based tactics video game developed by Splash Damage in conjunction with The Coalition and published by Xbox Game Studios. As a spin-off of the Gears of War franchise and a prequel to the first game, Tactics is set to be released for Microsoft Windows on April 28, 2020. A Xbox One version is also currently in development.

Gameplay

The game is played from a top-down perspective and is a turn-based tactics title in which players issue commands to a squad of human soldiers to eliminate the hostiles in a map and dependent on missions, complete secondary objectives. Unlike XCOM: Enemy Unknown, players can freely explore the map without being confined to a grid. Each character can perform three actions, such as taking cover, shooting enmies, or remain in overwatch to shoot any moving enemy in their line of sight.[1] When an enemy unit loses most of its health, a friendly unit can move in and execute the downed enemy, which gives all units an additional action point. Players also need to throw grenades into destroy erupting Emergence Holes which would spawn more Locust enemies.[2] If a friendly unit sustains too much damage, players may need to revive them, though they will still lose a significant portion of their health. The game has five distinct character classes, with each having its own unique abilities. The characters can be extensively customized with mods, armours, and they can acquire new skills after they level up. A permadeath system was featured in the game. Other than the two central characters, other friendly units are procedurally generated and should they are killed in combat, their deaths are permanent.[3]

In addition to the main campaign, players can also complete different side-missions. After the player finishes the campaign, Veteran Mode will be unlocked. It allows players to remix the campaign missions with different modifiers such as bonus damages and accuracy penalty.[3][4] The game, however, does not have a multiplayer mode.[5]

Story

The game is a prequel to the first Gears of War. The story follows Gabe Diaz, the father of Kait Diaz (the protagonist of Gears 5), who embarcks on a secret mission with fellow Coalition of Ordered Governments soldier Sid Redburn to assassinate Ukkon, a locust scientists who is involved in breeding dangerous monsters for the locust horde.[6]

Development

The game's development was handled by Splash Damage with The Coalition providing assistance. The Coalition wanted to introduce the franchise to a wider audience and the development team identified that there were a lot of similarities between the franchise, which was a series of squad-based third-person shooters with cover-based combat, and turn-based strategy games.[6] According to Alex Grimbley, the game's executive producer, "[the team] actually just took existing Gears and just moved the camera up".[7] The team took four and a half year to develop the game.[8] The game is not related to Gears of War: Tactics, a cancelled spin-off devloped by Epic Games.[9]

The team wanted the game to have faster pace when compared with its competitors. Thus the team decides to give each unit's three action points instead of two to ensure that players can get to perform various actions within one turn.[3] The team also put a large emphasis on the game's narrative, and the team aimed to tell a "personal and emotional story" and invested a lot of resources into creating the game's cutscenes and employing the voice actors. The team also consulted 343 Industries, which worked on Halo Wars, a strategy spin-off of the Halo franchise. However, unlike Halo Wars, the game was considered to be a PC premium title instead of a strategy game designed for console owners.[3]

Publisher Xbox Game Studios announced the game at E3 2017, alongside Gears 5 and Gears Pop!.[10] At The Game Awards 2019, Microsoft announced that the game would be released for Windows on April 28, 2020, while Rod Fergusson, the founder of the Coalition, later confirmed that a Xbox One version is being developed.[11] Players who pre-ordered the game would gain access to the "Thrashball Cole" pack, which allows the player to play as Augustus Cole.[8] The game was also released for Xbox Game Pass subscribers at launch.[12]

References

  1. ^ Williams, Leah (March 28, 2020). "Gears Tactics Is An Authentic, Hybrid Strategy Game". Kotaku. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  2. ^ Yin-Poole, Wesley (March 27, 2020). "Gears Tactics is more Gears of War than you think". Eurogamer. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  3. ^ a b c d Sanchez, Miranda (March 28, 2020). "Gears Tactics Preview: Gears of War Meets XCOM and We're Here for It". IGN. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  4. ^ Fenlon, Wes (March 28, 2020). "Gears Tactics is a shockingly good strategy game". PC Gamer. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  5. ^ Gerbick, Jordan (December 13, 2019). "Gears Tactics gets new trailer and April release date, won't have multiplayer or microtransactions". GamesRadar. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  6. ^ a b Reeves, Ben (March 27, 2020). "Gears Tactics Might Have What It Takes To Compete With XCOM". Game Informer. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  7. ^ Scott=Jones, Richard (April 1, 2020). ""We just moved the camera up" – why Gears Tactics makes so much sense". PCGamesN. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  8. ^ a b Makuch, Eddie (March 27, 2020). "What You Need To Know About Gears Tactics, The New PC Strategy Game". GameSpot. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  9. ^ Nunneley, Stephany (September 12, 2014). "Purported footage of canned Kinect-based Gears of War strategy title surfaces". VG 247. Retrieved April 10, 2020.
  10. ^ Takahashi, Dean (June 10, 2018). "Microsoft unveils Gears of War 5, Gears Pop, and Gears Tactics". VentureBeat. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  11. ^ Sanchez, Miranda (December 13, 2019). "Gears Tactics Release Date Revealed". IGN. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  12. ^ O'Connor, James (April 7, 2020). "Gears Tactics Has Gone Gold On PC, Will Be Bundled Free With Intel Processors". GameSpot. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
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