It has been more than two years since the initial announcement of Gears Tactics, a top-down, turn-based title set in the Gears of War universe. While the paired title Gears POP! which shared the stage with Tactics back in E3 last year, the title has already dropped for mobile devices back in August during Gamescom. As for this title now, fans will have to wait until next Spring.

Announced during this week’s Game Awards show, Xbox Game Studios revealed that Gears Tactics will be arriving in late April next year. You can watch the new trailer for the title below:

Learning more regarding the story for the project, the new trailer shares that tactics will be a prequel set before the Marcus Fenix trilogy from last generation. Instead, this will take place shortly following the events of E Day as the locust are just beginning to take on humanity. Playing through the story of Gabe Diaz who is suspected to be blood-related to the Gears 5 protagonist Kait Diaz.

On the surface of tactics, the game does look to stray away from the traditional real-time strategy formula that we are subjected to with Halo Wars. But instead reveals to stray more to SOCOM or even Mario and Rabbids Kingdom Battle with strategically-placed tiles and plenty of room for customization. Atop of the already apparent character customization in available Gears installments, weapons now will also receive the same attention too.

Pre-ordering Gears Tactics will provide users with the Thrashball Cole Pack and Thrashball Armor Set. Weirdly enough, this coming April only looks to pave the way for the PC release for the title, leaving out Xbox One. Knowing that there is a console version in development, it is odd why the port will not be readied for Spring 2020.

Gears tactics will be coming on April 28, 2020 for Windows 10 and Steam.

Source: Xbox Wire