DUAL GEAR Demo

Renewable energy seems to be the issue of our time, given the fact that we are starting to run out of the stuff that kept us warm and functional for over a century. Granted, tremendous progress has been made in multiple types of alternative energy sources, including solar and wind, but there’s plenty left to be done. On the other hand, one might wonder what are we going to build once power is no longer an issue.

DUAL GEAR is a third-person turn-based tactics game in which you play as the pilot of a mech suit trying to fight in a pretty disorienting war. The third-person TBT experiment is quite intriguing, although the novelty wears off rather quickly once you realize that it’s not a very good idea. On the other hand, this is a very early build of the game, so it might look entirely different by the time a complete version is released.

The story is only present on paper at the moment, or more exactly in the developer’s announcement, since the actual game has no kind of plot right now. In essence, the action takes place sometime in the future, or more exactly in 2100. As it happens, humans are building powerful mech suits and using them to wage war against each other, although the reasons are pretty vague.

Since the third-person view means that the camera is placed somewhere behind the character, you need to rotate it continuously in order to face the same direction as the mech. This is rather difficult, on the other hand, especially on a controller. The camera has a tendency to overreact to input, as well as lag behind sometimes. Naturally, the turn-based gameplay means that you probably won’t lose because of the camera, but it’s still a bother.

Speaking of which, even if the gameplay takes place in turns, you are still free to move and shoot during combat. However, each weapon activation costs you action points, which means that you can only shoot once or twice. There are also a variety of weapons and ammunition types at your disposal, each one of which is designed to work best against a certain type of enemy.

DUAL GEAR may indeed show some promise, but the demo is way to bareboned to be enjoyable or engaging. Hence, the concept is nice and intriguing, and the graphics certainly look shiny enough, but right now the game has too many flaws to ruin the excitement.