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[Cheese]

I've been hearing about Gearhead and had a look at it once or twice. I'm not sure which to download. Is one better than the other? Are there actually major differences?

[Ioric Kittencuddler]

One was developed for a while, and was mostly done, but then he stopped working on it and started doing two.  Is a bit less stable, but there's a lot more to it and it has an optional 3D graphics engine if you want to use that.  I haven't touched 1 is quite a while, but 2 is always in development so there's always new stuff to check out.

[Cheese]

You meant the second one when you said more to it and 3d graphics right?

[Frumple]

GH2 has an optional 3D graphics mode, but its pretty notably inferior (i.e. uglier) than the 2D one according to most people that play. I run it ASCII so I couldn't say either way.

Difference wise... yeah. Yeeaaaah. They're both using "basically" the same engine, so there's a lot of similarities in a general sense; movement, combat, character progression, menu layout, etc, all pretty much look if not the same, then bloody close to it.

Key word there is look, though. GH2 changes quite a bit about how various mechanics work. Some -- certainly not an exhaustive list -- examples:

• The skill list has been roughly cut in half, for example, by consolidating a lot of skills (e.g. Mecha Gunnery, which dealt with 'small' mecha scale guns, and Mecha Artillery, which dealt with the rest, became jut Mecha Gunnery) or turning some skills into talents (think dnd style perks, only generally a lot more sweeping or specialized than +1 to dodge or something). In general, this change makes things a bit easier on you, though it's harder to get most or all of the skills with one character.
• You can no longer chat NPCs up to improve their opinion of you, that process is determined by other actions and stat/skill/personality combinations. You get a 'ask about rumors' option, which can infodump you with a dozen rumors in one go
• There's hard limitations on how much you can fit onto a single mech limb, unlike GH1 where the only limit is your mecha engineering and knowledge scores (and how much you were willing to reload). There's a talent that loosens that restriction. There's also several new pieces of equipment, like multi-weapon items, transforming mecha, etc.

In general, though, the suggestion is play GH1 first. The experience is still a bit more streamlined and directed than GH2, it's a bit easier to play (No permadeath, where GH2 has a sort of limited lives thing going on that can be influenced by skills and personality), and it's a fair bit more contained. GH's wiki has more information for GH1 than 2, still, which would probably help. Once you've played through GH1 a few times, moving on to GH2 is a lot smoother processes and you get new toys, whereas it can be a bit confusing if you don't already have some idea of how things are going to go down.

[Cheese]

Thanks. Just tried GH2, the ? didn't work and I was kinda clueless Gonna try GH1

[Frumple]

It's h in both games, instead of ?. Documentation's been a fairly long standing issue with GH, unfortunately; there's some there, but generally not as much or as clear as there could stand to be. The other things make up for it

[Cheese]

Wow, the SDL isometric view thing in GH1 looks awesome..

[Virtz]

I prefered GH1. I could go on and on about what I didn't like about GH2, but it all comes down to it being in space (and very empty). But I dunno, maybe it's gotten better since I've last played it.

[Frumple]

GH2's got probably at least as much content as GH1 -- likely a bit more if you go by the filesize of the series (i.e. content) folders -- but it tends to be a bit harder to find that content than in GH1, especially if you don't already know where and how to look for it. One of the reasons I'd suggest rumbling through GH1 a few times before trying out the sequel.

Mr. Hewitt -- Gearhead's developer -- is working on the issue, though, and there's discussion on the game's forums on the subject if you're interested in throwing in your two cents. He's aware of the lack of connection between content points and intends to do something about it, sooner or later, and generally welcomes ideas. Not a full time game developer, though, so it may take a while.