Microsoft had a big showing during E3 2018 in terms of first-party content. There were strong showings by Halo, Gears of War and the Forza series.
While the headlines will mostly focus on Gears of War 5, two additional Gears games were announced in Gears Pop! and Gears Tactics.
Gears Pop! is a mobile game that looks like it’ll tie into the Funko figures in some way. It will be available on iOS and Android devices in the future. Gears Tactics is a strategy game that will serve as a prequel to the series and will offer something never seen before in the Gears franchise.
Details are scarce regarding the game right now but here’s what we do know so far.
What to Expect
Gears Tactics will be the first Gears of War title developed solely for PC. We have seen Gears of War Ultimate Edition and Gears of War 4 make their way to PC as part of the Xbox Play Anywhere initiative but this game will be different.
Gears Tactics is designed to be a turn-based strategy game instead of being a third-person cover shooter. This shift will surely attract a whole new audience to the world of Gears of War while still retaining what long-time fans of the series came to love.
The game will take place 12 years before the first Gears of War title so we’re probably not going to see favorites like Dom Santiago or Marcus Fenix, but who could know?
A short gameplay video was shown during Microsoft’s conference showcasing a little bit of how the game will operate. Fans of the XCOM series will probably find a lot to like here as the gameplay looked pretty similar. Your units will move behind a cover and take shots at the enemy during your turn while the enemy will do the same to you during its turn.
For those expecting this to be an RTS like Halo Wars, then you should probably look elsewhere as Gears Tactics looks like it’ll be slower paced and more methodical title.
Gears Tactics will be a Windows 10 exclusive so Xbox One fans won’t get a chance to try this one out. This may change in the future since XCOM has shown a game in this style can work on consoles.
When to Expect It
Little was revealed in terms of a release date so we really don’t know how far away from having the game in our hands we are. The footage shown was pre-alpha footage so we’re clearly in the early stages of the game.
A release in 2018 would be surprising since the game was just announced and we’re already a little over halfway through the year.
If we had to guess, we’re probably looking at more information about the game before the end of the year and then a release date some time in 2019.
Gear Tactics will likely be overshadowed by its big brother in Gears of War 5 but we’re sure Tactics will find a way to find an audience.