This game is truly an underrated and polished gem, offering a contained but fully developed narrative and game system. Amongst the tactical RPG’s, Gears Tactics’ narrative is short, but fast-paced (though it tapers near the end). In many aspects, it’s a traditional tactical RPG (and very solid in its foundation), but it offers its unique twist with both gridless-based movement and the execution mechanic. Within the solid 3 Action-point system, you can execute a downed enemy to give each other member another AP, allowing for a lot of ways to gain AP and very swingy and explosive turns. The gameplay is great, and the world feels real, offering detailed images of a post-apocalyptic, post-invasion humanity trying to fight back. To break it down into an overview:
PROS:
- The game is very, very polished with responsive controls, very smooth gameplay and imagery. Both of which conjoin to create a highly cinematic experience. The visuals are beautifully detailed, for both your units and the enemy units, and the interactions and movements between them feel honest and realistic.
- The game is fast-paced, especially for a tactical RPG. When ordering multiple units on an empty battlefield, they all run simultaneously and in real-time, creating the feel of a real battlefield. This is especially true when enemy move on their turn, simultaneously walking into Overwatch-fire (another key component that works especially well within this game). This not only feels cinematic, but actually has tactical (dis)advantages, forcing you to take it into consideration at the higher difficulties.
- Feeding into that, the gameplay sessions can be brief as well. A single mission or side-mission need not be longer than 15-20 minutes. Even at the higher difficulties, the checkpoint-system allows you to just finish certain milestones before quitting the game (though it should be stated that you can save at any time, the checkpoint serves only as a means to maintain progress). If you’re short on gaming-time, say you’re the father of a young child or work multiple jobs, then the shorter yet complete game sessions are a true blessing.
- The game is contained to itself. Although it takes itself seriously, it never grows beyond its scope. The story ramps up (especially when bosses are introduced), but you never reach ridiculous-levels. This makes the game feel grounded, matching its aesthetic and world. The game is also contained in terms of gameplay. For instance, each class has deliberate and dedicated, but small subclasses, perfectly matching the world the game created.
CONS:
- The game can be repetitive, especially in the later acts when you’ve already been exposed to all enemy types. This is especially noticeable when handling the side-missions. Every few main missions, there are a couple of side-missions you’re forced to finish. But given the small number of mission-objectives and maps, they feel all feel kinda similar. The developers gave each side-mission certain modifiers in an attempt to remain distinctive, but that didn’t really work out. This is also kills the pacing of the story a bit to the end of the game when the story is nearing its conclusion (though to be fair, the side-missions are great for obtaining better gear, which is very welcome in that stage of the game).
- Your units gain levels, but their progression is very front-loaded. You gain levels 1-5 very fast, but every level after that takes forever. You can easily expect to reach level 5 at the end of the first act, and yet still finish the game at level 6 or 7. This makes progression feel slow, especially since the bonuses from gear also ramps slowly (often only reliable at the highest tier of gear). On the flipside, for the main story you can consider level 5 to be the “max level”, allowing you to focus your efforts on units other than just the main heroes.
- The biggest drawback is that gear advances via a loot-based system, where you get some for finishing missions and side-objectives, and most just by picking up chests. This creates a lot of unreliability when investing in your units (since good, unique gear is rare), making it so that your awesome Scout or Sniper may not uphold its reputation over playthroughs. This is especially noticeable since most gear gives either small stat-bonuses (i.e., accuracy going from +5% to +7%) or random activations (i.e., the odds of an effect happening going from 10% to 15%, with only the Legendary Gear giving 100%).
TL;DR: The core foundational mechanics of the genre are very polished, and the game adds its unique elements to it (though no crazy deviations). The game offers a strong cinematic experience with both its gameplay-elements and narrative, providing a concise but full and complete, yet repetitive, gameplay-loop. It never overdelivers, but neither does it overpromise. If you’re a fan of turn-based tactical RPG’s, you’re probably gonna like this game. If you’re a fan of world-building and immersion, you’re probably gonna like this game. Though in both cases, you’ll have to take some pacing issues for granted. If you’re looking for a dedicated and complete tactical RPG that’s not an absolute time-sink, then you’re probably gonna love this game.
