Gear Up Preview

Steam's early access program has been running for a few months now and has given us some real hits. Games like Kerbal Space Program and Arma III have gotten a lot of attention long before their slated release; something that's certain to boost their sales when that full release swings round. But YouTube crazes and big franchises aside, there are still some hidden gems in the early access area of Steam. Gear Up is one of those potential hidden gems.

The game is currently in Alpha stage so is more than a little rough around the edges, but it's free to download and play. This means that Gear Up really represents the heart of the early access programme; here's a small development team of five guys trying to start up their own project with the help of the Steam community. The game itself sees players controlling a crazy variety of customisable death-bots in deathmatch style games against each other online. The results are, as you'd expect, rather hilarious.

This is by no means a game that takes itself seriously; Robot Wars style presentation is swapped out for a cartoony feel reminiscent of an episode of Looney Tunes (only with killer robots). The bots themselves can be customised with a huge selection of brilliantly designed parts including chassis, movement control and various weapon sections. Within the parts there are a host of wacky designs like mechanoid spider legs for movement, a steampunk inspired chassis and a futuristic turret with a brain in it. All in bright gold. That's just the design of my favorite robot, Dennis; there's literally hundreds of combinations and they all look spectacular.

Gameplay and physics are silly enough to be fun but serious enough to be competitive and this is only going to be more prominent once scoring is implemented. The various weapons, of which there are hundreds, have their own unique effects on top of the awesome designs. Flamethrowers, rocket launchers, giant claws and even dragon guns make up just a few of the options. Controlling the robots can be either humorous or infuriating, depending on your outlook. Part of that is probably due to imperfections with the design, but I hope they don't eliminate the easily flipped nature of the vehicles. Even firing a huge weapon can sometimes send you turret over tracks (that's head over heels for robots by the way).

The world in which games take place are less exciting at the time of writing. With only two maps to choose from, both a sort of desert with techno-scenery setting, variety is lacking. But of course the developers, Doctor Entertainment, have assured that there will be a good array of different and varied maps when the game hits Beta during the summer. Another element that is still to be added is the actual competitive scoring system and different game modes; with the game still in Alpha it's more of a mechanics and bug test than a full game. However, don't let that discourage you from trying it out.

In fact, it's the 'in development' nature of the game, and indeed the whole early access program, that makes it exciting. You can easily access the Gear Up forum on Steam and from there directly influence the way the game is made. For instance, during my initial play time I wasn't able to adjust the audio controls. So I put up the issue on the forums alongside other users and within a day of posting the developers had added volume options. It's good to see a developer taking even small suggestions and reports on board and applying them to the product.

So what about the final game? Or at least the upcoming shift to beta? Doctor entertainment are planning to feature various game modes in the final product including king of the hill, tag team and even some race modes. Dynamic challenges are also promised which will form the backbone of an xp system that allows you to unlock the various robot parts and other goodies. A level editor will also feature in the game, which in such a wacky title can only be a good thing.

Gear Up in alpha is available to download for free from Steam right now. If you like what you see you can purchase a premium edition of the game for £6.99 and get all of the parts and access to bot matches. Plus you'll get extra content once the full game is released, which is slated for the end of the year. Check back here ar GameGrin for the latest on Gear Up.