The Art of Gears Tactics Review

June 5, 2020 at 7:43pm
By Jason Stettner

I was pleasantly surprised by the game that is Gears Tactics. It served as a great spin-off for the series that took things in a new direction. It featured some unique locations, and fresh characters that directly build into the overall lore of the series. With this art book it goes past the game experience, providing context and details into the creation of the title. It’s really quite neat, and covers all elements that I would have desired within it.

There’s a good set of dialogue too, in regards to explaining the perspective of the art pieces and what strides were taken to adjust things for this particular entry. You get a deep dive into each of the new places you visit. This is split by which act and chapter they appear within. Each core level gets a look, as does each of the smaller buildings and or structures that get showcased throughout the game. On top of that, it details each of the characters.

It obviously highlights the key individuals, and their design progression. Past that, you get a look at the special enemies and also learn about how they took elements from the games. To use those assets, and then have to revamp a lot of them since they needed higher resolution textures in some situations. It’s really quite fascinating, and largely tells the story of what they did to make this game happen. It also goes the extra mile at times too, showcasing smaller objects and objectives that you interact with.

This a quality book, which is somewhat expected at this point for the whole “The Art of” design that I’ve been noticing for this type of offering. It’s stacked full of pages with high levels of detail to them. They range from full page image options, to smaller segments that split multiple frame designs of what it took to make a character.

It’s really quite neat, I also found the smaller written segments to be fascinating. They usually gave some great insight into what went into each part of the game, from the levels to the structuring of the characters. I think that if you enjoyed the game, you’ll find the behind the scenes here to be absolutely fascinating.

I loved seeing the artwork in this style, from more rough sketches to full bloomed final scans of what the levels were actually like. You get a little bit of everything within this one and it’s a treat to see unfold as you flip through the pages. It’s full of information, and flashy visuals to take in. I was certainly impressed by what this did complain within its pages.

The Conclusion

The Art of Gears Tactics is an excellent dive into the work behind this turn based spin-off within the series. It’s packed with context, and content into what made this experience happen. It’s relatively fascinating, from a visual and written point. I do however wish it had a little more dialogue in regards to the narrative aspect.

I mean, it is an art book and it excels at that. I still find the aspects of character creation, or direction to be rather intriguing. The layout is great, it was a pleasure to work through and it’s a fantastic companion piece to the game if you’re looking at working through that or already have done so at this point.

There’s a lot to enjoy within the pages, and perhaps a lot to learn. You really do get some neat little bits of info on the behind the scenes. Some of this in regards to the characters to meet, other points in understanding how they setup some of the structures or well areas within the levels. There’s a lot of meat to this one, just like the game itself.

The Art of Gears Tactics Book Review
Author: Greg Juby
ISBN: 9781789095074
Review Copy Provided by Penguin Random House Canada

Rating Overall: 9.2