Gears Tactics keeps players engaged by amping up its Gears-ness

Gears Tactics is a Gears game. That’s the impression I came away with after watching the developers play the turn-based tactical adventure for an hour earlier this week. But more than that, it looks like it might deliver some solid strategy action specifically because it’s pulling ideas from Gears of War.

Gears Tactics launches April 28 for $60 on Windows Store, Steam, and Xbox Game Pass for PC. And yes, it’s full tactics game similar to recent XCOM games. But I think the quicker/dirtier point of reference is Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle. That’s because Ubisoft’s strategy game doesn’t rely on the Mario/Rabbid franchises for mere set dressing. Instead, the game’s designers used the various quirks of its source material to build systems that expand on the tactics gameplay. An example of that is jumping off of your teammates to extend your movement range.