In addition, the Chairman had sent mop-up detachments in key-cities to eradicate the surviving Locust. One year after Emergence Day, when a subterranean race of creatures known as the Locust Horde emerged on the surface in a campaign to kill every human on the planet of Sera, Coalition of Ordered Governments leader, Chairman Richard Prescott (Liam O'Brien), orders all major cities outside the Jacinto Plateau to be incinerated by the Hammer of Dawn.

The game, however, does not have a multiplayer mode. It allows players to remix the campaign missions with different modifiers such as bonus damages and accuracy penalty. After the player finishes the campaign, Veteran Mode will be unlocked. At numerous points in the story, the player is required to complete one or more side missions to proceed. In addition to the main campaign, players can complete different side-missions. Other than story-important 'hero' characters, other friendly units are procedurally generated and should these units die in combat, their deaths will be permanent. The characters can be extensively customized with mods, armours, and they can acquire new skills after they level up. The game has five distinct character classes, with each having its own unique abilities.

If a friendly unit is downed, players can revive them to bring them back into battle with reduced health. Players need to throw grenades to destroy erupting Emergence Holes which spawn more Locust enemies. When an enemy unit loses most of its health, a friendly unit can move in and execute the downed enemy, which gives all units an additional action point. Each character can perform three actions, such as taking cover, shooting enemies, or remain in overwatch to shoot any moving enemy in their line of sight. Players can freely explore the map without being confined to a grid. The game is played from a top-down perspective and is a turn-based tactics title in which players issue commands to a squad of human soldiers to eliminate the hostiles in a map and depending on the mission, complete secondary objectives.

Gears tactics requirements