Gears Tactics will not have multiplayer of any kind

Multiplayer and the Gears of War series go hand-in-hand, whether it’s competitive deathmatch and capture the flag modes or co-op survival in the campaign and Horde modes. All the way up to Gears 5 there hasn’t been a game in the franchise that skipped multiplayer. That seems to be changing with Gears Tactics, where developers Splash Damage and The Coalition revealed that there won’t be multiplayer of any kind in favor of presenting a strong single player experience.

Splash Damage and The Coalition dismissed the possibility of any and all multiplayer modes in Gears Tactics in a presentation of the game on March 27, 2020. During the presentation, Gears Tactics Design Director Tyler Bielman spoke to the multiplayer/single player topic briefly.

“It is a single player game,” Bielman explained. “No multiplayer, no online matchmaking or anything like that. It’s just a deep tactics experience for players to sit down and go through.”

Gears Tactics has elements that could be put in competitive opposition, such as different classes in both human soldiers and Locusts, but any type of co-op or competitive multiplayer is completely out of the picture for the game's launch.

It’s understandable that it might be difficult to create a multiplayer element of Gears Tactics, or that doing so might take away from the resources they’re pouring into the overall game, but noteworthy nonetheless. Games like Halo Wars and XCOM 2 have attempted multiplayer co-op and competitive modes in strategy games in the past, and Gears Tactics features elements that could possibly be wrangled into such modes with the possibility of two players controlling two cooperative or opposing squads, but it’s questionable as to how fun it would be.

At the same time, Gears Tactics is a departure from many traditional things in the Gears series, forgoing the usual third-person shooter experience for an altogether strategic turn-based tactical RPG experience. Though it’s not impossible for Splash Damage and The Coalition to attempt something in the form of multiplayer somewhere down the line with Gears Tactics, it’s arguably a good idea for them to focus on creating the best single player campaign possible for the this new chapter in the Gears franchise.

Gears Tactics' launch date is slated for April 28, 2020, on PC via the Microsoft Store and Steam. Be sure to check out our other Gears Tactics coverage, such as how you'll be able to customize your squads and classes, and how execution moves will play a strategic role.