Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[kcwong]

Are there any GearHead players here?

GearHead is a roguelike with mecha (giant robot).

You can fight on foot, you can fight piloting mecha of all types (rovers, tanks, jets, helicopter, humanoid robots, spider bots, animal-like bots, etc.) It has randomly generated main plot and lots of random side quests. Your character will level up, learn new skills, improve his stats, make friends and enemies, and get people to join your party (called lancemates). You can tame animals, create robots and even sentient ones.

GH1 is already completed, GH2 is under development (but also released). GH2 has planets and space combats, and they're adding spaceships and fleets...

[ April 18, 2008: Message edited by: kcwong ]

[McDoomhammer]

Played it once.  Couldn't get into it.

[Jurassiced]

wow i played this back in like 2001 when GH1 was in beta cool thnx it was good back then hope its still good now ^_^

[Soulwynd]

I've played it for a long while... Sometimes I still do. I'm waiting for GH2 to become more playable.

[Keiseth]

I love GearHead. I've been playing through GH1 again with the intention of going as far as I can in GH2 when I'm done.

[RP]

I came here from the GearHead forums. Still have my bastardized Chimentero saved somewhere, with its four tactical nukes... I'm also waiting for GH2 to be developed a bit more.

[Virtz]

I really liked Gearhead, especially the possibility to make your own robots. I used to fill towns with dozens of 3 armed, 1 legged, 1 winged freaks made of glue. I also liked the way vehicle combat was handled, it gave a sort of realistic feeling to it (despite mechs being an utterly surrealistic concept).

I don't really like Gearhead 2 so far, though. Maybe I just hate space mech battles (where's the freaking terrain?!), but it just feels more... simple? Limited? I don't know, it's just not something I'd enjoy playing for now.

On a different note, Gearhead was one of those games that actually scared me away with its graphics. The graphics pack really looks like ass, everyone's got those retarded typical anime faces (think Pokemon quality), 10 types of monsters use the same icon, the icons haven't got that many states, either. I actually later got into it when I tried the ASCII version.

[Keiseth]

quote:Originally posted by Virtz:
<STRONG>I don't really like Gearhead 2 so far, though. Maybe I just hate space mech battles (where's the freaking terrain?!), but it just feels more... simple? Limited? I don't know, it's just not something I'd enjoy playing for now.</STRONG>

Yeah. The lack of trees, hills and water really limit the tactical aspect. In space, it's all about two mechs flying toward each other, turning around, firing, repeat. This might be improved when spaceships are thrown into the mix...
Edit: If you make it to Cayley Rock, a small asteroid mine, you can have traditional terrain battles. Water and hills anyway. But yeah, for now, the vast majority of your fights are in dead space.

 

quote:On a different note, Gearhead was one of those games that actually scared me away with its graphics. The graphics pack really looks like ass, everyone's got those retarded typical anime faces

Ack. That's a shame... although the environment graphics and sprites are a bit lacking, I really *liked* the portraits. Especially in GH2, the portraits are very nice. Art is subjective, I guess.

[ April 18, 2008: Message edited by: Keiseth ]

[Sowelu]

If I remember my opinion of GH1, it was the same as a lot of indie RPGs that didn't have a real artist on the team.  Hint:  If you are not an artist, don't make believe and pretend you are one.  Don't use large numbers of colors.  Go for solid colors and symbolic representations, because poorly used 24-bit color or even 8-bit color is the worst thing in the universe...even worse if it's high res.

Also I found the interface completely unworkable.  Getting around in town was an enormous pain.  Of course this was...probably four years ago.

Yeah, I'm harsh.

[BishopX]

I had trouble with the difficulty curves in GH1, one second you're fighting a few rats, and the next you're dealing with assassin lords with sniper rifles. It was even worse in mecha combat when one critical hit could destroy your perfectly armed death machine leaving yo beating up thugs for spare change to buy a new one...

[kcwong]

quote:Originally posted by BishopX:
<STRONG>I had trouble with the difficulty curves in GH1, one second you're fighting a few rats, and the next you're dealing with assassin lords with sniper rifles. It was even worse in mecha combat when one critical hit could destroy your perfectly armed death machine leaving yo beating up thugs for spare change to buy a new one...</STRONG>

You meet those assassin lords in sewer-dive missions? If you can't handle them, you need to turn back. In sewer missions I found the enemies will rush you... so stick around the upstairs and look what you're going to fight. If it's more than you can handle, say bye-bye and head back up.

The occasional defeat is good for you though. Do you reload when you failed? If you do, then you will be stacking up a lot of renown, without the skills to back it up (unless the RNG rolls in your favor). As you get more and more famous, people will expect you to accept  impossible missions and actually succeed. In GH, difficulty of some aspects are fixed (e.g. in the main plot and arena), getting harder each step along the way. Random missions will be scaled to your renown: You get more PV on the enemies' side, and in sewer dives they need you to go much deeper.

[ April 20, 2008: Message edited by: kcwong ]

[kcwong]

-- Sorry, wrong button pressed --

[ April 20, 2008: Message edited by: kcwong ]

[Keiseth]

GearHead is notable for that; its difficulty adjusts to the success or failure of the player's attempts. I particularly liked that when you end up "Wangtta" or with negative renown, the game throws simple, somewhat humbling missions that often bounce you back. When I lost my mecha, an NPC offered to pay me for cleaning their basement of rats. I finished that and they gave me an old mecha that had been collecting dust there.

Big basement, eh?

Edit: My favorite feature is that, as opposed to perma-death, your character gets permanent injuries. I like that these injuries can be partially solved with cyberware- you gain your abilities back at the cost of your humanity.

[ April 21, 2008: Message edited by: Keiseth ]

[Soulwynd]

Perma death would happen in gearhead 1 if I remember well. Alas, the worst that happens to you is screwing your reputation.

[Keiseth]

A bad enough reputation shift is as bad as permadeath anyway, unless you're incredibly patient. Once you go Wangtta 10 or so, it's a long road back.