So I'm up to the final boss in Gears Tactics. I spent two hours on the fucker, failed, and it turns out I can't load a checkpoint, and it sent be back to the beginning.
...fuck!
Anyway, may as well vent some more. Remember how glowing I was about Tactics before? Well, forget it. The negative points still stand (story is stretched extremely thin), and the positive points are wearing thin. The moment to moment gameplay is decent, but it's clear how much is being recycled in the missions. Even in the 'core' missions, the game really just boils down to a handful of mission types (e.g. hold X points for Y turns," or "sprint from A to B to avoid bombardment), and while they're fun in of themselves, when you're forced to repeat them over, and over, and over...yeah. I think side missions in of themselves are a good idea, but looking at the game as a whole, I'd have gladly had fewer, more varied missions as opposed to more, but samey missions.
Also, while I'm on the subject of the final boss, bad enough that it takes forever, but Ukkon just won't...stop...talking. Christ, it's not as if the Locust bosses in previous games were particuarly deep, but they at least had the decency to be quiet. I'll happily take RAAM's growls and occasional sentence to Ukkon's constant prattling. Yes Ukkon, you're evil, and you hate humans, and your Locust are superior, and your creations are awesome, and I JUST SHUT UP!
So, yeah. Less of a fan now. I'd happily for a Gears Tactics 2 to be made, provided it had a narrower focus. I'm actually kind of dreading going back to the boss now just because of how long the thing takes. Least this time I'll use save points.