Based on the Beta version of 0.0847, Early Access key was given by the developer.
Dual Gear is quite an interesting enigma for me. On one hand, it has the action, gameplay, and story beat that’s quite similar to the likes of the Fire Emblem series but with a hint of the Front Mission Evolve for good measure.
But on the other, it’s battle gameplay leaves a bit more to be desire, which may have to influence me to not recommend it for now. These are flaws that you would expect in an Early Access Beta, so players’ mileage may vary.
So with intro done, what is Dual Gear anyway?
Turn-Based And Shoot
For starters, Dual Gear on its core is a turn-based third-person shooter in which you strategically place your mecha in enemy’s waypoint for you to shoot and destroy them.
Simple enough, but its mechanics of letting the enemy also move during your turn makes for more interesting encounters and more satisfying outcome in battle.
Although there are some flaws within the system. The range attacks, like the strike guns and missiles, would hit combatants quite easily but melee mecha pilots would struggle to land a good hit due to it’s short range.Not helping as well is the QTE button presses need to make substantial damage going too fast. Perhaps buffing the attacks and longer timer for the QTE could deviate this issue.
Military Emblem
The storytelling side of the game is also quite similar to the likes popular titles like Fire Emblem, with heroes and villain characters have their own portrait and dialogue during and after missions. It does help build the character arcs of the game quite well and sets the universe in-game quite well with the sort of Military jargon you expect for a mecha game.
Only gripes are the game’s music looping during the scene which makes it quite tedious when watching the cut-scenes and the dialogue translation in English needs some work too, with military ranks being messed up, but not really immersion breaking. Just some reworks of the text could benefit them in the long run.
Conclusion
Dual Gear is a promising indie game that could satisfy a lot of those anime fans who want some more of that turn-based goodness but its noticeable flaws (at the time of writing) could ruin a player’s experience.
But with the updates coming hot and fast with consistent fixes and new updates, this might become an indie sleeper hit.
Reviewed On PC. Review key provided by Orbital Speed Studio