Gears Tactics

Two years removed from its surprise announcement, Gears Tactics is a creative success. While it lacks multiplayer and features a few too many repetitive missions, its aggressive combat and dedication to translating all the details from Gears of War into a tactical game are impressive. This isn’t a gimmick or reskin of XCOM. This is something great that stands on its own.

The world feels stuck and gloomy and I don't want to lean into that. I want to be transported somewhere fun and exhilarating. I want to drive fast cars or pilot planes at top speed, or adventure across huge landscapes with swords and magic and mythical monsters, or run and jump through engaging platformers. I don't want to have my movement limited to three actions per round. I don't want to slog through brown and grey apocalyptic levels. I don't want to be confined to this game. Gears Tactics isn't giving me anything I want right now. It's not you, Gears Tactics, it's me.

It’s a little less thoughtful than its peers, but the action is smooth and satisfying, and I love turning my squad into unstoppable death machines by chaining execution after execution. At one point I got five in the same turn, meaning each of my soldiers took seven actions. Relentless. As I said, I’m enjoying it more than any mainline Gears game this past decade.

This is a near miss, but as anyone who has ever played a turn-based game will tell you, a near miss can be all the enemy needs to take you out. This is an interesting, but hardly essential, addition to the Gears family.

This is 100% a Gears Of War game, that also happens to be a top flight strategy effort. Arguably the best of its kind on the market, in fact, despite a bit of trouser trouble. It’s a spectacular thing to play through, and it’d be more than enough to merit the fifty quid price tag if it deleted itself on completion. Thankfully, however, the replay value is much greater than you’d expect. [RPS Bestest Bests]