Between the missions and cutscenes you can upgrade your soldiers via their skill trees, augment their weapons with items you get on missions, and customize their looks. Gears Tactics doesn't have any of XCOM's base-building or much meta strategy outside of combat. The pacing's so manic it feels like every element of XCOM has been stuck in a blender, slurried up and then poured down my throat with a funnel. And if I say no to that mission because I just want some damn supplies, it pops up again three seconds later saying "SKIP THIS MISSION AT YOUR PERIL."
New research something bad the Advent are doing a mission I have to go on now. Meanwhile, when I try to navigate the Avenger around the world map to pick up supplies or a new engineer, I'm interrupted every 10 seconds by something the game wants me to do. But as it was, the tutorial felt divorced from how XCOM really plays. More elaborate cutscenes and camera work can really up the drama. I think there's potential here for the next XCOM sequel to blend in-mission storytelling with its turn-based combat.
It's just a little too bland, and I was pulled out of the drama by being forced to put my troops in places that end up getting them killed, with the outcomes of each shot obviously predetermined. Playing it after Gears Tactics, too, it was hard to get pulled in by the presentation. XCOM 2's on-rails tutorial doesn't make use of any of these strengths. I barely remember the story of XCOM: Enemy Within, but I definitely remember my superstar sniper Lola Bunny and my best assault trooper, Yosemite Sam. When I think of XCOM's defining traits, I think of the freedom it gives you to play how you want (and to fail horribly), the brutality of your life hinging on a 40% probability shot, and the stories that I make myself as I bond with my squad. It's in service of setting up an exciting, narrative-heavy introduction in which "you" the commander are rescued from Advent servitude.
XCOM 2, by comparison, has a strangely scripted intro, forcing you to move troops to exact spaces on the map and use the exact attacks or abilities it tells you to. I was a bit overzealous and almost let my protagonist Gabe die, which added a fun bit of tension to the escape. After only a few minutes of introducing systems like taking cover and using overwatch, it gave me an objective-get the hell out of a burning city alive-and let me do my thing. Both begin with linear missions meant to teach you the basics while setting up the campaign, but I was surprised that Gears had the more freeform tutorial. On first impression, Gears Tactics is a more polished and better-paced strategy game.
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