Gear Up is follows the successful footsteps of many other titles, while also asserting itself as both a unique and enjoyable title. What can only be described as an arcade-style blend of Banjo-Kazooie: Nuts & Bolts and the free-to-play World of Tanks, Gear Up puts you in control of a highly modifiable, modular tank to blow up your enemies with. While the game is fun, free, and has extensive (and addictive) customization, it has some issues with both its online functionality and core gameplay aspects. It's also very similar to Robocraft in nature.
Gear Up initially puts you into what I call the “Scout Tank”, mostly because it looks like a tank and all of its parts are called “Scout” components. While the starter vehicle won’t help you be too competitive, it is enough to scrape by long enough to purchase yourself some real parts that can reflect your play style. After 2 rounds I began my build towards a heavy tank. I started this build by purchasing extremely heavy armor and a slow but sturdy gun turret. Wanting to become more competitive quicker I swapped out the heavy treads that cost 10 gold, which would’ve taken 3 to 5 rounds of play, for armored buggy tires. These tires only took me 2 rounds to obtain, and they were lighter, faster and more armored than my starting treads. Within minutes I was dominating on the battlefield, going from 16th place to 3rd place in my free-for-all match against a suspicious amount of Russian player. Because I take things slow, and I aim for my shots, I get hit a lot. Gear Up allowed me to play how I like by giving me the option to utilize extremely heavy armors, as opposed to nimble hover vehicles or spider-legged snipers. I hadn’t managed to play long enough to further upgrade my vehicle, but I could’ve also purchased a much more powerful main gun, along with support weapons or gadgets.
Gear up Gameplay
Sadly, the extremely varied customization system causes a few issues. Despite each part filling specific roles, the starter vehicle doesn’t really stand a chance. It is slow in almost all aspects, much like a tank, except it can’t take or dish-out damage. I found that the first purchasable buggy components were more powerful in almost every way, and I had to rely on out-maneuvering to defeat my foes. A sort of tiered system would be useful here, because the parts in Gear Up are unique, but certainly not all of them are equal.
That said, the online functionality could use a lot of help. Gameplay wise things are mostly okay. As I said before there are some balancing issues, but not so much that the game wasn’t fun and the teams weren’t even. What really needs help is the server performance. My client itself ran at a beautiful 60fps with all settings up, and while the game isn’t anything like The Witcher 3, it does have a unique and appealing style, but you wouldn’t think it was that smooth from how online feels. I found myself jumping around, shooting ghost tanks and getting delayed hit marks or kills far too often with a sub-100 ping. For a mutliplayer-only title, these need issues need to be stabilized desperately. It’s a shame too that the multiplayer modes are quite fun. In the 3 main modes, Team Deathmatch, Deathmatch, and Conquest there is a lot of joy to be had. In each mode there are 4 power-ups; increased weapon power, damage resistance, health and ammo. Team Deathmatch is pretty standard, while Deathmatch is simply free-for-all. Conquest follows the Battlefield template, although it should be noted that it felt like capture points took a wee bit too long to be captured. Enough is there to make multiplayer fun, but frequent issues make it a pain at times.
Gear Up is an incredibly fun free-to-play game that quite honestly deserves to be noticed. The customization system is incredibly fun, wacky enough but also contemporary and purposeful. The free-to-play options are not gimmicky, and you can easily have all the fun you could without paying a dime. What is otherwise a stellar, arcade-style multiplayer experience is hindered by some wonky controls and problem-ridden servers.