sybrwookie wrote:
Nice review, I disagree on the theme fitting, though, on more than the most superficial level of the game....
Well, obviously they're going to feel a little different. It's a board game!
-You feel VERY slow and plodding in the board game, with a very limited ability to move/take cover, whereas in the video game, you can and normally should be constantly diving around, *schlop*'ing to walls, running, etc. In the board game, if you have the right card, you can generally do one of those things. It feels too slow.
I do agree with this to a small extent. I felt this way particularly about the China Shop mission...you can use weapon fire to draw the Berserker toward you, but she moves ONE space at a time. For the main game, though, I generally felt like I was moving about as much as I was in the video game--thematically, you can only only move a few steps before the Locusts start shooting at you, so you'll be wanting to move from cover to cover anyway.
-You're too limited on firing and getting ammo, compared to the video game.
It's true that ammo didn't really play that huge a role in the Gears video game. I saw the ammo tokens as acting a bit like the Active Reload mechanic you mention below. You can do a normal attack, which is like emptying your clip and waiting for it to reload, or you can go all out and do essentially two attacks back to back.
-Tactics which work in the video game do not have any even remotely close corresponding tactic in the board game (for instance, being nimble enough to grenade-tag a wall, get away into cover, and drawing enemies into it, getting downed on purpose to work as a bullet sponge, knowing your teammates can revive you to full health without any loss on your/their parts, purposely staying in/near melee range of a Boomer, so instead of firing a Boomshot, he tries to melee you, or for that matter dodging boomshots).
Gotta agree here. Then again, I am not a big enough fan of the video games to have considered using these tactics in the board game.
-Enemies tend to be a bit too aggressive in the board game compared to the video game, where even the smaller enemies which should be trying to take cover and not be killed are running around being happy to soak up bullets.
Confused about whether you're saying the video game or the board game has enemies spending more time in cover. I personally felt it was unthematic that the wretches use cover so much in the board game (the tickers might use cover as well).
-No method that I remember for a quick reload (or really, any reloading mechanism at all), which is quite important in the video game to do extra damage.
Again, that's what I interpreted the ammo tokens to stand for. There is an Active Reload card that lets you play two actions in a single turn, and another card that lets you do a powerful attack without spending an ammo token.
-And I apologize if I'm wrong on this one since it's been a while since I've played, but I remember needing to discard cards to fire bullets and there is nothing even remotely close in the video game where you are injured by firing a gun.
I think you're thinking of the Guard action, which let's you discard a card to attack an enemy before its movement/attack (instead of on your regular turn). These types of actions (and the ones you list below) I interpreted thematically as various "risky" maneuvers in the game. In this case, an enemy is charging you or aiming a boomshot in your direction, so you have a choice between staying in cover and hoping the attack misses or poking your head out of cover (maybe taking a few bullets while doing so) and trying an attack of your own. It fits particularly well for something like reviving a downed COG, which in the game normally meant exposing yourself in the middle of an active firefight. The thing I liked about the cards-as-health mechanic and discarding cards to perform actions is that it means that, when your health is low, you're less likely to attempt those things (e.g. reviving a downed COG or activating a location) because you're trying to lay low and let your health regenerate. Very thematic, I thought.
Generally, it just feels like you're too limited by needing cards to do the most basic moves in the game, and in many cases, spend cards (which double as your health) to do so. I'm not bashing the mechanics of the game, although it's not my cup of tea, it didn't feel bad, but the theme/feel of the video game is just not there, at all.
Thanks to everybody who's commented on this review so far. I've just finished copy/pasting my other Rant Gaming reviews to my desktop, and I'll work on transferring more over the coming weeks. At some point, I might try to put the images and some lost formatting back into this one as well.