The Coalition has officially confirmed that Gears Tactics will be releasing on console later this year after its PC release this week. The console in question is almost assuredly the Xbox One (although it's worth noting the Xbox Series X will arrive later this year as well), and the news is indeed exciting since the game was originally announced only as a PC exclusive.
As the title implies, Gears Tactics is a tactical spin-off of the series with the events taking place a decade before the original Gears of War. It offers pure XCOM-style engaging gameplay with little to no management between fights. The transition from the original TPS genre over to turn-based tactics feels seamless and natural as if it has always been intended. The game offers expansive skill trees and progression opportunities for playable characters to help customization for fans, but it's overall a pretty streamlined take on the genre. With that in mind, the simple, yet highly rewarding, gameplay concept behind Gears Tactics was enthusiastically met by the community.
In response to a fan’s question, The Coalition has shared via Twitter that Gears Tactics is definitely coming to Xbox One this year, although the exact release date hasn’t been specified. The news comes alongside the announcement of the precise regional release schedule for the PC version. While the PC community is excited to play Gears Tactics, Xbox fans have to wait - something that doesn't happen often given the relationship Xbox has with PC titles thanks to Xbox Game Pass.
As for the recently released PC version, it has already been praised by both critics and gamers. While Gears Tactics mostly offers an approach closely similar to XCOM, there’re some exciting innovations and additions. The most obvious one is the series’ signature violence and gore delivered through melee encounters with the use of underbarrel chainsaws. The game vividly shows all the tasty bloody details of finishing moves in short cinematic cut-scenes. On top of that, players can chain the characters’ abilities to perform devastating successive moves and can earn additional action points from graphic executions.
Still, the situation with the late console version feels somewhat weird. The Gears of War franchise has always been one of the major pillars of the Xbox gaming library, making the initial reveal of Gears Tactics as a PC exclusive look confusing. The Xbox port, which was confirmed in December 2019, hasn't been in development long but is likely going to perform better than expected for The Coalition after an incredibly strong debut for Gears Tactics on PC.
Source: The Coalition/Twitter