Hello all,
We are back after an unplanned December break with our first podcast of 2025.
This week Mitch and I talk about the most recent Gears title to be developed. In 2020, The Coalition and Splash Damage shipped a refreshing take on the Gears’ formula with a tactics game. It’s a genre that ended up as a natural fit for the vibe of Gears and one I hope they pursue.
Gears Tactics is a great concept and so-so execution. The “so-so” part shows itself in the pacing in the back half of the game where the player is inundated with long and pointless side missions. It bogs down the experience.
With that said, it’s a great tactics game pulling a few trick from X-COM (the overwatch mechanic). The story is paint by numbers but we get to see Gabe Diaz (Kait Diaz’s father) and Reyna when they are young. We also get to see Chairman Prescott try to be a war criminal for the 80th time as well.
As I mentioned in my ULTIMATE Gears Ranking Post - I feel the same way about Gears Tactics as I did Halo Wars. Where I am loving what they are bringing to the table and I think it’s a natural fit for the series. Halo Wars would evolve to Halo Wars 2 which fixed my issues and delivered a better story. I hope that will end up being the case here if they make another Gears Tactics but time will tell.
In the podcast I mention the Polygon article that had photos of the development team working on the game in board game form. The grid system that would be abandoned in the final product can be seen as well as stat cards for enemies. I would totally place a Gears Board Game!
Here are photos of that:
As always, I hope you enjoy the show! Later this month we start our Remedy-verse deep dive starting with Alan Wake (Remastered Edition). Time to get spooky in the winter, y’all!
Here’s
hating on The Witcher 3 (I do not support this hate but I stand by my man.)
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