Gears Tactics - Lessons XCOM Can Learn From Gears Tactics

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TechRaptor compared and contrasted Gears Tactics with XCOM: Chimera Squad and found somethings to recommend for XCOM.

Classes and Skills in Gears Tactics







XCOM: Chimera Squad does one thing very well, and that is making every soldier feel different from one another. They all have unique skills and abilities; for example, one unit has mind control while another can place shields on himself or squad mates, soaking up some damage. Then you realize that XCOM: Chimera Squad is more of a one-off and not a direct sequel, so these elements aren't likely to make it over to the third entry of the series. Gears Tactics might not have as many characters as the XCOM: Chimera Squad, but it certainly feels like there's more to each unit you receive.

There are five classes in Gears Tactics: Support, Vanguard, Sniper, Scout, and Heavy. Each class has their own weapon type and a skill tree that puts XCOM to shame. For example, the Support class sounds like your typical healer. You can go down that route and make them a healer, but you might also want them to be competent in combat; in this case, going down the strategist route on the skill tree is ideal.

You see, each class' skill tree features four different routes, each emphasizing different styles of play. In XCOM, you'd typically be restricted to choosing one ability over the other as you level up. Gears Tactics' four different paths allow you to focus on one side in particular, or make your soldiers a generalist. I particularly enjoyed creating a Heavy--a class that uses the Mulcher minigun--who does more damage the longer he stays in cover and also excelled when using overwatch. But if that's not your thing, the demolitionist tree is perfect for those who want to cause tons of explosions. You end up with more than five classes since there are so many different routes to take, so class diversity feels more robust than XCOM.

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Gears tactics is "OK" ("free" on GamePass) and works surprisingly well in-universe.

However, beyond the main "plot" guys (relatively small number - 4 so far, including pre-order) the additional characters are largely devoid of any personality or even purpose. I tend to swap them almost immediately for higher level versions, and there seems no reason to stick with them.

Ultimately the "series of missions" nature of the game feels a bit lacking in plot / depth with very limited gameplay elements between missions (levelling up, equipping found weapon mods, hiring/firing extra squad members that you probably won't use anyway).

It seems like the extra squad members will be used later for large numbers of filler-side-missions (padding), since there are limits on how many side missions a character can do per-story-mision. However, it would really benefit from something like Pillars of Eternity's "send party member on away mission" system, where squaddies could be sent on missions to bring back loot/XP whilst the named guys are off doing daring-do.

Basically, I'm enjoying it for "one mission and levelling/equipping per evening" but don't feel compelled to sink hours and hours into it.
 
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On target as usual. Seldom misses.
A guy somehow thinks that a vid product does it better for stuff and therefore draws grand ideas on how other vid products must do.

The melting pot. Everything has to be made similar on the altar of socalled diversity.
 
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Never heard about Gears Tactic.
XCom can learn a lot from VC1 and VC4 (automatic overwatch) and from Troubleshooter (loot and classes complexity, character builds). While I do have the xcomoid with ducks on Epic, didn't have time to try it so can't know if it has some stuff that could and should be improved in Xcom too.
 
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Gears does the tactical battles far better than Xcom imo. The action point system gives you much more flexibility in your tactics; the movement system feels more intuitive and more organic which I think helps with immersion - and it does give you a bit more flexibility in positioning.

The other big differentiator is how executions are handled. Being able to string those together and provide more actions for your team is pretty cool - and has led to some really awesome turns for me.

I also much prefer the skill trees and character building in Gears. It feels much more satisfying then Xcom's.

Obviously it can't compete at the strategic level ('cause there isn't really one) but as far as tactics goes, yeah, I think it plays much better than the recent Xcoms - and probably better than any other recent tactics game I've played.

The price is ridiculously high imo, but it's a good deal if you play in on Game Pass.
 
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On target as usual. Seldom misses.
A guy somehow thinks that a vid product does it better for stuff and therefore draws grand ideas on how other vid products must do.

The melting pot. Everything has to be made similar on the altar of socalled diversity.

I prefer to look at as, if something works why not borrow an idea instead of being steadfast to doing it one way. Why people freak out when people borrow ideas from games to put in their own is beyond me....it's called evolution.
 
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Gears or X-Com, both are entertaining tactical combat simulators, and nothing else.

It always always makes me wonder why the makers of tactical combat games choose to blatantly ignore the background and personality of their NPCs to turn them into combat minmax clones devoid of all life essence, basically cannon fodder for your puzzle missions.

This is the case with X-Com, but also majorly the case of Gear Tactics, and many other tactical combat games, especially those who lean towards sci-fi settings, for some reason. I can't even call these games a "RPG". Yes, even if in this site Phoenix Point attained a high rank as "Game of the Year 2019". Obviously I have different standards than a lot of people, and I'm happy with that.

Just as a disclaimer, though, I'm not saying they are not fun to play. Some of those tactical combat simulators have fun and engaging mechanics, and I've definitely played the hell out of every X-Com (except the latest cheap-made spinoff) and I almost finished Gears Tactics I think. What I mean is, as the topic says "Lessons XCOM can learn from Gear Tactics" when the topic for me would be "Lessons XCOM and Gear Tactics can learn from Fire Emblem: Three Houses". Replayability, engagement, reactive deep storyline and environment, living characters that you care for or hate, that you would backtrack or reload 3 hours of gameplay just to save their life in an upcoming mission, because you can't stand to see them die, not because they were strong, but because you cared for them. Everything that makes a game into a RPG that's not present in these so-called "Tactical RPG" XCOM clones that swarm the market this last decade.

The day some noteworthy press pencilpusher decides to write an article about why tactical RPGs are not really RPGs and they should learn lessons from those who are, we'll have a topic worthy of this site that I'll very much enjoy reading and partaking of.
 
Gears does the tactical battles far better than Xcom imo. The action point system gives you much more flexibility in your tactics; the movement system feels more intuitive and more organic which I think helps with immersion - and it does give you a bit more flexibility in positioning.

The other big differentiator is how executions are handled. Being able to string those together and provide more actions for your team is pretty cool - and has led to some really awesome turns for me.

Cook, Serve, Delicious (2,3) also do tactics very well.
 
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Well I like his description of the game I haven't heard about before so I've added it to my wishlist. Not because of the current price, but I really can't find enough time for everything. :(
 
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Thanks for reminding me I have Game Pass for PC. Guess I'll give this a try. :)
 
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