Gears Tactics. The Best Video Games of 2020
Table of Contents
- Release date: 28 April 2020
- Platform: PC Windows
- Our rating: 8.5 / 10
Can you turn a TPP shooter into a strategy game? Splash Damage and the Coalition studios have proven that you can. The authors of Gears of War series, famous for its cover system used during dynamic fire exchanges, created an X-COM-style turn-based strategy. Gears Tactics serves as a sort of prequel to the entire series – the action of this production takes place 10 years before the events of the first installment. Here we will find a fully-fledged story campaign and a lot of elements familiar to fans of this universe, only that this time we watch the action from above, giving orders to our team of soldiers.
During gameplay, it can be seen at every turn that the developers strongly modeled it after X-COM series made by Firaxis Games studio. Everything here, however, is somewhat simplified and at the same time more affordable for beginners. Over time, a certain monotony in the course of the missions may begin to develop. There is a constant feeling of Gears vibe thanks to a good plot and brilliantly crafted cut-scenes, much like a fully-fledged installment of the series rather than a spin-off.
It offers great, surprisingly intense fun, and you're guaranteed to spend more time with it that you'd think; yes, it is linear, but the subsequent missions make it worth it. [...]Gears Tactics seems much more like the perfect introduction to turn-based strategies, a more approachable alternative for those, who wouldn't usually play tactical games. The game from Splash Damage works well as a kind of tutorial or introduction to more advanced productions of this type.
Christian Smoszna, Gears Tactics review
SnowRunner
- Release date: 28 April 2020
- Platforms: PC Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One
- Our rating: none
SnowRunner is a successful continuation (or rather a successor) of MudRunner, which is a simulator for driving a car in difficult terrain. The creators have proved that car games are not just shiny bodies and dynamic races on closed tracks or chases on crowded city streets. There's something addictive about the arduous, slow ride through rough terrain and mud, and SnowRunner skillfully serves up those attractions.
The physics of driving on a deforming ground in real-time, as well as the wonderful, very realistic graphics, are impressive. Some exploration elements and the personalization of our machines have also been added on top of navigating the rough roads. It's a bit of a shame that the economic plotline is much more simplified than in ETS2, the maps could also be a bit more varied, but that doesn't change the fact that SnowRunner offers plenty of hours quite unique to most entertainment games.
SnowRunner does with driving what Death Stranding did with walking. The ostensibly simple phenomenon of a mechanical vehicle moving forward is made exponentially more intricate with introduction of realistic factors determining speed, grip, and vector.
Michael Grygorcewicz, SnowRunner is Death Stranding, Just Less Esoteric
