- Posts: 642
- Thank you received: 205
Bugs: Recent Topics Paging, Uploading Images & Preview (11 Dec 2020)
Recent Topics paging, uploading images and preview bugs require a patch which has not yet been released.
Gears of War Officially Out Of Print
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
I must admit to you all that the one big AT genre I’ve never been that into is dudes in a corridor. I like Warhammer Quest, it’s cool, but I’ve never had a need to get it again since I had it in middle school. I am NOT a fan of Descent v1, and v2 isn’t anything I enjoy particularly either. By contrast, Gears of War is awesome, the best Dudes in a Corridor game I’ve played. But it’s rough. I’ve only played about 6 games solo, on scenarios 1 and 3 I think. So don’t take this as an educated last word on it---
Awesome improvements to the genre
1) Real tempo---Unlike the other dudes on a map I’ve played, Gears of War has serious tempo in it. Specifically, Warhammer Questish games are focused on chipping away at HP, grinding it down, long term considerations. I find it, actually, quite athematic. By contrast, Gears of War regenerates your health quickly. So what you’re really worried about is getting into an intense firefight and losing, not marginally how much damage it’s doing to you long term for when you’re at the end of the dungeon.
2) Non-marginal improvements---when you pick up something in the dungeon, it fucking matters. Getting additional grendes, boomshot (rocket launcher), torque bow. They’re like a dying man getting a drink of water. The same thing could even be said for ammo you pick up. Great moments. No +1 sword that’s a tiny bit better.
3) No counting squares---the min-maxing is severely reduced by this decision. It makes range and LOS a bit weird, but it’s worth it and speeds the game up, pulling a trivial decision out of the game.
4) Frequent key decisions---some of the things that people don’t like about the game (e.g. orders are health) make the game interesting turn to turn. As in, win/lose type decisions. So using ammo or not is a key decision. Picking up weapons or items is a meaningful decision. Which orders to use are a key decision. Whether to dodge or interrupt the monster’s turn is a key decision. How close to get to the enemy based on your orders is a key decision.
5) Faithful---if it matters to you, it’s extremely faithful and thematic to the GoW franchise, which most people don’t like.
6) Enemy toughness---the wound system in this game is genius. It dispenses with HP, and makes tough enemies tough without making them a bullet sponge. An incredibly elegant solution that has been needed for years in this genre.
Rough Stuff
1) Gamey strategic flow decisions---especially the decision about keeping locusts alive so that more don’t spawn. This is bullshit design. There should be a reward for slaughtering the enemy. I think this could be solved easily by putting in some “quiet day” type cards that activate the enemy if they exist but otherwise give you a turn of respite if you kill everybody. It needs some tweaks in the AI card system. The game should be about intermittent, intense encounters with a breath between rather than some gamey situation where you manipulate a constant spawn rate. Your incentives should ALWAYS be to kill.
2) Uninteresting theme---I like the theme and prefer this theme. But this system deserves to live in a widely loved theme, it is that good. If you don’t know the theme, everybody looks exactly the fucking same!
3) Range and LOS---the system is creaky. But I don’t think there is anything to be done about it, and the tradeoff is well worth it by taking out lots of other tedious decisionmaking.
4) More teamwork orders---there is some nice teamwork order stuff in the game and it could use more. Follow is cool, and the game could use more mechanisms like this and more order cards based around proximity and use of other players on your turn.
5) Poorly balanced for number of players---this doesn’t work right. It works great with 2, but it’s easy to see how fucked up it would be with 4. The more players, the more enemies. But enemies get to act every turn while each individual player only once every few turns. It isn’t balanced quite right, needs a ton of playtesting to get this right.
6) No campaign or persistence---obviously, for this game to take its rightful place as the new go to for Dudes in a Corridor, it needs a campaign system. How to balance that with some of the thrilling things it does because it doesn’t do this (e.g. picking up weapons in the middle of missions) is a challenge.
Anyway, this is a criminally underappreciated game. I think a lot of the problems in this game are easy fixes, especially the strange incentives. I think that's the biggest flaw in the game. Ideas from this game should be driving Dudes of Corridor now, IMHO. But they are not, because Corey K’s amazing ideas were put into a theme that they fit perfectly into, but that boardgamers aren’t into.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
We've won with 4 but it's certainly more difficult. You really have to preserve player's health and use your reactions/follows correctly. It's not nearly as bad in terms of scaling as Legendary: Encounters though.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
It really sucks that they didn't release a big box expansion but the blow is softened by how full a release the game is.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
I don't like games in which enemies just keep coming, without different rate (sometimes they trickle in, other times they just flood the place), breaks, etc. It seems Gears is the same in this regard. But your comment about tempo makes me think about it.
Pandemic has excellent pacing with the Epidemic mechanic. That's why it still holds the pedestal for me.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
- Posts: 1700
- Thank you received: 786
If I had left that one locust alive we would have had a much cruisier game, and we all decided that you should never wipe out all wretches, as 1 can be ignored and does minimal damage but when 4-6 are on the board and they hunt in packs they become terrifying, so everything should be done to minimize their ability to spawn. It just feels wrong to have to game the system by not killing enemies.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
grenadiers
flame grenadiers
butchers
palace guards
feral berserker
General RAAM
...all in a little mission pack with two missions. My guess is that all those were supposed to be in a new big expansion with models for each of them, save for maybe the feral berserker which feels a little added on.
Too bad they didn't make a mission pack 2 that contained more missions with the enemies they introduced in 1.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.
Please Log in or Create an account to join the conversation.