The Gears Tactics developer loves making Pulp Fiction references

In Paris, they call it Gears Royale with Cheese

It isn’t rare for developers to pack achievement names with pop culture references. That has been happening ever since the invention of achievements, all the way back to the launch of the Xbox 360 when Microsoft mandated that each retail game include 1000 Gamerscore and each Xbox Live Arcade game include 200 Gamerscore. (Hilarious-in-hindsight footnote: Remember when XBLA capped its games at 50MB file sizes, and then kept pushing it upward when they realized games like Portal: Still Alive would make a bajillion dollars?)

It is, however, rare for a developer to lean into one single source of inspiration as heavily as Splash Damage does with Pulp Fiction. The Gears Tactics achievement list is just lousy with Pulp Fiction references. “The path of the righteous man,” “Great vengeance and furious anger,” “Everyone stay cool, this is a robbery!” (), “Aw man, I shot Marvin in the face.” The list goes on and on. My favorite? Obviously “Check out the big brain on Brett.”

Splash Damage is no stranger to pop culture achievements. Brink (2011) was one of the last games Splash Damage was the lead developer on (it mostly serves as a support studio for Xbox nowadays), and it had references to the likes of Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. However, this laser-focused obsession with Tarantino’s 26-year-old film is a new lane, and I respect it. Pulp Fiction is quotable as🐈 hell. There are far worse movies to pay homage to.

Here’s Gears Tactics‘ full set of achievements:

• World on Fire (5GS) — Secret Achievement
• Hell of a shot (10) — Secret Achievement
• The bigger they are, the harder they fall (10) — Secret Achievement
• Maybe too much spine… (10) — Secret Achievement
• Broken hand, broken heart (20) — Secret Achievement
• Dead men tell no tales (20) — Secret Achievement
• Champion of Vasgar (40) — Complete all Campaign Acts (any difficulty)
• Hero of Vasgar (60) — Complete all Campaign Acts on Experienced or Insane difficulty
• Savior of Vasgar (80) — Complete all Campaign Acts on Insane difficulty
• Smash! (10) — Complete a Sabotage side mission
• Fortuna Audaces Sequitur (10) — Complete a Scavenger Run side mission
• Everyone stay cool, this is a robbery! (10) — Complete a Control side mission
• Stronger Together (10) — Complete a Rescue side mission
• We’re in the endgame now (10) — Complete a Veteran Mission
• I could do this all day (30) — Complete 20 Veteran Missions
• Grubslayer (10) — Kill 10 enemies
• Grubslaughter (20) — Kill 1000 enemies
• Grubpocalypse (50) — Kill 10000 enemies
• Tactics! (5) — Perform a chainsaw execution
• Tick Tick Tick… (5) — Kill an enemy with a Ticker explosion
• Boom! (30) — Kill 100 enemies with Ticker explosions
• Legen (wait for it)… (20) — Upgrade one primary weapon with all Legendary mods
• …dary! (40) — Upgrade each Hero’s primary weapon with all Legendary mods
• I am Ironman (10) — Complete the Campaign on any difficulty with Ironman mode enabled
• God-like (20) — Complete 20 missions without any of your units dying or being downed
• Immortal (40) — Complete 100 missions without any of your units dying or being downed
• I never miss (10) — Hit a target with 10% or less chance to hit
• Happy Killmore (10) — Close an Emergence Hole by kicking a Ticker into it
• I’ve got your ‘BOOM’ right here! (10) — Kill a Boomer with a boomshot
• The path of the righteous man (10) — Complete a mission without any of your units dying or being downed
• BOGO (10) — Kill an enemy, AND an enemy behind it, with a single burst of bullets
• Trick Shot (10) — Get 4 kills with a single Torque Bow shot
• Demolition Expert (10) — Close an Emergence Hole before any enemies have emerged
• High Noon (30) — Complete a mission by only dealing damage with Snub Pistols
• Ain’t no one like me, ‘cept me! (30) — Complete a mission on Insane difficulty with a single soldier
• Immortal Legion (50) — Complete the campaign on Insane difficulty without a single unit dying
• Seriously Tactical (100) — Earn Grubpocalypse, Immortal Legion, I Could Do This All Day and Boom!
• Check out the big brain on Brett! (10) — Kill 5 enemies with a single Overwatch action
• Piñata (10) — Kill a single unit that has taken damage from each Gear on the mission
• Snafu (5) — Heal an enemy unit with a Stim Grenade
• Aw man, I shot Marvin in the face (5) — Down a Gear with friendly fire
• Oh, I’m sorry, did I break your concentration? (5) — Interrupt an enemy Overwatch with a Disrupting Shot from the Snub Pistol
• We should have shotguns for this… (10) — Complete a Veteran Mission with all Scout units
• Backdoor Man (10) — Kill 6 targets with a single Rampage, after coming out of Cloak
• Three Count (10) — Hit with 3 Explosive Shots while having maximum Anchored bonus in a single turn
• Trouble in Paradise (10) — Empower a Teamworked unit and gain 3 AP from their kills
• Midnight Hour (10) — Gain AP from the Avenger skill, then use a Rage shot to kill the unit that caused your AP gain
• Up Up Down Down (10) — Use Alpha and Omega twice each in the same turn
• The Big Ending (20) — Revive a Scout with Stim ability and then use that Scout to kill at least 5 enemies with Rampage
• Great vengeance and furious anger… (20) — Breached 3 enemies and killed one of each with Precision Shot, Reckless Shot and Double Shot

[Xbox Wire]