I finally got a chance to play Gears Tactics. Better four years late, than never.
It’s a pretty decent game, with a barebones story that’s just enough to warrant its existence. It presents itself as telling the story of how Ukkon of the Locust was defeated, but really that’s just a pretext for the story of how Gabe Diaz met his future wife Reyna. Gabe and Reyna are the parents of Kait Diaz, of Gears of War 4 and Gears 5.
It’s all about fleshing out the backstory of Kait, and I fell like this was done to put her on more even footing with the likes of JD Fenix. His parents had a fleshed-out backstory in the original Gears of War trilogy, so as the new protagonist – her parents should as well.
Like I said, it’s a fine game. The scenery and tone are very on point for Gears of War. The character customization is fantastic and you get plenty of gear to help you chew through all the usual Locust suspects. A sore point is that there’s really only three main types of levels; ruined city, desert town and desert factory. There’s a unique final level but that doesn’t really count for much after you’re grinding through countless filler missions just to get there.
The main sticking point for me was the character of Mikayla Dorn, a civilian who joins the team to help fight Ukkon. She’s a strong, black woman who is an expert sniper, has two engineering doctorates and stomps onto the scene calling everyone a fascist. The entire game she’s giving everyone attitude, you get beat the final boss and what does she do? Call you a fascist again…
Her whole character just reeks of a DEI diversity quota. The really weird part is, they didn’t even need her for this role. You find Reyna near the end of the game, and she’s basically the same character - a strong boss-bitch character who doesn’t take crap from anyone and who has a personal beef with Ukkon. I guess maybe because she’s Hispanic/Latino instead of black she didn’t tick enough boxes? I don’t know…
If you’ve read anything online about video games recently, you would’ve heard about Sweet Baby Inc., and their involvement with video game development studios. They help game developers reach a certain level of diversity… a level of diversity a certain multinational investment company expects developers to reach if they want funding. It’s said that Sweet Baby Inc. was involved with The Coalition, the developers of Gears, on some projects.
Can I confirm this? No. But with the recent changes to the Gears of War series, the accusation is fitting. So, here comes the obligatory “I’m not a bigot” prayer dance.
Do I hate women? No. Do I hate black people? No. As I’ve stated before – Bernadette Mataki is probably my favorite character in the Gears of War universe, and she’s a badass female sniper. Augustus Cole is freaking awesome, Jace Stratton is a badass, and Delmont Walker is funny as all hell – all black.
They’re all great characters because they are characters that were written for a story, not characters created to reach a diversity quota. I have no problem with diversity, except when the storyteller is being paid to incorporate the diversity. It’s like going on a date with someone – it’s great if it’s natural, but if you find out that someone paid them to go out with you…
The Gears of War franchise veered woefully off course with the second trilogy. Stepping away from JD Fenix as the protagonist to follow Kait in Gears 5 was such a colossal narrative misstep that the only reason I can think of as to why they’d do it is outside interference. I think the developers know this as well, which is why they’re stepping away from the second trilogy to focus on a prequel – Gears of War: E-Day.
Back to basics, back to the characters we love, back to the Gears of War we love. It’s a return to form, to shore up their defences… because they took a hit with that misstep. You don’t normally leave a trilogy unfinished to go focus on a prequel, but you cannot ruin a massive franchise like Gears of War and just let it slide. I’m looking forward to Gears of War: E-Day, and I hope it’s the kind of game the fans will love.
But still, I worry about Gears of War 6, because it’s going to be hard to course correct after the narrative clusterfuck that was Gears 5. If they wanted a female lead for the second trilogy, they should have just made Marcus and Anya have a daughter instead of a son. At least then we would still be playing the child of the previous trilogy’s protagonists, and heroes of the world… instead they gave us the granddaughter of the previous trilogy’s villain.
Imagine offering people the chance to play as Hitler’s granddaughter, and expecting them to like it…