A lot of games, such as Wasteland 3 and The Last of Us Part II, are being delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but it seems Gears Tactics won’t be one of them. During today’s Inside Xbox show, Microsoft announced Gears Tactics has officially gone gold and is on track for its late-April release date. Microsoft also dropped a fresh video featuring gory new Gears Tactics footage and some info about why the game really ought to be on your radar. Check it out below.
According to Microsoft, these are the five key things you need to know about Gears Tactics:
- A true PC-first game built for PC gamers - Gears Tactics was developed at its core as an authentic PC-first experience, a foundation that was fostered across teams at The Coalition and Splash Damage in the game’s design focus on strategic game mechanics, a technical build optimized across PCs and intricate gameplay controls for mouse and keyboard.
- Play as Gabriel ‘Gabe’ Diaz, Kait’s father - Set 12 years before the events of Gears of War, players will step into the shoes of Gabe Diaz as he rescues and builds a squad in a journey of leadership, survival and sacrifice. Gabe is the father of Kait Diaz, protagonist of Gears 5. Cities on the planet Sera are beginning to fall to the monstrous threat rising from underground – the Locust Horde. With the government in disarray, your squad of survivors emerges as humanity’s last hope.
- Fight against Ukkon, a monster who makes monsters - Players will fight back against an old foe who fans will recognize from the Rise of RAAM comic in 2018 – Ukkon, a Locust geneticist who is responsible for the creation of the Locust army during the events of Gears of War. The evil genius responsible for the Brumak, Corpser and a few all-new enemies you’ll face in Gears Tactics, you’ll embark on a desperate mission to hunt down this powerful, relentless and evil mastermind.
- Push back against the Locust in style with deep customization options - Featuring the deepest customization of any Gears game to date, players can express themselves, and their displeasure with the Locust with wild and crazy print, patterns and endless combinations, including a Leopard-print Lancer. Customizations apply to both weapons and armor and go even deeper with skill and class customizations for players to choose from. Everything in Gears Tactics is earnable though experience and unlockable in-game – there are no microtransactions or pay-to-win mechanics.
- Classic Gears executions allow you to extend your gameplay even longer - With the trademark executions of the Gears franchise making a return in Gears Tactics, satisfying finishing moves will allow you to add more action points to your turns and let players perform even more actions to capitalize on their free movement during combat.
As we’ve reported, Gears Tactics is being optimized for Intel’s Xe-LP architecture, and as part of that, Microsoft will be offering the game for free with the purchase of an Intel Core i5 device or higher. No word yet on if only certain devices qualify, or if anything with a Core i5 or better will do, but it kind of sounds like the latter. So yeah, guess you’re getting a little gift with your new laptop!
Finally, Microsoft has also revealed the Gears Tactics achievement list. Details for the story-related achievements haven’t been provided, but tread carefully if you want to go in completely fresh:
- Champion of Vasgar - Complete all Campaign Acts (any difficulty). 40
- Hero of Vasgar - Complete all Campaign Acts on Experienced or Insane difficulty. 60
- Savior of Vasgar - Complete all Campaign Acts on Insane difficulty. 80
- Smash! - Complete a Sabotage side mission 10
- Fortuna Audaces Sequitur - Complete a Scavenger Run side mission 10
- Everyone stay cool, this is a robbery! - Complete a Control side mission 10
- Stronger Together - Complete a Rescue side mission 10
- We’re in the endgame now - Complete a Veteran Mission. 10
- I could do this all day - Complete 20 Veteran Missions. 30
- Grubslayer - Kill 10 enemies. 10
- Grubslaughter - Kill 1000 enemies. 20
- Grubpocalypse - Kill 10000 enemies. 50
- Tactics! - Perform a chainsaw execution. 5
- Tick Tick Tick … - Kill an enemy with a Ticker explosion 5
- Boom! - Kill 100 enemies with Ticker explosions 30
- Legen (wait for it)… - Upgrade one primary weapon with all Legendary mods. 20
- …dary! - Upgrade each Hero’s primary weapon with all Legendary mods. 40
- I am Ironman - Complete the Campaign on any difficulty with Ironman mode enabled 10
- God-like - Complete 20 missions without any of your units dying or being downed. 20
- Immortal - Complete 100 missions without any of your units dying or being downed. 40
- I never miss - Hit a target with 10% or less chance to hit. 10
- Happy Killmore - Close an Emergence Hole by kicking a Ticker into it. 10
- I’ve got your ‘BOOM’ right here! - Kill a Boomer with a boomshot. 10
- The path of the righteous man - Complete a mission without any of your units dying or being downed. 10
- BOGO - Kill an enemy, AND an enemy behind it, with a single burst of bullets. 10
- Trick Shot - Get 4 kills with a single Torque Bow shot. 10
- Demolition Expert - Close an Emergence Hole before any enemies have emerged. 10
- High Noon - Complete a mission by only dealing damage with Snub Pistols. 30
- Ain’t no one like me, ‘cept me! - Complete a mission on Insane difficulty with a single soldier. 30
- Immortal Legion - Complete the campaign on Insane difficulty without a single unit dying. 50
- Seriously Tactical - Earn Grubpocalypse, Immortal Legion, I Could Do This All Day and Boom! 100
- Check out the big brain on Brett! - Kill 5 enemies with a single Overwatch action. 10
- Piñata - Kill a single unit that has taken damage from each Gear on the mission. 10
- Snafu - Heal an enemy unit with a Stim Grenade. 5
- Aw man, I shot Marvin in the face - Down a Gear with friendly fire. 5
- Oh, I’m sorry, did I break your concentration? - Interrupt an enemy Overwatch with a Disrupting Shot from the Snub Pistol. 5
- We should have shotguns for this… - Complete a Veteran Mission with all Scout units. 10
- Backdoor Man - Kill 6 targets with a single Rampage, after coming out of Cloak. 10
- Three Count - Hit with 3 Explosive Shots while having maximum Anchored bonus in a single turn. 10
- Trouble in Paradise - Empower a Teamworked unit and gain 3 AP from their kills. 10
- Midnight Hour - Gain AP from the Avenger skill, then use a Rage shot to kill the unit that caused your AP gain. 10
- Up Up Down Down - Use Alpha and Omega twice each in the same turn. 10
- The Big Ending - Revive a Scout with Stim ability and then use that Scout to kill at least 5 enemies with Rampage. 20
- Great vengeance and furious anger… - Breached 3 enemies and killed one of each with Precision Shot, Reckless Shot and Double Shot. 20
- World on Fire - Secret Achievement 5
- Hell of a shot - Secret Achievement 10
- The bigger they are, the harder they fall - Secret Achievement 10
- Maybe too much spine… - Secret Achievement 10
- Broken hand, broken heart - Secret Achievement 20
- Dead men tell no tales - Secret Achievement 20
Gears Tactics marches onto PC and Xbox One on April 28.
